"Starship Troopers Light Armor MI Review" Topic

If you’re like me, and I know I am, you’ve been waiting for these miniatures since Mongoose announced the Starship Troopers game. With a long development, there are going to be lots of expectations, do they live up the hype? Read on.

The Good: 20 big metal minis for $25.00. The price can’t be over-emphasized; these minis are a bargain. That said, do the minis reflect the pricing? Fortunately not. In the box are 10 different sculpts, including 6 unique poses. The detail is overall good, though some faces are still a bit sketchy for my taste. Each mini has extra details like ammo pouches and such, and the unique figures show some nice character.

The Bad: These figures are big, really big. Some look larger then Mongoose’s Plastic MI.

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GW IG Praetorian, Mongoose LAMI, Infinity Yu-Jing, Reaper Gen. Drake)

Depending on how you plan on using these figures, this could be good or bad. Since the SST costumes have been used in everything from B5 to Firefly, the size of the minis kills a lot of potential for crossovers. They don’t look too out of place when mixed with other SST figures but since I wanted to use them in other settings, this is a black mark for me.

Another small gripe is the multiple poses don’t lend themselves readily to conversion, so if you plan on building an army, you will want to get used to seeing some figures a lot.

Lowdown: Good minis, at a Great price, may be the mini gaming bargain of the year.

Nice black and white photo. What programs/camera did you use, if you don't mind my asking?

Thanks for the review, nanite. I am thinking about picking up some. Hadn't realilzed they were quite that large – probably will still pick some up though.

Well, I actually enjoy them since in a powersuit everyone can look the same size while in kevlar vests and soup bowels humanities differences nad cn seen, with people of different builds, different hieghts…

Looks like Infinity and Mongoose are in good, close scale.

Could I trouble you for a photo of the LAMI next to the regular plastic SST MI figure? No worries if it's too much trouble.

"Could I trouble you for a photo of the LAMI next to the regular plastic SST MI figure?"

That would have been smart of me wouldn't it?

Should have one up tomorrow.

Oh and that's a color photo, but I used ACDSee/FotoCanvas Lite to turn it grayscale, since the minis are all unpainted or stripped.

I like 'em.

Already got two boxes of the little devils. One box had 21 figures!

I picked up two boxes of the MI lite's. And I was actually very pleased with the quality of the figures. And agin for the price you can't beat it.
Now if I could only get them to kill more bugs,before I am over run again I would be happy.

Serpentor, I'd try Twin .50 Emplacements. Remember, your guys get mauled on the foot, and you get x2 the amount of assets that the normal Cap Troopers do. So that's 8 twin .50s you, meaning 24d6 give or take…

I have picked up 4 so far.

Thanks,

John

I was very disappointed that Mongoose did not choose to go with 25mm (say like GZG) or 28mm (like GW). Surely they must realise that a high percentage of their customers would have existing figs from these scales. Then when their Marauders suits and CHAS came out they were also very large even when put against the MI. Viewing the Roughnecks episodes it appears that the Chickenhawk is the size that the Ape is supposed to be and vica versa. The real challenge now will be the VTOL Transports. A Slingshot is supposed to carry 6 or 8 (can't remember) Ape suits; how big will the model have to be to look somewhat realistic? I am glad that Mongoose did make the game and I bought alot of their stuff but I really disliked their choices on scaling.

…Lurien..they did go with 28mm. The scale of the vtol transports is not supposed to represent the actual size of the vehicle, but to fit on the board itself. Seriously, the Plasma bug is supposed to be MUCH bigger, but you'd just see the tip of the rear end on the field.

Their stated scale is 30mm, you could argue what GW's scale is but 28mm sounds correct. The bottom line is that my MI plastics are a head taller than my Marine plastics. Im my opinion it is enough to look odd and it didn't have to be that way, they chose to be different. I do not know why the Marauders are the size they are, that just looks like they switched them around. As with all vehicle miniatures we expect the scale to be smaller than the figs. In relation to this, Mongoose's decision to make all their figs larger (MI/Marauders) has served to compound their future vehicles' scaling issues. I can live with 10 marines coming out of Rhino but 20 is well beyond my limit. If a Rhino is say 3/4 scale to a Marine how big would a Slingshot have to be to be 3/4 scale to a Ape Marauder? As for the bugs we can always imagine that the Tankers and Plasmas are babies. How big is a VTOL when it is born?

Well, if you've seen the pictures of the master for hte Slingshot, the question becomes 'what size is the bottle cap it's sitting on?'. If it's a big gator aid bottle, then woot, it'll be fairly large (and I remember the old rhinos that didn't look like it'd fit more than three SM in it).

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The Viking on the other hand has some consternation associated with it:
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Since, if you remember, in the Movie:
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Again, cost&table size wins over realism

As for the 30mm vs 20mm are you measuring from base or from the feet of the miniature? Anyway there's really not much of an issue…

Err..I mean 28mm vs 30mm…

The brain bug is more in line with 15mm, found that out the hard way.

Here's the plastic MI to Light MI comparison:
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nanite, they look about right next to each other. The plastic is taller, but they are in power armor so that makes sense as well.

My God, they're huge! I was thinking about picking some of these up for my Combat Zone/Firefly skirmishes, but I'll go for the Old Glory ones instead.
Didn't they realise they'd be shooting themselves in the foot making them that big? That must have cost them sales.

Huh? They're selling pretty well…not many stores in my area can keep them in stock.

I'd bet the assumption here is that they would sell even more if they were of a scale with GW figures. Not that I personally would mind one bit if they were, either.

On the bonus side, they are of a scale with Inifinity miniatures…

Yeah. I think they are selling pretty well. There style of uniform makes them functional in several different universes. I just got mine in today. they are large. But I'd still use them on the same table as my Warzone of GW figs. I may mount them on flat washers which would eliminate much of the height disparity.

Thanks,

John

I forgot to ask about the Old Glory ones. What are these?

Thanks,

John

Sorry, I meant 1st Corps.

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And, yes, I'm sure they are selling well. But, as others have mentioned, the size difference with most other SF ranges must be stopping some people from buying them. It just seems a strange decision to deliberately make them incompatible with their biggest rival, GW.

Well, I just orederd a box of SST Mobile Light Infantry today. Since I have "Bugs" of various sizes, and have been using some old GW Imperial Guard as Mobile Infantry, I don't think the difference between 28mm and 30mm will matter much. I will mix them in with what I already have (people come in different sizes) and with a little work, I am sure they will work out fine. Besides, the first type of Troopers did nothing for me so anything is better then that. NamDoc

To disguise the height difference, mount the smaller minis on slightly built up bases. That way they won't look too out of place in the same unit together.

I've got some of those first corps ones – they seem closer to 25mm – I am using them with my WEG Star Wars figures. Not sure I could use much of the MI stuff with my other figures mind – which are all 28mm(ish).