Unboxing: Robotech RPG Tactics Box Set
March 25, 2015 by dignity
The UEDF/Zentraedi war reaches the Beasts of War studio as the Robotech RPG Tactics Box Set gets unboxed. Not only that we've got Carmen who worked on the game in with us to assist with the unboxing.
This starter set from Palladium Books & Ninja Division for 2 or more players includes both the United Earth Defense Force (UEDF) and the Zentraedi Armada, it's designed to be a fast paced game much like the TV show.
UEDF or Zentraedi, which is your choice?
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Got a chance to have a look at this while in the studio, it looks a very fun game from what Carmen was telling me. Thumbs up!
Nice to see the retail boxed set in the plastic, as it were. I better not let my kids see this, however – my youngest loves anything with giant robots in it!
Still have my copy of the Palladium Robotech RPG. Stuck on the fence on this one. Would LOVE to see BoW cover Spartans Planetside!
you mean Firestorm: Planetfall?
Can’t believe you’re giving this company air time.
You only have to follow the kickstarter to realise this game’s dead on arrival due to Palladium Books ego and arrogance.
Excellent, i’ve looking forward to this for a long long time. I watched Robotech like crazy when i was younger and recently re-watched the whole entire macross series again. Any idea of a release date?
Carman why didn’t we crack this open at the bootcamp haha!!
yeah that would have been so cool, Carmen was a great laugh to chat too
I wasn’t a fan of the television show but watching this unboxing I like the look of the product. I’d like to see the finished models and a play through of the game. Not sure I’ll pick this game up but I’m more interested than I was yesterday.
Do a search for pictures online. These figures would have been crap in the 80s.
The sprue layout is laughable. The piece count per miniature is freaking rediculous, a lot of the parts are stupid small and break before you even get them off the sprue, the seam lines are in obvious places that you can’t get to in order to clean them up and they all have terrible fixed poses.
You should not have to spend weeks gluing tiny pieces together in order to play a game from a starter box. And especially not when there was no need for them to have been in so many pieces to begin with and will look crap once done.
Build them are just a pain with all those needless parts. It just sad when you consider that Ninja Division makes Relic Knights which are so easy to put together. So that means Palladium Books forced them to make this as cheap, and hard to put together, as possible. Another thing to hate Palladium for.
No they probably just left it up to the factory, your post assumes Palladium can design a spru, let alone a bad one on purpose
I’ve built a largelarge Robotech model and the sprue was almost the same. It looks like they just shrunk down the larger model sprue for the minis… Too many small pieces unfortunately.
Personally, I think they look pretty good once assembled.
I also notice that most of the negative comments about this game are coming from people who don’t own it and are basing their opinion from things they have read or seen online, while those of us who actually own and have assembled the game seem to be satisfied with it. Maybe you need to find someone who owns it so that you can see it in person?
I took a peek at the Kickstarter Forums for this game, there is not much nice being said about the game or the company there. furthermore I bought the game on clearance from a local store and I still say its garbage.
as to this video my big main issue is with how they did not do research into the product itself and went by Carmen doing the unboxing, I think they should assemble the figs first then let us know what they think.
Oh. And I don’t know if you’re aware. But Palladium Books have a reputation for making promise after promise and breaking them time after time. They also have a reputation for unbalanced games and corner cutting.
Bugger. Replied to the wrong post.
Lol
I have looked at the sprues and built a few models.
Utter rubbish.
Er… I own the game. The figures are garbage.
I’m all for multi piece figures but not this many pieces at this scale when it isn’t needed. And especially not when it’s a starter box.
They say the parts are how they are to preserve detail, yet they split the parts that don’t need it and don’t split the parts that do. Not to mention the seam lines could have very easily been hidden. Oh, and the inconsistencies between the various Valkyrie modes is a bit laughable. Rounded legs and flat legs… er what.
I’d like to see the Beasts paint some up and do a demo.
