Please use this thread for all Mantic Price Discussions, observations, queries, and general price rants for any and all of Mantics products.
Let's all help keep the Mantic News and Rumour Threads uncluttered.
Thanks guys!
Please use this thread for all Mantic Price Discussions, observations, queries, and general price rants for any and all of Mantics products.
Let's all help keep the Mantic News and Rumour Threads uncluttered.
Thanks guys!
I'll kick this one off with my own mantic experience.
18 months ago, I don't think I'd even heard of mantic really, it wasn't until I saw the zombies that I decided to pick some for a 40k zombie apocalypse game (having been disgusted with the wargames factory ones) I pre-ordered the set of 50, my memory says it was £25, but the website indicates £35, either way, I though it was a steal! Fast forward a few weeks and mantic release an announcement basically saying "hey guys, we've decided to add another 10 minis. Anyone who's ordered the set already will get these for freeeee". Wow, certainly not something I'd ever experienced with GW.
Roll on september, the models arrived and I built a bunch. And was stunned at the quality. But, being a 40k player, these zombies just got lost in the ether of my room. I kept an eye on mantic pretty closly until last summer when GW announced another price rise. I vowed never to buy a model from GW directly (still haven't) and slowly replace all my paints with those from other companies and such. I also took part n that whole GW boycott, and during that time I got really interested in Mantic, picked up some skellies and was hooked.
Back then, I was into mantic because of their price, but now, K.o.W is my main system and mantic my main company because of their price, their attitude and the quality of the sculpts (I certainly think everything in the undead range is of a higher quality that it's GW counterpart. But that's personal opinion I guess)
So what about mantic's prices now? Well it's come to the point that price isn't my main point for buying mantic. I'm glad most of the things I buy from them are much cheaper than GW but (take the corporation for example) do I mind some of this stuff is more expensive? No, not really. Yeah, the TK, Abyssal Dwarfs and Goblins should all be plastic, but I'd rather have them there in metal/hybrids than not at all while I wait for the cheaper alternatives.
(Probably massively incoherent) rant over!
Made a dwarf army for WHFB, for under £50. Did buy from total wargamer, as much as I love mantic and their stuff, I dont see the point in paying £60 for something I could get for £45.
Incredibly happy with the mantic prices right now.
Is there a problem with Mantic's prices?
I don't think there's an issue with pricing - everything feels fairly priced for the material it's cast in. I think the "plastic/restic/metal" thread will have more going on in it than this one.Originally Posted by redben
Personal taste plays into a lot of it - the mantic kits I like have been the ones I've purchased, and I haven't had any remorse doing so.
...and a little help comes in a little glass vial in a gun pressed against her anatomy...
You can always file off your nipples, it's easily done.
SHHHHHHHH!!!! They will hear you and raise their prices slightly!Made a dwarf army for WHFB, for under £50. Did buy from total wargamer, as much as I love mantic and their stuff, I dont see the point in paying £60 for something I could get for £45.
Incredibly happy with the mantic prices right now.
Lol... This is the evil empire we're talking about. Although they've stopped replying to my email asking for "Gamers <3 Ronnie" Bumper stickers :/
Currently, the the prices are on par with gw a few years ago. 100 models for £40 in a starter set? Thats BFSP, or Mhorgoths revenge. Even FotFS is the same as AOBR when it originally came out, with about the same number and type of models.
At some point, I'm planning to run a wargaming club with the 12 year old little timmies at my school. I think we'll exclusively be going for mantic, with little exception
Mantic prices are certainly cheap, but I feel more like I get what I pay for. The models are a fun diversion to paint up, but I don't feel like they're terribly high quality or on par with other manufacturers per price point.
When it comes to restic, or metal conversion models, I don't feel like they're the best value for money, but I've not picked any up yet. Perhaps the quality will blow me away, but I suspect it wont. They probably will, as I mentioned above, be nice diversionary models to paint up, but probably not amazing value for money for me.
Probably would be more value if I was constructing large armies.
I like gw minis but.....I like mantic as well. Price is great for what you get.
My paint blog............http://battlereadyminiatures.blogspot.com/
These are my thoughts exactly! The price/quality ratio is steady across the entire line (from plastics, to metal and whatever the third material actualy is) except for the Forgefathers and Marauders, which offer less value, yet higher price (personal opinion). The fantasy Orcs have a higher price and I couldn't figure out why, however the 10 man bits stuffed Undead and Elf Sprues are the pinnacle for value of money. Undefeated even up until today. Do the Marauders and Forgefathers have these excellent foams inside reusable boxes including posters and stickers? The 10 man boxes have those.
The biggest pricing issues with Mantic is when they do an army in restic or metal and they are priced higher than the plastic armies. The prices are still fair for what you get, so it then becomes a matter of whether you want a full army with not much plastic in it. Some do, some don't.
Does that mean Mantic have an obligation to provide all their armies primarily in plastic? They're a business first and foremost and if the numbers don't add up for plastic figures then they won't do them. People then have the right to buy or not to buy them. If enough people don't buy them then Mantic won't do it in future (which likely means the army won't be released/released as fast). Just because people are customers with an internet connection shouldn't give them a sense of entitlement. Vote with your wallet and leave it at that.
