Mantic Games Disappointing Basilean Hard Plastic Sprues

Mantic Games Sprue

If you are in the miniatures wargaming hobby, chances are you’ve bought and painted, even collected Games Workshop miniatures at some point. If you did, you probably share the ambivalent relationship most people have with Nottingham’s most famous miniatures company.

Their prices are sky-high, their approaches to marketing puzzling and their treatment of fans and the community seems to hover between not caring and near-hostility.

On the other hand, the superb quality of GW miniatures (outside of Finecast) is undisputed.

Mantic Games, My DreadBall Minis and Hard Plastic

If you’ve previously read my blog, you may know I enjoy a similarly ambivalent relationship with another Notthingham-based miniatures company: Mantic Games.

Their miniatures can be a good bargain through Kickstarter (though pricey in retail). They work hard to create events, tournaments and other fan-events all over the UK. They openly engage with the community through Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc.. like no other company in this hobby niche.

They are – all round – a great bunch of guys (as far as I’ve gotten to know them).

However, the quality of their miniatures isn’t always the best. Though I love DreadBall, the “Restic” material of the miniatures is a pain. The casting of the miniatures often disappointing.

Thus, like many other people, I was always happy to see Mantic pushing for some advanced production techniques, especially digital sculpting and the promise of “proper” hard-plastic miniatures, most recently announced for many miniatures for their upcoming Deadzone game.

Mantic’s games are great, and deserve better miniatures.

Mantic’s Kings of War Basilean Hard Plastic Sprues

Now pictures from Mantic’s latest release for their Kings of War fantasy game – the Basileans – appeared. These are some of the first hard-plastic minis from Mantic Games (aside from a few early Goblins, which were also given away on Mantic Open Day).

Unfortunately, the pics are rather disappointing, I think. But see for yourself.

Mantic Games Basilean Sprue

Basilean Infantry sprue

Basilean Sprue Infantry Mantic Games

Granted, these are not my pictures (from Dakkadakka) and I have not held these myself. Zooming in closely on details like this (> 100% of the miniature) may exaggerate the issues.

Still, I’d say Mantic has some ways to go to producing quality hard plastic miniatures that are up there with the competition in quality (and not just GW, Hawk Wargames for example also made an impressive entry into hard plastic with the Dropzone Commander 2-Player Starter Set).

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Correction:

I wrote above that these Basilean Men-at-arms (and the Mantic Open Day Goblins) are some of the first Mantic Games miniatures in hard plastic.

It’s been pointed out to me several times that this statement is plain wrong. The Men-at-arms and Goblins are not the first hard plastic sprues Mantic Games have done. The core units for the Elves (2009), Undead, Dwarfs and Orcs (2010) are all hard plastic, as are the Marauder Grunts and Forge Father Steel Warriors. The Men-at-Arms are just with a new manufacturer.

I apologize for getting that wrong.

Panagiotis Galanis

I think the pictures speak by themselves, and frankly as much I like Mantic, there has been a few hiccups down the road that raise an eyebrow (i.e. the resin forgefarthers that came out noticeably smaller than the rest of their brethren for no reason – introducing a group of dwarves among dwarves !).

Yet for the sake of argument, I’ll assume the mantle of the devil’s advocate here and ask the question: From the amount of miniatures sold every day how many are actually painted in a quality that actually makes a difference and uses the high quality moulds?

I suspect the answer is surprisingly low, especially in fantasy settings where the vast blocks of models are placed in consecutive rows obscuring visibility and any work done on them.

I see your points, and I truly believe that any company should pursue the best possible qualities without compromise but perhaps they tailor the miniature quality to the needs of their audience: decent, affordable minis for huge armies.

What do you think Zweisch? As you seem to have a lot more experience in mantic minis, could that be the niche that the company pursues?
- http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid
  
  Tough call.
  
  On one hand, I agree that not everything needs to be of GW’s super-high-quality. Seeing all those fantastic miniatures sloppily dipped in thick coats of paint/varnish leaves me wonder often enough (ironically, high levels of sharp detail can help you get a “decent” paintjob if you just thin paints, do some washes/drybrushing and go).
  
