Reddit reviews Toysmith Guardian Knights Action Figure, 36-Piece

There are these bucket of figures that are great, and super cheap for how many you get.

Monsters

Skeletons

Zombies

Knights

Dragons

And so on. Super cheap. Tons of figures, less than $20 for each set.

If you don't care too much about exact scale, you can get bags of plastic toy figures on Amazon for dirt cheap. They're a bit larger than normal minis, but work fine.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DK4FO0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RYM2F0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YA7FS6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Get some army men-type minis. Amazon has several kinds.
See here:
Fantasy guys

Skeletons:

Knights:

90% of the fun is actually in the miniatures tbh. It's honestly not the same without them.

It would be like if Fantasy Flight made Twilight Imperium 4th edition but instead of loads of plastic, they changed everything to different sized wooden cubes.

Even lego men, or a $2 bag of army soldiers would be better.

https://www.amazon.com/Action-figures-Pieces-Soldiers-World/dp/B0060NJUYI/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1504565299&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=army+men&psc=1

here is a medieval one

https://www.amazon.com/Toysmith-36-Piece-Guardian-Knights-Action/dp/B000YA7FS6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1504565449&sr=8-3&keywords=bulk+miniatures

Just look up "bulk miniatures". They'll be poor quality, but better than a salt shaker.

• These kinds of plastic animals are cheap on Amazon and you can also find them in most craft stores. I know I've seen them in Michael's in a local shopping center.
  
• Here are 36 plastic knights, probably 6 each of the 6 pictured varieties.
  
• Here are 100 zombies for $10.
  
• Vikings, $9.00 for a dozen.
  
• Pirates and Skeletons! You probably won't use the cannon, but the rowboat and the treasure chest will be useful.
  
• Knights and Dragons...
  
• More knights, with maybe skeletons...
  
• Cavemen, which could also be troglodytes, orcs, or goblins
  
• The old M.U.S.C.L.E. toys had all sorts of creepy shapes with bulging muscles and axes for hands and stuff.
  

I have a few proper minis that my friend bought for me, that we use for PCs and major NPCs. I think she found a few on ebay and at flea markets, but generally they are your standardly priced minis.

However, for enemies, I mostly use these toy soldiers. They are handy because they are cheap, color coded and have a good variety of weapons.

I also picked up these animal toys, but that's mainly because with a druid and a nature caller summoner in the party, they come in handy. That company does have some fantasy style stuff though, too, that I have contemplated picking up.

Probably the least legitimate, but cheapest thing I have for minis, is that my friend who works at Home Depot picked up some vinyl floor tiles, cut them up and glued pictures to them to represent, huge, gargantuan and colossal creatures.

Well there is miniatures like what Reaper makes that are the standard but alot of people have had luck with finding what is suppose to be like kids toys miniatures and using them as they're exactly getting used in anything that might make them get crushed or broken allowing them to be used and are cheap enough to buy and are usually in bulk.

ebay is a very popular for lots but you don't just get to pick and choose. I recommend looking through walmart or target through the kids isle for like a bucket of miniatures.

https://www.amazon.com/Toysmith-36-Piece-Guardian-Knights-Action/dp/B000YA7FS6/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_21_lp_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FYQSR8BGZ73A86QMY4WE

This is what i am talking about, simple knight minis for about 7 bucks but you get a bunch.

I got a few buckets of plastic toys off amazon that are cheap, are the right sized for a 1 inch grid and can cover a lot of ground.

Monsters:

https://www.amazon.com/Monster-Action-Figure-Bucket-Frankenstein/dp/B00W5WSN5A/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1469651031&sr=8-6&keywords=dnd+mini

Knights, solders, guards

https://www.amazon.com/Toysmith-36-Piece-Guardian-Knights-Action/dp/B000YA7FS6/ref=pd_bxgy_21_img_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=JMBZKP2E432YT1YA7WX4

Zombies, skeletons


https://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Action-Figures-Bucket-Zombies/dp/B00KBHVSTY/ref=pd_sim_21_13?ie=UTF8&dpID=51OXKuC6MBL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&psc=1&refRID=P3JXHNFM1GDFBDY967CY

I recently started a campaign and bought a sack of cheap, plastic minis to get our group started. Here's what I found on Amazon: 36 pieces for $7 and they fit my 1"x1" grid maps very well. Link

These are just knights of varying types, but there's enough there for my four PCs (bows for rangers, swords for melee types) and they can tell them apart.

In a pinch they make good stand-ins for monsters too. If you trawl through Amazon, there's plenty of "50 piece plastic skeletons" lots for under $10. They are the quality of little green army men, but they do the job well at a bargain-basement price.

Cheapest - https://www.dollartree.com/toys/action-figures-cars/Plastic-Action-Figures-2-/629c635c635p294318/index.pro

Cheap - https://www.amazon.com/Toysmith-36-Piece-Guardian-Knights-Action/dp/B000YA7FS6

Not as cheap, but actually good miniatures and can be used for RPG stuff- http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones

The first two won't ever look nice and the paint might eventually flake off, but 36 plastic warriors for $8 is a good place to practice building up whites, painting metals, basic highlights, and different color combinations, before you slap paint on a $25 warjack.

