If you are an avid role-player, you probably crave new miniatures to add to your gaming table.
At least that’s the general case with most members of our ‘Meeple Guild’, each of us having dozens of minis we have gathered through the years – admittedly some never glued together, others never or barely painted, and many never seeing game play – but we always look longingly at the next one we want.
Well,l mini fans, Canadian company Helios Tabletop has just ramped up things in terms of our collective collecting addiction.
This company has burst on the scene in the most exciting of ways.
In a world where increasingly miniatures are purchased as STL files and you are left to print them, hoping your printer is up to the task, Helios still produces physical miniatures.
But they have taken that a step further, creating what are essentially ‘theme packs,’ releasing a small set of related minis monthly. You can get in on a monthly delivery schedule, let, and this little white box – nothing fancy in the packaging – of mini joy arrives in your mailbox.
And, better yet, the minis inside are complete. No gluin, which we all know is the absolute worst part of miniatures.
Now, this review specifically is looking at the Cavern of Kobolds, Mythic Box.
No,w kobolds are what we might term an under-appreciated dungeon denizen, but one look at this box of kobold baddies will change that.
These are fierce defenders of the dark, which will have your RPG characters wishing they were back in the local tavern with a mug of grog.
“The decision to do a Kobolds Mythic Box came about for a few reasons,” offered Nick Di Scipio with Helios via email.
“First, they’re classic fantasy enemies, and almost everyone has faced them before in their campaigns.
“Second, we meet a lot with local DMs and players rs and during a specific round of interviews with local DMs, it was one of the enemies a lot of DMs wanted to see in our Mythic Box line, and so we took that input and decided to make it the next Mythic Box encounter at the time. Since many players have encountered kobolds before, we knew we had to make our version stand out and get people excited about Kobolds again. We didn’t want it to feel like just another throwaway skirmish – so we set out to create something that felt fresh, dynamic, and memorable.
“That meant bringing a lot of depth to the encounter, under like tasking the party with a time-sensitive objective of interrupting a shamanic ritual to prevent the awakening of an ancient dragon, incorporating environmental puzzles that players must solve to progress through the encounter, and designing unique combat mechanics that push beyond the usual kobold tactics.”
Oh yes, Helios makes integrating their mythic boxes into a campaign – at least a D&D 5e one with an included ‘combat encounter’, a more or less random encounter to drop into a dungeon as a very good excuse to get these beauty minis to the table.
“The idea for the Mythic Boxes came from a desire to make Dungeon Master’s lives easier so they could focus on the parts of DMing they love without all the stress and time that comes from the hours of prep before a session,” explained Di Scipio. “We wanted to create immersive, ready-to-run encounters that deliver both high-quality miniatures and a range of DM tools like stat blocks and story hooks in one package. With two-thirds of the Helios leads being Dungeon Master’s, we know how time-consuming it can be to prep all the aspects needed to run an exciting and unforgettable encounter – so we wanted to make it much easier to deliver a consistently exciting experience for their party, while still allowing the DMs to keep their creative freedom intact.”
So what does The Meeple Guild, in charge of 3D printing, and a mini-painting addict think of the Helios minis?
“I did some work on those kobolds last night. I need to know what resin these guys use. It’s pretty resilient,” Jordan noted in a group chat we have going. “Tiny bit of support clean up, but no printing errors, and the detail is pretty good on them.”
The detail drew praise from Jordan as well, noting he “appreciated the fancied up cave bases for the kobolds.”
When asked about a fav kobold, well, Di Scipio has one.
“Most people would probably say the Kobold Shaman is the best piece in the set with his potions, crude staff, and skull mask but I think it’s the Kobold Thief as his design is unique and we wanted to incorporate the bag he carries as part of his combat mechanics by giving him an ability to ‘scoop up’ smaller players,” he said. “I’m sure DMs will be delighted to work this into their combat and snatch players away when they fail the dexterity save because we sure enjoyed that!”
Overall, the kobolds are very nice and can be very useful for a DM or D&D table, which is really what Di Scipio said was Helios’ goal.
“Just like all our Mythic Boxes, we hope the Cavern of Kobolds set offers DMs a plug-and-play encounter that’s easy and enjoyable to run while giving their players an exciting, cinematic experience filled with surprises, clever enemy mechanics, and meaningful choices that go beyond simple combat,” he said. “Overall, if the players are happy, the DMs are happy, and we want to help create that satisfaction.”
Toward that goal, Helios hit the target dead centre.
Check it out at https://heliostabletop.ca/products/cavern-of-kobolds-april-2025-monthly-mythic-box
About Author
Calvin Daniels is a Saskatchewan-born, self-taught journalist. He is currently Editor of Yorkton This Week, with 35-years in the newspaper business.
