Do you know the german company Schleich? They are a toy producer and I notice them getting bigger each year. They have some really good looking toys... horses, but also knigths and monsters. I already had some Schleich toys a few times in my hand and wondered if they were suitable to be used for my fantasy tabletop games.
In my opinion, those prepainted toys look very good, but the problem is, they are a too big for normal 28mm fantasy use so I never saw the opportunity.
However, this week I came across another Schleich miniature by accident when shopping for groceries. To be specific (now, having done a bit of research):
It was their stone monster of their new Eldrador line.
Owning enough models to field a not-too shabby Forces of Nature army, I thought if it would make a good Greater Earth Elemental. I really love the Mantic model and had already thought about buying one after seeing one all painted up in full beauty. But because of the painting required, the price of about 40€ and Forces of Nature not being one of my focus armies (right now) I didn't do it.
But those few days ago, standing in the supermarket, looking at that model and wondering if it would fit a "normal" base, I then just went with it and just took him home with me. I thought if it didn't fit, I would have gifted it to some kid of my friends.
Well, good news is: it fits quite perfectly and I am very happy about my spontaneous buy!
The stone monster nearly fits on the "normal" titan base that my mantic giant fits on. The base just needs to be barely bigger. I am a sceptic of mantics decision for now doing so many titan models for all different armies (I hope they will not get quasi-required units for competitive play!). Having said that, I still love my giant model. And in this case their "policy" for titan models proved to be quite useful!
I think Forces of Nature right now can be a quite cheap army or also one that can be quickly fielded if somebody wants to start KoW...
The Forces of Nature box does not seem to be that popular and thus quite cheaply priced in some stores because they want to get rid of it: I got mine for 35€ back then and right now it seems to be available on the net for something around 42€. I think that the popularity is not that high is due to that old druid model it sells with. That model does not look too great... the new one looks much cooler. While I am not a fan of the contained druid, I think the awesome-looking Forest Shambled contained within more than make up for it! I also had a blast painting those... but I digress.
With that Giant Earth Elemental from Schleich one can get an army fielded of about 750 pts (no upgrades) for around 60€, and the Titan does not even need to be painted because it already comes with a quite good paint job... in my opinion that is... pretty awesome!
One possibility to expand that FoN army for cheap is to then get the old WHFB lizardmen on ebay. Due to GW back then changing how the lizardmen look, the old ones are usually quite cheap on ebay. You could field them as Hunters of the Wild or Salamander Primes. Granted, they also do not look THAT cool, but hey... if you get some Skinks while buying those lizardmen... well you can think about proxying Naiad Heartpiercers with them... not the best proxy, but can work quite well... just saying...
For additional extensions, FoN can be a great army to add other cheap non-mantic models:
Their monsters can be easily taken from various models found on ebay (or Schleich for that matter) without looking too alien.
Not that you really need "cheap" alternatives for Mantic, I think the miniatures are still reasonably priced!
So do I regret my purchase? No, I would definitely do it again! And I look forward to fielding it at some point in the future.
I made some comparison fotos for anybody else interested in getting one of those Schleich giants. I know it is very often painful to find photos to see if models from other manifacturers would "fit in" with an existing army.
I also took a photo for size-comparison from the mantic website of their giant earth elemental, that shows it with a naiad and a dwarf. First, the picture with the Schleich model with one of my naiads and one of my dwarfs (alas the dwarf is one from GW):
In my opinion, those prepainted toys look very good, but the problem is, they are a too big for normal 28mm fantasy use so I never saw the opportunity.
However, this week I came across another Schleich miniature by accident when shopping for groceries. To be specific (now, having done a bit of research):
It was their stone monster of their new Eldrador line.
Owning enough models to field a not-too shabby Forces of Nature army, I thought if it would make a good Greater Earth Elemental. I really love the Mantic model and had already thought about buying one after seeing one all painted up in full beauty. But because of the painting required, the price of about 40€ and Forces of Nature not being one of my focus armies (right now) I didn't do it.
But those few days ago, standing in the supermarket, looking at that model and wondering if it would fit a "normal" base, I then just went with it and just took him home with me. I thought if it didn't fit, I would have gifted it to some kid of my friends.
Well, good news is: it fits quite perfectly and I am very happy about my spontaneous buy!
The stone monster nearly fits on the "normal" titan base that my mantic giant fits on. The base just needs to be barely bigger. I am a sceptic of mantics decision for now doing so many titan models for all different armies (I hope they will not get quasi-required units for competitive play!). Having said that, I still love my giant model. And in this case their "policy" for titan models proved to be quite useful!
I think Forces of Nature right now can be a quite cheap army or also one that can be quickly fielded if somebody wants to start KoW...
The Forces of Nature box does not seem to be that popular and thus quite cheaply priced in some stores because they want to get rid of it: I got mine for 35€ back then and right now it seems to be available on the net for something around 42€. I think that the popularity is not that high is due to that old druid model it sells with. That model does not look too great... the new one looks much cooler. While I am not a fan of the contained druid, I think the awesome-looking Forest Shambled contained within more than make up for it! I also had a blast painting those... but I digress.
