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Took the dog for a super short walk today so that I could assemble a jetbike or two. JetBlaine required almost no cleanup and went together so smooth, just like the ocean under the moon. One of the tines is a little warped, but other than that, perfect. That miniature is so good that I hope Mantic find some way of un-exclusiving it.

The enforcer jetbike is much larger, but also goes together very easily. Watch out for a snap-together assembly where the thruster needs to be placed in the fuselage before the halves are put together. The rider on the other hand... The rider does not fit quite right without some cutting to his legs or to the jetbike's engine. Not too onerous, but definitely not smooth.

 Krinsath wrote:

 DaveC wrote:
Mantic will be doing a 3 for 2 deal on the weekend of the Open Day (May 21st)

The Mantic store will be open, with stock from all of our ranges including the brand new Deadzone! Buy three items, get the cheapest for free!

Hmmmm...that's actually very tempting if it's all their ranges. I've been eyeing Naiads and Succubi and getting a combination of 3 regiments would (to my math) actually be a decent savings, especially if it's still free shipping. Sorry for the mild OT, but Bob reminded me I was after those for poking at by saying the Salamanders were on his "avoid" list; I do desperately want a Draconian army, but from what I've been able to see and that not-quite-endorsement says I should keep looking.

So in other words, it's Bob's fault.

Let me set the record straight: I am not saying avoid the salamanders. I personally love their sculpts, their dynamic poses and their weapons. I do not regret purchasing them at all*. However, they do have an issue with tooling that greatly impacts their value, a flaw I felt would be a deal-breaker for a lot of potential customers. It is also the kind of mind-boggling oversight that keeps Mantic's 'almost' reputation in play. I wanted to warn you all so that there are no unpleasant surprises.

*I bought the salamanders at 20 for $15, which is an amazing deal. Every customer likely has his or her own dollar-per-miniature threshhold to determine what is acceptable for the price and what isn't. At $1 per miniature I would still find them to be an acceptable deal, but at $2 per miniature would not buy any.

It's okay Bob, you were more the straw that broke the camel's back than the reason I decided to skip them. They already are only Draconian in the sense that they have some dragon-like features, and they lack wings. I was toying with poking at them for grins to see if maybe someday they could be turned into passable Dracs, but yeah...when an already-barely under consideration model has a flaw and the mountain of plastic is already huge, it's time to look elsewhere.

Just not sure if I like the Succubi or Naiads better.

Antimatter Games has a nice line of Draconians if that's what you're looking for.

They may not be in plastic, but they certainly are nice...


....just sayin'.

 JoeRugby wrote:
The torsos dont match flush with the legs, but their wearing bulky jackets so no a big issue (tried a few torsos on each set of legs) the fat malignius(sp) body is pretty bad though.

With the heavier jackets / body armor, should they be flush with their pants? I would not expect them to line up unless it was a jumpsuit.

 Krinsath wrote:
It's okay Bob, you were more the straw that broke the camel's back than the reason I decided to skip them. They already are only Draconian in the sense that they have some dragon-like features, and they lack wings. I was toying with poking at them for grins to see if maybe someday they could be turned into passable Dracs, but yeah...when an already-barely under consideration model has a flaw and the mountain of plastic is already huge, it's time to look elsewhere.

Just not sure if I like the Succubi or Naiads better.

I like the Succubi better. They have fewer options, but the plastic seems slightly better tooled, and even a bit softer like GW HIPS. They have some great dynamic poses, with separate torsos giving you more than 5 possible poses, and if you get Lower Abyssals (as fireball throwers) you can easily give the succubi some shields. The naiads are more tricky to pose, especially since most of their arms seem to be limited to more "rank friendly" poses at odds with the running bodies, and the nets are just not as fun as matching blades. The succubi wear skimpy outfits, but I find them more Xena than Kingdom Death on the objectification scale. The naiads have outfits that scream 90's TV to me, which might be a negative for some.

I'm totally turning some naiads into sci fi/Warpath minis. I only need to clip the arms off their harpoons to make satisfactory Sci Fi Channel villains. I shall call them "Finbari".

Just got and (rapidly) went through my shipment. No time at the moment for a comprehensive review, but from the first scan, I'm on a Mantic high right now. Naturally I haven't assembled anything yet (except dry-fitting the abomination, which goes together easy and is a great model - one of the very few Plague models that can make a small head on a large body look good.)

The Forge Fathers, on the sprue, look like the fulfillment of what everyone wanted the first FF hp release to be. I wasn't a Space Dwarf fan until Mantic's designs won me over, but I expect the FF will be making new converts with this hard plastic kit. They have arrived.

