As cool as receiving a ton of D&D miniatures from Wizards of the Coast is, the Critical Hit Podcast fans are by far the best fans out there. When you aren’t giving us fantastic five star reviews and comments at iTunes, you’re flooding our email with letters of support and encouragement. We’ve received sketches of the Critical Hit cast, but the box that arrived in the mail today takes the cake to date.
Critical Hit fan Aldo sent a unassuming box to the Major Spoilers HQ, and when I opened it, and made it through the layer after later of tissue and packing foam, I discovered something quite wonderful…
For the last couple of months, Aldo had been sending emails to us asking questions about what color Torq’s skin was, the robe color of Orem and so on. Since that time, he’s been slaving away crafting and painting heavy duty metal figures that represent each of the characters in the Critical Hit podcast.
I am blown away and humbled at how generous and awesome this gift to the podcast is. Aldo signed his note, “Your Biggest Fan.” He’s certainly thrown down the gauntlet, and for now he is the top of the stack, the bee’s knees, and now holds the title as Critical Hit’s Number One Fan.
Instead of going on and on, I’ll just let these images do the talking.
OREM
TORQ
RANDUS
SMITH
And so Rodrigo is not left out of the mix, Aldo created a figure of
THE QUEEN’S REBELLIOUS DAUGHTER
And for those of you who are already dying for a high quality large image of the group, make sure you click this image for the big 1920×1080 image.
Once again, THANK YOU Aldo for being a big supporter and fan of Critical Hit!
42 Comments
Wow… that is just… wow. Aldo, those are incredible, well done man! I will give testimony to the idea that miniatures that replicate your vision of a character definitely add to the fun of the game, and these just absolutely rock! Always great to see your efforts being recognized, both by WotC and your awesome fanbase!
This is absolutely amazing, getting noticed by wizards of the coast and custom made characters by a hugely talented listener, a sure sign you guys are doing something good.
Aldo, you are truly the greatest fan of them all, i kneel before your craft
oh my god, an you imagine how much work went into this. These are all conversions/ build up characters from bits and pieces from all sort of gaming compagnies. I even think that some it it is actuall green stuff sculpting. Amazing.
That is not at all what I pictured the characters to look like and that’s not a complaint I really like these and I shall keep them in my head the next time I listen to Critical hit.
Holy crap these are amazing. You even got how I would be holding the dagger correctly. I can’t wait to get to see the actual product when we record next.
Holy crap!
Matthew is going to be over the moon. (Which isn’t that hard. He’s already on the moon. All he has to do is jump.) Anyway. Too bad he’s not going to be able to handle his own mini. At least it will be easier for him to see his mini through the web cam. That’s some awesome work there, Aldo.
Truly, truly amazing. That is some fantastic art right there. Aldo, whoever you are, you are amazing!
Is it just me, or does Orem’s chest seem to be… glistening?
Oh my good freakin’ god! Those are awesome! Aldo, dude you rock!
Holy s*it, those are awesome! Aldo, you are the number 1 fan for sure!
Neat!
Holy carp! These are amongst the best minis I have ever seen, hard to even categorize them as such, they are in a league of their own. A couple favorite details are randus’ arm and assistant.
Wow, absolutely amazing work, do you have a website Aldo??
This is the most awesome thing I have ever seen
These are amazing. The vision and care that went into these is impressive. I think “Aldo” should appear in the podcast as a guest character. I know the podcasts are taped well in advance of when they are published, but that just gives Rodrigo time to think up a way to do this…
Again, what a cool gift to the show. Aldo wins.
Speaking of “The Queen’s Rebellious Daughter”, any chance of her make a return appearance?
Now that is a donation. More than just money time effort and love. Many thanks to you Aldo. That is exactly how I would have pictured them.
Oh, wow. Amazing stuff. Does he do commissions?
One big problem, though. Now what are you going to do if one of the characters dies.
If one of them dies, then Matthew will probably demand some sort of trophy case memorial like the statue room of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Which isn’t a bad idea really, honor for the fallen and all.
Amazing! Now, Critical Hittites, we need a giant wallpaper of the Randus miniature with the caption “Indeed.”
Those are better than any I have ever seen, Sir Aldo!
Oh man, those are crazy awesome! Great job Aldo!
Amazing.
I don’t think anyone will be able to take Aldo’s title as number one fan. Having a tailor-made, awesome as all heck figure of your character is every D&D player’s dream. Kudos to the artist for making it come true ; this really is a testament to the greatness of the show. Flabbergasting work.
Oh, there are plenty of ways someone could take the title as Number One Fan…The question is, what is someone going to have to do to claim that title?
