The only problem is the stance on some of the monsters can be wide. I think the griffins legs land about 3" apart. But for the purposes of using these minis for Storm of Magic or informal awesome gaming they are outstanding. (and they come pre-painted!) They have some other monsters that I thought looked awesome.... If I was going to do it all over I would have done the mountain dragon and chimera instead of the griffin and green dragon.
An empire army with a pair of 12$ hydras is still an awesome idea....
The Chimera is Huge and not that bad a sculpt.
This hydra is frankly amazing.
I love this dragon so much!
They come pre-painted and look freaking awesome based. Most local players freak out when they see the bulk of the Dragon or the Cyclops, I have received lots of complements when I include them in Storm of Magic games. I really do recommend going this route. With a little bit of work the Griffin would work fine as a new empire mount.
I thought I would post two of my own favorite miniature manufacturers as of late.
http://www.megaminis.com/Mega Minis-
Great company and its run by this really nice guy named Dave. Honestly not the best sculpts in the business... but at the same time Im not the best painter on the Internets either. Most sculpts are under 2 dollars, and the Scribe, Merchant, Thief and Priest between the Swordsman and Ogre are all mega mini sculpts. If you are looking for a few camp followers and don't want to spend 200+ dollars I would go here... I have a baggage train for my 1000pt army that I have from here, perhaps I will paint it soon and post.
http://www.ramshacklegames.co.uk/Ramshackle Games-
I saw this thing painted up like a week ago in Concord NH... it may be the miniature that converts me over to playing a chaos army as it would be a wonderful centerpiece. Besides that there are some really ugly sculpts and vehicles in this range, there are also some gnarly totally awesome things hidden all over the place. Check this range out its crazy! Sculpt scale is all over the place but in my experience it hardly matters.