Canadian game company hits mark with kobold minis
At least that’s the general case with most members of our ‘Meeple Guild’, each of us having dozens of minis we have gathered through the years – admittedly some never glued together, others never or barely painted, and many never seeing game play – but we always look longingly at the next one we want.
Well,l mini fans, Canadian company Helios Tabletop has just ramped up things in terms of our collective collecting addiction.
This company has burst on the scene in the most exciting of ways.
In a world where increasingly miniatures are purchased as STL files and you are left to print them, hoping your printer is up to the task, Helios still produces physical miniatures.
But they have taken that a step further, creating what are essentially ‘theme packs,’ releasing a small set of related minis monthly. You can get in on a monthly delivery schedule, let, and this little white box – nothing fancy in the packaging – of mini joy arrives in your mailbox.
And, better yet, the minis inside are complete. No gluin, which we all know is the absolute worst part of miniatures.
Now, this review specifically is looking at the Cavern of Kobolds, Mythic Box.
No,w kobolds are what we might term an under-appreciated dungeon denizen, but one look at this box of kobold baddies will change that.
These are fierce defenders of the dark, which will have your RPG characters wishing they were back in the local tavern with a mug of grog.
“The decision to do a Kobolds Mythic Box came about for a few reasons,” offered Nick Di Scipio with Helios via email.
“First, they’re classic fantasy enemies, and almost everyone has faced them before in their campaigns.
“Second, we meet a lot with local DMs and players rs and during a specific round of interviews with local DMs, it was one of the enemies a lot of DMs wanted to see in our Mythic Box line, and so we took that input and decided to make it the next Mythic Box encounter at the time. Since many players have encountered kobolds before, we knew we had to make our version stand out and get people excited about Kobolds again. We didn’t want it to feel like just another throwaway skirmish – so we set out to create something that felt fresh, dynamic, and memorable.
“That meant bringing a lot of depth to the encounter, under like tasking the party with a time-sensitive objective of interrupting a shamanic ritual to prevent the awakening of an ancient dragon, incorporating environmental puzzles that players must solve to progress through the encounter, and designing unique combat mechanics that push beyond the usual kobold tactics.”
Oh yes, Helios makes integrating their mythic boxes into a campaign – at least a D&D 5e one with an included ‘combat encounter’, a more or less random encounter to drop into a dungeon as a very good excuse to get these beauty minis to the table.
“The idea for the Mythic Boxes came from a desire to make Dungeon Master’s lives easier so they could focus on the parts of DMing they love without all the stress and time that comes from the hours of prep before a session,” explained Di Scipio. “We wanted to create immersive, ready-to-run encounters that deliver both high-quality miniatures and a range of DM tools like stat blocks and story hooks in one package. With two-thirds of the Helios leads being Dungeon Master’s, we know how time-consuming it can be to prep all the aspects needed to run an exciting and unforgettable encounter – so we wanted to make it much easier to deliver a consistently exciting experience for their party, while still allowing the DMs to keep their creative freedom intact.”
“I did some work on those kobolds last night. I need to know what resin these guys use. It’s pretty resilient,” Jordan noted in a group chat we have going. “Tiny bit of support clean up, but no printing errors, and the detail is pretty good on them.”
The detail drew praise from Jordan as well, noting he “appreciated the fancied up cave bases for the kobolds.”
When asked about a fav kobold, well, Di Scipio has one.
“Most people would probably say the Kobold Shaman is the best piece in the set with his potions, crude staff, and skull mask but I think it’s the Kobold Thief as his design is unique and we wanted to incorporate the bag he carries as part of his combat mechanics by giving him an ability to ‘scoop up’ smaller players,” he said. “I’m sure DMs will be delighted to work this into their combat and snatch players away when they fail the dexterity save because we sure enjoyed that!”
Overall, the kobolds are very nice and can be very useful for a DM or D&D table, which is really what Di Scipio said was Helios’ goal.
“Just like all our Mythic Boxes, we hope the Cavern of Kobolds set offers DMs a plug-and-play encounter that’s easy and enjoyable to run while giving their players an exciting, cinematic experience filled with surprises, clever enemy mechanics, and meaningful choices that go beyond simple combat,” he said. “Overall, if the players are happy, the DMs are happy, and we want to help create that satisfaction.”
Toward that goal, Helios hit the target dead centre.
Check it out at https://heliostabletop.ca/products/cavern-of-kobolds-april-2025-monthly-mythic-box
About Author
Calvin Daniels
Calvin Daniels is a Saskatchewan-born, self-taught journalist. He is currently Editor of Yorkton This Week, with 35-years in the newspaper business.
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