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Just got my Christmas crazy box. I'm happy with my haul, as a useful combination of things I actually wanted and bit fodder. Still, this may be the last one I do. The more Mantic product I own, the more redundant and less attractive these boxes become, and I think it's time to stop pushing my luck.

I actually enjoy the randomized content somewhat. Partially because it's the only way I get hobby product as any kind of surprise (my family doesn't know what to buy me in that area, so they don't), and partially because it's a bit like gambling. I don't actually gamble outside of one crazy box a year, but in that limited form, it's been fun. (It helps that I've "won" every time.)

And they finally did a Sci-Fi only box. How could I resist?

In my subjective valuation, here's how I did this year:

What I really wanted:

1 Marauder Raptor
I never had one before, and my Deadzone Orx have grown on me, so it's time to treat them with a vehicle. It'll make great battlefield scenery even if Mantic never release Deadzone rules for it. I really lucked out on this one, as I don't need another Jotunn

2 Ruined scenery sprues.
I just wanted a smidgen more of just this scenery type, but didn't want to buy another full set. Perfect.

2 Accessory sprues.
I don't need more crates, but the railings are always useful.

1 connector sprue
Always useful.

Zz'or Keeper
In general I think the Zz'or compete very poorly with GW Tyranids, and I think they need a major design overhaul. But the Keeper is the one model I really like. Yes!

Sirens Dreadball keeper
I'd never seen this mini before, but now I love it. No cheesecake, just tough and cool. My favorite Void Siren model by far, and one I intend to convert for Deadzone use.

Marauder Command Sprue
A month ago I wouldn't have cared about this, but I recently came up with a modding project using some of the bits. Useful.

Marauder commando /
Goblin Sniper
A duplicate of my favorite goblin sniper figure is welcome (not dancing), and I'm very happy to have a duplicate of the twin-rifle commando, as I needed it for one of the metal conversion bits.

What I don't need but can use:

Dreadball Praetorian
My second. I'll probably send one to play Xtreme and mod the other for Deadzone. He doesn't scale wonderfully with Deadzone Asterians, but say he's a special unit and it's fine.

metal Helfather
I already have one on order, but this duplicate's probably still useful to mod as an alternate version, or to spruce up a Forge Guard with different weaponry. Great metal casting quality.

Dreadball Dozer
Why do Mantic end up dumping these? Are Dozer's Dreadball rules terrible? She's a great sculpt, in my opinion. Now I have two, so one will be modded for Deadzone, the other will play Xtreme.

5 restic enforcers.
I prefer these to Stormrage Veterans, as I don't need any more of those. I doubt I need more run of the mill enforcers, either, but I might mod these into Plague Enforcers.

3 restic 3A Plague
I don't much care for the 3A as they are, but with a little bit of modding (esp head swaps) I quite like them. Maybe I'll chop these up to help make my Plague Enforcer unit.

What I have no use for:

Umm . . . I guess I'll be throwing out the Kings of War poster and Mars Attacks pamphlets, but who cares? As far as the models go, I'm a very happy ratman.

Good to see more people happy with their crazy boxen.

I really like Anne Marie Helder, I got two last crazyboxmass. I abstained from the crazy box this year due to too many mantic bits (there are some things I still wouldn't mind, but not enough to try my luck), but I'm quite glad I have a couple of AMH's.

I did a little modification and now she goes by Helga:

Due to Dozer not coming in the Ultimate Dreadball box, the only people that would buy her are those that are specifically wanting to buy her individually.

Which, I imagine, people don't really bother doing, so there's loads of spares.

Another reason Dozer doesn't sell well by herself is she is packaged with 3 other MVPs in a pkg deal. She retails for $20 and at discount is $16. For $20, you can get the 4 MVPs (incl Dozer) at discount.

Thanks for clearing up the economics of Dozer dumping, guys. Makes sense.

@GrimDork - I like what you've done with Helder; I got one in a past crazy box too, but haven't modded her for Deadzone like yourself yet.

Actually though, the Siren keeper model I'm referring to is different than the MVP. This image (not mine) is of the keeper I got this time:



At least, I think she's a keeper. I'm not too up on my mainstream Dreadball teams.

She's the keeper from the team booster.

I identify the crazy box minis I don't know by comparing them against what I think they might be in the Mantic store.

I'm mostly pleased with what I got. Already had a Dozer, might convert this one to Deadzone, refbot is a little superfluous, and I already really have enough Raptors but can always trade it for something else. Otherwise all of the Deadzone and KoW things I got were useful to very useful for me, as was Praetorian, and the Z'zor will make a fine stand in for Deadzone if I never get a Z'zor dreadball team.

