Are you ready to rock?

I like to show everyone the actual new models as they come out - but unfortunately I don't always have access to them (and even when I plan to get them, it may not be right away).  (Now if Mantic (or any other company) wanted to send me their products for review, I would be very happy to do that - however at this time I have not gotten any free review copies of anything from anyone).

Studio versions of the Earth Elementals

I can't get all the new releases immediately, so sometimes I have to rely on friends.  At our regular gaming night this past Friday, Felix Castro brought some 'pieces' of his new earth elementals to use during our game, and graciously agreed to take some pictures for me to share here.

Earth Elemental Box

They come in the standard Mantic 'VHS' box (for you very young ones - before digital downloads there were DVD's, and before DVD's there were video tapes - used in a 'vcr' - video cassette recorder. There were two competing formats, and VHS was the eventual winner.  Video tapes generally came in a cardboard sleeve (well except for Disney ones), but you could buy boxes for the tapes you recorded yourself.  These boxes were a little longer and narrower than the boxes that Mantic uses, but still reminds us 'old folks' of video tape boxes.

VHS v. Mantimax

Inside the box are three 40mm bases, and a baggie of the metal elemental pieces.

Contents of the box

Each of the three models comes in five pieces (not including the base).  There is the body, the back, the head and two arms for each.  The body and the back only attach one way, so the base pose of the models doesn't change.

body

I do like that the three models are different from each other - you can easily see this in the backs - there are three distinct, different models.

backs

There are also three heads - however they do not seem to be as individualized as the bodies.  A natural comparison (especially because of the Greater Earth Elemental / Greater Obsidian Golem) would be with the Lesser Obsidian Golems.  The later are restic, and had three very different head designs (though the bodies were not as unique - with basically two legs and two bodies that you could mix a bit).  I will try to get a comparison shot at the Gem City Massacre on November 12th (since Felix will have these in his army, and I'll have my LOGs in my AD army (as a ringer if needed).

Heads

Where you can do some differentiation is the arms.  There are three right and three left arms, but you can mix and match them as you see fit.

arms

In addition, the arms all use basic ball/socket joins, so you can position them as well - and often just the way the arms are positioned can make it feel like an entirely different model.  Plus being able to change up the arms between models - there is much diversity that can be done (not to mention if you wanted to do a little converting).

Example of ball/socket joint

The bodies each have a 'gem' in their belly - which ties them in to the Greater Earth Elemental model Mantic released a while back.  I like this, and it does really help to differentiate them from the LOGs. (In addition LOGs are on 50mm bases, and are CS(2) v. CS(1) for the elementals - I think with these new models no one can mistake one for the other again (though of course you could still use whatever models you like.

elemental bodies - note the gems in the belly

The backs are also very unique (as I mentioned above) - one being the crystals found on the Greater Earth Elemental (another tie back), however the second has much more dirt and even a bit of a tree that has grown from it on his back.  This, I feel, gives it much more of an earth feel as opposed to just rock.  The third model again has more dirt, and even what looks to be a bit of a piece of a ruin and a stump in it, another nice touch.  It reminds me of the Reaper Earth Elemental model (which I had used as my GOG until the resin model came out) which has a fossil in it's back.

Earth Elementals backs 

With the flexibility of the arms, you can do a lot.  I like how Felix has positioned the one arm of his above it's head, ready to smash anything in it's way.  I'm partial to it because that is similar to how I posed my Greater Earth Elemental for my dwarf demo army.

An assembled elemental

My Greater Earth Elemental.  If we were to put them facing each other, would they be doing a high five?

Greater Earth Elemental

The regiment of three together makes a nice looking unit - and with CS(1) and DE 6+ they are great for holding the line - add a stone priest and now you too can do surge shenanigans just like the undead.

Three assembled elementals, ready to rock

Overall these seem to be a nice new addition, and I still want a regiment to replace the Rackham models I'm currently using in my Forces of Nature demo army.   Of course, this size of model being in metal makes them heavy - so be careful that you don't upset you opponent that is fielding them, or they could make a weapon buy themselves. (Honestly, I liked restic, and did not feel it was a bad material once you got used to it (especially for later models - some of the earliest ones did have a larger issue with mold lines, but this was not a big deal on the later ones).  I am looking forward to eventually getting a regiment and adding them to (what seems to be) the near infinite list of projects to work on.

Again I want to give my thanks to Felix Castro for kindly sharing his models with us, and allowing us to see the real models behind the studio paint jobs.

Because it is all fun and games . . .