Preview: WizKids’ ‘Icons Of The Realm: Monster Menagerie Revisited’
by Anton Kromoff
Welcome to the table,
It’s always a good time when a fresh set of creatures hits the table. WizKids has announced the newest Dungeons & Dragons Icons of the Realms collection: Monster Menagerie Revisted.
The first Monster Menagerie set hit around 2016. It was one of the first that really got its hooks in me thanks to its brilliant mimic sculpt and its phase spider with a transparent variant; it was an amazing addition to the meta. Spiders make me uncomfortable, but there is something so classically fantasy TTRPG about the phase spider — and it’s ability to shift in and out of reality — that having an invisible mini to represent it’s out-of-sync-with-reality option was revolutionary to me at the time.
While I don’t know if the phase spider and its transparent counterpart are in this set, there are some variants they have shown off in renders already. We have two griffins with variations in their feather coloration. Multiple colorways on these minis make them way more diverse at the table and help with immersion, in my opinion.
We are also getting some new additions to the creatures from the Icons of the Realms sets we can field at the table. For me, the most notable is the Gorgon. This is not the Greek myth Gorgon, mind you — this is a large magical creature that looks like a bull. Its skin is covered in these plates of metallic scales, and it breathes this green vapor that can turn most who inhale it to stone. I love these as shocking threats in a crowd during a TTRPG adventure because having one run into a crowded marketplace, turning citizens into statues, and then breaking them as it rushes about like the proverbial bull in a china shop, is a really cool way to get the frantic ball rolling as the party scrambles to react to a bunch of chaos all at once.
I’m a big fan of Slaad, and seeing a Red Slaad in the render also makes me really stoked to see what else is in this set. There is a part of me that will go onto secondary market sites and see if I can put together a full set of Slaad minis just to have them on a shelf somewhere in my office, and a fresh Red Slaad immediately made me go do that again.
This set is going to have 50 unique minis to collect and should be out closer to the end of the year or the beginning of 2026 because life is weird right now, and shipping and fulfillment have gone kind of sideways for reasons I’m sure you have seen on various news sites. Nevertheless, you can pre-order at this link.
Until next time, currently there are Black, Blue, Green, Red, White, Gray, Mud, and Gormeel Slaad. Go check them out if you have some time to read about D&D lore, because they are super freaky and weird and make for some fun foes at the table.