Oh ho you are correct! My mistake. I also like the keeper

Got my boxen too, very happy with the contents. 1 sci-fi, 1 mixed. My loot which I see is a little different to the others mentioned:
Ruined deadzone terrain + accessory sprues and connectors
Marauder command sprue
Panther riders x10?
Marauder Raptor x1
Marauder chainsaw mouth dogs x2
Marauder and Gobbo sniper x1 each
Rebel humans x2
Plague 1st gen (can never have too many of these)
Plague 3rd Gen x3
Helfather (metal)
Chovar (metal)

Z'zor Keeper
Void Siren Keeper
Teraton MVP?
Robotic MVP or something

MA casualties x3
Elf command sprue
Kings of War poster
Warpath poster

Love that conversion Grim. Pretty sure I have a spare of her too, will have to look at copying yet another of your ideas!

Just got a whole bundle of enforcers and peacekeepers! Awesome and totally unexpected! Time to get back into enforcer building!

No mail for me today in the UK.

I'm travelling away on holiday tomorrow for Christmas, so I'll bet that Royal Mail (I'm assuming it's Royal Mail...) will try to deliver while I'm away. At least they keep the parcels for 18 days now.

Heh, my Royal Mail guy has taken to dumping parcels in the back garden. So far been lucky with the weather....

barnacle111 wrote:
Just got a whole bundle of enforcers and peacekeepers! Awesome and totally unexpected! Time to get back into enforcer building!

Plastic? Australia! That bodes well for everyone else as well!

Dreadball Mutants and possibly Ada Lorena in the clear blue (bagged) from the blog. They kept the over sized torso look from DZ but looks like lots of conversion potential in the bits.

The elongated torsos fit with the more messed up mutated bodies. Arms seem longer and more gorilla like (at least the ones that aren't tentacles).

I agree that these guys will have a lot of conversion potential, and I may just end up getting more to convert for that very reason.

Trying to figure out what kind of head that mutant in the center has. Almost looks like a shell or carapace on top of him.

Where'd this photo come from by the way?

It's on the latest Mantic Blog.

http://manticblog.com/

I still love the martian xmas sweater photo, the scenario looks fun too but I only have 2 big stompy robots and 3 trucks not 3 and 4.

Sorry if this question has been asked an answered before, but wave three: are the replacement HP Enforcer sprues being shipped seperately to any other Forcer, Peacekeeper or Forgeguard sprues?

A guy on another forum has received one Enforcer sprue, but he ordered a couple more and some PKs and we're not sure what the deal is.

supposed to all be shipped together, and only basic enforcer orders are supposed to ship this week, orders with peacekeepers and forge guard shipping in a week or two. May be another Mantic-messup, I'd send em a message

 Kalamadea wrote:
supposed to all be shipped together, and only basic enforcer orders are supposed to ship this week, orders with peacekeepers and forge guard shipping in a week or two. May be another Mantic-messup, I'd send em a message

Really? I must have missed the message about the Peacekeepers and Forgeguard being split. Thanks for the info.

Wait... What?

So I've been waiting in every morning for the past week and a half for the postman, for nothing?

For Pete's sake Mantic.

from the update on the 15th

On Friday we conducted the first test of the third wave Deadzone shipment where we shipped out Enforcer sprues to anyone who has no other outstanding items like Forge Guard, Peacekeepers or out of stocks.

With these packages underway the main shipment, including all third survey items, will begin next week.

Coupled with the Christmas rush and the postal service backlogs, we're expecting shipping to take us the next couple of weeks whilst we get everything out.

Yeah I think it said that right on the update, they were sending out orders of enforcers only before the other stuff. I'm sure there were a lot of orders that didn't include forge guard or peace keepers, and virtually every order that included the box game or enforcers at all would need a 3rd way shipment of the plastic enforcer sprues. Kinda makes sense.

Although I thought I saw some evidence of forge guard in the wild already?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Deadzone update 165: (my emphasis)

On Friday we conducted the first test of the third wave Deadzone shipment where we shipped out Enforcer sprues to anyone who has no other outstanding items like Forge Guard, Peacekeepers or out of stocks.

With these packages underway the main shipment, including all third survey items, will begin next week.

So it's possible someone with a fast postage system has them already

Nothing arrived from Mantic today... I want my second Stunt Bot and other goodies so they can sit in a pile with all my other unpainted models

I see the old Dwarf carrying a lantern sculpt in the picture of the mutants above . . . did Mantic ever do anything with that one in the DKQ kickstarter? I thought they used other sculpts for the Dwarf characters.

On topic, I think it's tough to tell much about the mutants from that blurry photo, but to me, the blurs look very promising.

It was an add on in resin

Thanks for that, DaveC. I always thought that Dwarf with a lantern was a particularly nice sculpt. Glad to see it wasn't dropped entirely.

Which one of you melonfethers bought 50 peacekeeper and 50 enforcer sprues?

Well the Forge Guard are in the wild - see previous pics on this very thread.

 pretre wrote:
Which one of you melonfethers bought 50 peacekeeper and 50 enforcer sprues?

I honestly think Mantic put out that update just so they could mention that.