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The note says it's made of blutac. lol. Looks like somebody couldn't wait to see the new kit.

Cool, he looks a bit larger which he's supposed to. Man... the gun is actually looking less massively oversized compared to the flamer and chain saw thing.

Glad I ordered like six of those for some reason

That Strider is supercool. Pending affordability (And this is Mantic, so I have high hopes), I've just found my Armoured Sentinels.

Meh. It's still suffering from Mantic Leg Syndrome.

 AlexHolker wrote:
Meh. It's still suffering from Mantic Leg Syndrome.

To be fair it's not a production model so the knock-knee look is probably due to the slapped-together blutac adhesion which would also contribute to the arms being all droopy. The legs look a bit puny due to the angle of the camera shot. I'm hardly a Mantic supporter at this point but I'll withhold my criticisms until we see a proper pic of a production model.

Yeah, I imagine the blobs of blutak also make the arms look longer than they are.

Still, it's better something than nothing.

Just noticed his right shoulder pad is also on the wrong way around, makes it flare out more than it should.

As for Mantic legs, I'm in the middle of painting the DB Big Mech it's based on and that sure doesn't have them

Strider is looking good!

First restic kit from Mantic that actually comes with a good selection of options and build variety.

Also, quick heads up, Total Wargamer is stocking the Urban Quadrant set for £75 (yes, it will be available from your discount webstore of choice, which probably means you can get it cheaper than KS prices* and have it arrive sooner too, and with loads more connectors. ):

http://totalwargamer.co.uk/battlezones-sci-fi-urban-quadrant.html

And for the Germans, Battlefield Berlin has it at 109 euros (reduced from 129) + free shipping:

http://www.shop.battlefield-berlin.de/index.php/katalog/showarticles/81020-1-mantic_games.html

There's no such thing as owning too many battlezone sprues.

I may pick up a set, getting tired of having to wait for July for the rest of my DZ!

*5 battlezones in the KS + 4 accessory sprues = $145 = £86.59. .. there's not a lot in it, but factor in +3 connector sprues and the free pair of ruins sprues and the smart money waited for the discount webstore retail rather than spending on the KS.

Of course, the good news is, anyone can now buy the terrain even cheaper than KS prices with a little shopping around.. it really is an absolute ton of stuff in that quadrant box, enough for a super-dense 2x2 or a reasonably respectable urban 4x4 board. In fact, two sets could probably sort out a full 6x4 urban board with ease.

I'm getting increasing tempted to go ahead with my nutty idea to make a 28mm starship out of battlezones, with the top lifting off to reveal a 2x2 deadzone board inside...

 scarletsquig wrote:
Strider is looking good!

First restic kit from Mantic that actually comes with a good selection of options and build variety.

Also, quick heads up, Total Wargamer is stocking the Urban Quadrant set for £75 (yes, it will be available from your discount webstore of choice, which probably means you can get it cheaper than KS prices* and have it arrive sooner too, and with loads more connectors. ):

I've never ordered from them so don't have a dog in that fight but a recommendation of Total Wargamer in a post should probably also include a reference to this thread about issues with ordering from them...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/472563.page

Caveat Emptor.

^ Mantic stuff, they're fine with (personal experience, arrives within 5 days every time).

GW stuff, expect to wait 17 months.

That's the general opinion expressed in that thread, summed up.

Strider looks great, well worth the $10 each. Maybe should have gone for 6 rather than 2. *shakes fist*

I guess that's the "price" we (and Mantic) pay and the risk we take (see: KoW Trolls) when they refuse to show what stuff actually looks like in their final surveys.

Also the scenery cheaper than KS is also one of the prices we pay and risks we take when backing them. If retailers are selling the stuff cheaper than KS prices, we know Mantic is making a decent sized profit margin on the KS prices - or just paying for the moulds a lot faster. Depending on your point of view.

Cheaper after the kick-starter is just another reason for me to no longer bother backing more Mantic Kick-starters.

 Azazelx wrote:
I guess that's the "price" we (and Mantic) pay and the risk we take (see: KoW Trolls) when they refuse to show what stuff actually looks like in their final surveys.

More them than us I guess hehe.

Also the scenery cheaper than KS is also one of the prices we pay and risks we take when backing them.

i thought it was shown to not be cheaper at discounted retail? At least for the higher value large bundles.

First (albeit from afar) image of the Plague special character? Like most DZ stuff it seems very faithful to the concept art. Taken from Mantic's friendbook account that shows an awesome use of the battlezone sprues..

Holy....moley.

Wow.

That... humbles me.

