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If you have read my other post http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/299245.page on titans then you know for a brief moment we talked about how could anyone afford a Tau Manta and why would they buy it.
Well I desided to make a new post about who and why someone would buy a Tau Manta

If you don't know what a Manta is here the link to photos of it http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Images/Product/DefaultFW/large/manta.jpg

This thing cost £895.00 all up and is massive but I think its just to big and too heavy to be used in 40K.

Post your thoughts on why you would or woundn't buy a Manta and why.

No, a plastic toy is not worth that amount of money to me.

To much money and too heavy. If the price was a Tenth of what it is currently and it was durable enough to function as a carring case for he rest of the army then I'd drop nearly $200 US on it. Maybe a little more.

I'll stick with the halfway reasonable prices of the remora's.
I'd get a TigerShark if the Price was under $150 US

As far as the Twin-linked Hammerhead turrets? The Sky Ray Turret converts easily enough.

I guess I'm not one to spend money on a status symbol. If I'm dropping cash on a product the price needs to be reasonable AND I need to be able to use it.

I can't bring myself to buying a Thunderhawk which is all but useless on the tabletop.... why would I buy a Manta for my Tau?

The funny thing is, a manta costs about £10 to make.

Does it only have burst cannons on it? For 800 pounds id want a large killy cannon on it.

Gwar! wrote:The funny thing is, a manta costs about £10 to make.

A friend of mine made a nice one out of cardbord, tape, glue and such. For less than $25. No excuse to pay that much.

I've added what it comes with and what its main armament.

The Manta has two decks: the upper deck is where you will find forty-eight seated resin Fire Warriors and six Gun Drones, overseen by a seated Tau Ethereal. They exit through doors that retract into the walls and then down to the landing zone via the hidden extendable ramp. On the lower deck are eight Tau Battlesuits, two Devilfish troop carriers and two Hammerhead battle-tanks. This whole deck drops down so the vehicles and Battlesuits can disembark and deploy rapidly. Further forward, towards the nose, four Air-Caste systems operators and two pilots control the prodigious amount of firepower that the Manta can bring to bear on the enemy. Sixteen Long-Barrelled Burst Cannon, Six Long-Barrelled Ion Cannon, Two Heavy Rail Guns, Missile Pods and battery of Seeker Missiles as well as a Networked Markerlight turret. The kit includes two Devilfish, two Hammerheads, eight Battlesuits, six Gun Drones and one Black and one White Tau decal sheet.

Hmm... Can someone total up the GW Retail price of the extra bits and find out how much the Manta itself actually costs?

I'd do it but the GW Website makes my eyes hurt. :(

The best part about the Manta is that, even if you have one, it'll never actually make a physical appearance on the table.

@Gwar- $340 US + tax (rounded high) for everything purchased seperately. I didn't count the resin FW because they are unusable.

So, $1300 (and 7.7 cents) - 340$ = $960 on something that doesn't even take $50 of materials to make.

I know a lot of work went into making the model and mould, but dayumn.

Fire warrior cost £80.00 all 48 of them with 6 gun drones. Tau Ethereal cost £8.00. 8 Battle suits cost £108.00. 2 Devil fish cost £40.00.
2 Hammerheads cost £54.00. The air caste operators are FW figures and cost £14.00 estimated for 4 of them and £8.00 for pilots.

All up thats £312.00

so the Manta cost £583.00

Would anyone buy it?

Because somebody has the money and the desire to have it. The same reason that I can bring a bomber with full fighter escort to back up my IG.

