Bones IV Review

Now that I’ve had a chance to go through just about everything, I have some thoughts on the minis. Gonna go through them by expansion… hang on. This is gonna take a bit.

Chronoscape
My first hands on look at the new Bones Black material for standard sized figures. Overall first impression is WOW!! They managed to get a whole lot of detail in these minis!! Aside from the space-dino minis, these are all older figures from Reaper’s catalog. Thankfully there aren’t many repeats from what I already have in metal, so this set was worth it for me. I was very surprised that just about everything here comes with a blank integrated base. I’m gonna have to think about how I want to deal with this… likely I’ll just cut it off, which is a shame. If there had been some sort of detailing on them, it would have been great.

Favorite Figure: Pudgy short alien dude with attitude
Least Favorite Figure: robot with big guns
Pleasant Surprise: Bulldog options!

Dreadmere
Once again, top notch for the Bones Black material. I already have a significant number of these minis in metal, but with everything else in the set, and the conversion potential, again well worth it. There’s some delightful characters in this themed set, from the turtle and alligator buddies to the various townsfolk. The monsters are creative, and well sculpted. The pack tortoise was a bit of a problem. The pack was miscast/warped. I’m going to attempt to get it into shape, but if not, I’ll have to ask for a replacement bit.

Favorite Figure: Hard to pick, but the brain one is just a great sculpt
Least Favorite Figure: Guards - they’re okay, just kinda cartoonish.
Pleasant Surprise: The herbalist came out way better than I expected.

Darkreach
Another mix of old and new minis, but not a single figure I had in my collection. There’s a nice mix of underdark monsters, fungal creatures, and humanoids, perfect for an underdark campaign. I’m gonna need more of the little rock gnome/goblin dudes. I really like the new dark elf sculpts too. Such crisp detailing.

Favorite Figure: Gloom Stalker and Burrowing Behemoth
Least Favorite Figure: Dark elf queen on the throne? This is a great set and hard to pick a mini I don’t like
Pleasant Surprise: Stone Lurker has a lot more personality than I was expecting!

Lost Valley
Dinosaurs and Cavemen! This was an interesting set that broke with my expectations. First, most noticeable was the Mumluk. He’s twice as big as I was expecting. Based on the graphic, I thought he’d be between 2.5” - 3” tall, in line with the various avatar minis from Bones 3. Instead he’s big enough to be going toe to toe with just about any of Reaper’s dragons.
On the flip side, the long house was smaller than I expected. Still a nice sculpt, but…
Casting /Sculpt quality was a little off on the Raptors. Not terrible, but softer than I was expecting, especially given the quality of everything else so far. They were also a tiny bit bigger than I thought they’d be. Maybe scaled down by 1/3 the detail would look less soft?

Favorite Figure: Jade Fire Tribe
Least Favorite Figure: Mumluk - Probably gonna turn him into a terrain piece.
Pleasant Surprise: the Clubtail is both a solid sculpt and a SOLID mini! You could really hurt someone with it…

Fan Favorites
This hodgepodge of a set suffers from a lack of a theme, and works best as a complement to the other expansions. The flail snail, dark dwarves, demon toads, and beetle all fit in with Darkreach, the mimic bed, undead shark, bog skeletons, Izzy, skeletal ogre, and tidal lurker all fit in with Dreadmere, and the mammoth and penguins in with Lost Valley. Then there’s the portal… which is even better than was promised!

Favorite Figure: Tidal Lurker and Ogre skeleton
Least Favorite: Demon toads. They just don’t do it for me.
Pleasant Surprise: Isobael and her dog.
Unpleasant Surprise: Cavalry… Clearly this is still an area that Bones doesn’t handle super well…

Core Set
Unlike the expansions, the core set was made from traditional Bones material, and after spending all the time I did with Bones Black these feel…. rubbery. They’re also largely not assembled, and since they store better that way, I didn’t glue anything together. I did dry fit a few things to make sure that I had all the bits, but, as compared to the other sets, inventorying this one felt more like a chore.

Favorite Figure: Duelist 161
Least Favorite: Greybeard wizards… 5 old style classic robe and pointy hat type wizards was 4 too many. Old wizard and apprentice plus a coven of 3 witches would have been a better use of those slots.
Pleasant Surprise: The dragonman has a sprue of hands to choose from!

Add Ons

Baba Yaga’s Hut is a SOLID hunk of plastic. I’d planned on and expected it to have removable legs, but apparently that wasn’t to be. Due to issues at the factory, it was determined that the legs needed to be attached. I’m probably going to cut them off. I might still try to make it so I can add them back on later, but it’ll be much more of a project than I was planning on. The giblet will be used elsewhere.

Barge of the Dead
Not as solid as the hut, but BIG and so many parts. I love the ghosts and Charon that comes with it. Not sure when I’ll be able to build and display it. The sucker needs a mantlepiece to sail around.

Fantasy Scenics & Statues
The astrolabe is gonna need some work to assemble. It’s also a little bigger than I was expecting. I wonder if there was a scaling issue with it?
The ruins, well, summoning circle, etc. are all solid bits and will see a lot of use, as will the statues.

Dinosaurs
I got both the tric and the carnosaur and they’re both great. The back plate for the carnosaur is kinda weird, and will need some greenstuff, but that’s totally doable.

Wraiths
The Nine… sorry, what? Six… the Six are out ring shopping, and wearing their sunday best. Fantastic set, and one of the first things I added on. No regrets, only a wish that there were 3 more… plus some mounted versions…

Tree
Love it. Not sure what I’ll do with the spare torture victim. Hope the buzzards will be available separately.

Rulers of Hell
Their wings are thicker than I was expecting, but they’re gonna be great additions to the demonic legions.

King of the Jungle
Solid mini. The bottom of the throne suggests that there should be a base that goes with it… He’ll go well with the Mumlak as a terrain piece.

And that’s my review!