A VERY large model, seen here re-based onto a 120mm base with some added alien eggs from Troll Forged Games/
The figure is Bones plastic, and really exemplifies the main beef many people have with Bones.
Mashaaf is only about $30 retail, much cheaper than it would be in metal or resin, which is nice. Comparably sized GW plastics would run at least twice that, maybe more - and the model is a boxed set rather than a blister, which probably added a good $5 to the cost.
But the little side claws (which are part of the main body casting) and the two bigger claw arms (which are separate) are not well served by being made of Bones.
They're disturbingly flexible, much like the weapons on many smaller Bones figs. Admittedly they're almost impossible to damage, but it still feels very wrong.
Reaper could have (and I would argue should have) cast the flexible bits either in metal or the harder plastics they've been using on some Bones scenery and terrain pieces. A multi-media kit might have driven the cost up another $5 or even $10, but even at $40 this thing would be a bargain - and making less fancy custom packaging could have pulled the cost back down.
I've seen several people replace the claws with hard plastic Tyranid parts, which indicates I'm not the only one who disliked the bendy Bones plastic.
Still, it's inexpensive enough that I can't say it's an outright bad buy. Just feels like a waste of an opportunity to make a good kit even better by going with a multi-media design. Very typical of Bones-era Reaper decisions, where they regularly sacrifice some quality to keep costs down.
Mashaaf was a first-wave Bones release though, so maybe now that Reaper's had more experience with the stuff maybe we'll see them do multi-media at some point down the road. The material is best for the big chunky parts of any model, not good at all for finer detailing like hair and faces.
It does loom menacingly over your average 28mm trooper, doesn't it?
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