Mantic "corporation" plastic minis

[Ironblood]

While I admire anyone who can sculpt minis well, since I can't at all, I am not moved to interest.  The square edged pauldrons are too reminiscent of GW Cadian Stormtroopers and Pig Iron's System Troopers.  And that's a Lasgun all day long.

You do realise that the cadians and kasrkin storm troopers dont have squared shoulderpads at all right, and the only similarity in the rifle to a lasgun is the tip of the barrel.

[Brummie]

They're okey, but not keen on the weaponry, so will probably see if I can fiddle with them a bit, if not, just snip the barrel of.

[dijit]

To me they look far too similar to GW's Elysian Drop Troops:

compared to Mantic's stuff:

They could be a little more original and the gun would be without a doubt recognisable as a lasgun by any 40k player.

[Ray Rivers]

They could be a little more original and the gun would be without a doubt recognisable as a lasgun by any 40k player.

Infinity folks could probably say the same.

SciFi stuff has a tendency to be kinda samey. 

Nevertheless, I like the gun.

[Eldorf.Dragonsbane]

These are the only other Mantic Minis that hold any interest for me. The others being the Ghouls and the Zombies.

The Ghouls I use as Ragers in my ATZ games, the Zombies as Zombies, and these when they come out I can see being used as either the Corporate "Security" for Castle Pharmaceuticals, Inc. the evil Corporation that has their hands in everything from Pharmaceuticals (Medical Supplies and Medicine) to Computers (they manufacture various computer components), to clothing, to vehicles, etc...

I could also use the General in my campaign as a Jim Raynor (from StarCraft) or a Capt. Harlock (the famous anime Space Pirate) styled hero. He has the gruff, hardened look to him, and the sword would be handy for melee with the undead, and the body armor would give him a protected status so that any as long as he passes 1d6 for a recovery from knock down test he is just stunned (same for the Mantic Corp. Grunts). Hopefully the General will be available as a separate figure, if he is I might try to pick up a couple, one for use stock and then another one or two for some conversions (most likely head swaps and/or weapon swaps).

[Ironworker]

The Imperial Guard units are themselves based on some fairly generic Sci-Fi concepts.  GW just sticks a bunch of gothic crap on their Imperial figs.  These don't have that.  Yay!  These are going to be dirt cheap generic sci-fi troopers.  The more options out there the better. 

[Simlasa]

To me they look far too similar to GW's Elysian Drop Troops:...

Those don't look overly samey to my eye any more than they both do to loads of other near-future styled troops.
I've whined about how Mantic should break away from GW's apron strings... but it's hard to blame them for playing it safe as they establish a name for themselves. Too bad that, so far, they haven't made much of anything that interests me... except for their ghouls.
I had lots of good will for their Abyssal Dwarves but they came out looking kind of mushy... maybe it's the paint job.
Still, I'm rooting for Mantic to make some waves... just not voting with my wallet... yet.

[Faust23]

You do realise that the cadians and kasrkin storm troopers dont have squared shoulderpads at all right, and the only similarity in the rifle to a lasgun is the tip of the barrel.

Forgive my memory of the Kasrkin pauldrons.  The knee pads and other bits were what I was thinking of.  And I don't think the lasgun comparison isn't limited to the tip of the barrel.  Apparently I'm not alone in this.

In summary, I don't see a differentiation in their overall look.  That could be intentional marketing to scoop GW players.

[Faust23]

I tend to agree that the Corporation minis look more Imperial Guard-ish in the flesh than they did in the concepts. Which is not what I'd like to see really but did expect given Mantic's modus operandi.

However I'm less sure how G.O.T. or MERCS are manga influenced to the point of being at some kind of an extreme end of the spectrum. Even Infinity minis aren't there for the most part, with some notable and IMHO embrassing exceptions.

Gotta disagree with you here.  ORC troopers aren't manga/anime influenced?  The first release of MERCs weren't either?  C'mon man.  Plain as day IMO. GOT maybe not so much, though I still get that impression.  Love their Gauss rifles...need to get some of those. 

[Connectamabob]

Got nothing against GW in itself (their business practices may leave something to be desired, but since I don't play GW, that doesn't matter to me), but I do find it very, very sad that their style has become so dominant in the gaming world that some apparently now perceive it as "generic sci-fi", and others perceive slight detail variations as making it "not particularly GW at all". Has the tabletop gaming world's image of sci-fi really become that shut-in and inbred? Seriously?

[tnjrp]

Gotta disagree with you here.  ORC troopers aren't manga/anime influenced?  The first release of MERCs weren't either?  C'mon man.  Plain as day IMO

D'oh, of course Infinity is manga/anime influenced. It's in the books. But they aren't exreme anime/manga style for the most part. For more of that, you'll want Soda Pop.

For MERCS, I don't really see a whole lot of manga/anime influence in them unless you want to count everything that doesn't have rivets as manga/anime style. I prefer the term "futuristic" as opposed to "gothic".

[Connectamabob]

...'Cept they don't look futuristic. They look clunky and kinda retro/low-tech even by modern standards, or at best like a hypothetical "alternate universe" version of modern tech/designs. Though that's an extremely wide spread issue with "futuristic" pop-culture sci-fi stuff of many stripes (and sometimes polka dots), not just this example.*

They don't really look "gothic" either, but "gothic" has been spread so thin as a stylistic concept that's practically come full circle: things that aren't really gothic are just as "gothic" as things that are very gothic. Or in other words, so much of what is considered very gothic is so slightly glothic or not gothic that a thing that looks as not really gothic as this might as well be gothic... and vice versa. Much like My Little Pony, all it needs is dark-ish paint accents, and Bob's your Count uncle.

*Sorry thought you were talking about the Mantic stuff. The MERCS stuff is a little better, but still only very near future. Conceptually speaking, powered armor is still a ways off (though now in sight), but the manufacturing methods and gun designs on display still look very modern.

[tnjrp]

Indeed Corporation is not "futuristic" and not properly "gothic" either but rather in the whereabouts of "gritty industrial". Which is pretty much what GW IG is too, give or take a few skulls and purity seals to tie them in the Imperial aesthetics. They are otherwise rather divorced from stuff like Witch Hunters and whathavewe.

Even for the futuristic mini lines like G.O.T. or Infinity, the guns tend to look like guns because people want guns to look like guns... At least they've gotten past the point of clunky body armour in those lines and moved to sleek clean-line aesthetic. Which may or may not be realistic (and I'd use that term with extreme caution when talking about anything related to miniature gaming) but does look futuristic.

[Glitzer]

Infinity folks could probably say the same.

They don't look "Infinitish" to me at all, just GW-Ish

[Ironblood]

Current lasgun for the last decade or so looks like this.  Maybe it's just me, but I really can't see the similarity here other than the tip of the barrel.

Forgive my memory of the Kasrkin pauldrons.  The knee pads and other bits were what I was thinking of.  And I don't think the lasgun comparison isn't limited to the tip of the barrel.  Apparently I'm not alone in this.

In summary, I don't see a differentiation in their overall look.  That could be intentional marketing to scoop GW players.

 I totally agree that they are trying to scoop GW players, no question about that haha.