I'm surprised that isn't buckling under it's own weight. That is a very impressive, albeit likely impractical, usage of the tiles for sure. I had forgotten about the double-barricade-into-large-window-slit trick, need to do a few of those before I eat up all of my tiles.

I think that is the firs time I've seen a painted (or plastic for that matter...) Kish.

The dice and cards, are they actually playing on that? Now that would be fun

Looks like they are playing on it, the resin crates are on the board too. Possibly some sort of custom reach the shuttle scenario.

Not sure I'd like to be playnig Rebs on that board, especially against plague!

The use of the railings on the landing pad looks pretty good, I was never convinced by use of defence line pieces on that.

They also have some better pics of the Urban Quadrant, there really is a ton of stuff in that box:




7 storeys high at the highest point.

But just think about a Kraaw leaping off the top of that though!

They've got it mounted up on some non-Battlezones stuff, foamcore maybe, adds a tile-free level of height, and looks neat.

I like the double-wide walkways made out of two walkway tiles, I find that the landing pad tiles look good in that situation too.

It looks very nice, though I'm not sure I could get myself to use so many tiles for the floor and along the outside edge of the table


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The railings on the landing pad do look nice... I may just have to deconstruct my entire landing pad. maybe I can make a defense line trench system

I could build that thing...eventually...if I had the space...

The Strider looks pretty good, so I'm glad I ended up adding a pair on the survey despite my Azazelx-like apprehension.

Now all that's left for me to worry over is how the Enforcer plastics actually came out...let the waiting begin!

The strider looks a teensy bit better for the money than the THI suits from Sedition Wars that were the same price, lol.

Bitter? Me? Naw........

 Azazelx wrote:

Also the scenery cheaper than KS is also one of the prices we pay and risks we take when backing them. If retailers are selling the stuff cheaper than KS prices, we know Mantic is making a decent sized profit margin on the KS prices - or just paying for the moulds a lot faster. Depending on your point of view.

I think its easy to lose sight of the purpose of Kickstarter. You're donating to groups sums of money to pursue a project; while many projects offers incentives and gifts to entice people, no matter the individuals perspective, the exchange of money is for the effort and the appreciation on the recipients part isn't obligatory. Enough projects end in failure with no one getting anything. By Kickstarter's mission statement they aren't something like Etsy, they aren't a provided storefront for consumer commissioned products. Kickstarter is a forum for seeking donations to pursue endeavors, everything beyond that is a secondary after thought to the goal.

Regardless of their profitability people got what they were promised for their money. They agreed to what they got and without those willing individuals no one would be enjoying this terrain set. So to them, Thank you.

 aka_mythos wrote:

 Azazelx wrote:

Also the scenery cheaper than KS is also one of the prices we pay and risks we take when backing them. If retailers are selling the stuff cheaper than KS prices, we know Mantic is making a decent sized profit margin on the KS prices - or just paying for the moulds a lot faster. Depending on your point of view.

I think its easy to lose sight of the purpose of Kickstarter. You're donating to groups sums of money to pursue a project; while many projects offers incentives and gifts to entice people, no matter the individuals perspective, the exchange of money is for the effort and the appreciation on the recipients part isn't obligatory. Enough projects end in failure with no one getting anything. By Kickstarter's mission statement they aren't something like Etsy, they aren't a provided storefront for consumer commissioned products. Kickstarter is a forum for seeking donations to pursue endeavors, everything beyond that is a secondary after thought to the goal.

Regardless of their profitability people got what they were promised for their money. They agreed to what they got and without those willing individuals no one would be enjoying this terrain set. So to them, Thank you.

I think we can all objectively agree that these normal Kickstarter guidelines don't now apply to Mantic, a company which abuses the whole "not a pre-order" requirement for those posting projects up for "investment". I think that the closest that it comes is that the release schedule would be longer; they would be unable to release as much, as quickly as Kickstarter money allows them to do. But on the other hand, without the "moar money, now!!" approach that Mantic, up until their recent announcement to back off of KSs for a bit, has taken the quality of the end result might arguably be better (i.e. no rush to meet deadlines means longer lead times for product quality controls).

I do find it odd that a couple of pages ago, ScarletSquig and others were all about the massive values gained from backing the KS and now we see him posting about how at least part of it's cheaper at retail. Not that I'm butthurt about all the angst I received from some posters, I can now with a clear conscience firmly place this orkmoticon in this thread.....

So for whoever did the definitive math to prove that the Urban Quadrant (that's the one we're talking about, right?) is weighing in at less than KS prices.. how much less? Is it coming out to $20 per battlezone, $15? I haven't taken the opportunity to sit down and look into all of it yet. If it's 5.5-6bzs for under $150, then that's pretty cool for people just now finding out what this stuff is. I've already got my stuff and don't feel cheated, if 3rd party retailers are getting this stuff to people for less than I paid, good for them, hell I may even pick one up some time.

