Pathfinder Battles: Red Dragon Evolution Set Review
The fearsome Red Dragon, what an iconic RPG enemy! Join us for a look at the Pathfinder Battles: Red Dragon Evolution set, containing 3 RPG fantasy miniatures that will strike fear into the hearts of your adventurers. This set from Paizo Publishing and WizKids Games is available for $19.99 direct from Paizo.
The best part of the front of the Red Dragon Evolution box is that contains a transparent panel so we can see the awesome minis inside. These are pre-painted and assembled minis that are ready to play with straight from the box, perfect for Pathfinder, D&D, or your fantasy RPG system of choice.
The sides of the box show artwork featuring 2 of the evolutions that come in this set, the large and medium Red Dragons.
The rear of the box contains artwork of the final evolution in this set, the huge Red Dragon, plus some text about these terrible foes.
“Evolve your encounters! Few creatures are more cruel and fearsome than the mighty red dragon. King of the chromatics, this terrible beast bring ruin and death to the lands that fall under its shadow. With a terrible roar and breath of scalding flame, red dragons terrorize the skies like no other monster of fantasy. This new Pathfinder Battles set includes three red dragons, Medium, Large, and Huge sizes, ensuring that your next red dragon encounter comes at exactly the right scale to challenge your heroes!”
Opening up the box, the entire contents including a mountainous background scene can be slid out. The individual dragon minis are protects and held in place by a vacuum formed plastic base and some twist-ties.
First impressions are that each of these will be useful minis in our RPG sessions, these are designed for Pathfinder but will obviously work well in Dungeons and Dragons and other fantasy RPG systems. Being pre-painted and assembled means this can be used straight out of the box, and Its clear when you put these minis side by side like this that these are 3 stages of development of the same evil monster. Beneath the base of each miniature you can see white text with the set name abbreviation and the name of the creature.
The mountainous backdrop can be kept and used to display your minis if you wish.
First up lets meet the smallest evolution in the set, the Medium Red Dragon. This mini has a lot going for it, the upright pose means you get a lot of dragon on a medium sized base, the sculpt has plenty of details over the skin and especially the face. The paintjob is neat and has included a darker wash to give this mini depth.
For scale (..get it) here is our Medium Red Dragon alongside the Half-Orc Adept from the Pathfinder Battles: Dungeons Deep set. The Half-Orc give you a good idea of how your average adventurer will match up to the smallest of these dragons, and as you can see it’s still a fearsome foe.
Big brother to the Medium Red Dragon is this monster, the Large Red Dragon. Over the years this dragon has grown in size and strength, and has sprouted many more spikes from its scales. This design includes and mean looking head sculpt and a much more dangerous looking tail, along with spikes running over much of its body.
Comparing the Half-Orc Adept to the Large Red Dragon, you can see there is a big difference here, this large creature looking like it could just lean over and chomp him in half, or bat him across the room with its muscled limbs.
Red Dragons that have seen many battles and slain many heroes may grow into this huge sized beast. The Huge Red Dragon is much larger and more aggressively posed than the other evolutions in this set, and is the only one of the 3 with an open maw which shows off his sharp teeth and tongue. As you would expect, much of the styling is the same between this and the large dragon which ties them together nicely.
This Half-Orc better have some tricks up his sleeve or he is about to be lunch.
Comparing these minis to some of our other pre-painted fantasy RPG miniatures, here is the Pathfinder Battles: Medium Red Dragon alongside the Dungeons and Dragons Red Wyrmling from the now out of production Giants of Legend set.
As for large sized dragons, here’s the Pathfinder Battles: Large Red Dragon alongside the Dungeons and Dragons Young Red Dragon from the now out of production Dungeons of Dread set.
From newer sets, here you can see the Pathfinder Battles: large Red Dragon alongside a Red Dragon from the recent D&D Icons of the Realms: Tyranny of Dragons set.
Lastly, here’s the full family photo, the 3 Red Dragon evolutions from this set, plus the big guy himeself, the Gargantuan Red Dragon from the recent Pathfinder Battles: Dungeons Deep set.
This set opens up a lot of possibilities for our fantasy RPG sessions. Your adventurers might force a Medium Red Dragon into retreat only for it to reappear years later, in a much more powerful form and eager for revenge. Or maybe the adventures take down a Medium Red Dragon only to have its parents appear!
This set is a nice thing to own for use in games, but also just as a collector of these minis it’s pretty cool to have the complete evolution, especially since they tie in so nicely with the Gargantuan Red Dragon that was recently released. Let us know what you think of these in the comments, and if you’d like to pick up your own set of dragon minis, head over to: Paizo Pathfinder Battles: Red Dragon Evolution Set
