Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

REIMAGINING THE CLASSICS

The re-designing of the unseen BattleMechs that was accomplished as part of Project Phoenix was the right option at that time. It ensured those BattleMechs were usable by the community in both Technical Readouts and miniatures form as we thoroughly explored the unfolding plot lines of the Jihad Era.

However, as FanPro—and then Catalyst—continued to exploring the full breadth of the BattleTech history in Historical, Era and Field Manual sourcebooks, it became more apparent that the solution that worked so well for post-3067 left the ’Mech berths empty for previous time periods, especially the Succession Wars. After years of weighing the pros and cons, we’ve made the decision to not just dip our toes in the pool, but to leap into the deep end: straight out of the DropShips into a hot LZ!

We’ve spent the last half-year re-imagining the unseen BattleMechs that will always be one of the hallmarks of BattleTech. Our goal during all of this remains to merge 21st Century sensibilities with the classic lines that make those ’Mechs so near and dear to all of us.

As part of this announcement you’ll see two covers that feature the results of this extensive work, as well as a render to start proof-of-concept miniatures production. In the coming weeks and months we’ll be rolling out more covers and sketches to show all the work that’s been merged into this amazing project.

Awesome!

Now if they could just re-design the old mechs to look more like their MW:O counterparts...

Thats a pretty cool looking mech, knowing nothing about BattleTech what size miniature are we looking at here?

 infinite_array wrote:
Now if they could just re-design the old mechs to look more like their MW:O counterparts...

I think someone different (Microsoft?) owns the rights to those.

Can't wait for this newline! I always wanted to get into battletech but really did not like the minis.

 edlowe wrote:
Thats a pretty cool looking mech, knowing nothing about BattleTech what size miniature are we looking at here?

I'm guessing that Warhammer should stand about 2 1/2 - 3" tall.

Yeah, this is really awesome news! Looking forward to buying up the miniatures of these newly re-imagined `Mechs.

What's this? Why, hello Marauder and Griffin, and welcome back to the party Ms. Kerensky!

edlowe wrote:Thats a pretty cool looking mech, knowing nothing about BattleTech what size miniature are we looking at here?

Generally not much larger than a Terminator.

beast_gts wrote:

 infinite_array wrote:
Now if they could just re-design the old mechs to look more like their MW:O counterparts...

I think someone different (Microsoft?) owns the rights to those.

From Wikipedia it looks like Piranha Games and not Microsoft (who owns the IP to the Crimson Skies game that FASA published in the late 90's).

Ah! Marauder and warhammer, the reason why I started playing battletech 25 years ago, glad you are back , wonder how they got round the copyright.

 Ghaz wrote:

beast_gts wrote:

 infinite_array wrote:
Now if they could just re-design the old mechs to look more like their MW:O counterparts...

I think someone different (Microsoft?) owns the rights to those.

From Wikipedia it looks like Piranha Games and not Microsoft (who owns the IP to the Crimson Skies game that FASA published in the late 90's).

Thanks Ghaz

That Shadowhawk and Griffin look a lot like the excellent MWO redesigns. Which is fantastic.

 wildphilldude wrote:
Ah! Marauder and warhammer, the reason why I started playing battletech 25 years ago, glad you are back , wonder how they got round the copyright.

By redesigning it, so that it still looks recognisable for what it is, while being stylistically different enough to not be a direct copy.

 insaniak wrote:

 wildphilldude wrote:
Ah! Marauder and warhammer, the reason why I started playing battletech 25 years ago, glad you are back , wonder how they got round the copyright.

By redesigning it, so that it still looks recognisable for what it is, while being stylistically different enough to not be a direct copy.

Exactly. This is similar to what was done with Technical Readout: Project Phoenix, though arguably these are "closer" to the originals than Chris Lewis' designs.

 insaniak wrote:

 wildphilldude wrote:
Ah! Marauder and warhammer, the reason why I started playing battletech 25 years ago, glad you are back , wonder how they got round the copyright.

By redesigning it, so that it still looks recognisable for what it is, while being stylistically different enough to not be a direct copy.

