Why bother with a gelatinous cube miniature?
Gelatinous cubes are one of the most iconic Dungeons & Dragons creatures out there, having been around since its beginnings. In addition, this Ooze is a really fun creature. Gelatinous cubes are a really cool foe. You could probably get away with just cutting a slab off of a jelly to make one for use during your game, but it would leave everything much stickier, so I recommend just buying a miniature instead. This one works really well as a mini, which is why I got it, so I will definitely recommend it for its fun features.
What about this mini?
This unpainted gelatinous cube mini consists of two parts: the lower, internal part which holds the current and past victims of the gelatinous cube, and the outer part, showing the extent of the gelatinous cube. When a PC gets enveloped by the gelatinous cube (and it’s just a matter of time before that happens, really), you can place the PC’s miniature inside the gelatinous cube. It’s a great concept for this miniature and I absolutely love it. Apart from the great concept, the sculpt is really nice as well, so this gelatinous cube looks great. I have some other gelatinous cube miniatures, but this is easily my favourite, by far. The fact that it is large sized like it should be makes me very happy as well. This is one of my coolest minis, simply because it allows the mini to envelop the PC’s. This mini is made by WizKids as part of their Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures line: Gelatinous cube #73401.
How useful is this mini, really?
Gelatinous cubes are included in 13 published Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition books:
- Bigby Presents: Glory Of The Giants
- Deck Of Many Things
- Ghosts Of Saltmarsh
- Icewind Dale: Rime Of The Frostmaiden
- Monster Manual
- Out Of The Abyss
- Planescape: Adventures In The Multiverse
- Quests From The Infinite Staircase
- Tales From The Yawning Portal
- Volo’s Guide To Monsters
- Waterdeep: Dungeon Of The Mad Mage
- The Wild Beyond The Witchlight
- Xanathar’s Guide To Everything
That’s nearly 1/3 of the published adventures- not bad for a living blob of gelatin from the 1970’s. If you run published campaigns, you will be needing a gelatinous cube miniature sooner or later, and if you homebrew like me, you will want to throw them in now and then anyhow, since they had a role in the recent D&D film, so people expect to see one and will be pleased when it pops up. It is easily the most charismatic of the various Oozes, not that that’s saying much. They are film stars with stuffed toys made of them, so go ahead and grab a mini as well while you’re at it.
But why are you doing this?
As usual for these videos, my aim is to provide good views of the miniatures featured along with accurate sizing information for them. As I already pointed out, the gelatinous cube miniature is on a large size base as it should be. In addition I would like to thank wildlife artist Sherrie York, an amazingly talented reduction linocut artist, for graciously allowing me to use one of her reduction linocuts, Shivano Sunset, as the backdrop for my miniatures in the video. Check out her other reduction linocuts; she is likely the best linocut artist of our generation.