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The Kickstarter miniatures should be the same quality as these...

Man, that Archer render is gorgeous. I'm thinking i'll happily make due with the Beginners Box and AGoAC plastics, plus the few minis I have from Iron Wind, until this delivers and I can really bulk out my collection. Too many of the metals are just crimes against model-making.

Thanks for that vid Ghaz.

Seems like my thoughts on the minis are realistic and their production values are somewhat lacking.

Man, that Archer render is gorgeous. I'm thinking i'll happily make due with the Beginners Box and AGoAC plastics, plus the few minis I have from Iron Wind, until this delivers and I can really bulk out my collection. Too many of the metals are just crimes against model-making

The renders looked great on Mercs Recon also but what you got was not what you saw in the renders. A case of buyer beware me thinks.

I don't see a lack in production values. They're using a different material than GW, and a different design philosophy (one tha's not all bling). They look pretty good to me and apparently enough others to get to $800K for a Kickstarter whose original goal was only $30k.

 Ghaz wrote:
I don't see a lack in production values. They're using a different material than GW, and a different design philosophy (one tha's not all bling). They look pretty good to me and apparently enough others to get to $800K for a Kickstarter whose original goal was only $30k.

Are you referring to the material in the image you posted? I don't think that is a physical model but rather a 3d model with some lighting and reflective effects added.

Yeah that render looks great but I would like to see a real model.

Mercs Recon had loads of those images and what was delivered fell way short of the images.

Looking at the vid you posted it seemed like there was loads of production errors and the plastic they use doesn’t look that great.

Thing I liked about the Hellboy KS is they posted some real minis painted and unpainted and the unpainted minis delivered looked as good as the ones on the KS pictures. I would now feel happy about backing any Mantic KS as I know they have their production values in order. At this point I cannot feel the same way about Catalyst.

They're going to be the same material & techniques at the recent starter box stuff shown at the top of the page, so you should be able to get a decent idea of what you'll get

Yeah I'm really not sure. I tried working with 25th anniversary starter box models and those were like someone tried to make a mini out of a soda bottle. Stringy fibrous plastic, poor detailing, terrible to work with.

I think I'll stick with my plan and back for a salvage box and maybe 1 star. No loss either way if it works out or not.

Are the Clan Challenge Coins for anything in-game or just merchandise?

Ancient Otter wrote:
Are the Clan Challenge Coins for anything in-game or just merchandise?

Just swag. You could use them for binary decisions in game I guess.

They're going to be the same material & techniques at the recent starter box stuff shown at the top of the page, so you should be able to get a decent idea of what you'll get

As posted already that would cause me concern.

They're going to be the same material & techniques at the recent starter box stuff shown at the top of the page, so you should be able to get a decent idea of what you'll get

That is the experience I had with Mercs Recon, just terrible production values.

In this day and age if a company that has minis in their game can’t produce them to a good standard then that game loses out on a sector of the market straight away.

I am not in the KS but maybe someone who is and also values good minis could put a challenge in the KS comments and let us know the response.

Well, update in the comments on the salvage boxes from Catalyst. They will include mechs from the Clan Starterbox, and at least the first 2 Stars- possibly up to the first 4 Stars. There will be no IS mechs in the Salvage Boxes.

I really wouldn't judge the current minis from the Starter set with 24 mechs- that's the main reason people are excited about the new ones. The new mechs are hard plastic, and quite beefy compared to the older models. Details definitely not as crisp as GW, but it's totally fine for tabletop.

Whilst the new minis aren't the greatest in the world and quite a distance from GW's production quality (whatever I may think of GW these days, you can't fault the detail and crisp lines they can get), they're leagues ahead of what we've had to put up with for the past 25 years.

Battletech 3rd Edition, Citytech 2nd, Plastech and the relatively recent starter sets were large, glorified Risk models in comparison to what we're getting now. The metal minis from IWM/RPE varied in quality, mostly as a result of the designs that they were based on.

I'd say that most of the reason that people are jumping on the new minis isn't because they're the most amazing minis ever, but because they're better by far than anything we've been able to get in the past, at a reasonable price and a fair few of the designs are ones that we haven't been able to get (legally) for 20 years.

I really wouldn't judge the current minis from the Starter set with 24 mechs- that's the main reason people are excited about the new ones. The new mechs are hard plastic, and quite beefy compared to the older models. Details definitely not as crisp as GW, but it's totally fine for tabletop.

We are not really talking about the 25th set but the minis from the existing beginners and core set in the vid posted by Ghaz which can only be described as average at best.

