Plastics

Should ACTA have Plastic kits

  • Replace All metals with plastics

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Replace all large kits with Plastics

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Replace all small kits with plastics

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0

Reaverman

Mongoose
What does everyone think about plastics, should mongoose produce them for ACTA. I like the small castings, but the large ships weight a hell of a lot, and assembly can be a pain.
 
Plastics would be good provided that they are at least as good as the models they replace. Beyond that I do not mind to much. I have been gaming for so long that plastic minis are a modern luxury to me. :lol:
 
The initial investment in moulds and materials would mean that only the most popular ships will ever break even. I doubt that every ship sould be produced in plastic, or even the majority. And prepainting them is another question again. Would you even WANT them painted in the, frankly, rather crap style of some plastics out there?

Wulf
 
Wulf Corbett said:
The initial investment in moulds and materials would mean that only the most popular ships will ever break even. I doubt that every ship sould be produced in plastic, or even the majority. And prepainting them is another question again. Would you even WANT them painted in the, frankly, rather crap style of some plastics out there?

Wulf

I see where you are coming from, but mongoose do produce plastics for their other ranges
 
Wulf Corbett said:
The initial investment in moulds and materials would mean that only the most popular ships will ever break even. I doubt that every ship sould be produced in plastic, or even the majority. And prepainting them is another question again. Would you even WANT them painted in the, frankly, rather crap style of some plastics out there?

What makes this odd is that I think it would also make sense to make the 'core' ships in plastic if possible. PLastic Omegas, Sharlins, and other ships actually seen in the show. But most of these are War level vessels, so you generally don't need too many...

PLastic fighters would be cool, though.
 
i`m not sure they are shifting enough product to justify retooling and making masters suitable for plastics

the initial investment can qute high, especially after they spent money buying up the original AOG molds.
 
reaverman said:
I see where you are coming from, but mongoose do produce plastics for their other ranges
True, and so they have the experience and the basic setup for them. But what sort of variety do the existing plastics come in? I genuinely don't know, I don't buy them - but they are considered pretty expensive in my FLGS.

Now, how many ships would you need for ACtA? I cannot see the possibility of EVERY ship being produced in plastic, or even the majority. So, most people would have to mix plastic and metal to have a free choice of fleet. Something I don't know of any wargamers ever doing, other than metal infantry with plastic tanks.

Wulf
 
It pretty much comes down to basic economics.

The cost to make a mold for a typical 28mm human size figure I've heard is around $200-400. The cost to make an injection molded die for a plastic model is somewhere in the tens of thousands of dollars. When you amortize those investment costs into the cost of each individual model, the only way you can make it more affordable for plastic is to sell 100 times more than you would with pewter. Now I believe tooling for soft vinyl is cheaper than injection molding but you loose alot of detail and the parts are rather deformed and you pretty much get the crap that Wizkids and WotC dump out.

Models like plastic CAP Troopers and Arachnid Warriors come fairly cheap as each player needs LOTS of them. The Plasma and Tanker Bugs are much more expensive than what they appear (despite the lower cost materials, lower cost production facilities, and lower shipping weight than the pewter or resin alternatives) because the same investment costs (or more) went into making the molds, yet less are expected to sell (as you can only have something like a max 3 per bug player).

The only way Mongoose could justify plastic ships would be to make the game such that every player should have to buy the same models. Very difficult with as diverse of a collection at the B5 line has.
Anoither way is to market the game such that it could be sold to very large retailers in very mass quantities (like Walmart or Toys R Us). Of course it would be then dumbed down to a clix game and more than likely no longer supported by your FLGS. Another way is to force you to buy ships you don't want or need by randomly packing them.

Personally I'm glad that Mongoose picked up the old AoG molds and better yet are selling them for less than what the old AoG retailed them for. I don't know if you recall but the EA Poseidon Supercarrier from AoG cost $40 (and that was quite some time ago) and it didn't come with any fighters! I'd say that Mongoose is giving you quite a deal on pewter figures.

As for pre-painted, blech! I hate prepainted and find no added value in prepainted models (as I enjoy painting mine as much as I enjoy playing), especially if the paintjobs are crap.
 
CmdrKiley said:
It pretty much comes down to basic economics.

The cost to make a mold for a typical 28mm human size figure I've heard is around $200-400. The cost to make an injection molded die for a plastic model is somewhere in the tens of thousands of dollars. When you amortize those investment costs into the cost of each individual model, the only way you can make it more affordable for plastic is to sell 100 times more than you would with pewter. Now I believe tooling for soft vinyl is cheaper than injection molding but you loose alot of detail and the parts are rather deformed and you pretty much get the crap that Wizkids and WotC dump out.

Models like plastic CAP Troopers and Arachnid Warriors come fairly cheap as each player needs LOTS of them. The Plasma and Tanker Bugs are much more expensive than what they appear (despite the lower cost materials, lower cost production facilities, and lower shipping weight than the pewter or resin alternatives) because the same investment costs (or more) went into making the molds, yet less are expected to sell (as you can only have something like a max 3 per bug player).

The only way Mongoose could justify plastic ships would be to make the game such that every player should have to buy the same models. Very difficult with as diverse of a collection at the B5 line has.
Anoither way is to market the game such that it could be sold to very large retailers in very mass quantities (like Walmart or Toys R Us). Of course it would be then dumbed down to a clix game and more than likely no longer supported by your FLGS. Another way is to force you to buy ships you don't want or need by randomly packing them.

Personally I'm glad that Mongoose picked up the old AoG molds and better yet are selling them for less than what the old AoG retailed them for. I don't know if you recall but the EA Poseidon Supercarrier from AoG cost $40 (and that was quite some time ago) and it didn't come with any fighters! I'd say that Mongoose is giving you quite a deal on pewter figures.

As for pre-painted, blech! I hate prepainted and find no added value in prepainted models (as I enjoy painting mine as much as I enjoy playing), especially if the paintjobs are crap.

Its not the price of the model that bothers me, I was trying to point out the problems with large metal castings :)
 
reaverman said:
Its not the price of the model that bothers me, I was trying to point out the problems with large metal castings :)

the only problem with them is that they are starting to show their age (hence piles and piles of flash).

it would still be more economical for Mongoose to remake them for metal rather than plastic.
 
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