I have heard on the forums at least twice now that the premium Arkham Horror figurines are not well painted, and I wanted to know from those who own or have seen them can testify if they merit purchase or to just ignore and play my game as is?

I also wanted to know if anyone knows any off-brand sleeves that will accomodate the size of character sheets, ancient ones, and heralds? To my knowledge, FFG sells nothing to sleeve cards of that size. Thanks.

Hi Tromdial!

So, big cards: nothing that I'm aware of. I laminated them, and I'm ok with this. But it seems to me that someone over BGG found some sleeves.

Minis: I have some of them (a gift from a now-retired-from-this-forum friend) and, in my opinion, only a few of them are really worth the money. Not all the details are good, and in most of the cases they're really horribly painted. Plus, sooner or later, you'll have them all because of Mansions.some

Additionally, they are not really helpful in the overcrowded Arkham board: often you have more than one monster in the same location, and you can pile up the tokens, but not the minis, and some minis are *big*, so it could really be messy.

Finally, some people are ok with one cultist mini for reference, others prefer to have a mini for each monster chit in the monsters cup. It's a lot of space. And a lot of money

JULIA

Regarding the minis…

I would agree with Julia on most points she's making. The minis are impossible to stack, and takes up loads of space on the board.

But then again i rarely have problems with the sizes of the monsters. How often do you have tow dark young occupying the same space? And two large monsters do fit in one location without you having to figure out if they stood on the same space when its time to move them.

Both the sculpt and paint quality differs hugely between different miniatures. The dark young for instance looks pretty good while the elder thing looks like something i would had made when i was six. Fortunatly there are other minis out there which you can use to replace the bad ffg ones with.

The good things about having minis is that you won't have any problems spotting the monsters on the game board (specially after a couple of beers). Before i had them i would often notice monsters i had previously overlooked, but with the minis it is never the case.

And they actually makes the game more "cool" and do add some theme. In my opinion. But they won't make the game more fun.

Do i regret buying all the minis? No.

Would i buy them again? Yes.

Would i play the game without the minis? No, it would feel like something is missing.

Are they worth the money? Only you can decide.

Richard U. Pickman said:

So it's a mixed bag. Glad you reminded me though why I primarily wanted minis was because they stand out on the board.

I think after I've played the game a few times if I will get all or none, and if I do, it will be a slow investment. My main concern was did all the minis look like up close a six-year-old painted them or only a few. Ha, ha about Elder Thing. I see exactly what you mean.

About sleeves Julia, thanks for letting me know they might exist. If anyone knows brand name of big sleeves, that'd be excellent.

Also didn't plan on getting every figurine for every monster (wow, I'd be broke to do that lol). Just one to represent and if I have more on the board then the copies go on the board. But again, that's if I get them. Pretty much wanted to know quality over anything.

Thanks Richard and Julia.

Tromdial, follow this link: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/551981/elder-godsinvestigator-sleeves and see if they might suit your needs

Julia said:

Yes. Those 5 x 7 ultra pro sleeves sound like they will work great. Thanks.

Tromdial said:

Regarding the mini quality, these are the ones i have replaced:

Byakhee, Elder Thing, Formless Spawn, Ghoul, Gug, Leng Spider, Vampire, Yithian, Zombie.

I would have replaced the The Beast, Gnoph-Keh, Lloigor, Moon Beast, Shan and Servitor of Outer Gods (and perhaps a few more) if i could find suitable minis for them. Many of the other minis are fine sculpts but could do with a better paint job.

/Peter

Has anyone tried (re-)painting the figurines yourself? When I paint figurines, I find that the result is much better than any store-bought figurine. It does require a little work, but the figurines will be even more fun to use in your game.

And… do you like painting minis? In case you have some free time…. ::whistling innocently::

Julia said:

Haha! I don't have much time for painting figurines any more, like I did in high school. But painting figurines can be a nice activity. =)

eiterorm said:

::laughter::

Tromdial said:

I got a bunch of these 5" x 7" sleeves today, and I can confirm that they are perfect for the investigator and Ancient One sheets. =)

eiterorm said:

After buying these 5 1/2" by 8 1/2" sheet protectors and binders at Office Max today, I can agree easily that a snugger fit is definitely the 5"x7" ultra pros. However, having them in binder is nice too and I could not find readily a supplier for the ultra pro sleeves. With the binder sheets I can also store the heralds and guardians as well and have them well organized. It's a difference of taste in organization versus snugness, for sure, and who prefers which more.