Why bother with a weasel miniature?
Weasels are never going to be the big bad of your campaign (although how great would it be if a weasel turned out to be your BBEG?!?) but they are a great miniature to have on hand. It is one of the forms that your familiar can take in the spell Find Familiar, so you never know when one of your party is going to want to pull one out. As a Beast, it’s a great Wild Shape for a druid as well- they are small and inconspicuous, can fit into small gaps, and will be the most terrifying thing of that size, so it won’t have to worry about being eaten as much as some other small creatures will. Plus, they are super cute. The potential for pets in game is real.
What about this mini?
This metal miniature, like the ochre jelly baby, the cat, the raven, the toad, the pixie, the sprite, the giant weasel, the giant riding lizard, the giant boar, the violet fungus, and the hezrou miniatures, is a bit problematic. This unpainted metal miniature is from Otherworld Miniatures, a company which I have bought many minis from over the years. It has very recently closed as a result of the owner’s retirement, so their minis are no longer available for purchase directly from them. However, it has closed so recently that Otherworld Miniature products are still available in retail shops and on the internet. As a result, I’m putting a number of videos of their miniatures up now so if you like their mini(s), you can scout around for them before they are all gone. Supposedly, they were going to sell their molds to another company, but nothing has been heard on that front for months, so it’s anyone’s guess who has the molds or if anyone will be making more of their minis at this point. If you want one of their minis, this is probably the time to look for them, in case they are not available in future. I have quite a few of their miniatures, because I really like them, this one included. This particular mini is part of the pack Lesser familiars #FS15a and also includes the cat, the toad, and the raven that I have also featured. Stephen May sculpted all of the familiars in this pack and you can tell- like the rest of his work, they are beautifully done. This weasel miniature fits well on a base size of tiny, as weasels are meant to.
UPDATE: Fenris Games got about 100 of the miniatures from Otherworld Games, and Crooked Dice also got some of their miniatures, so if you are looking for any of their minis, keep an eye on their websites as they add the new (to them) models, which is great news!
I have painted this miniature to look like a winter phase stoat (Mustela erminea). I like stoats, I really do, but here in New Zealand they are a disaster for conservation. They were introduced here foolishly and have since been integral in the extinction of several species and are still actively driving other species towards extinction. Without a constant focus on stoat eradication, many of our native, endemic species would go extinct. Stoats are one of many great examples for why we should not be introducing foreign species willy nilly into new areas. Something nearly always goes wrong, especially if you introduce particularly efficient predators. Human meddling has driven so many species to extinction, but it is heartening to see how many determined conservationists there are in New Zealand, driven to reduce the numbers of mammalian pests in order to allow native species like the kiwis to survive.
How useful is this mini, really?
Weasels are included in 2 published Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition books:
That is not a lot of books. Needless to say, you won’t be encountering weasels (unless they are giant weasels, of course) very often as part of campaigns. Which doesn’t mean that you won’t need them. Any species which is an option for a familiar is going to get used, at least occasionally. It’s one of those minis which you will definitely need, but you just don’t know how often. Some people absolutely adore weasels: if one of them is running a wizard or a druid or a warlock, the weasel mini will be getting lots of action. Of course, this one is from a pack of 6 different species of familiars, so it’s a bit of a no brainer.
But why are you doing this?
As usual, for this video, my aim is to provide good views and sizing information for miniatures so you can purchase the miniature knowing whether it is what you want. As I already mentioned, the weasel’s size is tiny, as it is meant to be, so that is fine. Also, I want to thank wildlife artist Sherrie York, leading reduction linocut artist, for graciously allowing me to use one of her pieces, Shivano Sunset, as the backdrop for the minis.