Veer-Myn stuff looks excellent. I still dislike the bare arms, and may or may not bother to modify them, but a really solid kit, well cast, with lots of options, just as Joe said. The dust plastic Veer-myn stuff looks great at first pass too.

All of my metal figures are coated with what I presume is mold release agent, and it takes serious scrubbing to get off. Aside from that, there are several classic sculpts in there, even though I don't care for metal. My Teraton trooper arrived broken (or miscast - can't quite tell which) and I'll be placing a request for replacement on him - so far it's the only missing or damaged item I've identified (fingers crossed). The Kalyshi arrived in various states of bendiness, but they are my least favorite models anyway and destined to be replaced by Dark Eldar, so they can do acrobatic pretzels for all I care.

I'll add to the chorus: No more metals, please, Mantic. Go for that dust plastic instead - the results are much better.

A few quibbles aside, going through this box of new releases left me feeling like Mantic had at last turned from a wooden doll of a game company into a real boy.

 Vermonter wrote:
still dislike the bare arms,

It's their right to have them. As an American you should respect that.

 .Mikes. wrote:

 Vermonter wrote:
still dislike the bare arms,

It's their right to have them. As an American you should respect that.

I don't smoke, but reading this I had to take a long drag on a cigarette, lean forward, and exalt.

 .Mikes. wrote:
It's their right to have them. As an American you should respect that.

As an American I respect Australian gun control.

It is great to hear some reports and many thanks to JoeRugby for the many photographs.

It looks like Mantic have upped their game from the Enforcer and Plague Zombie HIPs models and are a World away from the likes of the Basilean. Things are obviously not perfect but it is great to see some obvious progress. I foresee some Forge Fathers in my future.

Any further insights on the new battlezones?

Just got my box, I've opened it up and am pawing through it, and right now I am erect

ing the new battlezones in my head

I don't have any of the new KoW hard plastics, but I'm holding a bag each of the steel warriors and veermyn shredders in my hands, and they are outstanding, the best hard plastics Mantic have made. Even the battlezones look like they're an improvement in casting over the originals.

The boardgame plastic pieces are pretty hot too, makes you wonder how different things could have been if Mantic had been able to put all their early restic KoW/Dreadball/Deadzone right from the very start.

My experience with the metal Kalyshi matches with everyone else though, a couple bent bows, very heavy flash on a couple. The Ogre Terminator is much better, little bent on the bayonettes but otherwise well cast, no flash, but boy is he a big and heavy little dude. They really should have been done in boardgame plastic imo

So I got my pledge too! The metals are a mixed bag for me. Most are okay to good. with a few being very poor. Only the fish leader and bounty hunter and maybe the skyscraper are on par with the Original deadzone metals.

All the plastics look good. The PVC or whatever looks good so far as well. No complaints. The blue dice are a little sloppy, they are all legible at a glance though and that's what I need them to do.

I'll be building the brood mother, shredder and a test stalker first. I'm really happy with my pledge, all models, terrain and extras are present and accounted for. It came faster than I had expected too which is nice. Paying duty wasn't so nice, but I expected that.

All in all very pleased!

Looks like mine made it over the Atlantic in less than a day, and should be arriving this afternoon, if FedEx decides not to hold it hostage like they did with the original game.

Excited!

I got my stuff yesterday. Finally, I got my pledge before Highlord Tamburlaine. Anyway, I didn't get any metals, just two sprues of Pathfinders, one set of jetbikes, two sprues of dwarves, N7-117, and the new accessory sprue. I'll echo everyone else, the new stuff is really good. It gives me high hopes for the GCPS infantry. The boardgame plastic, from what I've seen is actually really good. I wish they'd used this material back in the first DZ kickstarter. The stuff is the same as restic though, isn't it? Just a different mixture? It's funny how what is essentially the same material can have such a difference in quality.

Fedex did some fast work! Got mine today.

 Barzam wrote:
It gives me high hopes for the GCPS infantry.

The GCPS infantry will very likely be on the small side, if this picture from Salute is any indication. People who have their pledges in hand can look at Adrienne for an idea of their scale (the metal Sphyr standing next to the soldiers), as these pics show them to be about her height.





Whether their scale is good or bad is up to you, anybody's guess, it's one big crazy world we live in.

Checked my DZ pledge today, nothing is missing! Huzzah!

Very good quality stuff too. Nice jeorb Mantic

 Barzam wrote:
The stuff is the same as restic though, isn't it? Just a different mixture? It's funny how what is essentially the same material can have such a difference in quality.

As I understand it, it's like 3rd of 4th generation restic, and we wouldn't have been able to get to it if not for Mantic and PP (and probably some others) using the 1st generation restic in the first place, and having the poor to ok results and poor to worse Chinese QC drive improvements from everyone.

