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Liya International has posted over two dozen short videos on their YouTube channel of the Mercenaries minis in production. Some of the minis being assembled are the Goliath, Warrior H7, JagerMech and Scorpion.

Fun to see, I wish I could get some unbuilt ones.

But it’s nice getting so many good mechs coming now.

Latest update has the pledge manager open until late August.

So I count about 12s per Goliath, 4s per VTOL (but also needs a base), 6s per Jaegermech (also need arms) and 3s per scorpion leg.

Assume an average of 15s per mech, and rounding to 25,000 backers and 50 mechs per backer gets about 5,200 hours of assembly time for fulfilment

That’s about 2 months of time for a team of 20 working 8 hour days.

Apple fox wrote:
Fun to see, I wish I could get some unbuilt ones.

But it’s nice getting so many good mechs coming now.

Yeah, above all else those videos just make me wish they sold mechs unassembled. I've spent a lot of time disassembling/bending/rebuilding janky ones.

I finally got around to the pledge manager. I ended up getting a bunch of IS lances, vehicles, salvage boxes and no add-ons.

that is a point a lot of people asked for a long time now
but also a lot of people like the "out of the box" playability

and having 2 different boxes for each mech is increasing logistic by a lot

 kodos wrote:
that is a point a lot of people asked for a long time now
but also a lot of people like the "out of the box" playability

and having 2 different boxes for each mech is increasing logistic by a lot

Seeing how they have tabs and pegs and all? Probably should just be sold unassembled: less work hours to pay, smaller packages (meaning less shipping costs and less waste), no need for the molded transparent plastic interior... yes, they would not be 100 % "useable right off the box", but it would still be dead easy to assemble them.

You can still slap a photo of the unit on the box like everyone else does so that people knows what they're buying.

I'm quite happy to receive them pre-built.

Saves me the time and trouble.

need special glue, need people to care about which part goes were, needs a printed assembly guide, needs 1 model per package= more waste

For price and waste, it is cheaper to sell them as they do now

 kodos wrote:
need special glue, need people to care about which part goes were, needs a printed assembly guide, needs 1 model per package= more waste

For price and waste, it is cheaper to sell them as they do now

I mean, for price maybe. For waste, absolutely not (I was speaking about the unit boxes, that they should all be the same way, no duplication of anything). Unless you're counting the time you would waste assembling it.

And I haven't had much of a problem using regular super glue with the ones I've reposed or had to affix to a loose base.

Anyways, this is idle wondering, as CGL is not going to do it.

Ironwind metalssells unassembled metal battletech minis, often of the same sculpt. They even do some variants. If you want to assemble your mechs, give them a shot.

 Gitzbitah wrote:
Ironwind metalssells unassembled metal battletech minis, often of the same sculpt. They even do some variants. If you want to assemble your mechs, give them a shot.

I did, at the time.

Still have the scars.

 Albertorius wrote:

 Gitzbitah wrote:
Ironwind metalssells unassembled metal battletech minis, often of the same sculpt. They even do some variants. If you want to assemble your mechs, give them a shot.

I did, at the time.

Still have the scars.

I may regret this, but I just pulled the trigger on 3 Ironwind minis plus 5 Clan Invasion Salvage Boxes. Not so worried about the Salvage Boxes, but the metals. Sure, grew up with metal minis, but I don't miss them. Hard plastics are so much more convenient.

With Iron Wind it's just a crapshoot as to how many pieces it'll be in when it arrives.

If you get multi-part leg with separate hips and stuff - good luck to you. If you get far fewer pieces, then you'll have a better time of it.

There are 'Mechs I have that I love but wouldn't dream of getting a second one after putting them together. This is where the ever-expanding plastics range comes in.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
With Iron Wind it's just a crapshoot as to how many pieces it'll be in when it arrives.

If you get multi-part leg with separate hips and stuff - good luck to you. If you get far fewer pieces, then you'll have a better time of it.

There are 'Mechs I have that I love but wouldn't dream of getting a second one after putting them together. This is where the ever-expanding plastics range comes in.

Hopefully Fortress Miniatures will pack them securely. I was pleased they got it packed within eight hours. Miniature Market has been slow lately, even though they've gotten their new warehouse sorted out [or so they claim].

Of course, if it is the Iron Wind packaging that is at fault, the middle man can do little to mitigate the problem. When minis were still lead, manufacturers put a little foam rubber in the blisters to cushion the shocks, but they stopped that to save money. OTOH, if broken miniatures cost you customers, isn't that "penny wise, pound foolish"?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
There are 'Mechs I have that I love but wouldn't dream of getting a second one after putting them together. This is where the ever-expanding plastics range comes in.

I never built my Hollander, and it's not even the worst offender from IWM. Started pinning one leg and just, decided never to use that mech. IWM are effectively dead to me.

Anyways, got an email that the pledge manager was extended again, not sure where a $50 credit came from but OK, I'll add a free rulebook. Catalyst still haven't charged shipping, correct? I haven't seen a charge listed anywhere

 Ancestral Hamster wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
With Iron Wind it's just a crapshoot as to how many pieces it'll be in when it arrives.