This has become my playgroup’s go to game. Half of us are old school Robotech/Macross fans and have been dying for a game.
Also..there is a 3rd faction…The Malcontents, who use a mixture of mecha from both sides.
Which are mentioned….shows me for posting before watching…..
That’s one hell of a box and a LOT of plastic crack too! I am impressed.
I bought into the kickstarter, really want to be excited about the game. I liked what I saw in my initial read through of the rules (except for the melee rules, those were just silly wasteful and I plan on ignoring them) I love Macross and the Robotech property but just can’t build up the ambition to build all the UEDF figs. (the Zentradi are now in the queue for priming… along with my other 800 assembled figs) also for any scale purists Robotech and Dropzone are actually not the same scale but in general its close enough (I bought DZC scenery for the game) Also… sad to say it but the robotech minis don’t come anywhere near close to the detail of the DZC minis. Not even close. They are still nice Minis and a nice representation of what was on the anime. (and are significantly better than the Relic knights minis if anyone was concerned about Ninja Division doing the production)
I just got the starter set Monday. I like the rule simple with out being a waste of time. The models are something of a mixed bag. The Zentradi pods are generally easy to build and enjoyable to put together. The UEDF minatures are another issue. They are mid to advanced level builds due to their size. Some individual parts are literally the size of the head of a ball point pen. The biggest issue is the poor instructions for assembly. None of the parts are labeled in any fashion. You are given one picture of how to build a specific unit
but there are many separate alternate parts. In addition it is hard to tell which parts match up to make the correct subassembly.
Now for some tips I have found out. A lot has been said about breaking parts. The easiest way I have found to avoid this is to cut the section of sprue away from the frame and then clip the part off that section. Trimming can be a nightmare. Some pieces I haven’t bothered because it is almost certain to destroy a delicate part. However with good placement and paint you can cover it up pretty well.
On the matter of the gaps. Yes unpainted the seams are visible. However I have found that a coat of paint fills them in pretty well at least on some of the minis.
In conclusion if you are a player ho tries to make every model a display piece you proably aren’t going to be happy. If you are a player who doesn’t really care about “perfection” and just want to play a good game you probably will be satisfied when done.
Small world… I just spent over between 1-2 hours cutting and glueing 3 models, I guardian and 2 battloid`s. And most of my fingers too…!!!!
But looking at them now with a simple white primer spray.. I`m very happy how cool I have them looking in there pose`s. I have 6 battle pods painted sitting on a drop zone commander tile. And there are looking good… the theme music is in my head and when I see the models they spring to life. Alot of game systems don`t have that feel….
The rules are good, a simple read, and it can be used for any giant robot game, or even pacific rim, with all the hand to hand moves in the rules….like leap kicks..!!!
The bad…..
Well…. you have to cut out the pieces, then glue, and then paint… so its going to be weeks before you play a game with painted figures. In under 2 weeks, I had all my “shadows of brimstone” painted and the game all ready to go.
But do it right, and you should feel proud of the work, the blood and tears and glued up fingers I hope will fade away….
Do hope you do a second video of the rules and showing off the painted minis, and even a battle rep video with all that spare drop zone terrain you have… lucky people…
Time for a break, and paint up some Mars Attacks ….
The miniatures are NOT crap.
I pledged to their Kickstarter after being a massive fan of the Super Dimensional Fortress Macross OVA. I only received my miniatures two weeks ago and while it took Palladium some time to get their product out, they were not a miniatures manufacturer before this product.
The miniatures themselves are very complex and do take a while to put together, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from trying the game. This is only the first print run of the game and I imagine that there will be a rejigging of the sprues to make them easier to work with in the next print.
One you get them together, the detail really pops at this scale. 1/285th is 6mm!!!!! only GHQ and possibly GW do miniatures in this scale with this amount of details.
As for the game, it sounds fun and I should know more on Sunday after I take the contents of the game box (fully painted hopefully) to my local club to demo to the other guys.
