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I imagine the Rebs are basically the Convicts - There already is a Grogan in there, after all.

You could be right about that, definitely heard something about a Rebs team, but that was ages ago and the concept might have changed to Convicts.

Hi folks

I know many people are still interested in the progress (or lack of) on missing Deadzone items. It absolutely is news - it's news about the awful customer service Mantic gives its customers. This is relevant to all their potential new customers.

It's now been 10 weeks since I submitted my order query form, mainly for a missing Enforcer and Plague starter from my Strike team. Been in touch with Chris Palmer at Mantic a few times. Was told by him on 30.01.14 that he's 'investigate your (my) response'. Haven't heard back since. I contacted Chris and James again yesterday, asked for an update by the end of the day, completely ignored.

Just absolutely shocking service. How the hell do they think I can spend more money with them on the 2nd survey, or back their latest Kickstarter, when 10 weeks after cocking up my 1st shipment, they're in no hurry to resolve it?!

I know many people are happy with their shipment and the majority probably were shipped correctly, but new customers or backers need to know that if there is an issue, Mantic won't be rushing to resolve it

And you've really got to think at some point (soon?) Mantic will get stung with the "ANOTHER FREAKIN' KICKSTARTER?!?" backlash.

That is, unless they get a handle on their quality and customer service issues.

 scarletsquig wrote:
Feel free to add anything I've missed though, I feel like I should be remembering what the fourth team is besides convicts, asterians, forgefathers.. rebs, most likely?

Ninja'd by Compel.

 Alpharius wrote:
And you've really got to think at some point (soon?) Mantic will get stung with the "ANOTHER FREAKIN' KICKSTARTER?!?" backlash.

That is, unless they get a handle on their quality and customer service issues.

And while it sucks that people are having these issues, as somebody who has had minimal problems that were solved immediately, I'll keep throwing them money as they've done right by me almost every step of the way. I DO think they're foolish having another KS right away, as most businesses would want their customers' wallets to take some time to refill. If I go in big for the Deadzone KS second survey, I may not be able to throw much/anything at the DBX KS.

So yeah, to any Mantic staff looking in: I love your products. I've bought from everything so far. But please slow down, so you can take more of my money! And I guess take care of these guys having issues too. But mostly slow down so I can afford to keep giving you guys cash directly!

For me the main issue is how long it takes to take the mould lines off restic... I have minis that took longer to clean than they did to paint.

It's not that I don't want the new stuff, more that the existing backlog is getting a bit too big for me, largely as a result of it being so time-consuming.

And I'm saying that as someone who has been housebound for the last 9 weeks with not much better to do than clean up mould lines/ paint (love the latter, hate the former).. after all that time my backlog still isn't clear! Deadzone is 100%, several hundred Basileans are in the queue. :p

So, as far as purchasing goes, I'm gonna have to dial back a bit I think, hard plastic = yes, restic.. just has a time cost associated with it that I'm rapidly discovering has no place in my life.

I'd actually prefer (one-piece) metal, cleanup on a nice one-piece metal is a breeze, and Mantic casts them very well in-house.

KoW 2.0 I will go big on, for a Nature army. Not in restic, though (which it won't be, lovely masses of hard plastic infantry is already in sculpting for that KS, only the large models and cavalry are being done in restic).

 scarletsquig wrote:
You could be right about that, definitely heard something about a Rebs team, but that was ages ago and the concept might have changed to Convicts.

A Rebs team would be interesting fluff-wise - playing unsanctioned Dreadball to earn money to finance their operations - but the team would either take members from the existing Human, Judwan, Zee and Teraton teams, ignore them completely in favour of Grogans, Yndij and Kraww, or go for new sculpts of existing species. The orange jumpsuit team probably adds more without covering old ground.

 scarletsquig wrote:
So, as far as purchasing goes, I'm gonna have to dial back a bit I think, hard plastic = yes, restic.. just has a time cost associated with it that I'm rapidly discovering has no place in my life.

I agree completely. I don't have any ill feelings towards Mantic about restic, as I knew what I was getting into with Deadzone and Mars Attacks and decided in advance that I would take the time required to clean up the PVC. But at this point I can't justify buying even more models that will take forever to prep and paint, never mind buying tons of them. Dreadball EX is pretty much dead in the water for me at the moment due to this; they'd have to put out something amazing (and non-restic) for Deadzone to bring me on board for a reasonable amount. (Such as, say, some nice new hard plastic terrain kit at a great price.) I don't have much interest in fantasy figures these days, but now that you say they're planning to do troops in hard plastic, I'll at least have a look at KOW 2.0. Sometimes I'm still a bit of a sucker for fun evil fantasy factions.

I'll probably be haunting the $1 fringes of Mantic kickstarters until the hard plastic Warpath KS gets going. Chances are good that my Deadzone / Mars Attacks restic figures will keep me plenty busy until then.

I much prefer metal to restic too. Its very un-likley I will be buying much more restic from mantic. Don't mind so much for the bigger models but the small ones are a nightmare to clean.