The material isn't the same as restic or made by the same supplier, they switched supplier to the same one that makes the Dust Tactics miniatures after being impressed by the quality.

Here are the metals I've finally assembled.

Asterians look a bit better assembled I think, though I'm a little uncertain that their various blades and bows line up properly.



Here's the other characters. (Haven't glued the the big guys onto the bases yet). One of the interesting things is, the Marauder and Bounty hunter dudes are actually both generic troopers and special characters depending on what weapon options you give them. - I went for the generic troopers on both of mine.

Damn, when it rains, it pours- especially with Kickstarters and other hobby materials.

Deadzone today.
Darklands yesterday.
A large box of Chaos plastics before that.
Brimstone either tomorrow or Friday.

I can feel an evil aura emanating from my wife's eyes as she gazes upon the untold piles of plastic now clogging her (admittedly cluttered already) dining room table.

Have to sift through everything, but the rules look pretty solid now.

Can't ever have a Mantic Kickstarter arrive complete though. One of my Asterian trigenders was missing an arm and a leg.
At least that's the only casualty so far.

Guess my luck has finally ran out, up until now my previous Mantic Kickstarter orders have all been complete but so far i've already noticed i'm missing a few items from my Lock-down pledge. I'll have to give everything a proper look over, but right now i know i'm missing all 3 of the Veer-Myn faction boosters, the Aberration from the Plague booster, and 2 bags of connectors from one of my scenery bags.

As usual the metal models are all pretty crap casts, but my Chief Mauhulakh takes the cake with just a ridiculous amount of flash and solid chunks of thick random metal which has ruined detail on the legs and jet pack. Definitely gonna have to consider the model miscast when i eventually send Mantic my support ticket.

Glad that people are getting their pledges, and that most people seem to be generally happy with them. I missed out on the DZ Kickstarter and have to wait for Warpath to ship.

Does anyone know if N7-117 will be released as a general release? If not I will be looking to buy one from a Kickstarter backer who doesn't want theirs.

Looks like an exclusive. I found this on the Kickstarter page:

https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/003/558/682/1e39cec048e6514297dd3198c77069f0_original.jpg?w=680&fit=max&v=1428162841&auto=format&q=92&s=7abee3673abd0ef3334478d85c9b6dff

Started putting together a few of the veermyn. The Stalker/Crawlers are almost the exact same size as the gen 1 rats. I missed some of the smaller details on that sprue. Some of the heads are almost 1:1 design wise with the older ones.The Brood Mother was easy to clean and fit together well. Her face is tiny though!

The Big Nightmares are pretty neat, I'm glad I got a few extra.

The little gen1 Nightmares/ Malignus come with at least one Big Chem Thrower, which will be much more useful then the drills and 'thrower.

The mat is much brighter than the original. It's really eye catching. The Orange goes almost to a desaturated yellow. I plan to match all the veermyn bases to that mat.

The new Industrial BZ can make a fare few different styles of structures without much work. I've got a Ventilation unit, a simple wellhead, that's 1/2 height with piping coming out the bottom and a row of storage units. The large generators go together really smoothly you probably don't even need glue.
I've got 3 and they will make really good 2 cube scatter.

I don't understand how the conveyor belt works though. I've only had a quick look but it seems to need to be up off the ground?

The piping is a fun addition, I'm just trying to find less obvious uses for it. The little pipes seem like they will have the largest range of use.

I like all the little detail bits. Consoles, Flood lights/speakers and some of the smaller details really make this BZ stand out from the earlier stuff.

The trick with the conveyor belt is that you have to use it with Powerhouse.

The rats are pretty cool. I await the inevitable skaven/ veer myn mashups. It'll be even more fun if Mantic ever gets around to making their own ratlings.

Kinda sad I got Forge Fathers in Warpath instead of even more rats.

Not that the steel warriors are a bad kit, it's just the rats are cooler.

Sadly my Nightmare has no head. I also seemed to have ended up with an extra Progenitor tossed in the mix.

Ain't a Manic Kickstarter without random bits missing and others added instead!

I'm actually kind of surprised with N7-117 and the Piper being exclusives, considering they list them both as new leaders for Infestation. Maybe we'll see other sculpts?

Still liked the original N7-117 design better.

Anyone take a look at the exploration tables in the back of the campaigns? Seems the Infestation one is different, at least from a cursory glance.

Piper will get an alt sculpt, you can see him on Michael Carter's blog.

Did the treadplate quarter tile get removed?

Unfortunately yes no room left for it on the mold. There are a few bits that didn't make the final cut like the triangles so hopefully they will do a new sprue with these bits at some point.