Really Catalyst should be aiming higher and this KS does have the potential for that. If it’s more of the same it’s a wasted opportunity. I hate to harp back to it but it’s the most recent one I have participated in, Mantic produced an absurd amount of minis for its KS and everyone received has crisp detailing and the plastic feels high quality and nothing wonky or miscast. If Catalyst need an example of how to do something right on the minis front they need look no further than the Hellboy KS by Mantic.

I would be more interested in their KS starter if they said they were aiming higher with the minis and general production values and could also actually show real examples. Hell even if they said for the main SG at 1 mil they were going to upgrade the beginner and core set minis would peak my interest more.

I am highly dubious those highly detailed mins in those renders will come out the other end anywhere close to how they look in the renders.

I'd say that most of the reason that people are jumping on the new minis isn't because they're the most amazing minis ever, but because they're better by far than anything we've been able to get in the past, at a reasonable price and a fair few of the designs are ones that we haven't been able to get (legally) for 20 years.

Hence why this KS is such a great opportunity for Catalyst to up their production values again.

If Mantic could do it on a brand new game why can’t Catalyst on an existing one? Why should the KS community accept lower quality minis for any new KS campaigns when Mantic showed perfectly how it could be done.

The new miniature quality is fine. If you don't like them, don't get them. But since we all know what constitutes "bad" when it comes to Battletech miniatures, I think the majority of us can happily admit that the next batch of miniatures from the kickstarter being up to the same level of quality as the most recent introductory boxes puts them squarely in the "good" column. Complaining that they aren't the best is kind of silly.

Odd, I never thought anyone paid much attention to Battletech lore. Our group made our own designs for the longest times, using the TRO's as a starting point, but gutting the innards.

I never did get more than skin deep into the lore, just used the game as a sandbox to do our own thing - kind of like a homebrew D&D world.

One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of us have warm feelings to battletech due to our gaming history. Battletech's been around a long time and I sincerly doubt I'm the only person here whose got their start with battletech and played it for a long length of time. even a mild pledge gets you pretty much all you'll need in terms of minis for the game. the star captain pledge will gain you a full trinary/company of mechs, for 95 bucks USD. you'll, realisticly likely never need more then 15 mechs for battletech so.. yeah this is a pretty low cost game

You never need more than 15 mechs for battle? What kind of heresy is that! I never play under battalion size!

M.

 Miguelsan wrote:
You never need more than 15 mechs for battle? What kind of heresy is that! I never play under battalion size!

M.

I'm speaking for people who are playing battletech not alpha strike and have lives

BrianDavion wrote:

 Miguelsan wrote:
You never need more than 15 mechs for battle? What kind of heresy is that! I never play under battalion size!

M.

I'm speaking for people who are playing battletech not alpha strike and have lives

Back in college we had a Regiment vs Cluster battle once. Talk about chaos.

M.

 Gitzbitah wrote:
There will be no IS mechs in the Salvage Boxes.

Wha...? Aww... I was hoping to snag an extra Marauder or one of the bugs.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Gitzbitah wrote:
There will be no IS mechs in the Salvage Boxes.

Wha...? Aww... I was hoping to snag an extra Marauder or one of the bugs.

That was the original deal, then a video update said differently, then it was clarified that it would be clan only as originally described.

 Nostromodamus wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Gitzbitah wrote:
There will be no IS mechs in the Salvage Boxes.

Wha...? Aww... I was hoping to snag an extra Marauder or one of the bugs.

That was the original deal, then a video update said differently, then it was clarified that it would be clan only as originally described.

well they did say any OMNIMECH, and at the time hadn't added any IS omnis or clan standard mechs so.,. makes sense

 ekwatts wrote:
The new miniature quality is fine. If you don't like them, don't get them. But since we all know what constitutes "bad" when it comes to Battletech miniatures, I think the majority of us can happily admit that the next batch of miniatures from the kickstarter being up to the same level of quality as the most recent introductory boxes puts them squarely in the "good" column. Complaining that they aren't the best is kind of silly.

I think you are misunderstanding my posts. I am not asking for them to be the best just of a standard similar to those Mantic put out on the Hellboy KS. When looking at that vid they seemed to have numerous issues e.g. mould lines, imperfections in casting, detail issues and wonky bits, likely due to the plastic used and the casting process being adopted.

If I said GW was a 10 and the platinum standard, I would put the Mantic Hellboy minis in their kickstarter around an 8 but the BattleTech minis I saw in that vid around a 6 on the production values front. Now I could be wrong and would actually like to pick up a beginners box to see for myself but unfortunately nobody seems to stock them in the UK.

