MAS Kickstarter – Vehicles Review

As you may or may not know, Micro Art Studio is doing a terrain Kickstarter. there’s less than 2 days to go on the whole thing as of the time of writing this post, and I think you should check it out for at least one reason – vehicles.

There are many amazing terrain manufacturers for Infinity – too many to name them here. However, most of them do only buildings and so-called “scatter terrain”, such as crates, boxes, barrels etc. MAS is trying to address that issue and their answer is the Kickstarter.

I was kindly offered a sample of the product for review, and here are my thoughts:

What I got are 3 Hardfoam “Pickle” Vans, and a Daedalus Bus, available as part of the 65 USD add-on.

My first impression was that the Pickle minivans were rather small, as if the scale was not entirely correct. However, after adding of the wheels that come in the set, that feeling vanished. Each minivan consists of the hardfoam body with engraved details and a small sprue of MDF undercarriage details with wheels. It makes for a very light piece of terrain, which was very good for me, as I need to carry my promotional table with me to various events. Hardfoam is a good material and wins over resin in that regard.

The Daedalus bus is made of MDF. I had a lot of fun assembling it – my version came without an instruction – and I felt like playing with LEGO blocks again. Both vehicles need to be glued together, lest they fall apart, but the construction itself is very intuitive. The Daedalus itself consists of severl MDF peices, a thin MDF piece that provides detailing and several plexi-glass pieces that show Designed for Infinity art, including ads from all over the Human Sphere. It’s a nice touch that makes the terrain piece stand out on the table – it looks very futuristic but is easily recognizable as a bus. I had no problems assembling the Daedalus, although I was left over with a couple pieces – I hope they were spares in case something breaks and not essential parts of the vehicles.

It was easy enough to punch out the elements from the MDF sprue, although you might want to use some tools, in order not to damage the tiny bolts that lock several parts in place.

Both the minivans and the Daedalus buses can be used as decent LOS-blocking terrain pieces, although they would fall into the “scatter terrain” category – although the bus is big, it wouldn’t be enough to just plop it down without any buildings.

Check out the various pledge levels, but, to be honest, they are pretty byzantine – there’s so many choices a casual Kickstarter user like me might feel a little lost. Be sure to check all the various levels, however, as the new products are bundled with the already existing product sometimes.

All in all, I think that, although pricey, this is a very good product that will provide new aesthetic elements to many existing tables. It fits well both with MAS’ previous product, as well as with that of other manufacturers. MAS are known for the quality of their product and their friendly service, so I’m sure they will deliver what they promise – I don’t think you should be worried that this Kickstarter will be late, like many unfortunately do.