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!

The Alliance. Bastions of hope for some, hated enemies to others. They claim to be the representatives of all that is good in Azeroth, but the members of the Horde would adamantly disagree. To be honest, this writer is a proud member of the Horde, running regularly with a Undead Mage and a Troll Death Knight. So when I laid my hands upon Taverncraft’s Alliance United Epic Collection stein… I had a big hurdle to jump over. This stein represented all that I had grown to despise over the years: the “cute” Gnomes, the surly Dwarves, the arrogant Humans, the alien Dranei, and the pacifistic Night Elves.

Of course, I wasn’t going to let my prejudice of the entire faction disrupt the review process on this product. In fact, my initial reservations regarding the stein made me look at the piece more closely and without the filter of Alliance fanaticism to taint the image. 

To start, Alliance United has the same basic look and structure as all the Epic Collection steins. It can hold around 28 oz. of liquid and has equivalent dimensions to the Rise of the Lich King and Charge of the Great Dragonflights steins. The overall theme of the stein is obviously the Alliance races, but the set-up is done quite well, with the five races going from tallest to shortest to tallest. Unfortunately that means the Gnome is front and center on the piece, so if you’re not a fan of the little folk, you’ve been duly warned.

Although the Night Elf, Dranei, and Human all look very regal, both the Gnome and the Dwarf have an over-the-top, combative stance and expressions that differ greatly from the more aloof facial emotes of their Alliance kin. Some of this may be derived from the fact that two artists worked on the piece, Samwise and Glenn Rane, both of whom have their own distinct style. The piece should have focused on one style of pose or the other, and not tried to engage the audience by coupling multiple poses.

That said, the art on all of the characters is clean, crisp, and extremely detailed, which isn’t surprising considering the two artists that created the art. Both the top lip and the foundation of the stein are exceptionally designed and really accentuate the Alliance theme with the three by three lion’s head emblems. The handle also brings the theme to mind with its hammer shape and Alliance brand stamped onto the side of the head. 

With all of that in mind, this review believes that the Alliance stein is a better piece of work than the Lich King stein, but it’s just not quite as engaging as the Dragonflight product. The difference is in the color palette: the Dragonflight stein can just utilize so many different colors and still retain a sense of style. The Alliance stein, on the other hand, offers up a lot of blue, brown, and gold, but the glaringly bright red hair of the Gnome is out of place.

The good folks at Taverncraft also just recently announced a special Legendary Collection version of this stein (along with a similar Horde version), which is signed by artist Glenn Rane and limited to only 999 worldwide. It features gold accents throughout the artwork and an 18k gold-plated pewter lid.

With one more product left to review, it’s easy to forget that we’ve already covered nearly four weeks worth of steins. So if you haven’t checked them out already, make sure you take a look at the Rise of the Lich King, Tankard O’ Terror, and Charge of the Great Dragonflights steins! You can find them all at WoWsteins.com or over at our sister site, Wowhead. We look forward to seeing our last Epic Collection piece, the Horde-focused stein, so until then keep reading our World of Warcraft coverage!