Heh, Rodrigo’s a girl!
Those are amazing and a great way to thank the group for the entertainment they give. Can he make Torq a window to jump out of?
Wow. Just wow.
Like FatBirdWillFly said, you guys must be doing something right. I know you are, or else I wouldn’t have listened to all episodes from the start, which, at the beginning, felt weird… listening to other people play. But since my own gaming group dissolved a few weeks before you guys started the podcast was a great way to at least stay in a game.
Kudos to Aldo for these amazing pieces of art (they’re beyond just “work”).
When will they start showing up in the shownotes though? Considering how far in advance you guys tape the show…
That is beautiful. Wow just wow, I cannot believe how detailed that looks. I don’t know what else to say, just simply stunning.
Thanks everyone for the cool comments. I’m humbled to see how much you liked them. Thanks Stephen for writing a post about the minis I was very surprised and happy. The minis were just my way to say thanks for all the hours of fun you have given us. Keep up the amazing job.
First, Grats on the freebies from WOTC. Second WOW. Aldo rocks. Those are amazing. You guys are lucky.
Holy wowza. These are absolutely amazing, I cannot imagine a more appropriate or better executed tribute to a podcast that has been an inspiration to so many of us running and playing in our own little games. Thanks, ya’ll, and thanks, Aldo, for honoring these guys so phenomenally.
Stephen,
This is unrelated to your post, but I was listening through the old podcasts and run into the question about where to get hooked up with other gamers. You should also check out http://penandpapergames.com/. You can post a “look for group” there, without having to be near a college (like CATTG). I don’t have a CATTG nearby but when I checked PenAndPaper there were ~15 or so people looking for group or looking to lead a group.
Thanks for the awesome cast and congrats on the minis!
they almost look like moded warhamer modles
My Lord… These Are Incredible..Aldo, That is So Impressive That it makes me want to pay you to make on of my Character..Wizards of the Coast Could use you dude! This are Just Fantastic! You Truely Are Fan #1!
One*
just stumbled across these images. they are fraking AWESOME. i love the detail and they even seem completely custom made. not just the painting. just wonderfull and perfect work.
congrats
I love the fact that The Queen’s Rebellious Daughter is in the middle of throwing the rock… Hmmmmmm maybe at Smith perhaps? I must say Randus is my favorite though, the assistant and hand make it feel just right and sticks to the steam punkish feel I get when I think of Artificers. Thank you Aldo, you fixed a face on to the various ideas I had for the characters in my head.
It’s pretty awesome, and the best part is that unless you play the clear cut, cookie cutter, characters that are listed in the PHB, you’ll have a pretty hard time finding the right figure to represent your guy. I used to love playing a Halfling Monk, which not surprisingly, I’ve never found a figure for that. Don’t laugh at my Halfling Monk either, he was pretty effective. Too small to hit most of the time, and everyone else was easier to hit since the target was so much bigger. He was like a mini little Quick-Kick (of G.I. Joe fame), in my mind that is.
Why would anyone make fun of that? Halflings make awesome monks! I used to play a halfling monk named Meticulous Mouse, he had an awesome hat.
My monk was very dextrous and I tried to be a resourceful player, thankfully my DM let us use innovative ways to tackle different obstacles which always made it fun. I used to always try to come up with ways to make non-combat spells work proactively for those times when your mage is running low on big spells among other things. I know our mage once cast Light in a cave on a particular Orc’s eyes, it didn’t really give us any light obviously but it freaked out the Orc which went running down a tunnel hitting walls and screaming. That and my little monk was facing a medium sized dragon with the rest of my party and we wer on a big plateau around some lava and I tried running up his back using my great agility and acrobatics, I failed like 4 times in a row but finally made it up his neck and used a cursed belt of squeezing that I’d found much earlier in our campaign and had the foresight to get it checked out before putting it on and just so happened to roll a Nat 20 and the DM must’ve rolled poorly so the belt started choking the dragon and it stumbled backwards off the plateau. It was always those improvised things that I found really fun. That and how you guys try to play true to your characters despite it possibly being detrimental to the group. We had a Torq-like character named Oog, which only spoke in two word phrases and on one occasion due to his Rage or frenzy or whatever just kept swinging and knocked one of our groupmates off a cliff. I love what you’re doing with the mechanics of the game being built right into the story aspect, it’s more interesting that way.
So I recognize the mini used as a base for Orem but I don’t recognize the others.
What minis were used to create these wondrous custom creations?
I really like your color schemes and they really bring a nice physical representation of the characters to the table.