Howdy, I'm a newbie that got sucked in by the Clan Invasion KS and Catalysts plastics. I'm looking to supplement my already massive collection (35 lances and 23 stars worth so far, I went hard) of plastics with more variants, vehicles, and mechs, but I would like to keep these mechs and vehicles consistent with Catalysts plastics in terms of style and aesthetic styling. To that end, I'm finding it frustrating navigating the IWM product range due to the there being multiple sculpts for any given mech/vehicle, etc. and it sometimes being difficult to ascertain which of them are consistent with Catalysts scaling and styling. Some of these are obvious, the
Locust LCT-1V / 1E / 1Vb Royal kit is very clearly based on the
Catalyst sculpt and its very easy to tell it apart from older Locust sculpts from 10 years prior, but then you have 4
different Shadow Hawk
sculpts released from 2016 to 2019 that all
look very
similar to Catalysts
sculpt - but on close inspection of details that are still some notable differences, even with the most recent ones released post AGoAC box.
This issue becomes even more problematic in the case of newly released mechs that are based on Catalysts more recent artwork (such as those found in the IlClan Rec Guides) or are otherwise not based on mini designs that Catalyst initially produced. Is a
Viking IIC (Standard) going to be consistent with a Viking IIC variant that Catalyst might release at a later date? Is it safe to assume that the new
Atlas II AS7-D-H / AS7-D-H2 is scaled consistently with Catalyst existing Atlas I sculpt, and that it will continue to be scaled consistently with a potential future Catalyst-made Atlas II? The IWM
Dominator looks great, but if Catalyst hypothetically releases a Dominator 2 variant in a year or two will it be styled and scaled consistently with it?
These same considerations apply to vehicles and fighters, etc. For example, are those nice relatively new
Ironsides Mech Scale Fighter and
Typhoon Mech Scale Fighters scaled consistently to Catalysts Shilone? Will the recently released Buffalo Hovertruck, BattleMech Recovery Vehicle, Beagle Hover Vehicle, Blizzard Hover Transport, Demon/Vedette Medium Tank, Epona Pursuit Tank, Fortune Wheeled Assault Vehicle, Flatbed Trucks, Glory Fire Support Vehicle, Heavy Hover/Transport/Wheeled APC, Kanga Medium Hovertank, Regulator/Zephyr Hovertank, Zephyros Infantry Support Vehicle, and Hawk Moth/Kestrel/Pinto VTOLs, etc. be visually consistent with Catalysts recently announced SRM/LRM Carriers, Galleons, Demolishers, Ontos, Maxim, Pegasus, Skulker, and Warrior VTOL?
That in mind, it would be helpful if you could add a category (ex: "Catalyst Scale Mechs" or "Redesign Mechs") or filter (ex: "Sculpt Type: Catalyst" or "Sculpt Type: Redesign") to help customers such as myself determine which minis are being done to the new "standards" and are safe to purchase and field alongside their collections of new plastic minis. I know I'm not the only person thats has this issue as I've discussed it with others locally and on various other forums/facebook groups, etc. (which is how I ended up here, someone suggested that I post this on this board).