The figures

The minis I got were the Magnificent Ego (by Gael Gourmon), the Rogue Gnome (by Gene van Horne), and Pincusion, Dart Throwing Assassin (by Tim Prow) from the "Uncommon Character" range and a pack of Ghost Weapons and a Flaming Sphere (both by Clint Staples) from the "Ariffacts & Dweomers" range.
The pictures show the Magnificent Ego and the Flaming Sphere (painted by .... well, I don't know, but not by me... yet).



At the moment, there are about 30 different figures available from Magnificent Egos. Most of them are part of the "Uncommon Characters" range.

The Design:

I'm not quite sure if the minis I got live up to being "Uncommon Characters". The Gnome is very cool and well sculpted, but he kinda looks like a typical gnome or halfling to me. The Magnificent Ego looks like some sort of bard. There are some very nice fine detail work on him (I would expect no less from Gael Gourmon), but I'm not sure he looks very uncommon.



Pincusion (the Dart Throwing Assassin) strikes me as being very uncommon. Here we have a guy who appears to be wearing two huge cartridge belts, but is armed with two swords and Wolverine style knives. Since he is called the Dart Throwing Assassin, I assumed that there are some darts on the sculpt, but I haven't been able to locate them yet. Another uncommon feature about him is that he has a huge head and very short legs.

In the defense of ME, some of the figs on their website look quite uncommon and very cool. If you have time, I suggest you check out the guy with the huge bow and the Half-Elf fighter mage.

The stuff from the "Ariffacts & Dweomers" range is really neat. I have never heard of Clint Staples before, but I really like these sculpts. It might just be me, but I could never get the idea of making a miniatures of a fireball or a flying hammer, so I'm glad someone else did! There is also a "Dancing Sword and Winged Shield" in the range which I would really like to have. I always seem to run into those flying swords when I play Diablo II and Neverwinter Nights, so I really want to have a painted versions of them.

One bad thing about the Ghost Weapons is that they are on integrated bases. This is not always bad, but in this case is it. The integrated bases are supposed to be square, but either they were not very well sculpted or they got deformed during casting, so they don't look that great (or that square for that matter). They are also too small to give the figures the needed stability. I'll have to think of a way of rebasing my ghost weapons.

Most of the minis are in one or two parts. The parts seem to fit together very well, though the fireball will probably need a bit of green stuff. I'm a little worried about Mr. Magificent Ego himself. His right arm and cape are very small and thin pieces which will be completely impossible to pin.

Casting Quality:

In most cases, the casting is very nice. Good sharp details and smooth surfaces. One of the Ghost Weapons had a pretty huge moldline (and as I mentioned before, the base was deformed), but the rest looks good.

Something that bothers me a bit is how flat the ME looks from the side. I'm not sure if this is because Gael made the sculpt really flat, or because something went wrong in the casting/moulding process, but it doesn't look that great.

All the minis are made of lead free pewter.

The Bases:

Remember how I've told you that I usually don't like metal bases. Well, these minis are a great example of why I don't like metal bases. At first glaze, the ME bases look like normal metal bases, but then you realize that there are some funky lines on the rim of the bases. In my wildest dreams I cannot imagine why you would want to make bases like these. It's obvious that they are really hard to cast (the lines don't always cast well), and they don't look cool. On top of that, some of the minis don't really fit into the slots on the bases, so you'll have to do some cutting.



The only good thing about the metal bases, is that they are good for those minis that always fall over. I'll probably base my Magnificent Egos figs on plactic bases and then use the metal ones for some crazy Fianna who's waving her sword around....

The Price:

Most of the "Uncommon Characters" cost $9.99 or more each. Even though they are on metal bases (which always costs more) it seems a little expensive. I guess it's ok though, because they are uncommon and ME can't expect to sell an army of "Pincusions-The-Dart-Throwing-Assassin"s.
The Ghost Weapons are a bargain at $5.99 and the Flaming Sphere is not that pricy either ($7.99). I have no idea why anyone would ever buy the metal bases, but for your information they cost $0.99 each.....

Conclusion:

Overall, I think Magnificent Egos are a refreshing acquaintance. They have some original ideas, which is a bit of a rarity in the chicks-in-chainmail-bikinies-miniature world. I can definitely see myself buying some of the flying sword type minis as well as some of the "Uncommon Characters" (ok so I'll buy all the chicks..... chainmail bikinies or not) since I think the casting and sculpting quality is quite good. ...... and beside ..... who doesn't need a Kobold Pirate, a Half Dragon Dire Wolf, or the much feared Sock Puppet !?!

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