Avatars of War

[Maccwar]

I challenge the GW fanbois just as much as the Mantic.. and the PP.. and the infinity.. and the wyrd.

And the Hasslefree fanbois? Or do you cut them some slack because you work (/have worked) for them?

[mattjgilbert]

Both Tonny and Gomez post positively when they feel it is merited. When they feel it isn't they don't. I don't see the problem. Shall we move on?

[GomezAddams]

And the Hasslefree fanbois? Or do you cut them some slack because you work (/have worked) for them?

Absolutely, a ranting fanboi is bad whatever it is there frothing over. And yet, I haven't found one posting thousand word postings about how absolutely brilliant Hasslefree are, and on the rare occassion you do its generally quite constructive and discusses things like anatomy and style over how HF will crush GW into the ground because thats the only way to be a successful model company...

[BobtheInquisitor]

Have you not thought for a second that people like me might be constantly commenting offering an alternate view point because we want to see Mantic improve? I want Mantic to do well but to do that it needs to live up to its own hype, which means not rushing out releases, not constantly rebundling products into new combinations, and putting out fresh product on a semi-regular basis as opposed to rehashing ideas.

This is why I do it. I like Mantic. I want them to be a successful company, and by "successful company", I really mean "a company that makes some models I like for a price I find reasonable."

If it seems like I'm not trashing GW enough to claim to be fair and balanced, maybe it's because I know GW ain't listening. Someone from Mantic probably is. Please don't mistake my resigned fatalism for GW fanboyishness.

Besides, every complaint I would make has already been made, and more eloquently! There's no need for my dissenting voice there. The Mantic forum, on the other hand, still sounds a bit like an echo chamber.

[Maccwar]

Absolutely, a ranting fanboi is bad whatever it is there frothing over. And yet, I haven't found one posting thousand word postings about how absolutely brilliant Hasslefree are, and on the rare occassion you do its generally quite constructive and discusses things like anatomy and style over how HF will crush GW into the ground because thats the only way to be a successful model company...

You managed to reply before I added the smiley which I edited in straight after posting. Some posts on the FoD slip into Fanboi territory whist 50% of the posts on FUUK seem to be about Kev's height.

For the record I wish Mantic's budget/Kev's schedule would allow Kev to produce some more miniatures for Mantic, But then again it is cheaper to buy a single miniature from HF than it is from Mantic.

[Autumn Leaves]

You managed to reply before I added the smiley which I edited in straight after posting.

It's a sign of over sensitivity. ;-) Lol

Some posts on the FoD slip into Fanboi territory

Really? and Gomez isnt there to mete out the necessary negativejudgement ? Our very own self appointed Mantic Forum frothing level supervisor fails to comply with frothing standards at the forum of his former place of employment? ;-)
Insupportable knave !!
How very hypocritical :-) Lol

For the record ... I wish Mantic's budget/Kev's schedule would allow Kev to produce some more miniatures for Mantic, But then again it is cheaper to buy a single miniature from HF than it is from Mantic.

For Mantics record, I called them to make yet another purchase today and took the chance to chat with the mail order troll and asked him specifically how sales were going with the AoW bundles, and he said the interest had been remarkable and they are selling out quickly.
Looks like the negative hype on this thread about it being a bad idea is just bunkum and hot air.
Good on Mantic and AoW for teaming up.
I wish them both well.

[Tonny]

It's a sign of over sensitivity. ;-) Lol




Really? and Gomez isnt there to mete out the necessary negativejudgement ? Our very own self appointed Mantic Forum frothing level supervisor fails to comply with frothing standards at the forum of his former place of employment? ;-)
Insupportable knave !!
How very hypocritical :-) Lol




For Mantics record, I called them to make yet another purchase today and took the chance to chat with the mail order troll and asked him specifically how sales were going with the AoW bundles, and he said the interest had been remarkable and they are selling out quickly.
Looks like the negative hype on this thread about it being a bad idea is just bunkum and hot air.
Good on Mantic and AoW for teaming up.
I wish them both well.

Yeah I don't know any salesmen who would say, nah they are selling badly, maybe you want to buy it? Or wouldn't it be better to say Yes, they are selling remarkable well, not many AoW bundles left, grab it now before it is to late

Same what they are doing with dreadfleet.

If it is true, it's good news for Mantic. I don't want them to have bad sales. I just hope to see Mantic imo sell a better product in the long run. Which imo are more options, bigger sprues and more diversity and as biggest wish "scale consistency in their own range"

[imm0rtal reaper]

Yeah I don't know any salesmen who would say, nah they are selling badly, maybe you want to buy it? Or wouldn't it be better to say Yes, they are selling remarkable well, not many AoW bundles left, grab it now before it is to late

Same what they are doing with dreadfleet.