Yeah. If HG comes after them, then they can say that they're not using the prohibited designs.

HG can still threaten legal action and even take them to court, of course. And you can never be entirely certain how a court case will turn out. But releasing designs that have obvious and notable differences from the originals increases the chance that the current owners of Battletech will prevail if it goes to court.

Is this going to be a product available for purchase? It seems more like a fan project from the post as there is no mention of a company name, a release date, a price point, a distributor, etc.. I'm excited about this but even knowing what scale it is would be awesome. Sorry if I missed any of that info but I didn't see it when I looked.

 MLaw wrote:
Is this going to be a product available for purchase? It seems more like a fan project from the post as there is no mention of a company name, a release date, a price point, a distributor, etc.. I'm excited about this but even knowing what scale it is would be awesome. Sorry if I missed any of that info but I didn't see it when I looked.

Look at the link in my original post. It's from the official BattleTech website

Something else from Catalyst Game Labs.

This shows the re-imagined Battlemaster on the cover of their newest Battletech core rule book, Interstellar Operations






Automatically Appended Next Post:

Eumerin wrote:
HG can still threaten legal action and even take them to court, of course. And you can never be entirely certain how a court case will turn out. But releasing designs that have obvious and notable differences from the originals increases the chance that the current owners of Battletech will prevail if it goes to court.

That seems extremely unlikely. As stated above these designs got a face lift over a decade ago in TRO: Project Phoenix and no legal shenanigans ensued. The problem with HG/Playmates and FASA were a result of the exact same designs being licensed by different companies. These new `Mech designs look nothing like the Robotech and Dougram designs from the 70's and 80's, so HG shouldn't have a legal leg to stand on.

I honestly thought that was just formatting the title for emphasis. It did not look like a URL. You might want to preface it some text like "source:" or something..
Still doesn't answer too many questions but it is interesting nonetheless..

 wildphilldude wrote:
Ah! Marauder and warhammer, the reason why I started playing battletech 25 years ago, glad you are back , wonder how they got round the copyright.

Just have to make the new artwork look different enough from the Macross stuff so that a court won't rule against you.

 MLaw wrote:

Still doesn't answer too many questions but it is interesting nonetheless..

Its a "heads up" announcement about things in the pipeline. Catalyst Game Labs usually doesn't give exact release dates because they have been burned by those in past.

 MLaw wrote:
Is this going to be a product available for purchase?

Yes. Presumably from the render shown the re-designed `Mechs will receive miniatures, and from the Interstellar Operations cover it looks like the designs are already incorporated into the artwork.

 MLaw wrote:
It seems more like a fan project from the post as there is no mention of a company name, a release date, a price point, a distributor, etc..

It is not a fan project and has the full backing of Catalyst Game Labs (current license holders of Battletech) and Topps (current license owners of Battletech).

 MLaw wrote:
I'm excited about this but even knowing what scale it is would be awesome.

The scale isn't listed because Battletech's scale has remained consistent* for the full span of the game. The scale is 1:285, or as Breotan posted a few responses up, about 2 1/2" to 3" high.

*Not counting scale creep from 30 years of sculptors adding to the range or the completely separate HO scaled Clix game.

I haven't played BT for years...

I will be buying these miniatures!

If they can sort out the scale issues, even better; the Project Phoenix ones were stupidly huge.

New Warhammer (I think?) Looks lovely!

I'm trying desperately to tell myself that I already have too much to paint.

I love the refined Warhammer, though. Love it. But they better not screw up the Marauder, that was always my favorite, aesthetically.

 Chillreaper wrote:
I haven't played BT for years...

I will be buying these miniatures!

If they can sort out the scale issues, even better; the Project Phoenix ones were stupidly huge.

BattleTech is actually a board game and can be played without the minis. While having the mechs in scale with each other would be nice, its not really necessary and I'm not sure how feasible it would be with the mechs ranging anywhere from 20 to 100 tons.

The 20-tonners tend to be shorter (around 7-8m) and proportionately leaner. The 95-100 tonners are taller (up to 18m for the Banshee and Grand Titan) and proportionately bulkier.

