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Those are literally the easiest kits to convert and sprue up.


Next will be the Tanks.

The real question are the "classic" Gears.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Those are literally the easiest kits to convert and sprue up. Next will be the Tanks.

The real question are the "classic" Gears.

They are indeed the easiest ones, yes. They are also the ones most people are actually waiting for, as the current prices to make a caprice army are bonkers.

They look nice enough, IMHO, but I can't help but notice that those sprues are frakking tiny! What the hell, man? Wasn't doing a crapload of tiny sprues a much worse idea than doing a reduced number of bigger ones? Has the sprue size been decided on, or is it an imposed thing because of the producer?

@John: It's also more progress than the "other" 80's anime robot game kickstarter has shown in a full year. I'm looking at that little dixie cup as half full admittedly but it's still the first real sign of model/sprue progress since September. If they put out another update like that this year (whether another "easy" one like CEF or a "hard" one like the polar factions), I'll be a very happy camper.

@Albertorius: The common "groupthink" knowledge is that the moulds are very expensive (tens of thousands of dollars today.. previously decades ago much more than that) and the shots are cheap. If the realistic expectation is that you don't expect to sell tons and tons of minis like GW and you don't actually have extra money to splurge initially, it's better to pay less up front and have a larger deferred tail cost. In my decidedly zero insider status opinion, that's probably the situation DP9 is in realistically. YMMV. Salt as needed.

@Albertorius - I get that these are a production cost saving, which is why the big tanks are being converted to plastic. It is unclear how much saving will be achieved when these are made available at retail. Do you think the Pod will cut the MSRP in half, passing on those cost savings directly to the customer? Or will they take note of how GW manages to sell tiny individual Character plastic models for $20 or more? What do you think the Pod will do?

I am assuming the sprues are "tiny" so as to be packaged and sold as singles. OTOH, if you've seen any of the recent GW stuff, they do single model sprues the size of a playing card. I don't know why they wouldn't have been designed at least as 1 model per sprue, vs 2+? sprues per model.
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@warboss - RRT sets an awfully low bar, and I'm sure it warms the Pod to know that someone is doing an objectively worse job at new product over the past calendar year. OTOH, RRT did deliver roughly half the stuff that backers paid for, whereas the Pod has yet to actually deliver anything to anyone. A day late and a dollar short is objectively better than nothing.

I'm also agreed that sprues are designed to minimize overall development and tooling cost.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
@Albertorius - I get that these are a production cost saving, which is why the big tanks are being converted to plastic. It is unclear how much saving will be achieved when these are made available at retail. Do you think the Pod will cut the MSRP in half, passing on those cost savings directly to the customer? Or will they take note of how GW manages to sell tiny individual Character plastic models for $20 or more? What do you think the Pod will do?

I am assuming the sprues are "tiny" so as to be packaged and sold as singles. OTOH, if you've seen any of the recent GW stuff, they do single model sprues the size of a playing card. I don't know why they wouldn't have been designed at least as 1 model per sprue, vs 2+? sprues per model.
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@warboss - RRT sets an awfully low bar, and I'm sure it warms the Pod to know that someone is doing an objectively worse job at new product over the past calendar year. OTOH, RRT did deliver roughly half the stuff that backers paid for, whereas the Pod has yet to actually deliver anything to anyone. A day late and a dollar short is objectively better than nothing.

I'm also agreed that sprues are designed to minimize overall development and tooling cost.

Objectively, Robotech was a year late from their earliest wild guess when they started delivery on less than half of the rewards (and have delivered nothing since in the intervening year) and Heavy Gear is currently technically 4 days late as of today with a projection of 4 months late for all of the rewards. I agree that it's a low bar to leap over and things may change for HG but it isn't fair to say that robotech accomplished anything more than HG until the latter reaches 1 year late. I sincerely hope that won't be the case.

As for the cost, I don't think that DP9 is in a position to pull a GW on the models. The average gear in metal costs $10-20 depending on the type when bought individually and in the kickstarter were $5-10. Even if they bump up the KS price by 50% to account for a retail tiered margin, that's still no where near GW. GW is the market leader (albeit decreasing in share) and they can't apparently sustain their own ridiculous price points. A much, much smaller company making their first (and likely last if they screw it up) push in the market is even less likley to be able to maintain such a lack of value. Price point was a big issue of why folks did NOT get into HG especially for the larger resin models and the switch over to plastic is supposed to help in that regard.

Holy gak, actual updates. Praise the Prophet.

