Everything they make just seems like a B-team effort. Now they are still a cheap product to purchase, and have long betted on that simple strategy. Poorer quality materials, generally poor sculpts...but cheap.
I bought into the Dungeon Saga Kickstarter back maybe 4-5 years now. Upon opening it I was so underwhelmed with the general quality of almost every game component that I sold it the next day on eBay (and not for a major profit!).
I had seen Mantic talk about this Terrain Crate KS a couple years back and thought maybe, just maybe they'd found a niche where they could do something worthwhile.
I picked up a box of Mantic's "Torture Chamber" dungeon dressing. At $28 it was pretty reasonable and I thought if they'd finally turned a corner I could fill my whole dungeon with glorious furniture and set pieces.
Verdict: Still Mantic.
I received a big box which was shockingly light. This was because, upon opening you find it's literally 85% air with a black plastic tray holding a scant handful of miniature pieces. Everything advertised on the box was there, but in typical Mantic fashion, the unboxing produced a wave of mediocrity.
This is how much wasted space you get in the frankly huge cardboard box:
The pieces were okay casts, and okay designs...but small (proper 25mm more than 28/32mm), and in a slightly spongy plastic, meaning the legs on the racks were warped and the cage collapsed on itself if you squeezed it at all. I tossed a handful of the smallest/most useless pieces, and quickly painted up the rest of the bits.
The end results look fine, if small. I'll make use of them, but I will not be returning to Mantic for more mediocrity. Also, worth noting that some of the plastics in this kit had a similar result to Reaper Bones in that they remained rather tacky after priming with Krylon (which normally doesn't do anything to my minis).
No comments:
Post a Comment