Mantic Crazy Xmas Box 2014

Another year and another 'crazy xmas box' from Mantic games, you never know exactly what you're going to get, but I've always been pleased with what I've received in the past.  Mantic went and confused the issues this year though by releasing two varieties, a 'normal' one and a pure sci-fi one.  I was tempted to get one of each but in the end I restrained myself and ordered just the normal one.  I did this as I've just pledged on the Kings of War kickstarter and was hoping for a few bits to add to my currently small Kings of War collection.

 After a lot of work this became....

This

Like last year I'll break it down by system;

Kings of War

- 10 x Basilean Panther Riders
- 10 x Elf archers with command
- 1st ed mini rulebook and poster

Pretty pleased with this overall, the panther riders are especially welcome as they will make excellent allies for the forces of nature army that I've got coming next year.  Even the old elves are surprisingly welcome as I currently have the 10 elf archers from last years box (without command) on the painting table also for inclusion in my forces of nature army.  The 1st ed rulebook is also welcome, we played our first game of Kings of War last weekend, a 4 player game using the beta rules from the Mantic journal, this will allow us to use a slightly updated version until the kickstarter rulebook arrives.  As a quick aside on first playing we liked Kings of War a lot, I can see a lot more of this being played than Warhammer in the future.

A lonely, but useful Dreadball mini

Dreadball

- Void Sirens Keeper

I have avoid Sirens team, but I didn't have a keeper so a useful mini for me.

Some more stuff for mt Deadzone collection

Deadzone

- 2 x rebs humans
- rebs yindi
- 2 x marauder mawbeast bombers
- marauder captain
- Chovar pyshic merc
- 2 x battlezone accessory sprue

I have a lot of deadzone stuff, but, excepting only the captain, I'm glad to get more of the rest.

Any ideas on possibilities for the giant flea rider?

Mars Attacks

- General Jaret
- Henry on Giant Flea

I have both of these from my kickstarter package, so it will be conversion time, the general will I think find his way into my Imperial Guard army, but I don't have any ideas yet for the giant flea.

For the first time, nothing from warpath, not that I'm fussed, I suppose it would replace the kings of war stuff in the sci-fi version of the box. but that's just a guess.

This is available at £25, although I got it cheaper on the Black Friday sale.  I'm pleased with this years box, the value on it really does ride on weather you want the panther riders or not.  Of course not all boxes may include the panther riders, but that's the gamble you take...

Mars Attacks - More Martians & Heroes

Just a quickie today as I've finished painting all the minis now from the main Mars Attacks boxed set and a few of the bonus minis from my Kickstarter package.

Starting with the kickstarter bonus minis the Gorilla Tunga and his handler Craig, I think these are pretty cool, Tunga is a mean fighter in game as well.

The last three human heroes from the boxed set; Phil, Joe & Deke.

The second squad of martian Grunts

A kickstarter bonus martian Flag waver and the Master of Science heavy (with a minimalist paint job) and in the middle General Zar from the 'Attack from space' set.

Mars Attacks - More Painted Minis & Kickstarter Package

My current gaming is centered around Mantic's new Mars Attacks game and I'm furiously trying to get all the minis from the base game painted as I hate playing with unpainted figures.  It actually feels like I'm getting there as well with the US Marines, Troy, Brandi & Buddy now complete.

 

 

A day after I'd finished painting these guys and was getting that feeling that finishing the Mars Attacks boxed set was in sight my neighbour arrived with Kickstarter package 2.  Considering that I only put a small pledge on the Mars Attacks Kickstarter I've got a lot of stuff for my money and I'm a very happy customer.  Some pics of my new stuff below....

Freebie translucent science division guy

hard plastic Martian saucer and US army truck.  The saucer comes with heat ray and freeze ray options that I intend to magnetize.

The Tiger Corps, which includes a selection of great alien models and are my favourite minis from the range.

The Science Division

Novas Vira Militia

Martian Heroes

Human Heroes

and finally the Martian Dreadball team..

Mars Attacks - Martian Grunts & Eva

Just a quickie this evening to show off a squad of Martian grunts and the heroine Eva from the new Mars Attacks game that I've just painted.

I played my first game of Mars Attacks this afternoon as well, and although we only played the first scenario (twice) first impressions are very positive.  Expect a full review once we've played through a few more missions.

I've Been Plagiarised!

UPDATE: The offending blog post has been removed from the hitting on a double 1 blog.  Presumably due to either this post or some of the messages left on that post.  No apolagy has yet been received.

I'm annoyed, very annoyed, a couple of days ago I posted a post on the new Mars Attacks miniatures from Mantic Games.  This has been a popular post and has generated a lot of hits in a small space of time, and too be honest I was quite pleased with it as a post.  Please take a minute to read it here.

Now take a second to head over to Hitting on a double 1 and read Carl Packham's post on the same subject posted a day after mine.

He's changed some of the wording and added a few bits of his own, and at least has had the decency to take his own photos, but as I read it was still clearly my post that I was reading.

Plagiarism is the "wrongful appropriation" and "stealing and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions" and the representation of them as one's own original work. (definition from Wikipedia).

Which is what I feel has been done here, it's the sort of thing you get when a 14 year old copies his mates English homework and I don't think it's acceptable.