For scenery I plan on using the Hawk downloadable and printable buildings printed at 60% scale to make it look a bit better scale wise.
Baccus and Adler do superbly detailed 6mm miniatures.
these mechs are the same as the old battletech mechs
I had a ton of this stuff arrive a couple of weeks ago, but I haven’t got around to looking at it after all the highs and lows of the KS campaign.
I’m now a lot more interested after watching the video – time to open the boxes…
Thanks, Justin!
I love that anime and i even have the Macross 7 Trash Manga, i recommend it 100% for anyone that wants to see an amazing 80’s anime.
As I’m watching this, all I can think to myself is “Warhammer!”, “Stinger!”, “Marauder!” or “Archer!” and such. Personally I wish FASA had properly gotten the rights to the images so we could still call these as such in Battletech.
Ahh, nostalgia.
To be honest, I’ll probably get more use out of a few of the minis from this as Warhammers, Riflemen, Archers & Longbows than I will as actual Robotech/Macross minis. Shame really…
I received mine here in the states a while back. Those that talk about about a “fiasco” on Kickstarter are referring to the few “gatekeepers” with unrealistic expectations. Palladium did the rules, ND did the models and HG (900lb gorilla) enforced their IP (just use Prodos as an example of what that is like). It’s not like they (P & ND) could change models “at-will”. Of all the KS that I have backed, only 1 was ever on time but they cheated and had it in production before the start of the KS (Zombicide).
For me, receiving Wave 1 was great. I took my time and laid out my parts to dry fit and get a good sequence. They look awesome assembled and painted. I would say that the part count allows for more variance with poses where lowering that would have fixed the poses. I am happy with what I have received and am looking forward to wave 2. The funny thing is, the tan sprues remind me of my SM Beakies back in the 80’s.
Someone mention the RK Minis… TBH they are not easy to put together and they are not highly detailed, most the the normal human mini have no faces…. at all! Seriously disapointed!
Now for this, i’d consider picking this up and giving it a try!
I backed this as Macross: Do You Remember Love was one of the first films (not anime, FILMS) that I rembered watching when i was younger, and I subsequently became a Robotech fan whilst at Uni (if nothing else pick up the novels – they dial down the cheese factor and add in a huge dose of politics, darkness and character development). Palladium havn’t done themselves any favours with how they managed the post-Kickstarter process on this one, which is a shame as the box is very nice, the rulebook gorgeous full-colour (and if it’s missing anything for a first edition miniature game it’s not too bad…), and rammed with minis.
The minis however are the main problem – I built a pair of Warhmmers, sorry, Tomahawks, and a complete set of Veritechs over a couple of nights. Whoever signed off on the sprue layout needs to use the UEDF stuff as a guide of what NOT to do. And if I hadn’t downloaded the revised instructions Palladium put on line I’d have probably given up.
One final thought: the image on the rear of the box showing the assembled minis is clearly misleading as you cannot build the majority of the poses shown without extensive conversion work. This is especially true of the Veritechs as the Guardians only come with a single set of legs and the Batteloid sprue has one set for each of the two models on the sprue, one of which always has a leg bent back.
If this is intended as a starter set to get people interested in the game then they have made some serious mis-steps, and for the money they raised in crowdfunding (close to $1.5 million) you’d hope they’d have made this the easy-entry product….
I’ve had these boxes since before X-mas and have managed to assemble a Squad of Valkyries and a squad of battlepods. They’re definitely a chore to get through, but they look excellent once assembled. Now if only I could convince myself to paint them…
Neither.
The minis are rubbish. Pure and simple.
They look like the bad plastic soldiers i played with as a kid 25 years ago. I am a huge Robotech/macross fan, and i am sad that it looks this bad.
always been a big fan of your unboxing videos and tutorials and such, but I’m questioning if I want to watch anymore after this pile of utter rubbish, the only positive thing is I was not in the KickStarter for this game since I missed out, did pick up a copy of the game on clearance and once getting it, realized why it was on clearance, the models are poorly designed the rules are not designed for massive combat, and it would take several weeks if not a month to have an army completed for a game, furthermore, there are not enough models for a standard 2-player game in the box.