If it is true, it's good news for Mantic. I don't want them to have bad sales. I just hope to see Mantic imo sell a better product in the long run. Which imo are more options, bigger sprues and more diversity and as biggest wish "scale consistency in their own range"

I totally agree with you on the salesman point.

And I'd really like to see more consistency in scale (mainly because the dwarves are huge!) And of course I'd love more options on the sprue for all kits, as long it doesn't drive kit prices up. Or if you can't make individual sprues bigger, follow the zombie/ghoul route and make as many of the kits across the army compatible.

[GomezAddams]

Maccwar - No offence taken at all, its entirely justified point to make which is why I felt the need to reply. I'm no longer on the FOD because customers would querry something with me when they didn't get a reply from Sal or Kev, and me being on the FOD was never meant to be a work thing. To avoid confusion, I signed off the account. Simples

AoW bundles, and he said the interest had been remarkable and they are selling out quickly.
Looks like the negative hype on this thread about it being a bad idea is just bunkum and hot air.

I didn't see much negative hype really - Oh by the way, did you ask them if this was an on going partnership whilst you were on the phone? Or did you find a news item saying that AOW and Mantic were in partnership? No? Didn't think so

Right, back on topic! AOW ay, aren't they chuffing lovely.

[Autumn Leaves]

Yeah I don't know any salesmen who would say, nah they are selling badly, maybe you want to buy it? Or wouldn't it be better to say Yes, they are selling remarkable well, not many AoW bundles left, grab it now before it is to late
Same what they are doing with dreadfleet.

No it's not, Dreadfleet has been pulled from the shelves in some countries already, and others yet to come, because it's not selling and everyone knows that. ;-) Dreadfleet has been a failure compared to the excellent Space Hulk box set.

Secondly, the troll didn't try to sell me anything, he didn't need to, I was already buying something, he simply answered my question. No frothing occurred during the course of my phone call but I did wish them all the best.

If it is true, it's good news for Mantic. I don't want them to have bad sales. I just hope to see Mantic imo sell a better product in the long run. Which imo are more options, bigger sprues and more diversity and as biggest wish "scale consistency in their own range"

Nice one, well given Mantics relative youth as a company, and considering how quickly they have developed thus far, I imagine they want to see all of that occur as well.
Scale consistency is a total misnomer. I don't agree with that at all Tonny.
I have GW models from 3 decades and they are a complete mismatch in scale across the different races and across the years.
Sometimes the scale drops in GW models, like the plastic dwarves and goblins for prime examples, in between editions. Why do they have such drastic size changes in their core options?
Is it to put off eBay sales of the previous editions as some think?
Who knows but the bottom line is that GW have just as much scale difference in their ranges as anyone out there, if not more.
Does it stop people from buying models from manufacturers?
No
It hasn't, it doesn't and it won't in the future.
GW or Mantic or anyone else can alter their scales and continue to sell effectively, history tells us that.;-)
There has been scale change threads for years about GW models but it hasn't affected their sales.
Scales rarely affect sales. The scale argument is a misnomer.
Good sculpting will always sell.

[Autumn Leaves]

I didn't see much negative hype really -

Thats because you don't read your own posts through, you just type and press send

Oh by the way, did you ask them if this was an on going partnership whilst you were on the phone? Or did you find a news item saying that AOW and Mantic were in partnership? No? Didn't think so .

I never said it was a 'formal' partnership, once again you are barking up the wrong tree. Like a dog with a bone you are gnawing on the wrong subject matter.
Go back and check the posts and this time read them through properly.
I never once said this was a formal partnership. THAT is something you tried to make out I was saying and you are wrong.
Sadly it looks like a basic effort at thread derailment yet again.

There is an 'aspect of partnership' between Mantic and AoW, that much is obvious, surely even to you Gomez, because Mantic are selling AoW character models in Mantic army bundles from their website, a clever stroke of marketing in partnership. That means they must have been talking to to each other for Mantic to have permission from AoW to do so?? Hmmmm...??
As I said earlier, it's a matter of common sense from both parties to have already foreseen that customers will buy these deals and use the miniatures in the different game systems as they desire.
This is the 'aspect of partnership' to which I referred.
Sorry if that wasn't clear enough for you, I hope you have the gist of it now.

I'll leave the last word here to max...

