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I had wanted to keep lurking the thread until I had some decent builds to post, but something came up that I wanted to ask about. It seems like a few stores are getting the master grade Rick Dias restocked, and it's one of my all time favorite suits. The thing is it's an older kit and I was wondering how well it holds up. I'm not expecting top of the line articulation both due to it's age and the design itself since it's a chunky robot, I just want to know if it's a worthwhile and fun kit. I've also never built a MG kit of any kind before so I'm not really sure what to expect or to compare it to other than just the general "bigger, more details, more gimmicks" that MGs promise. A lot of the googling I've done just keeps returning hits on the refreshed high grade instead. Does anyone here have any experience/opinions/advice/etc on the kit?
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Mar 25, 2024 05:42
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Thank you for all the input! All of it was actually really useful, and the Dalong images were very informative and reassuring. I decided to go ahead and order the kit, though I do think I may end up saving building it until after I've finished a few more of the high grades I already have. Maybe when I'm all done I can take a "family photo" of the MG plus the HG and G-frame Rick Diases I already had. Marx Headroom posted:My question for the thread is, anyone aware of smaller (like tabletop sized) model kits in the mecha domain? I've been hooked on those Gundam Artifact kits. They're perfect for short bursts and easy to take with you, I can throw 2 pairs of nippers and a tube of glue in the box and carry it in my pocket! But I've built almost all of them now. Is there something else like this out there? I can actually help with that, tabletop minis is my background moreso than model kits as a whole. I can do a more in depth effort post of sorts if you'd like and the thread doesn't mind, but the already lengthy tl,dr is basically; Tabletop sized mecha is largely pretty under-served because the driving force for most tabletop minis is actual wargames or rpgs to go alongside them, and there just aren't very many mecha games out there. You do have some options though, but they are going to vary depending on what you are looking for whether that's the building experience, the painting experience, and whether you care at all if you can use them to play an actual tabletop game later. Some of the options you have that I am aware of are: 1. Games workshop's Tau Empire model line, specifically the battlesuits. They are reasonably close to gundam style mecha in aesthetics, though have their own sensibilities and spin on things. There are only maybe 3-5 kits that fit the bill with the Crisis battlesuit team, Broadside battlesuit, and Tau empire commander/commander battlesuits being your best fits. The quality and build options on these tend to be pretty good. They are made of the same plastic as gundam kits. Unfortunately the pricing on these is horrible, they are absurdly expensive for what you actually get. If you go this route I would recommend a secondary retailer because they tend to sell at 10-15% off msrp, or look on ebay where you may get a good deal. Now may be one of the better times to look for deals as this faction just got a new rulebook that had some... divisive changes in it as far as battlesuits go, so some people may be selling off either used or un-built kits. This is probably the best option if you are looking for a slightly more complex build and the ability to also use the models for tabletop gaming, they also are good kits for painting by design. 2. Catalyst game lab's Battletech. These mech designs tend to be of the heavier "tank with legs" design type aesthetically. They come pre-assembled with no build options and are made of a softer plastic, but not the lower quality "board game" style soft plastics you usually see. They do have mold lines you have to remove that can be pretty prominent depending on the model in question, and the softer material can make it a bit harder to remove with files or sand paper, but not impossible. The price on these tends to be pretty reasonable as long as you are ok with mixed sets of mechs rather than being able to buy individual ones. It's generally a little north of $20 USD for 4 mechs. These are probably the second best for being able to be used in gaming, are reasonably fun to paint even if they are a bit basic, but have no kit building experience whatsoever. 3. Dream Pod 9's Heavy Gear blitz. Some Canadians watched Armored trooper Votoms and thought the scopedogs were very cool, so they made a game inspired by it. All the designs are very "this is a mass produced military vehicle" in style, and are expendable though not disposable. They are very in line with the Scopedog visually, but are distinct enough to not be a 1-1 copy, and each faction has their own design and aesthetic sensibilities. The model line itself is a bit of a mixed bag, as everything outside of the starter boxes for the main factions are made of metal rather than plastic, and the first few factions that got their plastic starters had some design problems due to them being the company's very first plastic kits. The newer starters however are pretty good quality, are made of the same plastic you'd be accustom to with gundam kits, and have pretty good build options. I personally chose them as my go to for tabletop mecha, but they may not be to your tastes. The pricing is pretty good if you are willing to buy the starters, though it is buying in bulk