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We just launched our Heavy Gear Blitz Utopia Armed Forces Plastic Miniatures Kickstarter at 7:02 pm EST today (January 17th, 2018). The Kickstarter campaigns initial goal is to raise $30,000 CAD (about 23K USD) needed to make the plastic injection mold for the new plastic miniatures and backer rewards. The campaign will run for 17 days ending on Saturday evening at 7:02 pm EST (February 3rd, 2018). We need everyone's support to make these new plastic miniatures for the Utopia faction a reality and if you can share news of the Kickstarter with friends and the online community it would be a great help.

We have a great Captain Reward Level at $70 CAD (about $53.85 USD) that includes a Utopia Patch and 3 squads (Strike, Recce, and Support) with a total of 18 plastic miniatures. Stretch Goals, once unlocked, will increase the total to 36 plastic miniatures. Plus higher reward levels add the new MAR-DK drone (resin model) and the large Gilgamesh Command Tank (resin model); see below for artwork and details. Treat yourself to a New Army for the New Year, by clicking on the link below!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heavygearblitz/heavy-gear-blitz-utopia-armed-forces-plastic-minia

I pledged. I'm really looking forward to these.

Will be skipping this one as Utopia really isn't my thing, but hopefully it still goes off well and we get Peace River and NuCoal as their own stand-alone mini kickstarters (I'll be in for both if the price-point is the same as Utopia). More options for plastic toys is always good, and I really liked the first KS plastic figs

Kicktraq "progress" on Funding and Backers:





It's not looking like this will fund, but everybody should have known that pushing the least popular part of the failed NuCoal & PAX River KS was never going to be a successful plan. Especially when the proposed funding goal required roughly 50% more backers than the larger and more NC & PRDF KS.

Kinda sad that the Pod can't even raise $30k CAD on Kickstarter.

Heck, at this rate, I kinda wonder if the Pod will break $10k CAD...

It'd probably help if the mechs didn't all look like balloon animals.


I like Heavy Gear but this batch of designs is garbage.

 stanman wrote:
It'd probably help if the mechs didn't all look like balloon animals.

*snort* Now I can't unsee...

So, 5 more people joined in the last 14 hours or so. Well under what they need to make this happen.

I was really hoping tis would fund, as I like the miniatures and the idea of the faction. Not lookin good though....

One thing they're doing which is pretty damn cool is combining the shipping costs from all 3 KS. Been waiting for ages to jump in with this, really hope it picks up some more steam.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Some pretty decent videos up today:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heavygearblitz/heavy-gear-blitz-utopia-armed-forces-plastic-minia/posts/2096392

 Dream Pod 9 wrote:
We just posted our latest HGB Utopia Armed Forces Kickstarter Update that we wanted to share with everyone. We made some new videos today and uploaded them to YouTube. These are just simple videos made by Robert using his iPhone handheld without any editing. The first is a quick Heavy Gear Blitz Tabletop Wargame introduction video with whats needed to play, the tabletop battlefield, and basic dice rolling mechanics. Second is a Heavy Gear Blitz Tabletop Wargame Initiative and Commanders video. And third is a Heavy Gear Blitz Tabletop Wargame Action Phase (Movement and Firing) video.

Click the links to the YouTube videos below the video description texts, sorry if the videos are bit shaky at points.

Heavy Gear Blitz Introduction, Whats Needed to Play, Tabletop Battlefield, and Basic Dice Rolling Video.
https://youtu.be/amRFAce-c_Q

Heavy Gear Blitz Initiative and Commanders Video.
https://youtu.be/SK8Xc0jQQGk

Heavy Gear Blitz Action Phase (Movement and Firing) Video.
https://youtu.be/7zYXVMfUuk8

Also, here is the Heavy Gear Blitz Army (Force) Construction video from an earlier Kickstarter Update.
https://youtu.be/fl1I5OsNQvc

The image below is of the Heavy Gear Blitz Tabletop Wargame Setup prepared for the videos. We're working on more basic game play videos for future Kickstarter updates, if you have requests put them in the comments below. The Kickstarter has 12 Days to go and we need more Backers to make it a success, please share this post with friends and visit the Kickstarter page at the link below and show your support with a pledge.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heavygearblitz/heavy-gear-blitz-utopia-armed-forces-plastic-minia



Plus larger images of the Utopai 3d models and some photos of the original pewter minis nicely painted up with some cool FX added to them in Photoshop (erasing flight bases, adding sensor lighting, thrust exhaust, and weapons fire), Enjoy!