I seriously suggest you guys try to assemble this game, then make a video of your thoughts after that. also doesn’t help no players around me, or even anyone interested in playing the game, $40 and time I won’t get back again.
I’ve read elsewhere that they couldn’t get the licensing to do proper “miniatures” and could only do small scale “model kits” and also have seen many claims that they were laid out like that to preserve the detail. I don’t see much point in “preserving detail” if your mold lines/joins are going to be so blatant and ugly, myself.
I was super excited for this game at first, but I’m glad I stayed out of it. Even if I had it, I’d end up playing it with figures produced by other companies and probably a different scale.
As with any tabletop game, you get out of it what effort you put into it. If you want a game you can play straight out of the box like X-wing or any number of board games, then this may not be the game for you. This is not an instant gratification type game/hobby. I’ve played numerous games of 40K and Fantasy from GW both in tournaments and “beer and Pretzels” games for over 15 years. I have built several armies and painted a few. Tabletop wargames have varying degrees of participation involved. Whether you play only the game or you don’t play and only collect. either is fine per your own expectations. No one should dictate or criticize the enjoyment you get from it. There are numerous expectations involved with any new game. Those expectations may be completely different than what was produced and when expectations don’t meet reality tempers flare and trolls rage. Aside from the few exceptions, there has been a great number of people who have tried this game without unrealistic expectations and enjoyed the experience. RRT is a complete wargame and you can experience it however you want. but the game offers hobbying, painting, collecting and gameplay experiences much like other games out there but this game is unique because it plays in the Robotech universe. I have stopped playing 40k completely because in my opinion this game just plays better and I get much better results from the minis and less static poses. I’m trying to not sound like a fanboy but give simple truths here from my experiences. I enjoy the building of these models because, if I put in a little time and effort I can get a beautiful complete well detailed miniature that would look great on the table or in a display cabinet. Others may not feel that way. I put the time into the Hobby and I’m rewarded from my efforts, more so than many models that I have built from GW. The game pieces may not be for everyone. But you can be rewarded from your time with this game and that has been missing from some of my games with 40k. I feel that if you take the time to check this game out you can get something out of it that you can enjoy.
@wilhelmrochredduke I expect to put this kind of time and effort into models, not into miniatures, I’ve already had few pieces break on me, and I’m pretty good at cutting and clipping things off, and the scout pod is the worse criminal of this. look at any other miniature game company, even their advanced minis are not this complicated, and their starter minis are simplistic, you can get a GW starter game and be playing/learning the rules within an hour of opening the box, this game, you will be lucky to be playing within a month and that’s if you can find anyone to play. not too mention I saw some people say this in other places and have to agree that this game is more for RPG play and not for large scale gaming play.
Also your comment about GW having static poses, your both a liar and a hypocrite when you say you get more poses out of the Robotech models then the GW minis, I still have to cut and mold the Robotech models just like the GW minis to get differing poses but with GW I don’t have a bajillion pieces to assemble or big ugly seams I have to cake in paint and crap to cover up, but then I realized where I saw your name before you are linked with this project and helped get it going and such, so if you don’t mind I’m not going to believe a word you say.
since your doing nothing but defending your product without letting us know what your investment in this game was, or that you were the one who helped to make it.
Because I had a hand in getting the game started, I’m not allowed to have an opinion then? My involvement in the game has been as a contributor. I build and play the game just like everyone else. I would have to strongly disagree with your opinions on the game and RPG play was never the foremost goal in creating this game, but then that’s my opinion again. I’m sorry you are having difficulties with the miniatures. I can honestly say that I have had some pieces break off the sprues much like you, but I repaired them and moved on. I still get great results. Of the 30+ battlepods I’ve put together so far I’ve never repeated the same pose twice with no extra cutting/modifying, but then again that’s my opinion and my results may differ from yours. I did not have the problems with the game that you seem to be having. I guess my expectations were different than yours. So what is the difference in a model or a miniature?..
