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Gargantuan Black Dragon review...
"... The black dragon is the ill-tempered master of the swamp and watery caverns. It erupts from its dark pools, breathing a deadly stream of acid that dissolves metal, stone, flesh, or bone with terrible ease ..." (p. 1, Rules and Scenarios.)
The miniature of the gargantuan dragon is a solid, well crafted toy. The look is not as impressive as, say, the McFarlane's Dragons toy line, but solid for D&D themes. (For costs though, McFarlane toys wins the overall battle.) The seams of the dragon's pieces are not badly noticeable from a small distance, but can be seen when examining the figure up close. The plastic feels like the other D&D miniatures: bendable and weepy, but given the size of the dragon's pieces, this shouldn't be an issue for most.
Skirmishers may find fault with the little pamphlet that comes with the dragon. Basically the black dragon is only there to be beaten on, not controlled by an artifact or other measure (what I envisioned). The dragon can be activated up to six times, until it is damaged heavily (losing an activation per hundred total points of damage). Set up the dragon and kill it, or try to have it kill the other guy's warband before yours while dropping its activations by three. All the scenarios involving the dragon follow a 500-point warband build, including epic creatures.
The underground grotto battle map is a nice addition for those wanting diverse terrain to do battle in. The 34 by 22 square map features walls, mushroom forests, dragon pools and a dragon throne. Starting and exit squares are clearly marked, as are difficult terrain markers. The depiction of scattered bones and corpses rotting and flavor to the map, but do little to change the scenarios. (No rifling a corpse for a vital map or item before the dragon destroys the warband.) It makes for a pretty map that some DMs may wish to use as a final encounter area for their campaigns.
While the black dragon figure is a D&D icon, and makes for an excellent Icons opening entry, the price to get the figure is a bit steep for a toy. After a discussion with my local game store owner, I'm more inclined to get McFarlane's Dragons for my game than a D&D Icons figure. My internal miniature collector, however, wants to make sure I get the best D&D figures I can. This black dragon figure is a nice piece, but a high priced toy for those wishing to pick one up.
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