The metals are less cartoony, but that's not what the Pod is selling!

They might not be able to afford high quality 3d printed and painted examples of the plastic renders. In any case, they're clearly labelled as the pewter ones.

Huh. That Marduk drone render is awful :(

EDIT: ...wait. 48mm? That thing is about dreadnought sized? Then it is doubly awful... at that size one would expect some detail. Like, some detail at all.

I really want the plastic drones, and wouldn't mind some of the robots for RTT or DZC. How did the CEF and Caprice sets turn out?

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I really want the plastic drones, and wouldn't mind some of the robots for RTT or DZC. How did the CEF and Caprice sets turn out?

I just finished my CEF and am doing the Caprice now, I think they are fantastic and pretty close to the metals.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I really want the plastic drones, and wouldn't mind some of the robots for RTT or DZC. How did the CEF and Caprice sets turn out?

The general impression I read from those who ordered was that Caprice turned out well with detail close to the resins but a much more reasonable price. The relatively large size of the models helps overcome the stiffness and lost detail frequently complained about with the gear sized models. Add salt as needed since I didn't actually buy any plastics though I agree with the Caprice opinions stated generally by those who did from looking at their pics/videos.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
How did the CEF and Caprice sets turn out?

Quite well, actually, especially Caprice. The N/S stuff looks like absolute gak, though, and Utopia is not good. The Pod's digital sculpt of curved surfaces is not even close to being good. The N/S plastics *are* cheap compared to the metals, so it's almost a value if you can accept the 3rd rate sculpts. Assuming you wanted them, Caprice is a good value, as the sculpts were successful, and the metals were horrendously expensive. CEF kinda splits the difference with totally acceptable sculpts and a decent volume - I wouldn't steer you away from them. But their flagship N/S plastics are terrible to the point that it's probably better to ignore the plastics or hunt the metals.

Yeah, Caprice was the winner going to plastics. Barely any loss of detail and way cheaper. CEF came out fine, acceptable loss of detail for substantial reduction in price.

Mostly agreed, yeah. The real losers were the Polar factions.

 Albertorius wrote:
Mostly agreed, yeah. The real losers were the Polar factions.

A pity the bulk of the players were playing Polar factions... "Were", past tense.

At least you can still get the metals - and there are plenty of good N/S units that never saw plastics anyways.

Just recommend Caprice/CEF to new players to try out the game. If they think it's worth the plunge, they can go to metals for N/S.

I think the issue for me is the North and South plastics just have such shallow detailing. I think they're lack of experience with plastic might have had a hand in that, what worked for metal might not be right for plastic.

The CEF minis are great (haven't put together any Caprice yet) but I think that's because a lot of their detail comes from boxiness and angles, not fr0om raised or inset detailing. So they were less effected by any issues.

Heavy Gear Blitz Utopia Kickstarter January 24th, 2018 Update: Adding 9 Miniatures to the Captain and Above Reward Levels!

Its now a week since we launched the Heavy Gear Blitz Utopia Armed Forces Plastic Miniatures Kickstarter to fund the expensive plastic injection mold needed. So far $14,488 CAD has been pledged or 48% of our initial $30K CAD (23K USD) funding goal. There is now just under 10 days left in the campaign, which ends on Saturday February 3rd 2018 at 7:02 PM EST. Dream Pod 9 really needs this Kickstarter to fund successfully so that the subsequent Peace River and NuCoal Plastic Miniature Kickstarters can go ahead at the end of February and March as planned.

To hopefully entice more Backers and to thank and reward those already supporting the Utopia Kickstarter we have decided to add 9 more plastic miniatures to the Captain and Above Reward Level packages. This brings the Captain and Above Reward Level packages to 27 plastic Utopia miniatures when the Kickstarter hits its initial funding goal. We are also keeping Stretch Goals 1 to 6 that can add an additional 9 plastic miniatures when they are all unlocked, bringing the total up to 36 minis. Previously announced Stretch Goals 7 to 12 have been removed and their potential 9 additional minis are what we used to add to the Captain and Above Reward Level packages announced in this update.

