Hey, everybody! Remember when I reviewed Bahamut the Dragon God from D&D Miniatures? Well, here's something else in the same vein! Pathfinder, which is sort of D&D with the serial numbers filed off, has also been enjoying a popular brand of RPG miniatures... made by the same company as the D&D ones. So of course, it's got its ginormous single-release minis, too. At one per set/case, the Shemhazian came out with The Lost Coast, the most recent miniatures set.
Now, most of the time, the big gargantuan-sized miniature/case incentive with one of these sets is going to be a dragon or a major named character. The Shemhazian is a little different because it is none of those - it's a demon type that happens to be really big. So, from the SRD:
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This enormous, bestial demon combines the worst aspects of a bear, a mantis, a wolf, and a reptilian humanoid.
Although nearly all the horrors of the Abyss prey upon one another in an endless, eternal bloodbath, shemhazians are predators among predators. They are more intimidating and physically powerful than most demons, combining the features of numerous insectile and bestial hunters into one massive, deadly form. Although they don’t require sustenance, shemhazians take perverse delight in mutilating and eating their victims.
A shemhazian stands 35 feet tall and weighs 12,000 pounds. They form from the sinful souls of torturers and those who enjoyed mutilating living victims to death.
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Okay, then! Definitely not somebody I want to meet in a dark alley! The Shemhazian miniature is comparable in size to D&D's Bahamut, only a lot bulkier and heavier because Bahamut mostly took up space with his wings. This guy... is a bear.
Design-wise, the Shemhazian is a malformed combo of bear and mantis. It has extra limbs that could almost function like wings, multiple eyes, mandibles, and other patchwork bits. It's also almost six inches tall, meaning that it's in scale with some other action figures - more GI Joe than He-Man, though. And it could fit in a sci-fi display as a mutant pretty easily.
The paint is incredible. Most pre-painted RPG miniatures get a little janky at times, but the Shemhazian outdoes most of them. Even Bahamut had his questionable moments, but this guy layers colors and washes to look realistic. Note the eyes - they are subtly red-rimmed, which makes them far more than the featureless black beads they could have been. There may be some slop, but this isn't a figure that you can check out easily, necessarily (the box lacks a window), and the overall effect is something that can stand up with the best of your toys.
The Shemhazian, like other RPG miniatures, is unarticulated. This is too bad, considering that it almost looks like its arms are movable. But it's in a pretty good pose - neutral enought o just stand there, fierce enough to be in a fight.
Price is gonna vary on this guy, but generally you can expect to pay about $45 - pretty steep, but cheaper than many other large RPG miniatures. Notably, it's like $20 cheaper than Bahamut, despite being a bigger, better-painte,d better-sculpted figure. You may need to order it on-line, though many gaming stores should still have them if they ordered cases of Lost Coast miniatures.
Well... the Shemhazian is officially better than Bahamut. Sure, it isn't a named character, but it's just a cooler toy overall, and less expensive for what you are getting. I am not sensing the sam eshortcut that poor Bahamut had, not to knock the dragon. And, of course, there' another thing - if you color his eyes orange and green and then add a rune to his forehead, he becomes a really good representation of the Denarian demon Ursiel from The Dresden Files! And I love The Dresden Files.
