Those who know me well know that I enjoy playing D&D with friends and family. It’s a chance to sit down, put the phones away and turn the TV off, and create a shared story together. If you’ve been reading my posts, you might have also seen that I’ve recently taken up painting minis to use in our games. What makes it fun is when you paint a mini that you yourself designed to look exactly like the character you play in your game.

A company called Hero Forge makes that dream a reality by giving you access to an infinite number of character designs and customizations, then 3D printing your very own custom mini. Today, I wanted to take a moment to talk about their site and products, and offer a bit of a review.

The Design Choices

First off, this is why the site was created. The owners got tired of being restricted to a set of cookie-cutter minis to use in their games, when each character and story is one-of-a-kind.

So it follows, then, that the number of design options for minis on the site is basically endless. You can customize everything from the mini’s race, to their body type, clothing, weaponry, stance, accessories, and colour palette. Oh and by the way, they keep adding more and more new design options every month.

As friends of mine have experienced, the rabbit hole runs deep, and you can easily spend way more time than is healthy just experimenting with all of the different design options at your disposal.

Definitely an A+ in this camp.

The User Interface

Here is where some of the growing pains show in the site. The site is made to use on a laptop-sized screen, and it works well when you do. The site is also accessible on a mobile device; however, it gets a little buggy in this case. I experienced a few instances of glitches and trouble changing the viewpoint of my mini as I was working on my phone.

All in all, I don’t recommend using the site from your phone at the moment; if you stick to your laptop, you’ll be just fine.

Overall, I’d give the UI an A on the laptop, but a C on mobile, for an average score of B.

The Quality

I can’t speak to all of the materials Hero Forge’s minis come in (they range from regular and premium plastic to more exotic materials like steel and bronze), but I’ve experienced their colour plastic and unpainted premium plastic close-up.

Colour-Dyed Plastic

This option brings your mini design to life using colour plastic, which means your mini is ready to play with right out of the box; no painting required. This alone is a massive benefit, especially for those who can’t or don’t want to paint their own minis.

The colour reproduction of the real-life mini versus your 3D rendering isn’t perfect; in general all of the colours will come out lighter when printed than you had envisioned in your design. This means your shadows and darker colours won’t be as rich as you might like.

That said, Hero Forge doesn’t try to hide this fact. They’re upfront about the differences, including several side-by-side comparisons of a rendering versus the final product before you check out, so that you’re purchasing with eyes wide open.

The other facet of quality with the colour plastics is the quality of the plastic and design itself. Detail-wise, the colour plastic is… ok. I can’t give it top grades here, because some finer details will 100% go missing when you print your mini. Don’t expect minute details like eye colour to show up clearly. Other than the finer details though, the design reproduction is solid.

As for the quality of the plastic itself, it seems pretty solid overall. The one thing to be aware of, though, is that the plastic seems a little on the brittle side. A family member who purchased a mini with its sword raised to the sky had a few issues with the sword breaking off, or arriving broken off the mini.

Despite that, Hero Forge’s customer service was excellent in resolving the issue. They sent him a second mini free of charge to replace the first, and when the second arrived broken, they refunded that portion of his purchase entirely. You can’t ask for better treatment than that, and I’d buy from them again purely based on that experience.

Overall, I’d give the colour plastic a B on quality (though I’d give their customer service an A+!).

Premium Unpainted Plastic

This is where the quality of Hero Forge’s products really shines. Their premium, unpainted plastic offers twice the resolution of their regular unpainted plastic. Their regular plastic is better than any stock mini I’ve seen to begin with, but this premium plastic just takes it off the charts. I’ve never seen minis more detailed than these.

Here’s a close-up of one of the minis we had made so that you can see the level of detail:

As you can see, the detail is pretty incredible. Eyes, weapons and necklaces all show up clearly, which I’ve never actually seen on a mini until I bought these. The one caveat here is that, if you want to paint your mini by hand, you’re going to need to prime it first. This can reduce the level of detail slightly, though it’s still fantastic even after that.

Rigidity-wise, the premium plastic seems sturdier than the colour plastic. I had to bend a few pieces slightly here and there to get at tough-to-reach places, and not once did I break anything.

If it’s possible to award a grade higher than A+, this is where I’d do it. A+++ for the premium plastic, at a minimum. This is my go-to option for material.

The Price Tag

Look, minis aren’t cheap. I’ve paid $15-$20 for cookie-cutter, poorly-produced minis.

Starting at $20 US, the price tag on Hero Forge minis is higher than what you’d pay for stock minis. But then again, you’re getting a colour mini in a custom design you created. You shouldn’t expect to pay the same price as those crappy, one-size-fits-all minis you see on Amazon.

If you’re looking at premium plastic, the price starts at $30 US and goes up from there. For colour plastic, expect to pay $45 US or more.

The reason I say “or more” is because it depends on the size of your mini. If you make your mini extra-large, or give them massive accessories like the great-axe in the title picture for this post, it’s going to add to the price tag.

In my opinion, all of these prices are reasonable for what you’re getting. I don’t know of any shop other than Hero Forge at the time of this writing where you could design your own mini and have it printed… and the quality is such that you should expect to pay a premium.

It’s worth noting that the site occasionally offers discounts and deals on their products… including a recently-offered 20% off premium plastic minis. If price is an issue for you (or you’re looking to print a lot of minis), it could be worthwhile to wait for one of these sales to come around.

Overall, I’d give price an A, which is to say that Hero Forge’s products are fairly priced.

Wrapping it Up

All told, I doubt you’ll find a better option for buying high-quality, detailed custom minis than Hero Forge. Oh, and by the way: the site offers designs that go way, way beyond the world of D&D. You can find more high-tech designs, army minis, and all kinds of other interesting stuff on the site.

In my opinion, the quality is on point, the price is fair, and the service is top-notch. Buy with confidence!