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Just got my shipping notice yesterday. Hopefully it will be here by the end of the week!

Oh, hey, turns out people is starting to get their stuff:

http://tyler.provick.ca/blog/heavy-gear-kickstarter-a-huge-disappointment/

Holy crap that engine's bad. I feel bad for the guy. :( Fun's the only point to any of this, and now he's not having any.

Well, if you're on dakka, Tyler, go make an offer to sell on the DP9 forums, and failing that, throw your stuff up on eBay.

How is the reception on facebook? It's been a while (since not long after Albert was given the boot) but I'll take a peek on the official forums.

edit: Looks like the same blogger posted over there too yesterday. Not much response so far.
http://dp9forum.com/index.php?showtopic=17539&page=7

Did a quick look through of my Southern Minis. All of my Jagers had the same "patch" over the engine vent part. But no other glaring deformities. Haven't gone through the rest of my stuff, but 8 jagers have the engine flaw pictured.

looking at the spreu preview (http://dp9forum.com/index.php?showtopic=17392), it's hard to see, but the same flaw "might" be there. Which means that this was done either on purpose, or the Podbay knew about it (possibly too late to change).

I'm probably going to paint mine like it's a filter screen or something.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I feel I need to point out specifically: the engine part is EXACTLY the same as the one pictured in the link above.

I would say it's clearly either a mould defect or a plastic buildup on the mould that has not been removed:



Also, looks like more people (well, american people anyways ) is getting pledges and building and painting stuff. I'm... not very much awed by the results:

New plastic Kodiak versus old metal Kodiak:



New plastic Hunters; you can see they are the new ones by how big their range of movements is >_>



New plastic Black Mamba versus old Mamba (actual comment on FB: #anorexiaisreal):

@Mmmpi... That sucks. It's definitely then either a mold error or an error in the process (like not enough pressure or a reduction in the injection time) that didn't allow the plastic in that one spot to get to the recesses before cooling.

@Albert... Thanks for the pics. I lol'd at your hashtag. While I strongly prefer the metal kodiak (heck, the RAFM metal one even more!), I think the pic differences are exacerbated by the lack of the base and the different positioning of the rocket pack. Either way, it definitely looks like it went on a diet. As for the mamba pic, it looks like they took the small arms and hands of the old tactical scale and instead of bumping them up to be proportional they did the opposite and slimmed down the rest of the model to tactical limb scale. Not a fan of that...

Some more pics fro Facebook:






The Caprice mounts do still look quite good, though:



...and if you work for it, you might do some nice stuff for the CEF, apparently:

Is it just me or are they just offensive to the eyes? Like I'd almost always prefer plastic over metals but these sculpts look like anaemic versions of the originals with some very strange choices in terms of what parts have been scaled up or down.

This coupled with (from what I can see) piss poor placement of the mould lines pretty much is the last nail in the coffin for my interest in picking this up, which is a shame cos I've finally found my box of old metal hunters.

 Albertorius wrote:
Oh, hey, turns out people is starting to get their stuff:

http://tyler.provick.ca/blog/heavy-gear-kickstarter-a-huge-disappointment/

That's about as bad as my Old Glory minis. Except that those Old Glory minis are single-piece metals in rubber molds, and they are HUGE and CHEAP, so that sort of sink and pebbling is to be expected.

For HIPS product, the surface finish and sink is completely unacceptable, and is mind-boggling how it could have gotten past any sort of QA/QC.

Say what you like about the RRT plastics having too many parts to capture the likeness, but at least they didn't suffer from obvious production flaws. The RRT minis at least look like what they're supposed to look like, and they were popped correctly with decent quality plastic and proper fill. Kind of a tough call between getting 30% of what you paid for, but at acceptable quality when built, vs getting 100% of the stuff, but in unplayable condition...
____

ETA - after looking (and LOLing) though the rest, only the Caprice mounts are "good". The Frames are acceptable. North is not good. South is plainly bad. And they're going to KS PRDF and the rest? Good luck with that...

Question: Does anybody have metal (resin?) Mounts to compare? Are Mounts supposed to be that big?

A couple things come to mind about the casting quality:

DP9 had a third party manufacturer make these initial sprues. Said company probably has a QA division, and from their perspective and under terms of their contract, they probably think the parts are fine. This company probably makes tupperware and plastic sporks (or foons) by the millions, and certainly doesn't understand the exacting details that miniature gamers and modelers expect from their "Little Plastic Toy Soldiers" (which is probably what the manufacturer thinks about Heavy Gear).