If the Pod pulls a GW and slaps insane prices on the new models, like they're doing with those ridiculous chibis, they're toast and Heavy Gear dies. Like Warboss said, pricepoint was ALREADY a problem. If some idiot at the company wants to put up a big promotion for "NEW AND IMPROVED - And you get to pay more because of that!" then that will be the decision that damns them.

I put very, very little faith in the decision-making skills over there, but they're not THAT stupid.

 Firebreak wrote:
[..] I put very, very little faith in the decision-making skills over there, but they're not THAT stupid.

Possibly - a question remains however, especially given the flap over retail box pricing back during the KS, on whether or not they are THAT greedy.

ferrous wrote:
"We loved the Heavy Gear Assault computer game concept artwork done by Lorenz Hideyoshi Ruwwe for Stompybot Productions. "
Wow, someone out there liked the HGA concept art?

Well, as per usual Robert and so long as he and at least one other person like something everyone else has to as well because they'll be stuck with it regardless of quality, suitability, or any other factor.


Likewise, when was chibi -- everything -- decided as being acceptable to everyone; because now it's yet another written in stone fait accompli from TPTB in Pod-land which was presented for comments solely on Facebook.
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I'm of two minds about the chibi garbage. The first is that they're a stupid waste of money (they may have been budgeted in the KS, but that money could and should have gone to something better), time, and resources. The game (and company) is nowhere near secure enough for extraneous things like that. That sounds a little stupid, I know - "There's no room in this game for fun things!!" Well, in a way, there's not, but that's another discussion.

But on the other hand.

As stupid as I think the chibis are, the other two companies working on Heavy Gear products right now are going weeks or even months without a peep. At least these stupid little joke minis and art pieces represent getting ANYTHING out of the company at all. Would it be better to have weekly updates and previews of sprues, rules, models - heck, even pictures from the plant making the molds! Yeah, of course it would. Of course. But at least DP9 is making some kind of attempt at regular communication, something that has, in the last couple years, been another issue for them.

I want an army of the chibi Gears. I like 'em.

There's just no line you Southerners won't cross, is there.

Hey! As someone who only likes the Southern minis, I resent that!

He's from Canada, so I blame Canada.

Canada is with the North!

Being that far north, the force of gravity is higher and hence the predilection for smooshed squat thinks like Chibi stuff. It's pseudoscience and pseudoscience doesn't lie. This, of course, also explains Sants's elves.

Actually, the force of gravity is marginally higher, due to earth being an oblate spheroid and the reduced centripetal force...

Interesting KS update today, in which we learned that the Pod didn't hedge against currency fluctuation, so the deal has changed. *jazz hands*

The test models from the molds will hit the Pod in March for approval, and there will be more than likely some changes to be made, so call it two extra months (May), then the molds get on a slow boat to Canada (June). Production begins in June/July, shipment to backers in August. Awesome!

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Interesting KS update today, in which we learned that the Pod didn't hedge against currency fluctuation, so the deal has changed. *jazz hands*

I don't think that last part about "jazz hands" is a fair assessment. They're being open and honest in a relatively timely fashion about a global situation clearly out of their control. They're not trying to hide it behind platitudes, guilt trips, and vague blame shifting to third parties that we can't verify nor can the 3rd parties likely respond. Does it decrease the "value" of the average pledge? I'd say yes but minimally so. It is especially irksome if you're a polar player who was counting on those gears. They are though at least attempting to rectify it partially by adding a Caprice mount and some extra bits as well as reopening the pledge manager to get other stuff for add ons. I consider both this type of change to the pledges given the circumstances acceptable (but obviously not optimal) as is the delay of 6-8 months. I'll be the first to criticize them when they choose to screw up but I don't believe that is the case here. YMMV but if the company responsible for the "jazz hands" kickstarter had delivered all but a few models and less than a year late I'd have been ecstatic.

Different people might have different opinions as to what might be acceptable. If the Pod is dumping polar gears, shouldn't they have run off another polar sprue to directly replace them? Or used the KS backer input by asking? At least the gakbags at PB pretended to ask the backers about any changes. Here it's unilateral changes, take it or leave it. If one were counting on those Gears, could one demand a refund? By most Consumer Law, definitely.

If you're disappointed but interested in making some of that money back and then some, I'd offer to buy less than one quarter of the standard pledge (the caprice stuff, no rulebook) for one third of what you paid in USD at that time ($115CAD) plus actual shipping to me. That offer is open to anyone here. Pm me if interested.

Well, the company has certainly made a lot of management errors (and apparently, not getting the moulds quotes written in a contract was one of those), and they didn't make enough provisions for the currency fluctuations (...like, you know, changing the money to the currency you'll be paying on from the get go).