Having a customer explain why they're not buying your product is infinitely more useful than a customer who silently avoids your product (especially when they're in your targeted demographic).
Example: Let's say Mantic releases some metal spider people, and they don't sell. Customers show this by "voting with their wallet" - but why didn't they sell? Are the customers excited about the spider people, but not interested at the price point given? Do they take issue with the sculpting material? Did the concept not take to "miniaturization" well? Do customers just not want spider people in any form?
I'd rather have an outspoken customer who feels some version of entitlement than a silent clam who only opens his wallet at unknown intervals.
...and a little help comes in a little glass vial in a gun pressed against her anatomy...
You can always file off your nipples, it's easily done.
That would assume you can know that the person on the forum complaining would have bought the product if it were cheaper/had a better sculpt/was sculpted in a different material etc. This is not necessarily the case. I can complain that I wish the upcoming Goblins had been released in plastic and not metal but still buy them. Likewise I can complain that I'm unhappy the Twilight Kin are hybrid kits and as such a little more expensive but still not buy them if they get released in plastic at the lower price point. The only surefire way for Mantic to know what works is to see what sells. It isn't too difficult to work out from there what the problem is.
All that said I'm not averse to people saying they would buy "X" if it were cheaper. I'd love a FW Great Unclean One but can't afford it. I do have an issue with people complaining on forums because a company hasn't produced a product exactly to their preference. If Mantic release an army in restic or hybrid instead of plastic there's a good reason for it. Whether it's because they don't expect it to sell well enough to justify the expense of setting up production in plastic, don't have the capital to fund production in plastic and thus couldn't release the army any other way, can't get a slot with Renedra soon enough to release the army in plastic, feel that plastic is simply not suitable for the models or a combination or any or all of those things. If in doing so the army doesn't make a profit then Mantic will know that in future they'd be better off compromising on the models or just not releasing it at all if they find themselves in that position again. The sense of entitlement that Mantic should have to release every in army in plastic is something I have an issue with.
Obligation? Absolutely not.
Do I wish they did provide all their armies primarily in plastic. Yes, very much so. I find working in plastic much more enjoyable to plastic/metal combinations. I don't fault them for the choice as it may even be more of a time to market issue, but I'd jump on abyssal dwarfs and twilight kin in a heartbeat if they we're all plastic.
I just bought the whole set of Dwarf King's Hold. It's cost me almost as much as Dreadfleet would cost over here, but I feel okay about spending the money because I'm getting so much out of the purchase and it has potential for endless gameplay.
I'm not sure what point, if any, I'm trying make. I guess that in that particular case, I found that the cost was worth it.
I just bought a Mantic Orc army deal from Wayland for £37.49 (including shipping). I'll be using them as 30 Boyz, 20 Black Orcs, 10 Boar Boyz and 4 Snotling bases. I think I've gotten good value for money.
Extremely good value - purchasing that from a different company would set you back £171.60 (from a 10% off site)
Member of J.A.D.E.DTrying to convince Warseer that GW are anything less than perfect is like trying to teach a horde of zombies that lettuce is a perfectly acceptable alternative to brains.
Lest we forget
IM also starting to see a fair amount of Vamp counts armies with mantic zombies. Bless em! GW zombies are kind of rubbish in my opinion and with Mantic I can get oodels of em. But, on the other hand I feel That the GW savage orc sculpts are top notch. But even these im getting them were I can because im on a $100 a month budget. Mantic doesnt make savage orcs. I like their orc but if im to do them in the future ill buy them as a KOW army. Then if im feelin snarky ill mingle the two together between the two systems.
On the other hand I have a fair amount of Mantic undead which I love and feel like I got a great deal on. No buyers remorse there at all. I will be using these back and fourth for KOW and WHFB.
Last edited by Loki73; 01-02-2012 at 15:06.
My paint blog............http://battlereadyminiatures.blogspot.com/
It's been a real burr in me nethers for a while now that Mantic quitely transformed from the "Build Bigger Armies" budget model makers into the "Apple to GW's PC" alterna-brand. I find that WGF tends to inspire me to build bigger armies these days.
Back when the elves came out, I bought something like 60 or 70 Mantic elves of various stripes because they were cheap enough to experiment my converting and kitbashing on while having a design that was as easy on the eyes as it was on the wallet. Then the dwarfs came out, and I bought a ton of them despite the many obvious flaws in their sprue design, because they were cheap and they looked neat. When the undead started to come up, I still picked up some ghouls and skellies despite my lack of any real interest because they were priced for impulse buys.
I have not bought any orcs, nor any marauders, nor the evil dwarfs, either, because they are just too expensive to buy for snips and giggles. I've bought some ff stuff, but only a little bit, and grudgingly, because the price is now an obstacle. If Mantic wants to charge a lot of money, Mantic needs to deliver a lot of quality, and lately that hasn't been happening.
Bob wins!
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