WizKids, the contracted producer of official Dungeons & Dragons miniatures, has revealed a new line of prepainted miniatures featuring characters and monsters from Baldur's Gate 3. "Adventures From Baldur's Gate" will include a $50 pack of the game's origin characters and Withers, as well as $25 booster packs drawing from a selection of 40 little guys.
WizKids' "Icons of the Realm" are prepainted, plastic minis drawing from various settings and eras of Dungeons & Dragons. The company previously released a line with characters from the Descent into Avernus prequel tabletop campaign for BG3, as well as one themed around the 5e revival of the Planescape campaign setting. Icons of the Realm strikes me as a continuation of the old Dungeons & Dragons Miniature Game that ran from 2003 to 2011, which similarly consisted of randomized booster packs of prepainted minis.
The line will be released in February, with pre-orders open on WizKids' website for the Origin Character pack and $200, eight-count "bricks" of boosters. There are no pre-orders for individual booster packs, I'm afraid.
I'm of two minds on the whole deal: I first took to collecting official D&D minis back in the day because I loved the original Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights games, and back then I would have lost my shit over a line of miniatures fully based on one of the CRPGs I loved. But god damn are these pricey for what you're getting. My gripes probably seem pretty pathetic to a seasoned Magic: The Gathering collector or Warhammer painter, but I've never felt particularly great buying Icons of the Realm.
I caught the bug last year at BG3's release and ambled over to my local hobby shop to feed my inner child, but I found myself disappointed with how anemic an individual pack was. It wasn't just my mind playing tricks on me either: The old D&D Miniatures Game featured booster packs of eight rather than four, though I'm unable to track down what their MSRP was. If you're willing to go farther afield than official D&D or Games Workshop, there's a whole universe of cheap, durable, good-looking miniatures from smaller outfits or vendors on Etsy and AliExpress.
This venture might have been better-timed with the release of Baldur's Gate 3, as opposed to a year and a half after. Though, given that even Larian itself was surprised by the degree of BG3's success, it's understandable why Wizards didn't have a full court press prepped for the launch. Price, quantity, and timing aside, I can only assume these things will sell like hotcakes, so if you need official BG3 miniatures in your life, a preorder might be your best bet over waiting for them to come to your local shop.
