The A-mazeing Minotaur

The Minotaur playing character from the City expansion (row 3, column 2) is played by this bipedal bovine by Jason Wiebe from Reaper.

He is plastic and exemplifies the problems I've had with the white, soft plastic pieces.

1. They are a little oily on the surface. They may not feel like it, but the oily residue can seep into the paint, leaving it glossy and uneven. Wash them before painting.
2. Don't use white primer on white plastic, silly! It will end up VERY uneven.
3. Even washed and primed evenly, the paint still doesn't seem to stick like on metal on resin. I now apply two coats of primer (for example black and then grey so I can see that they are both applied evenly). This seems to solve the problem.
4. Details are a bit sharper in metal.
5. They are sometimes bent, and I can't get them straight. I have tried heating them and letting them cool while held straight, but I think I haven't got the temperature right.

But plastic pieces do have their advantages also:

1. They are cheap, Reaper does a lot of casts both in plastic and metal. And at the time I'm writing this, at their online store, this minotaur in metal costs $16.99, while the plastic version costs $3.49.
2. The plastic is light, when they fall, they don't break or leave dents in the floor. Bits don't break off because of the elasticity.
3. Once you do get the paint on them, it stays. Because the material is soft, paint doesn't accidentally scrape off as easily as with metal.
4. The softness means cutting it is very easy for modifications or just removing flash, of which there is usually (but not always) very little.

All in all, very good for gaming. For just collecting and painting, I prefer metal but I do have a budget to consider.