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Mantic also had the *brilliant* idea of making a single big sprue with every bit doubled up. Instead of y'know, either making a smaller sprue and doubling up on it, or actually making use out of all the space on the sprue.

And also they put all the mould lines for the heads right in the middle of the face.

 Wha-Mu-077 wrote:
Mantic also had the *brilliant* idea of making a single big sprue with every bit doubled up. Instead of y'know, either making a smaller sprue and doubling up on it, or actually making use out of all the space on the sprue.

And also they put all the mould lines for the heads right in the middle of the face.

Which kit are you referring to?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 McDougall Designs wrote:

Exactly. There should have been at least two review and revision processes before tooling occurred.

Those words aren't in Mantic's vocabulary. Time and again it's pretty obvious they just send the first concept to production withoutr a second thought. They do with minis what GW does with rules.

Which is honestly distressing, and part of why I have had concerns with their direction since the first basilean men at arms fiasco years ago.

 lord marcus wrote:

 Wha-Mu-077 wrote:
Mantic also had the *brilliant* idea of making a single big sprue with every bit doubled up. Instead of y'know, either making a smaller sprue and doubling up on it, or actually making use out of all the space on the sprue.

And also they put all the mould lines for the heads right in the middle of the face.

Which kit are you referring to?

Deadzone Marauder Commandos, the quintessential Mantic plastic kit. For some reason, instead of making a single sprue with limited variety of bits and including several in the box, like your Wargames Atlantic and Parabellum and all of your historicals ever, they decided to make a single big sprue with all your bodies in the vein of Geedubs... but then just include two copies of almost every single bit on it, rendering the entire point of casting one big sprue entirely moot. That kit is also notorious for really crappy detail on the sides of the torso, and the fact all the heads are cast on the sprue sideways, meaning there's a big ol' mould line going down right the middle of every single head in the kit.

They've done this with all their last 5 or so sprues.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
They've done this with all their last 5 or so sprues.

And it's equally annoying every single time.

Ronnie just posted a three minute video with several of the new models. Zero close ups if the product


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Wha-Mu-077 wrote:
…And also they put all the mould lines for the heads right in the middle of the face.

They did that with original deadzone and even worse with original dreadball

I actually quite like these undead fellas. I've got a bajillion Tomb Kings models - been collecting since they launched, and the only WFB army I have remaining - and I kinda want some of these. Could totally work for an army raised from a different city, like Numas or something.

Neither great, nor terrible.

The best and worst I can say about these skeletons is that they look pretty much how one would expect Mantic figures to look.

 Eilif wrote:
Neither great, nor terrible.

That's basically the Mantic Mantra.

 warboss wrote:

 Eilif wrote:
Neither great, nor terrible.

That's basically the Mantic Mantra.

Serviceable as back rankers, for all the historicals gamers who get that.

McDougall Designs wrote:

 warboss wrote:

 Eilif wrote:
Neither great, nor terrible.

That's basically the Mantic Mantra.

Serviceable as back rankers, for all the historicals gamers who get that.

Agreed on both counts. Mantic quality and price is such that they'd have gotten more of my dollar if there wasn't a robust used market. Unfortunately even as the used deals on some categories get harder to find, it looks like other companies are challenging Mantic hard on price and quality.

I've begun speaking with Mantic about getting a trade account set up.

Mcdougall Designs will initially be carrying a limited range of mantic products at somewhere between a 15-20% discount off RRP, although I can happily discuss special orders for anything that doesn't make it to my webstore.

Initial thoughts were kings of war, some warpath/firefight, and armada. What would you all like to see available?

@McDougall - Would you be selling individual sprues of Mantic kits, as you do with Wargames Atlantic's stuff? That would be of interest for kitbashing.

I'd also be happy to buy a single veer-myn tunnel runner without having to order it with international shipping, not that I expect you to carry one just for my sake.

This is probably a better discussion for a McDougall Designs thread rather than here.

 insaniak wrote:
This is probably a better discussion for a McDougall Designs thread rather than here.

I'd take it over to my thread, but I can't move that post, and because I made an update post earlier anything I post now will append to it.

 Vermonter wrote:
@McDougall - Would you be selling individual sprues of Mantic kits, as you do with Wargames Atlantic's stuff? That would be of interest for kitbashing.

I'd also be happy to buy a single veer-myn tunnel runner without having to order it with international shipping, not that I expect you to carry one just for my sake.

To answer your first question, sprues are up

See the collection here:

https://mcdougalldesigns3d.com/collections/mantic-games-sprues

Those skeletons, both infantry and cavalry are God-awful.

Seriously do Mantic think it is still the 1990's? The Ushabti and characters seem passable however. May pick up those for my Tomb Kings if they are a decent price.

 stonehorse wrote:
Those skeletons, both infantry and cavalry are God-awful.

Seriously do Mantic think it is still the 1990's? The Ushabti and characters seem passable however. May pick up those for my Tomb Kings if they are a decent price.

What would you change to make the skeletons better?

I'd just magically transform them into the old Games Workshop Tomb Kings skeleton box, really.

Sure they had some cartoon proportions, but damn, the skeletons in that kit (because they were essentially the same as the Gothic Skeletons) held up for a looooong time as just some good plastic skeletons, and the Tomb Kings equipment was pretty great. I would assume that Mantic could improve on a 20+ year old models, but they didn't.

It's pretty bad when a release is being compared to models from last century.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
It's pretty bad when a release is being compared to models from last century.

It's even worse when that comparasion is unfavorable to the current-century models

Don’t worry. Their August price increase will make those who purchase now be glad they didn’t pay more later on.

Maybe?

