I’m always on the lookout for gaming aids to help me as DM for my weekly D&D game, and the folks over at Arcknight just made my week. Arriving in the Small flat rate USPS Priority Mail carton is what Arcknight refers to as its Flat Plastic Miniatures Core Set, 310 miniatures printed on plastic on both sides that insert into the 40 laser-cut acrylic bases that also come in the Core Set. (I included the carton size just to get across just how portable these products are!)
Flat Plastic Miniatures ran a successful Kickstarter back in 2014 to get the various packages created (you can watch their entertaining video here) and almost 1000 backers proved that there was interest in this kind of product.
From Arcknight’s product description:
Core Set is a bundled deal with all 5 of our core packs (Mankind, The Grove, Wildlands, Underground, Ancient Evils), plus 40 bases, for a total of 310 miniatures. Printed on sturdy transparent plastic, with unique front and back art to indicate unit facing.
Purchasing each pack individually, the Core Set would normally run $150. Arcknight typically sells the Core set for $120, but for a short time they’re selling it for $100.00. The full-color artwork on each mini is incredibly detailed, they’re light and break down easily into plastic image and separate acrylic base for transport. Depending on the pack, you’ll find an assortment of useful miniatures for your gaming needs — dwarves, elves, undead, soldiers, halfings, wizards, warriors, thieves, and more.
Here’s the thing – I absolutely LOVE these. Don’t get me wrong, I love a nice hand-painted miniature. But I stink at painting minis and, to be honest, I’d much rather be designing adventures and creating terrain than dealing with minis. While I’m happy to create my own from paper, the Flat Plastic Miniatures Core Set is EXACTLY what I’ve been looking for–much higher quality color and also more durable than the little cardstock ones I print out. And because they’re printed on clear heavy plastic, they look SO MUCH better on the table than my solid-white-background cardstock versions that you can’t see through. (Each figure is laser cut so it pops out of the sheet. I did have a few miniatures that didn’t pop out 100% but a sharp knife and a few tiny cuts freed them up easy and fast.)
Arcknight isn’t sitting still, either. They finished up another successful Kickstarter to create Spell Effects that are also printed on flat plastic. They look incredible (and I’ll be covering them in a later post), and there will be specific effects for each specific class and spell (such as lightning or glowing effects). What I’m particularly interested in is the area of effect options that will make it easy for DMs and players to see a cone-shaped spell effect area or the cube shape and hopefully fewer debates about what falls in and out of the spell’s effect zone.
I’ve also been informed by Arcknight that another Kickstarter is on the horizon and it’ll be much bigger, too. I’ll post more details when I get them, but if the results are anything like the flat plastic minis in the Core Set, I’ll definitely be backing.
You can order the Core Set (on sale) on the Arcknight website at https://arcknight.squarespace.com/shop as well as view their other products that include map overlays (with various special 1″ grid patterns), dungeon furniture, and carts and carriages. They also have a variety of maps such as a cathedral and a wizard’s tower (printed on card stock and laminated for use with dry erase markers) that I’ll try to get my hands on for an upcoming review.
Note: I’d like to thank Josh with Arcknight for providing me with a Core Set to review.