Mantic really need to ensure they are not in a postion where they have not fixed the problems from 3 kickstarters ago yet are starting another kickstarter. It does not sit well with customers.

Its a shame they didn't offer single models as was rumoured. Would love to pick up a second gen 1 plauge and a second teraton but I wont buy a whole new starter for it.

 Vermonter wrote:
Mars Attacks restic

Mars Attacks! isn't restic though, it's that other softer board game figures plastic

Still would like to see what the Forgefathers actually look like, other than concept art. I don't mind them all being Restic, but I really need to see more than black outlines before I spent my 50-75 bucks.

I know this is probably a given by now, but i confirmed by KS message that you cannot add additional pledge levels to the second survey (i.e. extra Recon).

NTRabbit wrote:

 Vermonter wrote:
Mars Attacks restic

Mars Attacks! isn't restic though, it's that other softer board game figures plastic

That's true, but I think the mold line issues / cleaning of Mars Attacks will be very similar to dealing with restic. That is, if the figures really are anything like the Gears of War figures, which I have worked with.

I'm playing my first game of Deadzone this week but we are using GW miniatures. Its like bizarro world!

 scarletsquig wrote:
@agnosto: There's some natural crossover between the two, since Kickstarter news is general Mantic news too.

So.. for clarity's sake - Zombies will be in hard plastic, Asterians and Forge Fathers will be in Restic - and what about the Enforcers and Enforcers' Not-Terminators?

Hard plastic.

^ but playing devils advocate here, we haven't seen sprues or heard much at all about those yet right?

Speaking of... was the HP enforcer sprue on the survey? Don't remember.

 GrimDork wrote:
^ but playing devils advocate here, we haven't seen sprues or heard much at all about those yet right?

Speaking of... was the HP enforcer sprue on the survey? Don't remember.

Good question - I don't remember that one either.

Though it must be, and it is also the reason for the long period of time that the survey is open - we'll have a chance to see the Enforcers in HP before we have to lock it up.

There's no option for extra Enforcer sprues, just Peacekeepers. I guess if you want Enforcers you're expected to buy more starters.

Oh well. I ordered 2 starters survey 1 so I guess that will do. Probably figured if they let the sprues go separately they might overwork their manufacturer. Or something. Its not like they ever said they'd put them up for individual sale did they?

 GrimDork wrote:
Oh well. I ordered 2 starters survey 1 so I guess that will do. Probably figured if they let the sprues go separately they might overwork their manufacturer. Or something. Its not like they ever said they'd put them up for individual sale did they?

No. When casting HIPS the machine does all the work. All you need to do is occasionally move the big pile of finished sprues, to make room for more sprues. HIPS is very simple: more production is better production, and more sales is better sales.

Not having hard plastic Enforcer sprues available to buy separately on the survey - which they know would be a huge money-maker, like the zombies - makes absolutely no practical business sense. Even as a pressure tactic to get people buying more Enforcer starters it would be bone-headed, as many more people would buy multiple sprues independently than grudgingly buy them via extra starters they don't want. To me it's a sign that Mantic is still worried that their hard plastic Enforcers won't turn out well after all, and they're trying not to overreach by inviting additional sales. That may be unfair, but in the absence of other information, I'm not seeing what else can be inferred here.

Sounds like a fair enough assessment.

James previously said that, assuming the hard plastic Enforcers are ace, they'll automatically upgrade normal Enforcers in the sets to hard plastic and then offer them up as add ons (as you can continue to edit your survey response until the day it ends). It makes more sense to do it that way than to put them on the survey and have something bad happen and have to deal with several thousand people who were expecting hard plastic. My survey is in limbo right now as I ordered lots of restic Enforcers including individual poses in restic, so I'm waiting for the hard plastic results then I'll rejig my responses.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Doug Craig Thanks Mantic! Last question re: Enforcers. Will the survey be open long enough for us to know the outcome of the sprues/results of the hard plastic enforcers, esp if they have to get tooled in (the originally planned) restic instead?
Like · January 24 at 11:59am

Mantic Games Yes indeedy.
Like · January 24 at 12:17pm

I would imagine that additional Enforcer sprues will be ordered by making a note in the comments section of the survey after Mantic has indicated their pricing in an update.

I just posted a question on their FB page asking for a clarification of the current situation of the hard plastic Enforcers and will post their response when it comes.

Thanks Doug!

I do think it was omitted until they were happy with it and were certain it'd be offered as hard plastic. Their reach already extended their grasp once with the Forge Fathers and Asterians so it'd make sense they'd try to avoid the hassle and angst of doing a bunch of refunds if things don't work out right. Doesn't exactly fill me with confidence mind you, but I'll wait and see.

I wonder how it will affect the Enforcer booster it's $20 for 5 minis most of which will be built from the hard plastics if it works out I wonder if you will still get 2 sprues (10 minis) instead as the HP sprue only has 1 shield.

From Facebook, comparison of DB mech to DZ mech: