Did someone say "more Owlbear"?

Starting off the new year Reaper Miniatures announced they were starting a new line; Reaper Bones Black.

Almost immediately everyone started speculating on what it would be and what it would be like as the low-cost Reaper Bones line had seemingly been a huge hit with value conscious RPG miniature buyers, while serious painters had largely found the line underwhelming.  As part of their launch Reaper is planning on sending out a ton of free Reaper Bones Black models to get people to try them out and their first model for January 2019 is a new Owlbear sculpt.

First up I want to say the material is a huge step up from the Bones vinyl.  This figure is more akin to a hard plastic, although it may also share properties with the 'restic' material Privateer Press uses.  I'm hoping their February model has some long thin pieces so I can experiment with its flexibility and durability.

Having said all of that, the Owlbear is great!  The detail is crisp and deep, the model required almost no cleanup and he looks great alongside my existing Owlbear collection.

I intentionally painting him almost identically to my WizKids Owlbear from last week so that I could compare the two.

Personally I preferred the Reaper Owlbear for its pose and style (feels very much like old-school TSR art to me) but people who like a more realistic looking Owlbear may still prefer the WizKids version.

What do you think?

-Jay