The Tide Has Turned

Finally! I don't know if this was a comedy of errors, an Alanis Morissette song, or just plain bad luck. I preordered this back in August, and figured that I'd go ahead and add some stuff for prize support for War Kings VI. Being new and all, I thought a second one of these plus a couple of other Champions boxes (plus an Ambush box) would be good prizes (and the poll I put on the event showed people about even for Ambush or Champions boxes).

I don't know if I didn't pay attention when I ordered them, or if they went backordered afterward, but the release date in mid September comes and goes, and no shipment. (Another aside (I know, that is so unlike me), but I LOATHE paying for shipping. If just feels like wasted money when I could actually put that same money into more stuff. So this was over the free shipping threshold. The second advantage to it being free is that with Mantic, free shipping is always courier tracked (used to be Fedex, now it is UPS) so you get the notice from Mantic for shipping, but you can also track it. This is also faster, being only a few days - verses Royal Mail which is a fire and forget - they ship it and it will get there whenever it decides to get there, and you have no idea where it is, or if it will ever arrive (I had one shipment many years ago from Mantic that took over a month via Royal Mail)). I kept watching, then looked and saw that the addition Champions boxes (Nightstalkers and Halflings - because I thought they were cool) were delaying it. I looked locally and at the Michigan GT - but no one else had it.

After a month had passed I finally sent an email to support and Rick (who is in charge of Pathfinders) to ask for some help with the order - since the backordered boxes are prize support anyway, I really don't care which ones they are. I just need them for the tournament, now 3 weeks away. Martin and Clive finally had everything in stock and shipped it. UPS got it, and said I should have it Monday.

Then I get another email from UPS, saying there was a problem. Apparently customs in the US was saying that my shipment was missing a "Toxic Substance Control Act Declaration". WTF? This is a bunch of plastic and resin toy soldiers. I have never even heard of this in the over 10 years I've been getting shipments from Mantic. They needed a "TSCA Single Entry Declaration Form: Board Games and Accesories, HTS: 9504.90.6000". They sent a link to a copy, but I had no idea what to do with it (and it appeared it had to be signed by the sender). Well I guess they also sent one to Mantic, and they filled it out and sent it in, so it cleared customs, and it showed up Thursday - so I had the prizes a little over a week before the tournament. Not quite just under the wire, but much closer than I liked.

Of course in the six weeks I've been waiting, people have already been putting up pictures, but I've never let that stop me.

So first the big reveal - the final mystery puzzle piece.

A bit disappointing to it just be a tiny sliver. But it is now complete!

So what could this represent? It was exciting a month ago, but by the time I got it it was already revealed, and Mantic had announced that the new army with the 4th edition of Kings of War (to start shipping in November (wait, it is November - now WHEN in November?) is the Xirkaali, and this was a claw. (If I had anything I could share about 4th edition or the Xirkaali, believe me, I would have. The models look amazing - so much so I may be playing them in 4th).

Enough of that, what else was in the box.

Of course you get cards. It only took me eight times to realize I could show the BACK of the cards (and the faction order card has special artwork even) without spoiling what was ON the cards.

You also get the little assembly booklet.

But nobody is here to see the box, cards or book - you want the models!

The only new model is, of course, Axel Tricklebrook - the champion (as is true with all champion boxes). He comes in just three pieces (plus the unique base). Pretty easy to put together.

As always, this new resin quality is excellent. For all of the champions models I've gotten, this is the first with just a tiny bit of flashing and some minimal mold lines. Not anything that is difficult or takes much time to clean up.

Be aware the tabs in the feet are NOT identical - so he only fits on the base one way. Also, you have to put the hands/staff/water over his head and attach the hands into the sleeves. It was only slightly tricky to get this in.

Were I to do it again, I might wait to glue him to the base until after both are painted - the water around the side of the base makes it challenging to actually get to some of the bottom areas of the model.

As I was cropping the pictures and about to copy them into one, it suddenly occurred to me that doing that meant all the pictures were now smaller. For parts, I really don't see where that is a problem at all - but full models and units - why am I making them significantly smaller (plus taking the extra time). Sure it is saving a few electrons and magnetic bits - but probably not worth the effort. (If you have any opinion on this (for or against) please feel free to comment here or on one of my facebook ~~spam~~ posts that the vast majority of my readers use to get here.

Anyway - the assembled model.

In addition to Axel, there are two sprues of Riverguard, two sprues of Naiads, and one Dambuster sprue.

I won't repeat myself - so if you want to see pictures of those sprues you can just go to my previous posts about them.

Riverguard sprue - https://blog.untilsomebodylosesaneye.net/2024/05/excuse-me-ive-got-frog-in-my-throat.html
Dambuster sprue - https://blog.untilsomebodylosesaneye.net/2024/04/something-smells-fishy-in-here.html
Naiad sprue - https://blog.untilsomebodylosesaneye.net/2015/12/four-plastics-and-fiend.html

It did shock me a little to realize that the Naiads came out for the Forces of Nature after the first kickstarter 10 years ago!

I do have a lot of unused painted models - so I wasn't going to just make new ones when I had some sitting there lonely on a shelf.

When I wrote up the Riverguard, I built some as 'normal' (used to be Treeleapers) with 2 handed weapsons, and some with throwing Javelins (the free upgrade) - which include a quiver for the javelins. It did surprise me to see how they are used here though - they have javelins but no ranged attack with them. So it doesn't make sense to have quivers. You know that hard plastic cement actually melts the 2 plastic pieces, effectively welding them together. Once it is glued and set - it is MUCH stronger than superglue (and less brittle) - so I wasn't removing those back quivers without damaging the back of the frogs - so I made new ones.

I did have some dambusters that I have not yet converted for my one Trident Realm army (I'm replacing the front legs (at least) with tentacles to fit my Cthulhu theme). So I grabbed one of those. I used a different head than in the picture though - because I love the head with a little frog on it. So a frog riding a frog riding a frog - Frogception!