Basically the difference between a 300-lb linebacker and a 50-lb kid who runs a lot.

I'll grant you the scale often gets distorted; the lights are usually sculpted way too large relative to the assaults... or vice versa.

Always wanted to play Battletech but hated the minis.

This changes things...

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:
That seems extremely unlikely. As stated above these designs got a face lift over a decade ago in TRO: Project Phoenix and no legal shenanigans ensued. The problem with HG/Playmates and FASA were a result of the exact same designs being licensed by different companies. These new `Mech designs look nothing like the Robotech and Dougram designs from the 70's and 80's, so HG shouldn't have a legal leg to stand on.

Yes, it's unlikely. But redrawing the Macross Tomahawk with the missile pack rotated 90 degrees probably wouldn't be enough to keep you out of legal hot water if you tried to claim it as your own. There's a somewhat murky grey line between "slightly modified copy" and "original artwork inspired by". And if HG is feeling cranky for some reason when these things are officially unveiled, it could end up in court regardless.

Eumerin wrote:

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:
That seems extremely unlikely. As stated above these designs got a face lift over a decade ago in TRO: Project Phoenix and no legal shenanigans ensued. The problem with HG/Playmates and FASA were a result of the exact same designs being licensed by different companies. These new `Mech designs look nothing like the Robotech and Dougram designs from the 70's and 80's, so HG shouldn't have a legal leg to stand on.

Yes, it's unlikely. But redrawing the Macross Tomahawk with the missile pack rotated 90 degrees probably wouldn't be enough to keep you out of legal hot water if you tried to claim it as your own. There's a somewhat murky grey line between "slightly modified copy" and "original artwork inspired by". And if HG is feeling cranky for some reason when these things are officially unveiled, it could end up in court regardless.

Are you suggesting that Catalyst's redesign only included rotating the missile launcher of the Tomahawk/Warhammer by 90 degrees? Because the Warhammer above looks to me like it has been bulked out, it has a different armor configuration with panels and other details that are vastly different than the Tomahawk's external appearance. The cockpit layout is different, the torso weapons are different, the arm cannon housings are different, the shoulders are different, as is the search light. The two designs bear a resemblance, sure, but I don't think a reasonable person would see this:


And think it is exactly the same as this:




Besides, Wizkids, FanPro, and Catalyst Game Labs have done this exact same thing with the Project Phoenix designs with no legal problems. It is a non-issue.

 Ghaz wrote:

 Chillreaper wrote:
I haven't played BT for years...

I will be buying these miniatures!

If they can sort out the scale issues, even better; the Project Phoenix ones were stupidly huge.

BattleTech is actually a board game and can be played without the minis. While having the mechs in scale with each other would be nice, its not really necessary and I'm not sure how feasible it would be with the mechs ranging anywhere from 20 to 100 tons.

I know that for BT use the miniatures are just glorified counters, but I'm a wargamer at heart. Alpha Strike would be nicer with things being a bit closer - the Reseen Warhammer IIC was massive!

For an example of my slightly obsessive mindset, I'm the guy that refused to buy Star Wars Armada because the Corvette was too big...

I honestly think the primary reason for Battletech limping along for the past decade has been its refusal to update the miniatures. Someone will of course chime in saying how much they still love BT and still play it, but that's a tiny drop in a dwindling wargaming scene.

Instead of making use of all the brilliant new mechanical artists and new ways of crafting miniatures, they wallowed in a pit of nostalgia for which there were already plenty of old mech models to fill.

These updates are a very good idea. I know many people who love battletech but won't touch it because the older designs, while nostalgic, are crap. I'm just sorry that they wasted so much money making plastic molds for that starter. I would advise caution that because the lines and panels are even cleaner with digital sculpts, remember to add extra finer details to establish scale, 3D printers today can handle the detail and it'll be important in the long run.

I also notice that you seem to be using the same or similarly trained artist for the new mech designs, good job. Even the new atlas shares the squatter head design.

Now, I wonder if it's a good time to also reboot the fiction.