This has prompted them to break some promises, as in not producing two models of the ones opened in stretch goals, and for some people those models might very well be the ones they actually wanted, so it is a gakky proposition, no matter how you look at it.

OTOH, they have actually told us what the problems were, what they have done to counter them as much as possible, and a mostly concrete timeline forward, with possible points of delay. So I can't really compare them with PB, all told.

OTOOH, if there were supposed to be Sidewinders and Tigers in the core sets/armies, DP9 should really either replace them with additional Hunters/Jägers (or possibly Jaguars/BMs), or they should just put some metal ones to substitute for them. That way, the blowback will be a lot less intense.


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 warboss wrote:
If you're disappointed but interested in making some of that money back and then some, I'd offer to buy less than one quarter of the standard pledge (the caprice stuff, no rulebook) for one third of what you paid in USD at that time ($115CAD) plus actual shipping to me. That offer is open to anyone here. Pm me if interested.

I see that the PM has been reopened, so apparently you could be able to buy them.

The thing I'm actually most curious about is how long have TPTB in Pod-land known this was going to be an issue, because this decision is pretty much a total 180-degree change from the comments made after the last previous updates of substantial news.

 Albertorius wrote:
[..]OTOOH, if there were supposed to be Sidewinders and Tigers in the core sets/armies, DP9 should really either replace them with additional Hunters/Jägers (or possibly Jaguars/BMs), or they should just put some metal ones to substitute for them. That way, the blowback will be a lot less intense.

A bit surprising that if they're hurting so badly for $$$ they didn't drop the Ferret along with the Tiger & Sidewinder; seems a bit questionable and indeed arbitrary.

Keeping the full amount of almost always immediately replaced (and for many folks, already owned/more easily acquired) Hunters & Jägers instead of halving them with those respective heavier models for each faction might not have been the better option.
Doing that would have made parts of the KS starter equivalent to the current NuBlitz-oriented (changed in early Summer 2014?) Northern and Southern General Purpose combat groups while leaving in the original variety.


Playing the incompatible file(s)/new 3D modeler(s)/misunderstood tolerances cards (or, the dance of ''Why didn't we ask these questions even though everybody told us to do so?'') over the past year+ definitely seems to have come back to bite TPTB of Pod-land in the backside.
Not directly naming their chosen production manufacturer while all but directly naming it anyways in broad hints seems kind of strange, as well as using Chinese produced molds instead of choosing a company capable of both CNC'ing molds and doing molding (thus saving a lot of shipping $$$?).

 Albertorius wrote:
I see that the PM has been reopened, so apparently you could be able to buy them.

Plus, of course, the always classy pushing of the most current chibi sculpt/other not game usable product while telling a tale of why the Pod can't do what was originally promised.
You'd also think for an update this important a few more runs through for spelling and grammar might have been something to consider presenting to variably irate backers; but yeah, Robert.

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While it is true that DP9 don't have any ability to influence the value of the Canadian Dollar (versus the HKD for example) this probably wouldn't have happened if they hadn't screwed up with the model design and added months to the whole process, which in itself eats away at the pledge fund. In May last year the CAD was strong, and it peaked again in October (though not as highly) before crashing in December.

I suppose we should be grateful that they have taken the decision to push ahead now rather than sit on things for another few months to see the situation improves but this does highlight the fact that the price of failure is more failure..

Edit: ..and while the option of adding metal replacements to the pledge is a logical step to address the situation, I'm a lot less happy about the metal minis sitting alongside the new plastic ones than I used to be. I'm starting to think they are going to stick out like a sore thumb what with all that extra detail and bulk :(

 Albertorius wrote:
OTOOH, if there were supposed to be Sidewinders and Tigers in the core sets/armies,

DP9 should really either replace them with additional Hunters/Jägers (or possibly Jaguars/BMs), or they should just put some metal ones to substitute for them. That way, the blowback will be a lot less intense.

There were.


They probably should.


But then, people would get an "extra" Black Mamba & Jaguar - net gaining +2 extra models instead of net losing short -1 model...
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 Siygess wrote:
While it is true that DP9 don't have any ability to influence the value of the Canadian Dollar (versus the HKD for example) this probably wouldn't have happened if they hadn't screwed up with the model design and added months to the whole process, which in itself eats away at the pledge fund. In May last year the CAD was strong, and it peaked again in October (though not as highly) before crashing in December.(

The Pod could have converted CAD to USD at any time. They could have opened a US bank account and put 80% of the money there, earmarking it for the production costs. Or they could have hedged with a currency option in the US commodities market. Other companies do that all the time.
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 warboss wrote:
If you're disappointed but interested in making some of that money back and then some, I'd offer to buy less than one quarter of the standard pledge (the caprice stuff, no rulebook) for one third of what you paid in USD at that time ($115CAD) plus actual shipping to me. That offer is open to anyone here. Pm me if interested.