Looking over some of the posted stuff so far- it doesn't look any worse then some of the older GW plastic mini's when they first started coming out. Mold lines are mold lines, and if you really want some bad ones, then check out some of the Privateer Press' new starter battle boxes with the colored plastic. Oh boy, could I say a few things about that! or crack out the new Battletech Box Set from Catalyst Games and check out those plastic mechs. If anything, there will be more prep work required on these models, but I'm excited about the modeling posibilities- battle damage, posing... you're really going to be able to give your gears some personality beyond the paint job, and that is great!

If you consider this the new "standard" for DP9, then the only way they have to go is up from here, right?

Mounts were mind bogglingly expensive, so no.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tamwulf wrote:
A couple things come to mind about the casting quality:

DP9 had a third party manufacturer make these initial sprues. Said company probably has a QA division, and from their perspective and under terms of their contract, they probably think the parts are fine. This company probably makes tupperware and plastic sporks (or foons) by the millions, and certainly doesn't understand the exacting details that miniature gamers and modelers expect from their "Little Plastic Toy Soldiers" (which is probably what the manufacturer thinks about Heavy Gear).

Looking over some of the posted stuff so far- it doesn't look any worse then some of the older GW plastic mini's when they first started coming out. Mold lines are mold lines, and if you really want some bad ones, then check out some of the Privateer Press' new starter battle boxes with the colored plastic. Oh boy, could I say a few things about that! or crack out the new Battletech Box Set from Catalyst Games and check out those plastic mechs. If anything, there will be more prep work required on these models, but I'm excited about the modeling posibilities- battle damage, posing... you're really going to be able to give your gears some personality beyond the paint job, and that is great!

If you consider this the new "standard" for DP9, then the only way they have to go is up from here, right?

Honestly speaking, they look like what I'd expect to find in a Space Crusade box or similar (re: boardgame) 25 years ago. Only those were monopose and (mainly) monopart.

As to the manufacturer, do you mean the mould manufacturer, or the company that's doing the actual sprue pops? Because that last one supposedly works in the plastic plane kits market.

As to Privatee Press, I won't touch their PVC stuff. But in plastics, they appear to be doing nice enough...

Or rather, spectacularly well:




The comparison is interesting, and I'd really like to know more about that factory in Shenshen, Guang Dong, China.

PP has moved from PVC to HIPS?

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
PP has moved from PVC to HIPS?

They are releasing stuff in both, right now. So it remains to be seen. I want that one above, though. Still don't know what for.

While the CEF frame posing shows that you can put them in a more dynamic position with cutting, pinning, and gap filling, the standard poses are *really* static with the cheetah looking particularly bad in that pic above. I'm glad I have enough metal gears and only went in for the comments/updates; I can buy the Caprice stuff at retail if/when it appears online. The rest I wouldn't bother with personally though I see the value in it at a substantial discount to the metal prices. For those with the minis, did the mamba's sensor head get mangeld in the front by some dull clippers or an old hobby knife? Is the attachment point to the sprue right on the front of the head over the cyclops sensor eye?

I'm also curious what lessons learned will carry over to the next batch of factions in next year's kickstarter.

ALL plastic minis can be reposed, same as metal. Just easier - that's the benefit of plastic!

Lessons? I think the Pod will call this a grand success, so no changes needed.

The... the HANDS! Good lord that's not acceptable. Everything else, well, they're... passable? I mean they are by no means up to snuff and most of their competitors blow them out of the water, but, they are fine.

I'd make the comparison of using Micro Machines to play X-Wing, but those little suckers are $3 a piece and a lot more detailed, so that would be unfair to them. XD

But hey, at least they're getting these kinks out before the important armies come down, right?

Wait, Utopia is an important army?

Checking my Jager sprues, I see the same problem with the V-Engine vents, but can't seem to find the dimple on arms. I'm guessing the dimple might be an artifact from a particular batch.

As I don't have any of the original blitz scale metals to compare against, I think theyr'e about par with the Battletech 3rd edition/Citytech 2nd edition plastics which are from the mid to late 90's. Not as good as the original RAFM scale metals, but strangely, I don't miss those very much.