As far as other companies there are other companies that produce great stuff and others that you may have to work on and put more effort into. I take that as part of the hobby. I’m sorry you can’t put two pieces together without getting a gap.. That sounds like your problem. There are several videos here at Beast of war and other sites like youtube where you can get building tips. Good talk…
@Wilhelm please do not patronize me and act like my mini building skills are sub-par you do not know me and my work, and while I am not top quality I am great game table quality work.
you are allowed your opinion, but it would be polite to also inform us of your connection to the game too.
as models, these robotech pieces are ok, as gaming miniatures, they are sub-par, I’ve already assembled some and afraid if I sneeze they will fall apart, a thicker base would have been better instead of the coin thin one we got, the “flying Swoosh” as it is called is a joke, if it was clear then it might be ok, but its way too big.
as to breakage in the thousands of models I have assembled and built of GW product for myself and others, I’ve had a total of maybe a dozen pieces break, if that many, with this robotech gak the number is vastly approaching that and i’m barely 20 models into this. the bases for the Zentraedi are way too small, the legs on the destroids and guardians are way too fiddly the instructions that came with the game are a joke.
as to working on items, yes I can see that if this was an established game, but this is not, new players have to deal with more complexity of build then with your basic GW mini, and this is the problem i’m having with people around me, they see the sprues and pass on getting the game or even trying to play it. most of the pieces that were split, were split for no reason. and there in lies the gap/seam issue seams happen, that’s life, but they are usually dealt with simply, a few of these seams will not go gently into that good night, and it takes more work to make them vanish, more work then is worth putting into this game.
I’m no longer building these models for a game since no one to play with, they will be built to be put into a display case where they will be safe from breaking by regular game handeling.
It’s not helped that the image on the back of the box of the assembled miniatures, sorry, “models”, is fundamentally dishonest, featuring poses on the Battleoids & Guardians that are impossible to build out of the box. If I had brought this game and gotten it home I would be inclined to return it once I had opened it and discovered how flawed the contents were.
I hadn’t been aware of Palladiums “issues” prior to backing this project, but the spectacular way they have managed to misrepresent what they were making, fail at basic communication with backers, and seemingly make the wrong decision at every turn, beggars believe. At this point I just want to be done with this project, but still have Wave 2 to arrive. I’ll be amazed if it arrives this side of 2016, if ever.
Well WRRD, while you’re here, perhaps you’d like to clear the air on assurances made during the campaign that Palladiums involvement the game would be minimal?
It was asked during the campaign as many were already aware of Palladiums reputation.
Also while you’re here, how about prodding Palladium along with wave two? Maybe see if they can get this one out this year to all backers before going to retail?
And ROW orders, how are they going? I just recieved my wave one, a few days after it was sent from the same distributor that’s been selling it at retail for a few months.
How about seeing as opinions are so objective we stick to discussing facts?
I’ve been a huge fan of Robotech since I was a kid myself. It’s fantastic to finally see a dedicated miniatures game, especially with such high quality miniatures. Have ordered a couple of boxes this morning as well as a bunch of the extra squads, I’m as excited as my kids to get them on the battlefield and re-enacting some of the old scenarios.
@alathazal I wish you luck, that was the same wide eyed enthusiasm I had when I went into the game, sadly I was greatly disappointed by what I got, and thankful I did not buy any of the extra squad boxes, which are not even full squads on some of them (it takes 4 Valkyries to make a squad, yet the squad box only comes with 2).
@lurker1 I can only hope I have a better experience, I’ve been waiting for this one for a long time now. Although the fact that they sell box sets on half squads is more than just a little worrying, goes back to the days of the Games Workshop blisters that had 3 out of the 5 or 10 required troops to actually use them… *sighs*… fingers crossed.