Now, I'm wondering if I should put out a side offer to buy one set of all 3 Cobras, both Grizzlies & the Kodiak... Be strong, resist temptation!

There are also USD options available on the Montreal exchange that are accessible to pretty much every brokerage account in Canada.

The simplest thing to have done though would be to change the currency and eliminate the risk entirely.

I still don't think the amount raised in this KS will cover everything they have promised and since they are already cutting tooling for miniatures they promised, how are they going to handle any other unexpected costs that come up?

 Albertorius wrote:

I see that the PM has been reopened, so apparently you could be able to buy them.

Yeah, I saw that in the update. I'm just not willing to buy the whole set as I've currently got more than enough painted northern, southern, and nucoal (my CEF-equivalent) minis and the quarter set faction price is really not competitive especially when you factor in it is also missing the rulebook as well.


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 JohnHwangDD wrote:

The Pod could have converted CAD to USD at any time. They could have opened a US bank account and put 80% of the money there, earmarking it for the production costs. Or they could have hedged with a currency option in the US commodities market. Other companies do that all the time.

I certainly don't know much of anything about international finance but I'd hazard a guess that those companies that do that aren't two man operations focused on niche hobby projects. I'd also guess that keeping it in the US would result in some sort of tax complications over and beyond the normal business practices the pod engages in. They probably chose the easiest route and if the world economy hadn't gak on the Canadian dollar (and of course they hadn't had their own delays) they'd have been ok. In this case, they weren't.


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frozenwastes wrote:
There are also USD options available on the Montreal exchange that are accessible to pretty much every brokerage account in Canada.

The simplest thing to have done though would be to change the currency and eliminate the risk entirely.

I still don't think the amount raised in this KS will cover everything they have promised and since they are already cutting tooling for miniatures they promised, how are they going to handle any other unexpected costs that come up?

I'm guessing with delays. If something else comes up that costs them money then I'd guess they'd do even more extended rolling shipping with the profit from retail sales of the same products paying to ship out backer rewards. Prodos' AVP kickstarter would be an example of that in action.

This is bothering. I can see how they re-balanced the core set, it makes a little more 4-way balance (especially for Caprice, they were getting the short shaft), and it's still very beginner friendly. The long, "yeah, we screwed the poodle" email was very detailed and transparent. It was a nice change from the POD people.

However, I don't think this was the right direction to go. They should have offered the choice of the "New and improved" set, with less Tigers and more crabs, or having some of the pewter Tigers sent your way.

Or ideally, you know, done both. Hit to the bottom line, but customer goodwill is a lot more important.

This does make the objective of putting together a new player friendly introduction set much more apparent.

Points for transparency, but anti-points for what that transparency shows.

maceria wrote:
[..] Points for transparency, but anti-points for what that transparency shows.

Oddly, the not friendly/critical comments are still there on both the KS comments and specific update, and even the official forums, but everything disappeared overnight on their FB page update notice.

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It's sad that admitting a screw-up is enough to get praise at this point. Even having said that, I'm glad they did. This, more than anything, finally, finally looks like the new leaf they've needed for years. Nowhere in the update is it blamed on the players or backers. (Take note of that, Mektek/Stompybot/whatever fake company you're calling yourselves now.)

It's too bad this happened, and yeah, sure, it was out of their control, but in the same way a tornado is. They could have prepared better, they could have had more money, etc etc etc. But if wishes for horses. Still, I'm just pleased at the honesty.

 Smilodon_UP wrote:

maceria wrote:
[..] Points for transparency, but anti-points for what that transparency shows.

Oddly, the not friendly/critical comments are still there on both the KS comments and specific update, and even the official forums, but everything disappeared overnight on their FB page update notice.

Dun-dun-dun!

It appears that the Pod is learning from the Robotech Masters...

 Smilodon_UP wrote:

maceria wrote:
[..] Points for transparency, but anti-points for what that transparency shows.

Oddly, the not friendly/critical comments are still there on both the KS comments and specific update, and even the official forums, but everything disappeared overnight on their FB page update notice.

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I guess they consider facebook their broadest casual community involvement and wanted to cleanse it. The official forums tend to attract the dedicated players who will find out the scoop regardless so no point in cleansing that as it would likely have the opposite effect of stimulating more discussion. They don't have any control over the KS comments (and admittedly I haven't looked there to see the reaction but every time I did look in 2015 the comments were pretty much a ghostown) unless someone blatantly violates the terms and then they can only flag it for someone else.