I just found out, the news came out Friday, some news regarding Mongoose Publishing's Babylon 5: A Call to Arms game. I know it wasn't hugely popular at the store, there are a few people who have stuff and I have stuff I'm getting rid of if you're interested, but I'm sure there's a market out there for it.
The ACTA models are back from the dead.
Iron Wind Metals, the makers of
Ral Partha's models, have taken possession of the ACTA molds and are going to make the models from now on.
Here's the release (e-mail sent to l33tpenguin, and others, from the MGP forum sent by Teresa Williams owner of TopShelfGames) I was told about (a link to the official news post on the MGP forum to follow)
Hello,
This is being sent to anyone who has ordered Babylon 5 miniatures from us, and is still waiting for them… It is also going out to anyone who has expressed interest in the status of our future Babylon 5 orders.
We received word a couple days ago from Mongoose that they had to shut down their Babylon 5 miniatures facility, this seemed rather abrupt, but good news shortly followed:
The president of IWM (Iron Wind Metals, a very prestigious miniatures maker in their own right) made contact with Mongoose, and they worked out a deal to take over the production of the Babylon 5 line.
There are many details I won’t bore you with, and to make a long story short, the original B5 “molds” are on their way to IWM, and as soon as they get them, they will start producing (in this order) the backordered product we need to fulfill orders, then they will begin fulfilling the rest of our orders. (We have almost $10,000 in outstanding orders with them for B5 miniatures)
Once that is done they will work on getting the “packaging” and “art” taken care of, for now, all orders will most likely be coming out in Blister Pack, as Mongoose had no excess packaging/boxes to pass on to them. (Blister Pack is what the small individual ships generally come in)
We do not yet have any time frame for when production will begin, as they must receive the “molds” first, and evaluate them before proceeding into production. It could be a matter of a few weeks to push out existing orders, but I would not quote me on that, this has been a long wait so far, and looks to finally be coming to the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. We apologize for the delay, but this has quite literally been out of our hands :-(
The even better news: The Babylon 5 miniatures have been saved!! IWM is a fantastic company who does Ral Partha Fantasy miniatures, Classic Battletech Miniatures, and several other popular lines.
All that being said (this short story sure is getting long!), we realize that what you paid for was the babylon 5 miniatures, in the babylon 5 boxes, with the babylon 5 artwork on the boxes. What we’ll get is the b5 miniatures, made from the same molds, but the rest (packaging/art) probably won’t be what you are used to, but if all you care about is what’s in the box, you should be fine. If the box was what it was all about, we can understand if you’d like to cancel your order. (we’d really hate to see you go, we feel like we’ve known you so long that you’re a part of the family)
If you do wish to cancel, please reply to this and let us know. For those of you who we have sent out partial shipments, if you decide to cancel, we will of course bill you for what we have already sent out. For those of you who still have partial shipments here, we still have them, they haven’t gone anywhere.
One mention on pricing, on our current orders with them they have guaranteed our price quotes from Mongoose, but after all the backorders are fulfilled, and they “tune-up” the molds and do the packaging/artwork, and basically “re-release” the B5 Line, they hint at price increases. We will NOT be increasing our prices on our current stock, or on the backordered stock. When we start buying the “new” B5 line, we will re-evaluate pricing then, only on the new line.
Thank you, and Happy Gaming!
This is from Matthew Sprange, creator of the Starship Troopers game for MGP:Hi guys,
It really is impossible to keep a secret in this industry Smile
Yes, it is all true. We signed a deal with Iron Wind some time ago, after our discussions at GAMA, and everything is now about to swing into action.
Iron Wind has taken our masters and moulds, and will be producing the CTA line of miniatures just as soon as they can get everything on line. They have even taken the Fleet Action moulds and have at least the intention to bring those models back. Not everything will happen at once, and various fleets and ranges will likely be phased in over the next few weeks (there are rather a lot of models to handle all at once!).
We have spoken about new designs, and they are on the cards, but will be some time in coming - the first step is bringing out all the existing ships. This means there will not be any new hulls for Powers & Principalities - but considering what _is_ going into that book, I don't think anyone will be disappointed!
This is basically part of our strategy to allow us to concentrate on what Mongoose is good at, while still maintaining a presence in the markets we very much want to be a part of - the passing of the Wargaming Online torch to OneBookShelf/Drivethru is another example.
Anyway, consider this a renaissance for CTA, and look forward to some new events a little later this year held by our Swindon and Ohio staff!
Hmm, I think there is just one more 'biggie' for us to announce over the next few weeks - have to start working on more projects!