Uh huh.

https://i.redditmedia.com/cHdB4OdE4dk8yDe1ulDMUpdzISYrWZSwTvVXOK7RlmQ.jpg?w=479&s=c17b170cd10b1fdb86bfcc04b5d4f675

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129330002@N04/29606139226/

https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14358909_10101358224350215_1141551974940058870_n.jpg?oh=9f02e0139dae9e081f186a1bd9f6a2e4&oe=587350E9

For those who want across-the-chest, and/or are serious modelers:

https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14322579_1292359347443609_5002167921068814992_n.jpg?oh=c5870992ec1126edd98f011c7331b4c3&oe=587A9436

Some of my personal ones:

https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14224964_10155180601244386_3275531313296597655_n.jpg?oh=55f1f3ac571c1509b4093d09b4db7f63&oe=58728FB4

https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/14206227_10155161787659386_7661682858903973145_o.jpg

Edit: As far as how they stack up next to metal models:

https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14359196_776327775842708_1420171108711483409_n.jpg?oh=cb51964f9f9bbfdd844f41bd25296896&oe=58859704

BrandonKF wrote:

For those who want across-the-chest, and/or are serious modelers:

Being resin and at $2 per set of arms, don't those defeat the purpose of having cheap, easy to assemble plastic miniatures?

Or in other words, aren't you much better off just buying the old metals?

Huh, when I first looked at it I thought they were being sold in sets of six.

Go misreading! Yeah, $2 for two arms is GW's playbook.

Cost of everything in a North/South/CEF/Caprice plastic set: $60.

Example: North

4 x Hunter plastic miniature parts sprue & hex base
4 x Jaguar plastic miniature parts sprue & hex base
2 x Cheetah plastic miniature parts sprue & hex base
2 x Grizzly plastic miniature parts sprue & round base
1 x Kodiak plastic miniature parts sprue & round base
1 x Ferret plastic miniature parts sprue & hex base

Cost of everything in metal:
GP Squad: $32
Strike Squadron: $35
Cheetah 2-pack: $18
2 Grizzlies: $37
Kodiak: $19
Ferret: $10
Total: $152

So, if you want four sets of resin arms at $8 to modify four of your Gears with cross-chest poses and add that to a $60 starter set, is that really such a dent in your wallet?

Well, for starters, the arms are "online only", which means in my case I won't be taking advantage of any possible online discounts, that I will need to pay DP9's shipping charges and that I will have to pay VAT and customs charges to get them (and also give money directly to Robert Dubois, which I'm, plainly, not going to do). USAnians will get a better deal, sure.

OTOH, right now I can go to ebay or Amazon and buy metal boxes for $18-20 each, included shipping, because for some reason they're being sold for that.

And that's not even taking into account the fact that IMHO the plastics look less detailed, less poseable right out of the box and plain worse.

Sure, there are deals like those out there. So grab them while you can. Personally, I'd grab a couple myself if I could, except most of my money is being spent on just getting by right now.

As for your deal with Robert, that's one of those matters I don't have any control over.

But as far as poses, sorry, I've already shared a couple on Terra Nova DMZ that were fairly well posed for my tastes, and all it required was some Loctite and a Xacto blade.

Edit: Also, in reference to your VAT, we've already seen that they try to do their best to fit the boxes as tightly as possible to avoid unnecessary size to rising VATs Europe-ways and out in Australia and elsewhere.

Those figures aren't complete.
Why not compare the 60$ plastic 14 minis starter with the actual metal mini starter, that features 16 minis for 132.26$ ?

At a glance, yeah, the plastic is quite lower, but there are two more minis, Tigers, at 18$ a pair, are absent from the plastic starter, so lets remove this from the metal starter, we're now 60 against 114, for 14 figs.
Those improved arms are standard in the metal versions, but 2$ each if you want with a plastic box. That's 24$ (not counting the minis that can't be upgraded that way) added to get similar function to the metal minis, so the final price is actually 84$, against 114$.

So, in the end, you're saving 26% off the metal starter, by going with inferior, poorly-proportioned minis, less-detailed minis. I won't mention the poses, as I can hear the white knights rushing in to claim that plastic is easier to repose than metal, which is true, but the metal minis don't need reposing quite as badly as the stiff plastic ones, either.

Anyway, DP9 delivers a subpar, poorly designed, "good enough for the fans" product yet again. Who's actually surprised there ?

BrandonKF wrote:
Edit: Also, in reference to your VAT, we've already seen that they try to do their best to fit the boxes as tightly as possible to avoid unnecessary size to rising VATs Europe-ways and out in Australia and elsewhere.

I suspect you're thinking shipping costs there, not VAT . Packing has no bearing on VAT and customs charges.