With that Giant Earth Elemental from Schleich one can get an army fielded of about 750 pts (no upgrades) for around 60€, and the Titan does not even need to be painted because it already comes with a quite good paint job... in my opinion that is... pretty awesome!
One possibility to expand that FoN army for cheap is to then get the old WHFB lizardmen on ebay. Due to GW back then changing how the lizardmen look, the old ones are usually quite cheap on ebay. You could field them as Hunters of the Wild or Salamander Primes. Granted, they also do not look THAT cool, but hey... if you get some Skinks while buying those lizardmen... well you can think about proxying Naiad Heartpiercers with them... not the best proxy, but can work quite well... just saying...
For additional extensions, FoN can be a great army to add other cheap non-mantic models:
Their monsters can be easily taken from various models found on ebay (or Schleich for that matter) without looking too alien.
Not that you really need "cheap" alternatives for Mantic, I think the miniatures are still reasonably priced!
So do I regret my purchase? No, I would definitely do it again! And I look forward to fielding it at some point in the future.
I made some comparison fotos for anybody else interested in getting one of those Schleich giants. I know it is very often painful to find photos to see if models from other manifacturers would "fit in" with an existing army.
I also took a photo for size-comparison from the mantic website of their giant earth elemental, that shows it with a naiad and a dwarf. First, the picture with the Schleich model with one of my naiads and one of my dwarfs (alas the dwarf is one from GW):
Now, here in comparison the Mantic model with the a mantic naiad and a mantic dwarf:
As you see, the one from Schleich is much more... "titany"... much much bigger. But I think that is fine. To be honest, I even see a certain semblance with the Mantic model: both models have crystals on the back!
Here is a comparison of the Schleich monster compared to a my Mantic giant:
Forgive the painting on my Mantic giant. I think I still have a long way to go to compete with the paint jobs that Vince, a fellow wargamer does on his big models.
So, maybe you now wonder if it fits a standard Mantic base? On the following pictures you can see that it will not perfectly fit the base the Mantic giant comes with, but is a tad bit bigger:
I now realize, the pictures I took do not show it completely so you will have to trust me on this: You CAN base it on a mantic base, but about 1,5 cm of the legs on each side would stick out. It's doable but not perfect. So I will construct myself an own base and put it on there. What does that mean? Actually not much:
Mantic allows you to field models of different vendors and say you should fit it on the base that is most appropriate.: e.g.: You are allowed to field it on a bigger base.
So, if you want to play completely competitive, you will be at a REALLY SMALL disadvantage, because you need a base that is a bit bigger. But for the usual gamer, this will not be a problem at all!
As a final picture, here you see a size comparison of my GW giant, the Mantic giant and the Schleich monster. The GW giant... an impressive model back in the early 2000s looks pretty small in comparison...
A few more things I love about the Schleich model:
So, in general the Schleich models are not really fit for my tabletop needs because they are just too big... but here now FINALLY I found the first models that fit for an army and do not look alien! Who knows, maybe in the future Schleich will produce some some pegasus or unicorn that fits into a 28mm scale?
Here is a comparison of the Schleich monster compared to a my Mantic giant:
Forgive the painting on my Mantic giant. I think I still have a long way to go to compete with the paint jobs that Vince, a fellow wargamer does on his big models.
So, maybe you now wonder if it fits a standard Mantic base? On the following pictures you can see that it will not perfectly fit the base the Mantic giant comes with, but is a tad bit bigger:
I now realize, the pictures I took do not show it completely so you will have to trust me on this: You CAN base it on a mantic base, but about 1,5 cm of the legs on each side would stick out. It's doable but not perfect. So I will construct myself an own base and put it on there. What does that mean? Actually not much:
Mantic allows you to field models of different vendors and say you should fit it on the base that is most appropriate.: e.g.: You are allowed to field it on a bigger base.
So, if you want to play completely competitive, you will be at a REALLY SMALL disadvantage, because you need a base that is a bit bigger. But for the usual gamer, this will not be a problem at all!
As a final picture, here you see a size comparison of my GW giant, the Mantic giant and the Schleich monster. The GW giant... an impressive model back in the early 2000s looks pretty small in comparison...
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| The GW giant on the left, the Schleich monster in the middle and the Mantic giant on the right |
A few more things I love about the Schleich model:
- You can change its pose, because you can change how the arms are positioned
- You can remove the "weapon"
- You can open or close the mouth (as you can see if you look closely at the different pictures)
- I believe even if it falls down, it will not break... doesn't sound like a big deal, but my mantic giant already broke 2 times due to my poor handling ;(
- the painting is really decent I have to say. And I would not be afraid that the painting breaks when I transport it without special protection, because it is a toy after all!
So, in general the Schleich models are not really fit for my tabletop needs because they are just too big... but here now FINALLY I found the first models that fit for an army and do not look alien! Who knows, maybe in the future Schleich will produce some some pegasus or unicorn that fits into a 28mm scale?
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