Review: Mantic plastic models

With the weather turning cold, I couldn't spray prime any more models, so I turned to assembling instead.

The first batch was a heap of undead from Mantic. I don't remember when and where did I get them, but most likely for DnD. Too bad that the party is already level 6... but that never stopped a cool model to be used :D

Assembly: 9/10. Most pieces are easy to cut off the sprue, except the legs that have bases attached. I had to break out a heavy-duty cutter as the snippers did not fit between the base and sprue. Mold lines were easy to get rid of, and most of them were aligned to breaks in the armor anyway.

Poseability: 7/10. I don't know if that's how they come out of the box, but I got 10 ghouls and 10 zombies, each as a set of duplicated sprues of 2 models each. This would normally mean a very limited set of poses. However, the legs and torsos are separate pieces, and can be easily rotated for some sick contorsions. The ghouls have an interesting way of assembly, with the arms having grasping hands, but additional hand options available. I chopped off a few hands and glued on other weapon options, which was easy to do.

The zombies have a cool thing in that, if you assemble the models with regular legs and torsos, you get 10 models. However, there are additional pieces where a torso would burst out of the ground, and torso replacements that are just a piece of spinal chord jutting out. By using all of them, I got some additional models.

The skeletons are also very fun to assemble. Again, legs and torsos are separate pieces, although the legs are copy-pasted, with only a couple of variants on the 10-man sprue. Some torsos are set, with arms and head already in place, but others are missing right arms or heads. I, of course, took the chance to put on the most characterful heads - a raven picking at leftovers, an axe embedded in the skull.

Miscellaneous: 10/10. We have a solid amount of bits left. The ghouls have a lot of weapon options, both right- and left-handed, including this fantasy power glove thingy. There are also some pockets filled with body parts that I couldn't fit anywhere on the models, but I already have an idea for them.

The skeletons leave lots of leftover swords and spears. As I mounted the most chipped swords and broken spears on the models, I can use the remainder for any fantasy miniatures. Also there's this sick skeletal rat, for which, again, I already have an idea in mind.

Overall: another solid 5/7.