Some evidence;

My post 'The minis come in three colours, red for the heroes, tan for the US army and green for the Martians, again a good idea as not everyone will paint their minis and this looks better than them all being grey'

His post 'The miniatures come in three colours, red for the heroes, tan for the US army and Turquoise for the Martians (But with the Martian Hero in Red) again a good idea as not everyone will paint their minis and this looks better than them all the same nondescript colour'

My post 'The first thing to note is that a lot of the minis suffer from what I call 'floppy weapon syndrome' as can be seen in the top photo above.  However I can also report that this is easily fixed by dipping the minis in a cup of hot water.'

His post 'Typically with the minis being soft! they suffer from the 'floppy weapon syndrome' as can be seen in the photo right showing the Heroes.  This can be easily though by the hot water method, a few of the bases will need this treatment as well as they are slightly warped.'

My post 'The minis are in true 28mm scale, rather than the 'heroic' scale favoured by many manufacturers'

His post 'Sculpts are fairly good and they are true 28mm scale, rather than the 'heroic' scale favoured by many manufacturers'

My post 'There are of course mould lines, but these are no worse than on any hard plastic minis and a damn sight better than those on Mantics restic minis'

His post 'The ubiquitous Mantic mould lines are evident, but no worse than on any hard plastic minis and a damn bloody sight better than those on the restic stuff.'

My post 'There has been some talk on the internet about the undercuts on the Martian grunts, well they exist, at least it exists on one sculpt.  Each pack of 10 Martians comes with one of the ones on the right in the pic above, which does have a ghastly undercut'

His post 'There has been some talk on the internet about the undercuts on the Martian grunts, well they exist, at least it exists on one sculpt. Each pack of 10 Martians comes with one of the ones at the front in the pic right, which does have a bad undercut'

It's not just the wording either, the structure of the two posts are so similar as that can't be coincidence.

Thank you if you bothered to read all this.

I'd really like some thoughts on this.  Am I overacting? Should he have credited me at least? Are 'derivative' works like this fine?  I put a lot of effort into my blog and having it taken like this just makes me feel angry is that right?

Mars Attacks The Miniatures Game - Miniatures Review

Hot on the heals of my wave 2 Deadzone package Mantic have also just sent me the first part of my (relatively small) Mars Attacks package, which basically amounts to the retail boxed game and the expansion book, with the rest to follow in a few weeks.

It was with some trepidation that I opened up the box as these are the first soft plastic PVC minis that I've got from Mantic, and I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  This is the material that they're using for all their board-game type releases from now, and I am expecting delivery at some point in the future a load more of these type of minis from the Dreadball Xtreme and Dungeon Saga kickstarters, so I had quite a hobby investment riding on them turning out OK.

The first thing is that they all come pre-assembled, which felt a bit odd, and part of me missed having to glue them all together.  Having said that I think Mantic have made a wise choice as this makes it far easier for a novice to get into, and I think the whole Mars Attack set is a perfect entry point into miniature gaming.  The minis come in three colours, red for the heroes, tan for the US army and green for the Martians, again a good idea as not everyone will paint their minis and this looks better than them all being grey.  Another advantage of the PVC plastic is that they will take being knocked over or dropped very well and it will take a lot to break them, although we'll see if Mike manages to prove me wrong on that front.

The first thing to note is that a lot of the minis suffer from what I call 'floppy weapon syndrome' as can be seen in the top photo above.  However I can also report that this is easily fixed by dipping the minis in a cup of hot water.  I dipped the minis in the hot water and then left them overnight (to check that they would stay in their new positions) and the results are in the bottom picture above.

 

The minis are in true 28mm scale, rather than the 'heroic' scale favoured by many manufacturers, and the sculpting and level of detail is good (better than I was expecting to be honest).  There are of course mould lines, but these are no worse than on any hard plastic minis and a damn sight better than those on Mantics restic minis.

There's only one way to make a proper judgement and that to start painting, I selected the heroine Ashley (above), a sassy girl who fights the invasion in her prom dress.  The material didn't like my normal spray paint and she's come out a bit shinny, but overall it's not bad.  The next couple of minis I did I undercoated by hand and this produced a much better finish (Sir Edwyn and General Tor below).  The grey bases are just a temporary solution, I haven't decided how I'm going to base my Mars Attacks minis yet.

 

The second mini I had a go at is Sir Edwyn of Hoo a knight lost in time.  Not a huge amount of detail on this one, but a nice quick and easy paint job (about 15 mins worth) and we have a completed mini.

There has been some talk on the internet about the undercuts on the Martian grunts, well they exist, at least it exists on one sculpt.  Each pack of 10 Martians comes with one of the ones on the right in the pic above, which does have a ghastly undercut.  It's more disappointing as the Martian on the left above shows how a similar pose can be done without the horror.  For me whilst it is a slight disappointment it's not a deal breaker.

The third mini I painted was this Genral Tor, the Martian leader, he is by far my favourite out of the three and I'm rather pleased with how he came out.  Another issue I've read a few complaints about are the Martian helmets, and whilst I accept this is a single example it fitted fine and looks good.

Ultimately they don't compete in quality with a well engineered hard plastic mini (like anything from GW or Mantics own hard plastic zombies & ghouls), but they're not bad at all, they do the job well, and come at a price that I like.  I also think they are perfect minis for beginners, a big thumbs up from me!