“Do you ever get buyer’s remorse?”
Only every time I buy a game. For me, over $20 for a product is a big investment - I can count on my hands the number of > $100 purchases I have ever made, so that miserly bit comes out the moment I walk out the door with a big box of plastic and cardboard in my hands.
Still, buying a big box-set of plastic minis for just the minis may be a bad start. Not going to lie, while the VF-1A Valkyrie is my favorite mech of all time, I tried Palladium’s Robotech game at GenCon this year, (Or was it last year already? It is January now after all...) and was not extremely impressed.
...even so, I picked up the base box from the local shop today because I’m addicted to the plastic crack.
So let’s get down to that unboxing!
...oh dear...
...that’s... Not organized at all.
I was going to do a full breakdown later, (as my table is still covered in my latest miniature misadventure,) but after a cursory inspection, I broke out all the pieces. Turns out out there’s a few problems.
Just in glancing through, some minis are double-booked on sprues, the scout pod and officer battlepod namely. This is not a good idea - there’s already enough pieces on a sprue that you really don’t want to be confusing people with different models on the same sprue. This also precludes the ability to sell the double-booked individually or in different groups.
The minis themselves, while respectable, are not too impressive, especially considering the detail you can get into resin these days. Also, coming down from putting together Warhammer and Dropfleet minis with their half-ton sprues, these feel awfully... Flimsy. I really shouldn’t say that - they are adequate, but there is that unfortunate connection after coming off something so (excessively,) weighty.
The assembly instructions are light - one sheet for all, plus instructions for the Phalanx and Spartan, which are an expansion. (Makes me worry that there may be no instructions in that box.)
There was at least one of the included dice with an odd... Protrusion. (Not sure how you could mess up a plastic cube bad enough to look like a comet.)
Also, the manifest lists “15 Veritech Valkyries; 5 Each in Fighter, Guardian, and Battleroid modes.” In the pack is five individual sprues each for the Guardian and Fighter modes, then thee double-sprues for the Battleroid. So technically there’s an extra?
But that’s not the big deal breaker here.
...Read the manifest: 2 Defender Destroids, 2 Tomahawk Destroids. Box contains: 4 Defender Destroids, (two per sprue,) 0 Tomahawk Destroids.
Brand-new plastic-wrapped box, and they derped the contents. Considering I really was buying this just for the minis, I’m rather pissed off I’m missing one of them, and a classic one at that. I’d be pissed if they forgot one of the horde of Battlepods, but nooooo they had to forget the Warhammer Tomahawk!
Uninteresting game, poor packaging, can’t even get contents right - would not buy again.
