So I got two boxes of the axis&allies mini's game, along with the expanded rules.

Miniatures:

Good things: 14 dollars or thereabouts gets you 9 random figures. Thats less than 2 bucks per figure, which is very cheap for tank figures and hideously expensive for infantry. There's at least one vehicle in each box.

The tanks look pretty decent. Paintjobs are decent if simplistic. They'd be easy to touch up though. Even a bit of drybrushing can work wonders.

You can get singles off ebay or similar, for pretty cheap prices for "common" models.

Bad things: The infantry figures are pretty uninspiring, and the paintjobs are rather dreadful. I cant think of many (or in fact.. any) reasons not to use metal infantry figures instead of these.

The figures are randomized, so no way of actually ensuring you are getting something you can use.

Somewhat eclectic mix of figures available, due to how the game is marketed

The rules
I was surprised, the rules are actually very nice. Very abstract, and aimed at a fairly quick game. Its very "gimmicky", with a lot of unit special abilities. If using non-randomized figures, I could see playing this a fair bit, though I couldn't imagine it taking the place of a more solid and comprehensive ww2 set.