If you get multi-part leg with separate hips and stuff - good luck to you. If you get far fewer pieces, then you'll have a better time of it.

There are 'Mechs I have that I love but wouldn't dream of getting a second one after putting them together. This is where the ever-expanding plastics range comes in.

Hopefully Fortress Miniatures will pack them securely. I was pleased they got it packed within eight hours. Miniature Market has been slow lately, even though they've gotten their new warehouse sorted out [or so they claim].

Of course, if it is the Iron Wind packaging that is at fault, the middle man can do little to mitigate the problem. When minis were still lead, manufacturers put a little foam rubber in the blisters to cushion the shocks, but they stopped that to save money. OTOH, if broken miniatures cost you customers, isn't that "penny wise, pound foolish"?

HBMC isn't talking about models broken in package, he means there are some IWM models that are intentionally designed with that many parts and tiny joins.

Shipping will be charged when it’s all ready for delivery.

It's one of the reasons I still don't own a Blood Asp, despite having bought several.


In any case, everyone log into your pledge managers. I just did it again and found another $15 worth of credit. I have absolutely no idea why.

Picked up a set of fancy Jade Falcon and FedCom dice.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
It's one of the reasons I still don't own a Blood Asp, despite having bought several.

I DO own a Blood Asp and it was an absolute bear to assemble.

 Kalamadea wrote:
Anyways, got an email that the pledge manager was extended again, not sure where a $50 credit came from but OK, I'll add a free rulebook. Catalyst still haven't charged shipping, correct? I haven't seen a charge listed anywhere

Did you have dice, cards, etc. from the Clan Invasion Kickstarter that you were due a credit for?

 Platuan4th wrote:
HBMC isn't talking about models broken in package, he means there are some IWM models that are intentionally designed with that many parts and tiny joins.

Frith! Well, I guess I'll see when they arrive.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
It's one of the reasons I still don't own a Blood Asp, despite having bought several.


In any case, everyone log into your pledge managers. I just did it again and found another $15 worth of credit. I have absolutely no idea why.

Picked up a set of fancy Jade Falcon and FedCom dice.

if you got dice in the previous kickstarter, they're giving you credit for them, since the dice that got produced had such lousy quality control. including apparently any that came as part of a larger bundle. i didn't order any extra dice, just what came with my pledge in that KS, but i still got $5 this time around for it. and iirc some card packs as well that had been promised but ended up being cancelled due to production issues.

my suggestions is let it sit.. they've clarified that any remaining credit can go towards shipping, so unless there is some item you just really desire and you are confident you'll be able to cover whatever the shipping ends up as, i'd hold onto the credit and decide whether to add extra items right at the end when they do their final pass and you have a better idea of how much shipping will cost.

Interesting. I picked up extra dice with Clan Invasion and I have no credits available.

 Platuan4th wrote:
Interesting. I picked up extra dice with Clan Invasion and I have no credits available.

They could still be working on them (which would be one of the reasons for extending the closing date) but you could always send them a message via Backerkit to see if they have a credit due for you.

mithril2098 wrote:
if you got dice in the previous kickstarter, they're giving you credit for them, since the dice that got produced had such lousy quality control. including apparently any that came as part of a larger bundle. i didn't order any extra dice, just what came with my pledge in that KS, but i still got $5 this time around for it. and iirc some card packs as well that had been promised but ended up being cancelled due to production issues.

I thought it was only if you ordered them and either didn't get them or they were such bad quality as to be unusable.

Mine were all fine (I got DC, GB and Fed Suns dice). *shrug*

Besides, this is the second time I've logged in to find credit. The first time was $20.

mithril2098 wrote:
my suggestions is let it sit.. they've clarified that any remaining credit can go towards shipping, so unless there is some item you just really desire and you are confident you'll be able to cover whatever the shipping ends up as, i'd hold onto the credit and decide whether to add extra items right at the end when they do their final pass and you have a better idea of how much shipping will cost.

I didn't know that.

So, sure, I could get $35 off shipping, but... two sets of fancy dice and a Jade Falcon dice tray (I've never owned a dice tray!) for no extra cost seem pretty good to me.

Update in the OP. They're almost through all of the dice credits and will be working on the salvage boxes once the pledge manager closes at the end of the month.

 Kalamadea wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
There are 'Mechs I have that I love but wouldn't dream of getting a second one after putting them together. This is where the ever-expanding plastics range comes in.

I never built my Hollander, and it's not even the worst offender from IWM. Started pinning one leg and just, decided never to use that mech. IWM are effectively dead to me.

me, yeah, I own three of them. You saved yourself a lot of trouble. I put them on the same pedestal as the old GW metal land speeders, Privateer's Karchev the Terrible (they really weren't kidding with that name) and early Infinity metals (when they had you glue on individual greebles and wafer-thin antennae). Those things were hell to assemble and I will not own any more until plastic versions are available. As it is, I barely field them for fear of an errant stare or sneeze causing them to fall apart.

Update #61 covers the BattleTech Universe book. Check out the update for the seven-and-a-half-minute review of the book by Randall Bills.