Shipping costs, IIRC the online store has a flat shipping rate past a certain amount.

As to the actual plastic minis, I would personally not buy them, not just compared with the metal ones, but period, with the exception of the Caprice ones that look quite good indeed. The rest would be competing against any other plastic kit I would want to buy, and as most of those would be GW or Perry kits, or Bandai ones, well... I already have more than enough Gears as it is anyway.

That said, I can certainly see the appeal of the new boxes at 50% off compared with RRP metals for people that mainly wants to play.

BrandonKF wrote:
Uh huh.

https://i.redditmedia.com/cHdB4OdE4dk8yDe1ulDMUpdzISYrWZSwTvVXOK7RlmQ.jpg?w=479&s=c17b170cd10b1fdb86bfcc04b5d4f675

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129330002@N04/29606139226/

https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14358909_10101358224350215_1141551974940058870_n.jpg?oh=9f02e0139dae9e081f186a1bd9f6a2e4&oe=587350E9

For those who want across-the-chest, and/or are serious modelers:

https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14322579_1292359347443609_5002167921068814992_n.jpg?oh=c5870992ec1126edd98f011c7331b4c3&oe=587A9436

Some of my personal ones:

https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14224964_10155180601244386_3275531313296597655_n.jpg?oh=55f1f3ac571c1509b4093d09b4db7f63&oe=58728FB4

https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/14206227_10155161787659386_7661682858903973145_o.jpg

Edit: As far as how they stack up next to metal models:

https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14359196_776327775842708_1420171108711483409_n.jpg?oh=cb51964f9f9bbfdd844f41bd25296896&oe=58859704

I really like what you've done with the plastics. I'm looking forward to working on mine!

 Mmmpi wrote:
Huh, when I first looked at it I thought they were being sold in sets of six.

Go misreading! Yeah, $2 for two arms is GW's playbook.

I actually think $1.00 CAD is a fair price for a resin gear sized arm bit personally. I have more of an issue with the plastics having only one arm pose and even the metals suffered with that issue. About a half dozen of my gears have had limb reconstructive surgery as I attempted to give them better and/or more varied arm poses (not so much the legs though... only did that once). In the end, while I don't actually prefer the end result, you get what you paid for with the plastics compared with the metals (except for caprice... not sure about the CEF since I never owned any).


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Albertorius wrote:

That said, I can certainly see the appeal of the new boxes at 50% off compared with RRP metals for people that mainly wants to play.

Agreed. I'd probably recommend completely new players getting a single faction starter for $60 (assuming that hasn't changed since) but I'd let them know about the quality (and price) difference though. I probably wouldn't recommend the plastics to veteran modelers or those that prioritize the hobby over playing.

Well, @warboss, the plastics don't have just one arm pose. There are three arms and three legs apiece per sprue.

The Caprice model sprues were made in the same way. When you're finished assembling, you have additional body parts left over. If you choose a Kadesh and glue it together, you have a Kadesh, and the Aphek bits are just extra.

There was a free assembly guide and a quick 'how-to' that they put together for folks new to the game to use if they didn't have any idea how to model or modify the parts, here:
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/192252/Heavy-Gear-Blitz--Plastic-Miniatures-Assembly-Guide

We made some suggestions about creating extra leg parts, but considering the cost efficiency of tooling new sprues, that's unlikely. However, I'll likely just throw together the Caprice models, glue them on, and wait until I can afford more.

In the meantime, if folks are really interested in playing with just one starter set (never mind that you could feasibly get two of these for $120 and have ten Accos and ten other Mounts), it's probably best to buy some raw magnets and a drill bit.

If folks are truly worried about quality difference?

I'm not going to appease everyone, but I will say that I AM pleased with the Caprice and CEF models especially. I have bought the metals, and I have the plastics, and they're exceptionally well built. There are some dimples and flashing on the jump jets of the Kadesh and Meggido bits, but that's all that was on that sprue part for me.

There are some exceptionally tiny moulding crackling on the MHT-95.

https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14212680_10155152930769386_1397122132103979450_n.jpg?oh=23e6579b0699083c0fa1bd0dc5d816b4&oe=5837BAAB

After priming, they're gone.

I'll probably post more pics to my blog as I continue on. @Nomeny, thanks for the compliment, just keep in mind most of those are from the folks at Terra Nova DMZ. I'm by no means a great quality painter.

Thanks @Albertorius, sorry about the mix-up.

Anyway, VAT sucks, I'm just saying.