Thursday 12 November 2009

300 Club Ventaurans

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Are you a closet fan of the Zhodani? Well it's time for me to don my clamshell helmet and come out of the transporter to declare "I AM a Zhodani!.... and so's my wife!"

It's nothing to do with their culture, spirituality or even military prowess. I, shallow being that I am, just like the uniform!

Oooh! Suits You Sir!

I contacted Nic at Eureka about the Ventaurans listed on Eureka's '300 Club'. These would be 15mm counterparts of those produced by
Denizen Miniatures in 25mm.

Denizen 25mm Ventaurans

For those of you who don't know, the '300 Club' is essentially a wish-list for bespoke miniatures. Once a minimum of 10 customers place orders totalling 600 figures, the miniatures will be sculpted and put into production. Nic kindly replied to my query:

"Although the Venturans are over 400 they are still only two thirds of the way top the 600 figures we need pre-ordered before we can look at producing them.
We have permission from Chub Pearson to make his figures in 15mm form, but with the current number of figures and pre-orderers, we would only be looking at four to six figures. We need more people on board before we can look at a complete range. My reading of the original request is that the 25mm poses should be reproduced in 15mm. This could be discussed amongst the members of the Club when we reach the 600 figure and ten customers that we require to go ahead." Best wishes, Nic

Thanks for the reply Nic!

I was glad to hear that the gamers committing to the 300 Club had a say on the sculpts. These days I'd certainly want more 'aggressive' poses
(cough! Who said tell them to look at GZG New Israelis!).

Would these 15mm Ventaurans or other potentials for Zh'ol Commandos pique your interest?

Cheers

Mark
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9 comments:

  1. >500 now,

    I just added a bunch...

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  2. Good we'll see if it gets there, Nic's 300 club hasn't been the most prolithic sorces for new figures that one would think....

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  3. And yet Eureka produces Mound-builder culture Native Americans? And Frogs and Teddy Bears (in 25mm, admittedly)?

    Do we need to beat the drum on the MongTrav and GurpsTraveller boards again? There must be a few more people out there who will take a couple of packs each.

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  4. I use the 6mm Ventaurans from Adler as Zhodani. They are fab and the Adler price can't be beat.

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  5. But Dylan...

    ...Them's 6mm, not 15mm.

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  6. Despite being 6mm Dylan is legitimising the use of the Ventaurans as Zhodani.

    I haven't got into 6mm Sci Fi yet, but my resistance is crumbling due to both Phil at Firezone Studios and Dylan.

    Cheers
    Mark

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  7. I was the one who originally contacted Chub Pearson about making the Ventaurans in 15mm. Chub sent me a wonderful email about being a bit too long in the tooth to be sculpting in 15mm. His eyesight is not the best and so the only new sculpting he does is in 1/43 scale motor sports which if you've been to his website you'll know is a huge passion with him. He gave his permission for anyone to make a 15mm version as long as he was sent samples after they are made. I think Chub is great.

    In order to counter the potential financial difficulty of paying licensing of clamshell Zhodani, I thought these would be close enough for most people and contacted Nic at Eureka. I'm personally a stickler for having as many poses in 15mm as possible for a unit, but Nic informed me that would be rather expensive. A bit disheartened, I haven't really been pushing this.

    I'm still surprised that no one in the manufacturing community has seized upon the demand for these figures. Two weeks ago I watched a blister pack of 12 Zhodani from Martian Metals sell for over $75 on Ebay. My understanding is that Marc Miller is the copyright holder and is not as unreasonable as he is sometimes made out to be. So as nice as Ventaurans would be, what I'd really like to see are some real clamshell Zhodani figures in a good number of dynamic poses in a scale which would match the modern definition of 15mm.

    Don't get me wrong I'd still buy the Ventaurans I've committed to and mix them in or use them as Zhodani Commandos. They're just that cool.

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  8. OK, I didn't play Traveller, therefore I haven't met the Zhodani yet, but would someone be kind enought to tell me the difference between the Zhodani and any 15mm full body armor suit helm with visor SF miniatures please ?

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  9. Hi Piotr

    Apart from being COOL! They are not just ANY full body armor suit helm with visor SF miniatures! It would be like producing 1916 Germans and selling them as Panzer Lehr grenadiers.

    Cheers
    Mark

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