Last I heard FW give a number, 35 Mantas had been sold.

i could buy one, but i'm waiting for the right moment. the reason i'd buy one is simply because i ONLY play apocalypse games, usally 10000 points and higher games though every once and awhile i'll do a 4000 point one

I've only been playing for a year so I don't have any titans or super heavies yet. However, I did just buy 6 of the IA books, costing me about 300 euros for just books about models I will probably get or build a Thunderhawk some day, and a Reaver will be next. Since I also have 2500 pts of Tau, I might very well buy a Manta some day

I think its more like "Who WOULD buy a manta"

Ive seen alot made on the internet, only ever seen 1 actually bought. I think the price is just incredibly outrageous to ask. Yes its large, and Im sure it took alot of time and doing to make it do what it does, but seriously? I mean, the stompa is a gorgeous kit, and comes with a BUNCH of stuff inside it, and they are asking what a 1/10 of the cost?

The price reflects how long it took the artists to create the master, and how many they expect to sell. Forget materials for a second. If it took a lead designer over a year to make, and he's got a $30k salary, then they're in the hole for that model until they've sold 30 of them at that price.

I doubt it took a whole year to make, and I have no idea what FW designers are paid for a salary, but if they've only sold 35, it stands to reason that it's expensive because they're trying to recoup the investment on a low turnover product, so that means high margins.

As to the other question, much like with titans, a manta would be something that someone buys simply for the love of the model.

There are different people who play these games. Some of us are pre-college, and some of us are in college. Others of us have kids, or even kids in college... And then there are those of us who are married with two incomes and no kids... I can understand why people in the earlier groups view a titan or a manta as outrageously expensive, but those in the later group, probably not so much...

There's a poll about annual incomes somewhere in the polls forum. There are some dakkaites making over $1 milliion/year. Think about that for a second - to them a manta is little more than a week's pocket money.

Why do people buy corvettes? The speed limit is 65MPH (or whatever your country's equivalent is), and you can get a car that will get you from point A to point B at 65 MPH for a tenth the price.

Although, to be fair, I think a corvette would help someone get laid easier than a manta would...

Redbeard wrote:Although, to be fair, I think a corvette would help someone get laid easier than a manta would...

You obviously are going to the wrong clubs!

Gwar! wrote:

Redbeard wrote:Although, to be fair, I think a corvette would help someone get laid easier than a manta would...

You obviously are going to the wrong clubs!

???

That's the wrong sort of club for you Only girls should be going to that club, high velocity-head first.

focusedfire wrote:To much money and too heavy. If the price was a Tenth of what it is currently and it was durable enough to function as a carring case for he rest of the army then I'd drop nearly $200 US on it. Maybe a little more.

.

GW should totally design landing craft/carry cases for each army.

"And the Atlas Class Imperial Guard landing barge can also carry 200 miniatures and 5 tanks in its foam-lined compartment"

I'd pay $200 for that.

something as highly engineered as that would be over $400USD probably $495 (Plus Tax)

focusedfire wrote:@Gwar- $340 US + tax (rounded high) for everything purchased seperately. I didn't count the resin FW because they are unusable.

No, they're quite usable, and would even have an easy time benefiting from cover saves.

the only reason would be to attract the cute chicks that are attracted to the geeky types(yes, they do exist and in starteling numbers)

O, and to enlarge the E'peen.

Oh baby, your Manta is soooo big.

I love the looks of the Manta. That said, for $1300-1500 (depending on the conversion rate being used) I can think of almost a hundred other uses for that amount of money.

For the Price-There are companies that could make a model that complex and big that could actually fly.

Imagine it, your own Manta Hovercraft and RC Flyer.

Even Flying the Manta would need to have Freakin' Laser Beams that shoot from its Freakin' Weapons before it would be worth the current price.


If GW or FW is listening, How about you make us Titan army cases at a reasonable price or make motorized Titan RC kits for the current prices.

I agree, I don't think GW understand the supply/demand curve. People in our hobbies are as much collectors as gamers, more often than not. If they made their stuff cheaper, everyone would likely have one of every army for the hell of it.

I'm sure if Titans were say 1/4 of their price (i.e. still significant profit margin given materials), they would sell 10 times as many.

You know who would buy that? People who make a hell of a lot more money than people who say "Who would buy that?"