The Captain Reward Level at $70 CAD ($53.85 USD) is an even better Backer thank you reward package now with 27 plastic miniatures (about $2.60 CAD or $2 USD per mini). Attached (below) are the updated Captain Reward Level and Hero of Utopia Reward Level graphics, that are now on the main campaign page. The original 18 plastic miniatures made 3 Combat Groups with primary units of strike, recce (recon), and support (fire support). The 9 additional plastic miniatures will make will make 3 support units of strike, recce (recon), and support (fire support) that can be placed with their matching primary units or with another to give your Combat Group different attack options.

Thank you all for your amazing support, please continue to share these updates with friends and the online community. We'll keep working hard to make the Kickstarter a success and any help you can give us getting the word out to potential backers is very appreciated. We are working on some more Heavy Gear Blitz Rules and Game Play videos that will be posted in upcoming updates. Visit the Utopia Kickstarter page at the link below and show your support of Heavy Gear Blitz with a pledge.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heavygearblitz/heavy-gear-blitz-utopia-armed-forces-plastic-minia

As cool as this is, why does the NuCoal, and PeacRiv kickstarters depend on this one? Aside from shipping, wouldn't they both be self-contained and separate from the others?

 Mmmpi wrote:
As cool as this is, why does the NuCoal, and PeacRiv kickstarters depend on this one? Aside from shipping, wouldn't they both be self-contained and separate from the others?

All three factions were originally supposed to be part of a single kickstarter that launched last month (iirc).

That kickstarter failed, so DP9 is trying it again with just this simpler kickstarter.

Oh I get that part. But since they separated them, one would think that, changes to marketing aside, it wouldn't have an effect on the other two factions.

 Mmmpi wrote:
Oh I get that part. But since they separated them, one would think that, changes to marketing aside, it wouldn't have an effect on the other two factions.

Onw would think that, yes. Except it's not actually three separate project, it seems. It's apparently just designed to look that way.

 Mmmpi wrote:
Oh I get that part. But since they separated them, one would think that, changes to marketing aside, it wouldn't have an effect on the other two factions.

Only the Pod knows for sure. I would guess that after the PR/NC/Utopia KS failed, if this restructured Utopia KS fails, too, they may just feel there isn't enough interest to bother with more HG Kickstarters?

 Dream Pod 9 wrote:
Dream Pod 9 really needs this Kickstarter to fund successfully so that the subsequent Peace River and NuCoal Plastic Miniature Kickstarters can go ahead at the end of February and March as planned.

Yeah, that part is quite worrisome as others have pointed out above. I agreed with DP9's decision to separate the kickstarters to gauge interest in the individual factions but I did so under the impression that they were actually separate and not just in name only. Not every faction needs to be fully fleshed out if there isn't enough interest to warrant it. If DP9 is just doing all three together in reality but implying otherwise in the actual Kickstarter contract then that's a very bad sign. The expansion of a niche faction should depend on the interest in THAT faction and not bring down that of two others unrelated to it. We've seen that when things go badly for DP9 like with the currency fluctuation (which was partly their fault for keeping it in CDN when they had a contract set for USD), the backers are the ones who lose out. What happens if Utopia funds (obviously hypothetical given the current course) and so does Paxton but not Nucoal? Will the last one that doesn't fund bring down the other two which were already paid for? Either separate out the factions for individual crowdfunding or fund them together; just please don't pretend to do the former while actually sticking with the latter. If the financial situation at DP9 is that bad that they absolutely need this month's crowdfunding to keep the lights on/employees paid/rent up to date so that the next two months of crowdfunding can happen, that doesn't bode well either. In any case, it's a big red flag if they're robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Well they've clearly actually spent money on this (getting 3D models etc done) so if it fails if could equally be a case of it looking like the risk of preparing for a new KS could be too high,

compared to staggering on with the occasional single model metal release

(I guess that's going to depend how well, if at all, the 1st KS's plastics have sold compared to the metals)