Mongoose Publishing is going to make a Babylon 5 space ship combat game.
They've made a miniature of the Victory class "destroyer" available only at
the major conventions; Excalibur was the ship in the short series Crusade. My
store partner came back from Origins with one, and I got it; for a hefty $25
(US). I just put it together, drilled a hole in the bottom for the stand (it
doesn't come with one), and primed it dark gray. I'll be going to bed now and
be ready to paint her up bright and early (ha!) in the morning. I'll leave the
hull the primed gray and paint in details (the picture on the box shows a gray
hull). If anyone knows a website with some pictures I'd much appreciate it. I
didn't find any in my one attempt.
Dimensions: 5 3/4" long x 3 3/4" wide x 3" tall, sitting
on its wings.
The base I'll use is a Full Thrust base, which I also put together, glued a
fencer washer underneath, and primed. I hope its enough and not need 2 bases;
I drilled the hole close the center of gravity.
So, how should I point her up to play against Steve tomorrow? (already today
*yawn*:)).
Glen
Quoting bail9672@bellsouth.net:
> Mongoose Publishing is going to make a Babylon 5 space ship combat
available only at the major conventions; Excalibur was the ship in the short
series Crusade. My store partner came back from Origins with one, and I got it
[...] <
I hate you. And I hate them... and, above all, I hate bloody "con exclusives!"
Okay, so I only mean one out of three of the above statements, and it's the
one about con exclusives. What is with manufacturers who do this? Why the
Hades do we poor benighted customers have to put up with having
ships/figures/whatever that we actually _want_ only made available at
conventions that hardly any of us can get to, and even then you have to win a
bloody raffle to be allowed to buy one!! I'm not joking: my son got me a con
exclusive figure from GenCon last year, but he had to win a raffle to be
allowed to buy it due to the demand! And, of course, the
maufacturer hasn't done anything sensible like put the thing into full-
scale production; oh, no, they'd rather put out a dozen other silly
repaints that no-one wants. What is this, business run for the benefit
of collectors?
This is particularly dumb in this case, because the Victory class was one of
the few ships that AoG didn't put out, and there are people out there (like
me) who would gladly buy more than one IF they could get them! So what do
Mongoose do? They make it a con exclusive! Arrggghhhh...
I _hope_ that they will make the sensible decision (as, for instance,
Jon has in the past) and release the mini generally once the game is
published. If not, they should be ashamed of themselves for pandering to
speculators rather than their customers. Anyone want to guess how long it will
be before these things go up on eBay at grossly inflated prices?
A rather annoyed Phil
> > Mongoose Publishing is going to make a Babylon 5 space ship combat
<snip>
> I _hope_ that they will make the sensible decision (as, for instance,
There was one on ebay the next day:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2537&item=5906695
914& rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW $25 miniature currently bid to $31.
I've been following this one for a while on a few different forums and there
are actually a few different ways to get the Excalibur mini. The basic way is
go to Origins or GenCon, but there are people on B5wars.net who have said they
will buy minis for them at GenCon for anyone who sends them money before the
con. If you get a 2 year subscription to Mongoose Games magazine, Signs &
Portents, you can get an Excalibur free. Bruce Graw, formerly of AOG who is
doing some writing and miniatures for Mongoose has said anyone who was
registered with B5Wars.net will get a mini if they want one some way some how,
even if he has to deliver it himself but specifics haven't been finalized yet.
And finally, I'm pretty sure it will be released as a general sale item
eventually (there have been some hints on the Mongoose forums). Mongoose's new
B5 space game, 'A Call To Arms', will be released at GenCon in
mid/late
August and then they will start releasing miniatures (full B5 Wars scale)
though there are no details on what minis and when they will be released yet.
Without a game and other ship minis, releasing the Excalibur in a limited way
has created buzz and has some logic. If the mini is part of an existing
line and then is a con exclusive for part of a non-collectable game,
that is another story. I'll be at GenCon so I will get my mini, but I do
suspect that once their line of ship minis is up and running, the Excalibur
will be
available to everyone through mail-order.
On the con exclusive items, the Dune RPG from Last Unicorn was the one I
should have gotten. It was a whole licensing issue etc, and that one was
really getting some good prices on ebay. I should have picked it up.
Another con exclusive at Origins were some cards from Wizkids new collectable
constructible card game 'Pirates of the Spanish Main'. You
punch out the parts and make ships, up to 5-masted ones and then there
is simple combat and movement as you try and control islands and treasure. A
sample ship was included in the goody bag (The Revenge with modified
con-promo only stats) and they were selling boosters limited to 3 per
person as it will actually be released in July. This game looks interesting
and there are a bunch of ebay auctions up already for these ships and cards.
> p-atcliffe@uwe.ac.uk wrote:
[...]
> This is particularly dumb in this case, because the Victory class was
Phil, don't hold back, tell us how you really feel about this.
;-)
Mk