 McDougall Designs wrote:

 stonehorse wrote:
Those skeletons, both infantry and cavalry are God-awful.

Seriously do Mantic think it is still the 1990's? The Ushabti and characters seem passable however. May pick up those for my Tomb Kings if they are a decent price.

What would you change to make the skeletons better?

Where to start?

● Too much fabric on them, reduce it by about 75%.
● Weapons look oversized, unwieldy, and wobbly, the spears and Bows need to be thinner by a good bit.
● Bare skulls look malformed.
● Too much armour on them, reduce it by 50%
● Horses have far too much bling on them, should be an option to add fabric and armour to a skeleton horse.
● Details look soft, in this day and age, that is unforgivable.
● The price hasn't been released yet, but I am willing to bet they add up being expensive for what they are, around €30 for 20 infantry. Which is laughable when we look at what Northstar, and Warlord games offer.
● Paint job is also doing them no favours, why do Mantic insist on blue for their Undead? Personally I think the fabric should be a lighter colour to help contrast with the bone and metal. A grey or off white.

 privateer4hire wrote:
Don’t worry. Their August price increase will make those who purchase now be glad they didn’t pay more later on.

Maybe?

Another price increase? Haven't seen any talk of that, but I haven't been keeping track with Mantic for a while.

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 McDougall Designs wrote:

Exactly. There should have been at least two review and revision processes before tooling occurred.

Those words aren't in Mantic's vocabulary. Time and again it's pretty obvious they just send the first concept to production withoutr a second thought. They do with minis what GW does with rules.

This is possibly the most savage insult I have ever read.

 privateer4hire wrote:
Don’t worry. Their August price increase will make those who purchase now be glad they didn’t pay more later on.

Maybe?

Mantic fans don't care about that. They'll buy anything with eyes closed because "they're better than GW".

To me, it's clear the price increase on Mantic products make it not worth the hassle anymore. I did finish my halfling army, and after building 200 of them...I can tell I was not impressed with the way their sprues were built. Not very detailed as well, and I paid a premium price for having the "honor" of being forced to take 10 infantry et 5 cavalry every time.

Don't worry, as long as Mantic Games keeps its fanbase motivated, they'll do fine. Facts don't matter anymore in this world.

privateer4hire wrote:Don’t worry. Their August price increase will make those who purchase now be glad they didn’t pay more later on.

Maybe?

I have not heard anything about an increase and I'm retailer with a direct trade account.

Sarouan wrote:

 privateer4hire wrote:
Don’t worry. Their August price increase will make those who purchase now be glad they didn’t pay more later on.

Maybe?

Mantic fans don't care about that. They'll buy anything with eyes closed because "they're better than GW".

To me, it's clear the price increase on Mantic products make it not worth the hassle anymore. I did finish my halfling army, and after building 200 of them...I can tell I was not impressed with the way their sprues were built. Not very detailed as well, and I paid a premium price for having the "honor" of being forced to take 10 infantry et 5 cavalry every time.

Don't worry, as long as Mantic Games keeps its fanbase motivated, they'll do fine. Facts don't matter anymore in this world.

I don't know what "a premium is", but for curiositys sake: is it over $20 USD?

Sarouan wrote:

 privateer4hire wrote:
Don’t worry. Their August price increase will make those who purchase now be glad they didn’t pay more later on.

Maybe?

Mantic fans don't care about that. They'll buy anything with eyes closed because "they're better than GW".

To me, it's clear the price increase on Mantic products make it not worth the hassle anymore. I did finish my halfling army, and after building 200 of them...I can tell I was not impressed with the way their sprues were built. Not very detailed as well, and I paid a premium price for having the "honor" of being forced to take 10 infantry et 5 cavalry every time.

Don't worry, as long as Mantic Games keeps its fanbase motivated, they'll do fine. Facts don't matter anymore in this world.

I do not know a single Mantic fan capable of saying something like that. In fact I do not know Mantic fans, I know people who like (some on) their games and usually play them with other firms' miniatures, usually GW.
In the other and I do know a plethora of GW enthusiastic who are not capable of play or simply consider anything else that is not GW. And you know, 90% of GW's ruleset are rubbish.

 stonehorse wrote:
Another price increase? Haven't seen any talk of that, but I haven't been keeping track with Mantic for a while.

they increased minimum spend for shipping and removed the free-shipping option for Europe (now a flat 20€ for any order)
the actual price increase is unkown but 5€ for the Army and Mega Army is already in place with EoD so something around that
(though not all 3rd party shops carry this over, like we still have some who sell the stock with the old prices before the last release)

and there will be a summer sale before that, but with 20€ shipping there has to be a big discount to make it worth

 kodos wrote:

 stonehorse wrote:
Another price increase? Haven't seen any talk of that, but I haven't been keeping track with Mantic for a while.

they increased minimum spend for shipping and removed the free-shipping option for Europe (now a flat 20€ for any order)
the actual price increase is unkown but 5€ for the Army and Mega Army is already in place with EoD so something around that
(though not all 3rd party shops carry this over, like we still have some who sell the stock with the old prices before the last release)

and there will be a summer sale before that, but with 20€ shipping there has to be a big discount to make it worth

If the €20 charge to Europe means no more being stung with a customs charge, then that is an improvement. Last order I placed with Mantic had a near 40% customs charge, which I understand is not Mantic's fault. However it did put me off from ordering from them.

I suspect that the price increase will be on their metal models.

I have to say, I never paid custom charges, but very high "fees" to the shipping company for checking that everything is ok (so I had the 40% too, but from those it was just 3€ customs and the rest was fees from DPD for "checking", with a different ccompany I paid nothing extra)

so I hope this is gone with this change