  On the other hand, Mantic isn’t really “cheap”. They price themselves slightly below GW, but they are still very expensive. They are not .. say .. Perry Miniatures, etc.. .
  
  Also, (for most people) the expectation is/was different for what Mantic would deliver when they pledged on Kickstarter (which is a big factor here, I think, as a majority of these were “sold” on the promise of concept art/renders on the Kickstarter).
  
  If Mantic’s miniatures were truly “affordable” and more open about “we go for budget-quality, don’t expect more”, there might be a case. At the moment, I don’t see it because it’s not advertised (“kickstarted”) as such.
  - Panagiotis Galanis
    
    I see your point and appreciate the comment, I was unaware of the dimensions you mentioned.
    
    I have pledged a substantial amount of deadzone forgefathers, I am now intrigued to see how these will turn out!
Blarty

“These are some of the first hard-plastic minis from Mantic Games” – Actually Mantic have been making hard plastic minis since 2009 as witnessed by the Elf, Undead, Dwarf and Orc ranges. Andy whilst the pictures above may not look stunning, the miniatures are sold at 40 for £25 which is a lot cheaper than GW prices.
- http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid
  
  If you buy the big bundle-deals, yes. The basic box for Crossbow-Men is £13 for 10, which is actually more expensive than GW’s comparable archers (Bretonnian, High Elves, etc..).
  
  No Command Squad, no alternative sculpts, no bits, banners, etc.. either.
  
  Not to mention fiddling plastic miniatures with pewter-weapons hybrid kits.
  - David Symonds
    
    The crossbowmen are hybrid models at £12.49 for 10.
    
    It’d be better to compare Bret MAA (£20 for 16, w/command and extras)
    with Basilean MAA (£15 for 20, w/command(metal), no extras).
    - http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid
      
      Or, at the other end, things like Perry Miniatures.
      
      52 hard-plastic Miniatures, with extras and (!) plastic command for £18
      
      As said, Mantic is shadowing GW prices, always a few pounds below. But they are not making bargain miniatures.
      
      In the larger picture, they are up there near GW in the “high-price” segment. They are (I believe) too expensive, all things considered, to be able to justify sloppy quality on the argument of making bargain miniatures.
K

Posting from New Zealand gives me a different perspective on mantic’s prices compared to games workshop. Consider the following:
Mantic skeleton horde = $44.90 from the local mantic retailer that I use.
Games workshop skeleton warriors = $47.70 from the same retailer (who does the cheapest GW models that I have found in NZ)
The mantic skeleton box contains 40 models and the games workshop box contains 10 models.
Other mantic plastic boxes vs GW regiments are also cheaper with 16 elf spearmen from GW coming out at $60 while mantic sells 20 elf spearmen for $30.
When GW forced regionalized prices they ripped off everyone down here in AUS/NZ. I used to save significant $$ ordering my GW direct from the UK rather than going to a GW here. Now anyone selling GW to me has their prices mandated. My point is that for some corners of the world mantic models are in fact a lot cheaper than GW.
I do love many of GWs models though. I can’t deny they are very good! But their company is scum for using regional prices like they do.
- http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid
  
  Fair enough.
  
  I admit it is probably too easy to ignore the peculiarities of GW prices down-under at times. I simply write from my own experience in the UK, and even than (as demonstrated by the discussion here) there are lots of differences depending on what you compare.
  
  By and large, Mantic prices seem to become much better if you buy larger bundles / boxes for larger army, and compare less favorably in small quantities.
  
  Again, this might make me biased as my “main” Mantic Game is DreadBall, not KoW, where prices tend to be fairly high (for low counts of miniatures), e.g. GBP 15,- for 8 Miniatures in a team or GBP,- 5+ for single MvPs.
- Roretan
  
  Another Kiwi here.
  
  I’ve just bought Mantic’s undead army from Wayland for roughly $90NZ, and I’m getting 110 models. Compared to the 20 I’d get from my lgs for the same price, Mantic wins (especially with the large bundles, as Zweischneid has said).
  
  That said, I’ll be buying GW from the lgs (or potentially an Australian site) for things like the corpse carts and cavalry, which will stand out more, and deserve to be higher quality miniatures.