Review of Star Trek Adventures Miniatures: Iconic Villains

Blurb from the publisher: 'You are an imperfect being, created by an imperfect being. Finding your weakness is only a matter of time.

These miniatures are designed for use with the Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game and geomorphic deck tiles.'

What you get: Your EUR 44,92 or USD 49,15 or GBP 39,99 will buy you Star Trek Adventures: Iconic Villains, a miniature set produced for the Star Trek Adventures game line.

The miniatures come on their sprues, yet they only need partial assembly. At their easiest they consist of only two pieces (the miniature itself and the base), while at their worse they consist of four different pieces (mini without arms, each arm separately, and the base).

The strong points: The most memorable and beloved Star Trek moments are those which involve bigger-than-life adversaries. All these villains can now be found in the same box, something that makes me very, very happy. Modiphius supports its Star Trek Adventures line with an amazing number of products, yet your captain and crew cannot constantly encounter Klingons, Romulans and Borg drones. At some point you will need to go further. You will need to face the Queen herself. Or Q. Or Khan. Khaaaan!

The detail on these minis is mind-numbing. Anybody can paint them, yet only the truly experienced amongst us will be able to do so at the level that they deserve. The poses are aggressive. Five of these villains hold a gun, with only Gul Dukat keeping it lowered. Q is keeping his hands together, calculating and pontificating as he usually does in his 2049 post-atomic horror judge attire; he only needs a thought to destroy everything after all. Gorn comes out as my personal favourite by far. His base is well thought of, with rocks and vines crisscrossing the terrain. General Chang and Khan will be two of the most difficult miniatures to paint, taking the details in their attires into account. Khan is a bit more dressed than in Star Trek II where Ricardo Montalban's incredible physique dominated the picture, this is not however the first thing an enthusiast will notice. That would be the fact that his hair comes without a fringe (sacrilege!), and that on his left hand he holds a Ceti Eel. That's quite hard core, even for Khan.

I haven't finished treating every single miniature in the bunch (something that would have substantially stalled the review), but up to now they behaved very well to my clumsy cleaning, cutting, priming, partial gluing and partial painting (with all the intermediary steps). As much as there is still work to do, there is zero flash on the figures. I simply washed them as standard practice and they were good to go. Interlocking pieces also worked without issues. Filing has been minimal; this is resin after all.

The weak points: This is an expensive set, no matter how one looks at it. With an average of under 6 EUR per mini, it is unlikely to be a spontaneous purchase. Unfortunately, this is how licences and official products work. If one wants a big fat Star Trek logo, one pays for the privilege.

Once again I am disappointed by the miniatures coming unassembled. Star Trek Adventures is not a heavy wargame. To me it seems more likely that the people who would be interested in these sets would like to use them as soon as they buy them. As things stand, this can't happen. On the other hand, I understand how complicated licenses can be and how the publisher might have been unable to secure a fully assembled miniatures license due to existing contracts of this sort with other companies. Admittedly there are tons of Star Trek miniatures out there in all shapes and sizes. Damn. At least these minis are easy to assemble.

I had commented on the previous review of Star Trek miniatures that they did not appear to be fully on scale with the tile sets that have been out for this line. To make a long story short, the miniatures are bigger than what they should have been. Either they should have been smaller (noooooo!), or the tile set should have been bigger (yeeeeees!). As things stand, and even when one disregards the perceptible size difference, their bases take too much space. Just a handful of people on the bridge or a corridor and the place gets immediately cluttered.

Conclusion: No matter its high price, Star Trek Iconic Villains is certain to sell like hot cupcakes, seeing how the Star Trek fan base is much larger than that of Star Trek Adventures. The minis themselves are gorgeous and faithful to their subject matter, with detail that goes above and beyond anything we have seen up to now. That's how captains prove their mettle: through worthy, well-designed adversaries.

For more info on Star Trek Adventures Miniatures: Iconic Villains visit the Modiphius Entertainment website at http://www.modiphius.com.

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