This whole "Mantic cheering crowd" Is a bunch of Casu Marzu. Even the most die hard Mantic fans over here critisize on regular occasions. Scarletsquig being dissatisfied with Elf and Assassin sculpts, me bitc.. er complaining about prices.

I can name you however 5 people regulary derailing the Mantic threads who up to date have never expressed any dissatisfaction with any GW products or any satisfaction with Mantic products. Go figure.

[GomezAddams]

Please edit postings rather then double posting.

I never said it was a 'formal' partnership

Oh boy

What is different here is the situation is two different manufacturers are getting together... (and later)... You can legitimately put AoW models in your Mantic KoW army and you can legitimately include Mantic models in your AoW system if you wish.

Now that Mantic and AoW have put their heads together and agreed to market their toys together

That to me is pretty clear your seeing it as a marketing agreement. A signed in stone marketing agreement, that gives people permission to use them in both systems at events run by either company. Erm... not really. If true however, could someone let me know when the next Mantic Open day is so I can paint up an AOW figure and enter it into the painting competition

Go back and check the posts and this time read them through properly.

Then please cut them down, be concise. It'll help your cause

Sadly it looks like a basic effort at thread derailment yet again.

See that bit up there where I said I liked Mantic? That bit where I said I had some Goblins on the way? Or the bit where I said I liked AOW? What about post 57 where I said if you wanted to carry this on you could do it via PM to get everything back on topic? If you want to keep posting in this thread and derailing it by making such postings then I'm going to reply and I'm going to challenge it backed up with hard facts. Thats what a forum is, welcome to the internet

There is an 'aspect of partnership' between Mantic and AoW, that much is obvious, surely even to you Gomez,

So... why haven't Mantic been selling the plastic slayers from the beginning, why hasn't Felix done any sculpts for Mantic? They both do models that are feeders off Warhammer Fantasy, and so any kind of combination is beneficial. Ronnies a smart bloke - he's bought in some stock to see how it sells. Whether thats as a way of showing Felix good sales as part of a distribution agreement who knows, but lets look at it this way. Realistically speaking, just how much is this going to make for AOW as it is? The AOW models are still being produced by AOW after all - in fact, if anyone recieved there packages could you confirm that they don't bare the Mantic splat please.

That means they must have been talking to to each other for Mantic to have permission from AoW to do so?? Hmmmm...??

Okay, let me put it this way because I don't think you really get it.
I decide tomorrow to set up Gomez online, for all your hobby goodness. I buy some Mantic stock, some GW stock, and some AOW stock. I take the characters from AOW, the troopers from Mantic, and the big monsters from GW and make a 'superawesomesauce army deal yay!' package. I don't have to talk to any of those companies what so ever. Obviously my distributor might get narky if GW gets annoyed at them, but you get the idea.

Also, if its a partnership - however official - why would there be limited stock? Surely if this was a long term thing they'd be getting more AOW minis in regularly...

Oh, last bit

I'll leave the last word here to max...

I criticise GW, just not in the Mantic subforum because that would be silly but go ahead and look around, you'll find criticism easy enough As I've said, I'd describe myself as a Wyrd fanboi if anything, and they make some truly god awful minis that make Mantic high elf line look stunning. Personally, I'm a bit of a magpie when it comes to models - if I see something good, I'll buy it regardless. Its why theres minis from 18 different companies on my desk (I just counted, christ thats a lot). I buy those because I like what I see and want to support the company moving in that direction. Hence recent aquisition of Goblins, pre-ordering of Corporation, and hopeful wanting of cheaper twilight kin.

If all I do is slag off Mantic, why am I buying there products? :S

Right, done, headache.

[Tonny]

No it's not, Dreadfleet has been pulled from the shelves in some countries already, and others yet to come, because it's not selling and everyone knows that. ;-) Dreadfleet has been a failure compared to the excellent Space Hulk box set.

Secondly, the troll didn't try to sell me anything, he didn't need to, I was already buying something, he simply answered my question. No frothing occurred during the course of my phone call but I did wish them all the best.



Nice one, well given Mantics relative youth as a company, and considering how quickly they have developed thus far, I imagine they want to see all of that occur as well.
Scale consistency is a total misnomer. I don't agree with that at all Tonny.
I have GW models from 3 decades and they are a complete mismatch in scale across the different races and across the years.
Sometimes the scale drops in GW models, like the plastic dwarves and goblins for prime examples, in between editions. Why do they have such drastic size changes in their core options?
Is it to put off eBay sales of the previous editions as some think?
Who knows but the bottom line is that GW have just as much scale difference in their ranges as anyone out there, if not more.
Does it stop people from buying models from manufacturers?
No
It hasn't, it doesn't and it won't in the future.
GW or Mantic or anyone else can alter their scales and continue to sell effectively, history tells us that.;-)
There has been scale change threads for years about GW models but it hasn't affected their sales.
Scales rarely affect sales. The scale argument is a misnomer.
Good sculpting will always sell.

