My initial impression of the packaging was that it was quite wonderful to look at. The box art was appealing and the backside has exactly what you would get in the box. However, the contents inside were quick jarring. Inside the box you get two sprues (one normal plastic and one translucent); one 25mm clear plastic base; and instructions. My issue was that there was plenty of space inside the box for one to two more sprues or they could have even reduced the packaging size allowing for more of these kits to fit in one box for shipping.

The sprue layout is one of the better ones I have seen from a company’s first attempt at plastic kits. While there is still room for improvement (I’ll discuss more of this in the cons), the parts were clearly numbered and most of the bits were easy to snip off. There was minimal clean-up and the one odd mold line compared to other Wizkids products. The finished product (pictured below) is also quite amazing and a pretty neat miniature to add to your collection if you’re into tieflings like I am.

Pros

The sprue layout was well done with the bits being clearly identified and the plastic is easier to cut than plastics from Archon Studios which will save your hand from being sore the day after cutting. Cleaning up after cutting the bits off the sprue is easy for most bits and, surprisingly, gluing the bits was easier than other plastic kits where the Tamiya plastic glue would take forever to bond the pieces. Adding onto this, there were barely any mold lines to clean up and there weren’t any noticeable gaps that I would have to fill in. The detail on the mini is also fantastic and it looks pretty cool. As I said in the initial impressions, I would consider buying this if you’re into tieflings. 

Cons

However, the amount of pros is nothing to the amount of issues I had with this kit. Thus, let’s begin with the elephant in the room, the pricing. This kit is priced between $13.50 to $15. That is a hard pill to swallow for what’s essentially two sprues and a base. If you’re unfamiliar with Wizkids products, they have their Nolzur’s Unpainted line where $15 gets you a large miniature like a young dragon, behir, balor, or a giant. So it’s quite jarring to see a medium mini (that would be sold in a pack of two for $5 if they were part of the Nolzur’s Unpainted line) being sold for $15. The pricing issue also goes hand in hand with the box contents. Wizkids advertised these minis as customizable but the issue is that this specific kit only comes with three head options, two left hand options, three right hand options, and two spell effects along with two optional bits, a backpack and a lantern. That’s an okay number if the kit was sold at a cheaper price but not for $15. 

Another issue I had was with the placement of the bits. Starting with the contact points for the hand bits. It is not a good idea to place the contact point on a fragile spot like a finger. With this type of plastic it would be very easy to snap off the finger while trying to cut it off the sprue. Another issue I had was with the right arm. There is no good reason as to why that arm was split into two pieces. It just seems random and adds an unnecessary tiny piece. The translucent bits were also a nightmare to put together especially with piece B3 from the translucent sprue which is difficult to glue on. The same goes for piece A1 and A2 to form the gas effect coming from his hand. The two pieces would not stick together and due to its translucent nature I couldn’t see the reason why. When it came to the putty base, the bottom of the mini wouldn’t align with it so I couldn’t use it because the two pieces wouldn’t fit. The overall issue with this kit (and a simple fix in my opinion) is to add sockets where the pieces could fit and while there might be less options for posing or less customizable options, there weren’t many to begin with. Aside from fitting the piece together, you’ll have to deal with the unclear instructions. It’s always a nice touch when a company adds physical instructions in the box but only if you could actually read them. The instructions included are frankly, terrible. This is not how you do them. It would have been better to have them printed out on a regular sheet of paper and fold it to fit the box because there is more than enough room to fit that folded piece of paper.

Final Impression

As someone who has built several kits including large dragons made out of resin, a Huey helicopter from Revell (and is considered one of their worst kits) and plastic kits from Archon Studios, Games Workshop, Wargames Atlantic, Gripping Beast, etc; this is one of the worst kits I got my hands on. For a $15 kit, there is so much room for improvement and I don’t recommend you purchase it unless you really want this tiefling warlock and don’t mind priming the translucent bits so you could actually put them together. To improve this kit and future frameworks minis, they can either keep the contents as is, but reduce the price to $8.50 while slimming down the box size. Another option would be to implement sockets to make it easier to put the pieces together and to ensure the ability to customize your mini you could add an additional sprue with more options. Another method to improve the kit is to print the instructions on a larger sheet of paper and make it legible. This was a disappointing kit and I really hope Wizkids improves upon this line because so far there are better and cheaper options out there. See pic below:

From left to right: Bad Squiddo Games ($8 for two Tieflings); Wizkids ($13.50-$15 kit); Dungeon Swag 3-D printed Tiefling (came in a box with 7 other minis for a total of $16.50); Reaper Miniatures Bones Black Tiefling Warlock ($4.50, Metal version is $10); Ral Partha Legacy ($30, comes with bone pile not pictured here)