Just because the Battletech community have had bad minis in the past doesn’t mean they should accept mediocre in the more recent sets as good? Catalyst are putting out some great looking renders there, I don’t think it’s unfair to expect the final product to look as good otherwise they are false advertising.

and the end of the day battletech fans are playing the game for more then the minis. they're useally more intreasted in the story etc then anything else.

You keep talking about these other Kickstarters like it means something.

Mantic did this. The Hellboy KS did that.

So what? It's like the people going "Will this suffer the same fate as the Robotech KS?", which makes no sense as this KS is as unrelated to the Robotech KS as the miniatures in this are related to anything Mantic has ever made.

 Chimaera wrote:
Yeah that render looks great but I would like to see a real model.

Mercs Recon had loads of those images and what was delivered fell way short of the images.

Looking at the vid you posted it seemed like there was loads of production errors and the plastic they use doesn’t look that great.

Thing I liked about the Hellboy KS is they posted some real minis painted and unpainted and the unpainted minis delivered looked as good as the ones on the KS pictures. I would now feel happy about backing any Mantic KS as I know they have their production values in order. At this point I cannot feel the same way about Catalyst.

WTF are you talking about? Mercs Recon was completely hand sculpted, no renders were previewed. These minis are the same PVC plastic minis as the quickstart and regular starterset minis that released last year which have already been posted here and other places (see Ghaz's post at the top of the page). I still to this day don't get the hate for Mercs Recon, but hey, I got me a $200 pledge for $60 so I can't complain too much, and had no real issues painting it up.Then again, I've also done a fair few of the original 3025 plastic box sets mechs to look pretty decent as well (see sig). As long as you don't rely on the sculpt itself to do ALL your painting for you then you can make them look pretty great, just place some highlights and shadows where they should be. But even with that said I've seen some really good results just with Contrast paints recently on the battletech Painting and Customs FB group, I suggest you join and look through the posted pics if you want to see the material painted up by both professionals and amateurs alike, make up your own mind

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
You keep talking about these other Kickstarters like it means something.

Mantic did this. The Hellboy KS did that.

So what? It's like the people going "Will this suffer the same fate as the Robotech KS?", which makes no sense as this KS is as unrelated to the Robotech KS as the miniatures in this are related to anything Mantic has ever made.

Where did I mention Robotech? Not even seen that KS.

Why shouldn’t asking for a good quality mini in a KS be a reasonable expectation?

Simply saying Mantic did it right for the Hellboy minis (you got the mini their KS showed you to that standard). Any reason other companies shouldn’t be able to get it right in their Kickstarters?




Automatically Appended Next Post:

WTF are you talking about? Mercs Recon was completely hand sculpted, no renders were previewed. These minis are the same PVC plastic minis as the quickstart and regular starterset minis that released last year which have already been posted here and other places (see Ghaz's post at the top of the page).

It’s been a while but basically the minis Mercs advertised (renders or no renders I cannot even remember) I don’t feel met the expectation at all. What was received IMO fell way short. Horrible plastic, miscasts, bad detailing, mould lines/flash, loads of bent things just left me feeling cheated.

Why do people keep referring to Ghaz’ post like I haven’t seen it. I have as mentioned a few times, it’s where a lot of my misgivings are coming from as they have a Mercs production values feel to them.

Actually just had a look at that vid again but this time reading the comments attached to it. Seems like quite a few people posted wishing the minis and their quality/production values were better,

Oh yeah, the Robotech KS... I keep trying to forget about that, despite the huge boxes of unbuilt and unopened minis.

Now, there was a Kickstarter where they they put effort into making high quality, giant stompy robots. HIPS, multi part, crisp edges, posability and lots of options for variety in each individual model...

Just thinking about building another one of those minis makes me want to push my fingers into my eyes...

 Chimaera wrote:
Where did I mention Robotech?

You didn't. Hence my sentence beginning with "It's like the people...". It's called a comparison.

 Chimaera wrote:
Why shouldn’t asking for a good quality mini in a KS be a reasonable expectation?

These seem good quality to me, and by far a massive improvement over previous plastic 'Mechs from the last two generations of starter-kits.

Does this make me unreasonable?

 Chimaera wrote:
Simply saying Mantic did it right for the Hellboy minis (you got the mini their KS showed you to that standard). Any reason other companies shouldn’t be able to get it right in their Kickstarters?

Who says that these miniatures aren't "right". All you're doing is expressing an opinion about the quality, and then arguing with anyone who disagrees with you. If you don't like the quality that's fine, but it's got nothing to do with any other Kickstarter and if you don't like it, that's your business.