I know there's a list of parts but I haven't checked it, does it come out positively in terms of accessory sprues too?

I think I really will have to make one of those flat wall sections, they're bound to be useful as a photo backdrop if nothing else.

 agnosto wrote:

I do find it odd that a couple of pages ago, ScarletSquig and others were all about the massive values gained from backing the KS and now we see him posting about how at least part of it's cheaper at retail. Not that I'm butthurt about all the angst I received from some posters, I can now with a clear conscience firmly place this orkmoticon in this thread.....

You have to pick and choose what you get from Kickstarters.. if you feel like a retail mega army box or similar might come out, then KS might not be the best place to buy it.

Whereas stuff that clearly won't appear in bundles (dreadball teams etc.) or stuff that is massively discounted or BOGOF/ already bundled is usually a good one to get at KS prices.

There isn't much difference between discount retail and KS, only a matter of £5-£10 or so on Urban Quadrant once shipping is factored in. In the US there might not be any difference at all.

For most KS backers, having to wait for stuff like the ruins sprue while retail buyers can get some of them 3 months beforehand (final shipment won't be until July) and with more connector sprues that won't be in their KS battlezones is likely to be a bigger issue.

 aka_mythos wrote:

I think its easy to lose sight of the purpose of Kickstarter. You're donating to groups sums of money to pursue a project; while many projects offers incentives and gifts to entice people, no matter the individuals perspective, the exchange of money is for the effort and the appreciation on the recipients part isn't obligatory. Enough projects end in failure with no one getting anything. By Kickstarter's mission statement they aren't something like Etsy, they aren't a provided storefront for consumer commissioned products. Kickstarter is a forum for seeking donations to pursue endeavors, everything beyond that is a secondary after thought to the goal.

Regardless of their profitability people got what they were promised for their money. They agreed to what they got and without those willing individuals no one would be enjoying this terrain set. So to them, Thank you.

As Agnosto said. Let's not go down this "purpose of kickstarter" road again. You may have missed the last 3,432 discussions on it. With companies like Mantic, CMoN and many others in our hobby subgenre, (though not all) KS is both a way for them to fund the manufacturing of items, and a pre-order system. While I'm not overly upset or anything, it really would be nice if Mantic's KS prices remained cheaper than the discount retail that we all love so much.

Hard to assign an actual value, but this still isn't a better deal than KS...

Granted, it is hard to specifically nail down a 1-for-1 ratio since it isn't straight "Kickstarter Battlezones" being used in here but rather a mis-match of different Battlezones. However, you can't really use the 4 accessory sprues as extra on top of the 5 battlezones is appears to be, as those sprues would have come with Kickstarter Urban Battlezones in the first place. You do get 3 extra connector sprues (~$6 at best KS price).

The best value in the Deadzone KS* was 8 BZs for $185 (~23.13 per BZ) and that came with 4 extra accessory sprues on top (~$2.50 value if that is what you want to say). Here, we are paying $24 per BZ and getting an extra $1.20 value in extra connector sprues.

So no, this still isn't cheaper than the Kickstarter (and it also is most likely a price mistake, as they list RRP for £99 when Mantic's own website lists it as £109). Still, it is very close and a great deal for anyone that wants it.

But I can guarantee that at some point TWG or MM will have this stuff cheaper than the Kickstarter prices, the price is close enough that the eventual 40-50% off discounts that come to these places will result in some super cheap terrain (that probably won't last long...)


* = While this was the best value in the Deadzone KS, technically the terrain was an even better deal in the Mars Attack kickstarter if you used your credit to get it there. God bless the person that can pull out exactly how cheap it was there and put it into quantifiable numbers, but it was the best deal yet in the MA KS.

I am not mad at the fact people can now buy stuff cheaper than I got it on kick starter but it further devalues backing a mantic kick starter for me.

 carlos13th wrote:
I am not mad at the fact people can now buy stuff cheaper than I got it on kick starter but it further devalues backing a mantic kick starter for me.

And that is exactly how I feel.

 carlos13th wrote:
I am not mad at the fact people can now buy stuff cheaper than I got it on kick starter but it further devalues backing a mantic kick starter for me.

Agreed. I think there will always be value, but finding where the best value is will be a bit of a crapshoot outside the BOGOF-type deals and the "sweet spot" pledges. I know that after DB1, I certainly won't buy single character figures from them again via KS - especially given the ...variable quality of their final sculpts and now the fact that they can be cheaper/the same price at retail. (or potentially made of any material that they have to hand!)