Just got my shippment of Salvage crew figs. For those who don't know, These are figures formerly produced by Alpha Forge. The figures have recently been reissued by MegaMinis and they Star Mogul game they were inteded for is now a free download called "Salvage Crew"( at
http://www.megaminis.com/ ) As they could be used in many games including necromunda, I figured folks here might be interested.
I got all the unarmored figs without bionic limbs on this page (3rd-11th, but not 7th).
http://freeboardgamesnow.com/sciencefictionsalvagecrew.aspx
Now for the review:
Castings: Very crisp. A few tabs, and minimal mold lines. Cleaner than you'd expect from the price.
Sculpts: Good detail. Not as sharp as current PPress or
GW, but on par with warzone, and slightly better than EM4's reissue of the grenadier Future Warriors figs. Definitely better in person than the website pictures. In addition to their weapons, most figs have a variety of equipment, salvage and gear.
Height and bulk: These are fairly middle of the road 28mm Heroic figs. The figs and their weapons are slightly bulkier than EM4 and slightly less bulky than Warzone or current
GW, though they are so close that would look good on the table with any of those. Size and bulk does vary a bit in the range, but very similar to necromunda in most respects
Separate heads: All but two of the figs I ordered came with two randomly selected separate heads. This would tend to be a good thing, and they did send me two extras, but a few things to note
-Though I didn't order any military type figs, four of the heads were military helmets (though they could be painted as something else.)
-I felt that 2 of the heads didn't quite match the quality of the figures
-There are 12 head designs,
-many of the heads have bionics of some sort. They are fairly well done, but I didn't wish to use any bionics. However, I will have to if I don't want to use any military helments or doubles.
None of these are dealbreakers, but it's good to know before ordering.
Other separate parts: The rocket launcher girl has a separate launcher, circular cutter guy has a separate cutter/hands and the rotund chainsaw dude has a separate chainsaw arm. The rocket launcher girl could be made to be aiming a rifle with a simple rotate/reposition of the left hand.
Uses: These would be great figs for any post
apoc or science fiction background. They are nicely done, but generic and not tied to any setting. I bought them to round out SciFi/PostApoc salvagers/gangers (EM4 and others) in 5150 and Wastelands, but Necromunda players will find alot to like in these figs.
Service/price. At 2.50 a piece and a 3 dollar shipping fee for orders under $25, there's no reason not to at least sample some megaminis figs. The figures arrived 5 days after ordering and as I mentioned earlier, they gave me two extra heads. The website lists all figures as 25mm, but it bears remembering that the Alphaforge and Demonblade reissues are 28's while most of the other figs on the site are classic 25's.
Conclusion: Very happy with these figs. I'm always lookig for high quality bargain miniatures and these figs delivered on both counts. The separate heads are a bit random, but it's a pretty impressive feature for such low cost figs and the ease of converting definitley outweighs the cons. If the Shockforce reissues are as good as these alpha-forge reissues then I think that megaminis is going to be a great resource for heroic 28's for some time to come.
Lastly, It would be great if Megamins offered a pack of all 16 head sculpts. I'd definitley buy a pack or two for converting other figs and to make sure that I'd have just the heads I wanted.