of sorts. It's around $60 USD, but you get 15 or so mech models. It's a Canadian company however so shipping costs may be bad depending on where you live, I know a few US retailers for it but am ignorant of any outside of that. The newer better kits are pretty fun to build in my opinion, with the earlier ones still being ok if you are willing to put up with some flaws or put in some fixing work, they are decently fun to paint as well. As far as gaming prospects go they are unfortunately somewhat slim, though not non existent. It's a niche game that I personally think is much better than the two mentioned above, but not very popular. There is also a tabletop rpg if you are into that. As an amusing side note, these models are technically the same scale as HG gundam models, but the mechs in universe are way smaller. So if you wanted shin high escort units for your HG kits, or wanted to share some crew models or accessories you should be able to. 4. Games workshop's Adeptus Titanicus. This is if you want your mechs to be part big mech knight, and part gothic architecture. Carries all of the same qualities and problems of Games workshops' other products as mentioned above. The game is apparently liked well enough, but I have no experience with it. 5. Palladium game's Robotech/Macross. These are out of production, and the building experience is apparently not very fun and in fact ludicrously infuriating with the finished models also being pretty fragile. Apparently the product of a design team that straight up does not know how to part out miniatures combined with source designs that are largely pretty spindly. The Destroid models are apparently better, but the Valkyries and Zentraedi mechs are pretty notoriously bad. I don't personally know what these models are made of plastic-wise. These can sometimes be found either secondhand or in the clearance sections of some web retailers and generally are decently priced even without a markdown. Gaming prospects are absolute zero. I'm not going to lie I can't really recommend these, but they technically exists. I will warn that regardless of what you choose that none of these product lines are going to live up to the standards set by Bandai, they pretty much are in a league of their own. I hope any of this was helpful, and would be happy to try to answer questions if you had some.
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Mar 25, 2024 20:05
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Warmachine posted:To narrow this down a bit and provide context Phantombane may or may not have, the closest thing to Gundam Artifact you'll find in this list are the Battletech minatures and Heavy Gear. If I'm remembering my sizes right, the Gundam Artifact figures are a bit larger than your average Space Marine in 40k just over two inches in height, and both Battletech and Heavy Gear seem to operate in the same "32mm base" scale of 40k. Yeah this is correct, though I did a little more looking and found a size comparison between a Gundam artifact kit and a Tau crisis suit, they seem to be roughly the same size. I fully agree about nailing the vibe as well!  I also decided to take a few photos of my own to hopefully add a bit more context. Apologies for the somewhat poor quality photography.  Here's a Heavy Gear Jaeger, a Games workshop Primaris space marine, and a Battletech Wolverine mech side by side. For clarity's sake the Jaeger is the 2nd smallest mech in it's box set, and this one has a 3D printed head instead of the stock one that came in the kit. The Space marine and the Wolverine are closer to the "standard" size for their respective lines. Here they are again with a ruler for scale.  And here they are in front of a HG IBO Sigrun that I was helping my brother build.  Finally, to demonstrate some of what I meant between the older Heavy Gear plastics and the later ones, here's the comparison between a sprue from two different sets:  The one on the left is the sprue for the same Jaeger mech I posted above and it's from the 2016 Southern army box, the one on the right is a newer Chasseur mech from the 2018 NuCoal army box. In universe these are related designs and are nearly the same mech, it's a bit of a Zaku II versus Zaku II high mobility or F2 kind of situation. However the Chasseur has more parts, mostly better laid out parts (note the head orientations on the upper left of the sprue for instance, the Jaeger has a gate connected to it's face while the Chasseur avoids this), and more opportunities for posing because of things like the arms and shoulders being separate pieces unlike the single piece versions on the Jaeger.
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Mar 25, 2024 23:01
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Marx Headroom posted:This was very helpful, thank you so much!! I've painted a lot of Battletech minis but I had no idea about Heavy Gear Blitz and that looks like a lot of fun. GWS prices stink but I might have to hold my nose for those Tau figures once I run out of ideas. Happy to have been of some help! Those front mission kits are pretty cool too, nice find. In other general news, my MG Rick Dias came in and everything looks good. When it arrived I was immediately hit with the recognition that due to having ordered all of my kits online or having bought them from retailers that don't stock MGs I had never actually seen a MG box in person before. I wasn't really prepared for just how large it would be! It's not a problem, but it was certainly a surprise.
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Mar 31, 2024 01:23
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