Starting with the Beginner Box and A Game of Armored Combat in 2019, Catalyst Game Labs has been producing plastic miniatures with updated sculpts. Similar to Primaris Space Marines for Warhammer 40,000, the new miniatures would be scaled up a bit in size and better detailed than the older miniatures. Unlike Primaris Space Marines though, these would just be new models for the existing units and rules.
The Clan Invasion Kickstarter has expanded the new line so that it now incorporates a lot of different models. The new miniatures from Wave 1 of that Kickstarter are available to order now, and my understanding is that Wave 2 is shipping soon to backers and then those miniatures will be available to order from stores too.
After I finished painting my old miniatures from the Introductory Box Set, I decided that I’d start collecting the newer miniatures. To start, I ordered all three of the newer boxes (Beginner Box, A Game of Armored Combat, and Clan Invasion) plus a few of the force packs that were in Wave 1 of the Kickstarter (Inner Sphere Command Lance, Clan Command Star, and Clan Elemental Star). I figured that would give me a nice selection of units for both the Inner Sphere and the Clans.
For the Inner Sphere, that gave me the following units:
- Locust
- Stinger
- Commando
- Valkyrie
- Griffin
- Shadow Hawk
- Wolverine × 2
- Catapult
- Thunderbolt
- Archer
- Marauder
- Awesome
- BattleMaster
And for the Clans, I now have:
- Mist Lynx “Koshi”
- Adder “Puma”
- Shadow Cat
- Grendel
- Nova “Black Hawk”
- Stormcrow “Ryoken”
- Summoner “Thor”
- Timber Wolf “Mad Cat”
- Executioner “Gladiator”
- Dire Wolf “Daishi”
- Elemental Point × 7
Overall, the new miniatures look great. They come pre-assembled and ready to use in games. The new sculpts have a well defined size difference between the various classes of mechs so that it is pretty easy to identify which miniatures represent lighter and heavier units. The new miniatures also have both more detail and more consistent design elements across the range than the older sculpts.
That said, a couple of the miniatures had issues when they arrived. My Stormcrow seems to have not quite been put together properly and the torso has a bit of tilt to it. It is still good enough to use as-is, but I’ll probably try to separate and re-glue the pieces to even it out. My Marauder’s arm was also broken off when it arrived, but that looked like a result of the box being crushed in shipping rather than any sort of flaw in the miniature.
Since I’m quite happy with the new miniatures, I went ahead and pre-ordered a bunch of other force packs through the Kickstarter’s still open late backer system. I missed the Wave 2 cutoff, but my understanding is that any pledges going in now will get fulfilled by Catalyst Game Labs after Wave 2 ships.
I hope that the miniatures continue to be a big success for Catalyst and that they can keep working their way through more mech designs with new sculpts and plastic miniatures.
Scott's Game Room 