These dragons would be size Huge in a standard D&D game. Its height is roughly equal to the taller figures from the Huge set, but it’s wings and stance give it a larger presence. The extra detail in the figure also puts it well outside the realm of being mistaken for a prepainted plastic figure. Standing at approximately nine and a half inches with a fourteen inch wingspan, the dragon stands out from the D&D dragons in that it appears to be in motion as opposed to crouched down on itself.
The great thing about this figure is the ease of assembly. When the back notes that it’s Easy Assembly in Just 7 Pieces!”, they’re not kidding. For me, assembly of a larger figure is a huge hassle for me. I don’t like pinning and I don’t like working with putty as many larger figures have gaps that need filling. In this way, it reminds me of some of the older figures, from the Dragon of the Month Club, which while smaller and not as detailed as today’s figures, were easy to assemble, and when knocked over, easy to repair.
The components here are the top part of the creature’s jaw, two wings, left arm, left leg, and tail. The main body has the right arm and leg, as well as the underbelly, scales, lower jaw, and the start of the tail.
The upper part of the jaw has a slot that meets up at the base of the creature’s tongue on the main body. The fit is very good leaving only a slight gap in the dragon’s right side. The wings are tabbed and easily fit into the slots of the body. I am a little worried that because the wings are metal that the creature would be prone to being knocked over as it doesn’t have a solid base. The arm, tail and leg, are all tabbed with slots being on the main body. The left leg has a slight gap between it and the main body and it’s designed into the leg so I don’t know if the mold didn’t work as original anticipated or if there was some last minute change. Worse yet, that part is on the outside of the leg and will probably require a touch of putty to straighten out.
There was a lot of flash on the figure. Mostly around the spines, claws, teeth, and some scales. Fortunately, none of it was difficult to remove. An improvement over the Cinder figure, was that the spines in this figure were not bent. I suspect that’s because they’re heavier and would take a lot more banging and smashing to dent up. On the other hand, the mold lines are well concealed and I couldn’t spot them in it’s pewter state.
Because the figure doesn’t come with a base, I would strongly recommend putting the legs together first and insuring that it can stand, even buying a base if you have to and pinning it’s feet to that base. See, when moving the legs around and trying to insure that you know, it can stand, you want to not worry about knocking off the heavier parts like the wings or other arm. You want to be able to move around and verify that the creature can stand on its own prior to getting everything put together only to watch it fall over in a clatter of metal.
The base issue is also problematic in another aspect. Because Dungeon and Dragons is the most popular game, it would certainly be easier to use this figure in such a game if it had the standard D&D sized base, even if it came as a separate piece that you had to pin to the figure. Since it doesn’t, that’s an added costs.
The detail on the figure is tremendous. The spines on it’s back have a lot of etched detail giving them the appearance of weathered bone. The creature’s scales range in size and type giving it a very reptilian appearance. The jaw has teeth, and tongue for detailing. The wings are bat like with spines working alongside the leathery membrane stretched between bones. In some ways, the creature is dinosaur like as it’s upper arms are not designed like a human’s but rather, like a T-Rex being small and mostly for show.
One nice touch of the box, is that they provide a snapshot of the dragon, as painted by Anne Foerster along with codes for using the creature with the Master Series Paints and Pro Paints. On one hand, that’s a bad thing as I’m not certain which paint goes with which series. For example, I know that Walnut is from the Pro Paints but the Blue Liner is from the Master Series Paints. They should’ve picked one or clearly indicated which paint was from which brand.
The painting shows a minimum of three colors on each part except the eyes, which have two suggested colors, and the spines, horns, and claws, and the body scales, which each have four colors. The colors start from the deepest and darkest and work their way towards the lightest.
Not a painting guide by any stretch, but a good paint selection for those comfortable with highlighting and shading.
The ease of assembly on the figure, the paint guide, and the exquisite detail by Sandra Garrity insure that when you plop Storm Wing down on the table, the players will know that they’re going to be in for a huge fight.
