We've examined the steins from Taverncraft's Epic Collection along with their Tankard O' Terror replica, broken them down, and have selected our favorites out of the entire mix!

Dragons have always been able to inspire awe in the imaginations of men and women. From the Middle Ages onward, we’ve been fascinated with these mighty lizards, intertwining them into our religions and cultures in a way that ensures we’ll always have some form of the beasts integrated into our lives. Thus, it comes as no surprise that dragons are also some of the most popular creatures found in today’s massively multiplayer online games. Dungeons and Dragons, EverQuest, Ultima Online and still other games have created their own dragon myths, each playing off the game before to enhance or enliven their players.

Since 2004, World of Warcraft has continued the tradition of the dragons, showcasing their own twist on these epic tales and creating their own thick-scaled beasts. The greatest of these creatures are known as the Great Dragonflights with the others below them are simply called dragonflights. They are majestic and monstrous, horrifying and honorable all at once.

With these details in mind, we turn our attention towards our World of Warcraft Stein of the Week, the Charge of the Great Dragonflights. Just like the Rise of the Lich King stein, the dragon-based stein weighs in at a hefty three pounds, has a highly detailed pewter lid and is just over 10 inches tall.

However, there’s much more to the Charge of the Great Dragonflights stein than its simple specs. Only when you heft the Dragonflights stein aloft for the first time do you truly get a sense of the fantastic vision of the Charge of the Great Dragonflights. As you read in our previous review of the Rise of the Lich King stein, there were a number of elements that we thought were less than perfect, even if the entire stein was still quite well-crafted. The Charge of the Great Dragonflights stein carries none of these flaws.

The exclusive artwork, crafted by James Zhang, carries all of the weight of each of the Dragonflights’ Aspects. Alexstrasza, Deathwing, Nozdormu, Malygos and Ysara, or at least some form of similar representations, are all accounted for on the stein, showcasing the Red, Black, Bronze, Blue and Green dragonflights. Each of the five dragons is phenomenally rendered in fine-quality stoneware, featuring clean lines, and each of the dragons has an extraordinary amount of detail wrapped into its form. While you can’t really tell from the pictures on the Taverncraft website, each of the details on the stein is raised to some degree. Wings, blasts of fire, all of it cannot only be seen, but touched and felt as well.

While the Rise of the Lich King stein also had these raised details, the Charge of the Great Dragonflights stein has lines on the stein that are cleaner and much more focused on the detailing of what’s going on in the painting. Some of this could possibly be attributed to Zhang’s artwork, which focuses more on larger characters rather than trying to pack a variety of characters onto one stein. The natural coloring of the dragons also lends itself well to the stein, giving it a dynamic look that eludes the Lich King stein.

On to other details! The base of the Dragonflight stein is decent, but it doesn’t have quite the amount of detailing that can be found in the Lich King stein. Rather than sporting a wrap-around of repeating patterns (one iconic view that repeats four times), the Dragonflight stein has a base of simple bronze scales. It certainly doesn’t detract from the piece, but it doesn’t add any additional artistry. The handle, on the other hand, is fabulously wrought and mimics one of the epic dragons immense tails. It’s quite ergonomic, and looks great to boot. The pewter lid looks great on this stein as well.

While we can’t give away any details of which stein will bring home our “top stein” trophy, we can state that the Charge of the Great Dragonflights stein is a phenomenal piece of work. Top to bottom – even with our small complaint about the base – the stein truly represents an “epic collection” piece that deserves fan attention. Even if you don’t plan to use the stein (which would be a shame), the artwork and iconography on the product make it eye candy for anyone with a fantasy flair; you don’t even have to be a WoW fan to enjoy it!

So that’s our take on the Charge of the Great Dragonflights, but we still have more steins to go! Keep checking in with the ZAM team each week, to see which World of Warcraft stein will receive our inspection and comments. In the meantime, if you can't wait to see every stein in the Taverncraft line, or you want to learn more about Charge of the Great Dragonflights or any other stein, you can find them all at WoWsteins.com or over at our sister site, Wowhead!