It's true that GW scale consistency was not always there. I think it is since releases mid 7th edition that scale consistency for GW is more of a constant. It's not because GW hadn't any scale consistency in the past, that mantic has to do the same inconsisteny scale wise. It would be cool that Mantic can skip that and directly have scale compatible mini's in their own range. I know for some hobbiest this isn't important, but for me it is.

It probably has to do with the fact that Mantic uses freelance sculptors?

More options/bits for plastic sets would be great. Just check out the Perry WotR plastic box sets. Wonderfull sets.

Anyway I am a fan of AoW and I hope that Mantic will try to be more like AoW and not AoW trying to be more as mantic (miniature wise).

[Baragash]

It's true that GW scale consistency was not always there

Not a current GW High Elf player then


TBH I'm in two minds about the consistency/scale issue. On the one hand, I've seen Matt's Undead, and it looks great. On the other hand I've considered and rejected the AoW slayers and decided to just be (very) patient and wait for Mantic to do them in non-metal. I do think it's a good link up to add variety to the range of character models obviously available though, and I don't mind characters being a little out of scale etc, especially in KoW where they run solo anyway.

[Saxtomancer]

Well, I think that (atleast in undead box) AOW heroes fit nicely in there.

[Autumn Leaves]

Well, I think that (atleast in undead box) AOW heroes fit nicely in there.

Amen to that.

Gomez- Marketing agreement? Yeah for sure, I think Mantic and AoW have a marketing agreement, thats why Mantic are selling AoW miniatures in their army bundles, Lol.
Obviously there must have been an agreement to market the the different manufacturers products under one umbrella... Hmmm...

-Common sense Fail - O_o

I never said anything about a formal partnership though, so give it up as a bad job gone wrong sunshine.

Like Saxtomancer I think it's a great idea to market this stuff together.
It really works on some of the bundles in a big way... on the Goblin one though I'm not so sure...
As much as I do love some of Felix' monsters (like his gorgeous Minotaurs,) I just can't stomach that freaky Goblin shaman sculpt with the vomit spell effect that is in the Mantic bundle. That is a hideous sculpt.
I know, I know I'm stepping on that shifting sand of subjectivity that comes with personal taste and for someone else, like Gomez, might well love that sculpt, and all power to those who 'love' that sculpt... it's just I can't bring myself to like it, its in the same category for me as Gary Morleys 'Nagash' from back in the day.
O_o

[Tonny]

Amen to that.

Gomez- Marketing agreement? Yeah for sure, I think Mantic and AoW have a marketing agreement, thats why Mantic are selling AoW miniatures in their army bundles, Lol.
Obviously there must have been an agreement to market the the different manufacturers products under one umbrella... Hmmm...

-Common sense Fail - O_o

I never said anything about a formal partnership though, so give it up as a bad job gone wrong sunshine.

Like Saxtomancer I think it's a great idea to market this stuff together.
It really works on some of the bundles in a big way... on the Goblin one though I'm not so sure...
As much as I do love some of Felix' monsters (like his gorgeous Minotaurs,) I just can't stomach that freaky Goblin shaman sculpt with the vomit spell effect that is in the Mantic bundle. That is a hideous sculpt.
I know, I know I'm stepping on that shifting sand of subjectivity that comes with personal taste and for someone else, like Gomez, might well love that sculpt, and all power to those who 'love' that sculpt... it's just I can't bring myself to like it, its in the same category for me as Gary Morleys 'Nagash' from back in the day.
O_o

Not going to discuss this anymore. But about the Shaman the magic missile is an optional resin bit. Imo all AoW goblins are made of pure win.

[Autumn Leaves]

Thats nice for you, someone has to buy that muck ;-)

[loveless]

But about the Shaman the magic missile is an optional resin bit.

The Shaman's magic missile is the least of that model's problems - AoW has gotten into this dreadful habit of sculpting goblins with 2 foot long tongues lolling out of their mouths. I'd argue that it does clash a bit with Mantic's goblin style, which seems slightly more serious and vicious than GW's drug-addled squig-riders.

[Autumn Leaves]

Ah yes the AoW goblin tongues discussion, a common bugbear on the AoW forums.