Well with James (best wishes, now get outa here!) exiting stage left I thought an update on all things Mantic would not go amiss. So with no further ado…

1) We have some really good candidates to look at for the community role. The fans we have are very important to Mantic. We simply would not be the company we have become without all the support and help we and and still do receive. It is probably an unusual role considering the size of company we are but I think that without someone sharing our thoughts and interacting with our supporters – and feeding back their thoughts and fears – we risk losing touch with what really matters as we get bigger. I don’t want that to happen – and so the role must be filled. I hope to have a new face to fill the slot in the next few weeks. Thanks to all those who applied.

Could Blaine be our next community manager? Nah.

2) Thank you for your patience with deliveries and missing items over the last couple of months. We got slightly behind because the picking of the Deadzone was harder than we anticipated. The fact that the orders were huge and the factions and boosters came in multiple bags meant each pledge took a long time to pick – and also that we made a good number of mistakes!!!

We have had about 1500 responses on the missing items form, along with lots of other contact forms regarding the sale – which created a backlog. Apologies if we have been slow in getting back to you but we are getting caught up now. About 1/3 of the missing items requests just needed more information and those are getting answers, but the rest were missing a bag or parts from a figure. We are working through them now and we have the stock for almost all the missing bits. We have been sending out replacements for a few days so envelopes should be arriving soon. Where we do not have the item in stock we have it on order. We are despatching about 50 of these a day so hope to have everyone’s missing parts out in the next 4 weeks, if not sooner. Lessons have been learnt too – with products now coming in bagged as we want to despatch them and simpler tooling solutions, alongside better planning for the despatch operation. Thanks again for being patient – and I hope we will be back to normal service soon – where any issues or problems are dealt with the same days or at worst the next.

3) Kickstarters, Kickstarters everywhere! I have been asked a few times for a little inside info on our plans for kickstarters – largely so people can plan their spending! Firstly to anyone who has backed any of our projects – thank you. The support we get goes directly into developing the range and helps us make the great products you see on the shelves. I also recognise that backing a KS is a pretty major investment for most people and the support we get is humbling. While we pride ourselves on giving a big box of fun and toys for each pledge it is still a lot of cash to stump up, and I appreciate that. So to help you plan it is worth saying that Dreadball Xtreme is the only major KS we will be running for a while – it comes with a game and a box expansion plus lots of new teams, MVPs, campaign packs and so on. It is a full game. After that we will have a few months away from running any kind of KS – so we can go back to having a nearly normal life for a short while! We will be concentrating on getting Deadzone played by everyone and sending out the Deadzone second shipment and the Mars Attacks kickstarter, plus launching the awesome BattleZone scenery on an unsuspecting gaming world!

Battlezone – generic sci-fi wargaming terrain is coming to a tabletop near you!

When we do return we want to look at a couple of ‘mini kicks’ – to change around the format and make them more relaxed affairs. The ideas we have are to look at going back to Deadzone and making a few more models for the first 6 factions, then some new scenery sprues, and perhaps introduce a 7th faction (any ideas?) – but the hope is that it will be hard to spend too much money, because without a game to fund/pay for it can be more like a normal ‘hobby’ spend. It will also not be done until after the 2nd shipment for Deadzone is delivered in full. The other mini kick I would like is to revisit the Dwarf Kings Hold series – but again with it being a dungeon explorer rather than wargame the scope (and spend) should be limited.

After that? Well you best start saving now for these – they are going to be massive – one of course will be Warpath, the sci-fi wargame. Having seen the zombies coming through in the hard plastic I am really pumped about what this could be, and the vehicles from Mars Attacks are also looking great. The other future one is based around Kings of War – but even I am not so leaky to talk about this one yet but the ideas flying around for it are very exciting. The good news is that it will be very late this year, or early 2015, before we get round to either of these. So plenty of time to get playing the games you have on the way to you this summer!

Thank you for reading my insane ramblings. I hope it has been helpful. If you have comments or ideas about how to make Mantic better or any areas we need to improve please send me a comment via facebook or the contact us link on the website. And finally, thank you for backing or supporting us – even if it is just sharing the kickstarter link or speaking up for us at your club or store, it means a lot to us. I hope we are a hobby company you can be proud of and remain approachable and fun – so we can keep making hobby products you want to game with.

Best wishes

Ronnie