I like using these guys for my enemies https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IDBZPIU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_02l4AbR0CA2M8

They run just a bit big, but it's workable. I use these for my PCs.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YA7FS6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Y4l4AbJFDG83F

Both paint well.

There's a set of cheap plastic knights/warriors for $7 which I think is a great starter kit:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YA7FS6/

What about these?

Link sucks, but search "knight" on that page.

These are even better

If you need minis there are lots of cool ideas on how to make cheap ones:

Like this - http://newbiedm.com/2008/11/22/newbiedm-tutorial-counters-tokens-or-pogs/

People also use small wooden pegs (like these) and decorate them.

Some people also use Lego.

Also:

http://www.reapermini.com/FigureFinder

and

http://www.trollandtoad.com

and

http://www.amazon.com/Toysmith-36-Piece-Guardian-Knights-Action/dp/B000YA7FS6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1449186880&sr=8-2&keywords=plastic+fantasy+men

i am not advertising or promoting the purchase of these products. im only posting these for reference as to what im looking for.

https://www.amazon.com/Piece-Army-Skeleton-Warriors-Ready/dp/B00IDBZPIU

https://www.amazon.com/Toysmith-36-Piece-Guardian-Knights-Action/dp/B000YA7FS6/ref=pd_bxgy_21_3?_encoding=UTF8&refRID=HWTHCGF3HXP7BRGX936K&th=1

That's an awesome idea. I found a couple of cool things around the net. These could absolutely work:

http://www.amazon.com/Toysmith-Guardian-Knights-Action-36-Piece/dp/B000YA7FS6

plastic knights

I've seen "army men" variants pitched in the past but haven't tried it yet.

EX:

• Knights https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YA7FS6/
  
• Hammer Horror https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W5WSN5A/
  
• Skelingtons https://www.amazon.com/Piece-Army-Skeleton-Warriors-Ready/
  
• Zombies https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KBHVSTY/
  
• Fantasy Creatures https://www.amazon.com/SCS-Direct-Fantasy-Creatures-Playset/

So, as someone who is relatively new to DMing (started just over a year ago), here's what I'd suggest to make sure you keep your cost down, while still having figures you can slowly replace over time:

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Starting off, you can get a lot of generic "green-army-men" style fantasy figures for relatively cheap.

• Here's some knights
  
• Here's some skeletons
  
• Here's a random assortment of generic fantasy charcters
  
• Here's some undead
  
• Here's some barbarians that also just make decent random warriors
  
  They're not very expensive and what they lack in quality they make up for with quantity.
  
  ---
  
  The next best solution I have for cheap decent figures is for animals. I've been able to find tubes or tubs of a decent selection of cheap, pre-painted figures at just about every Walgreen's or CVS Pharmacy I've been to. I use these guys for animal encounters, pet companions, and they're especially helpful for my druid.
  
  If you can't find them at your local drugstore IRL, there's plenty of selections you can find online.
  
  
• Here's just an example of some of the tubes you can find.
  
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  Now, players understand you can't afford unique figures for every encounter. However, I've noticed that the figures you have stand in for whatever they're fighting can sometimes be distracting, or if you have multiple identical figures it can be confusing knowing which one they're targeting in a battle. A great, cheap solution I've found to this is just using multi-colored generic pawn pieces like from the game "Sorry!". The pieces themselves are so nondescript (other than color) that the players have an easier time projecting the combatant you describe onto them, and the various colors make it easier to track what's going on in a battle, both for the players and DM.
  
  If you can't just salvage an old Sorry game you find lying around you can find packs of the pieces or other generic multi-colored pawns online for very cheap.
  
  
• Multi-colored pawns
  
• Meeples
  
• Sorry Pieces
  
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  This last suggestion isn't really about where to find cheap figures, but more to address the reason you said you wanted figures in the first place, to "help the immersion".
  
  You may have heard of the website HeroForge before and it's a great tool for D&D players. It allows you to make very customizable figures for your games. Now, the cost of their cheapest figures are still over $30 for a single figure, so definitely not cheap. However, as a DM, I still regularly use it. I use HeroForge to help design notable NPC's or enemies for my campaign, then save the screenshot of them and post the image in our group chat when the character gets introduced. This is very helpful for a lot of reasons: I get a more solid idea of characters that I was designing in my head, it gives the players a visual and helps with the immersion, and when I DO decide to actually order a character (like, for example, a villain or NPC I know will be reoccurring for many sessions) it becomes a MUCH bigger deal and way more intense.
  I also always recommend that PC's at the very least design their figures on HeroForge for the same reasons.
  
  
• Here's some examples of figures I designed and posted used over the past few months without ever having to spend a dime
  
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  I hope these were helpful. I'm still in the process of building my figure collection as well and love to share cool tips or resources I have found while doing so.