Ebble Miniatures 2003-2010 Archive DVD

I just received my latest acquisition earlier today, a Christmas Present from myself to myself, from Ebbles Miniatures.

I think I will do a review of the Ebbles Miniatures Archive DVD. I purchased it this last weekend (18DEC2010) for $49.99 and received it today (22DEC2010). The disc contains the Ebbles Cardstock Models from 2003-2010, with some exceptions which I will get to in a bit. First off you are getting 65 different sets, including variations on color schemes for some of the sets, that if bought separately would have cost you more then $400, the UD-41 (2010 version) iirc was roughly $30 with the forum exclusive re-skins running about $16. Most the sets are geared towards Sci Fi (including a game called Guncrawl which from a brief glance looks to be an Aliens/Space Hulk/Starship Troopers style game, though I may be wrong haven't looked at it yet). Some of the models such as the M11 4x4 looks liek it could easily pass as a modified Humvee, the M9 6x6 as a wheeled APC/Police Riot Tank, and the M8A3 as a Main Battle Tank for a military. Each of these three models come in a variety of color schemes ranging from Woodland Camo to Desert Tan to UN to Police paint jobs (yes there is a Police version of the M8A3 for those who may play a game where the Police are a Militant force). There's also the Convoy set that Ebbles released this year that can be used in a Modern Day setting, the convoy consists of a truck with a covered bed, one with an open bed, one with a tank labeled Water and one with a tank labeled Flammable (Fuel). The convoy comes in either 15mm or 28mm size and in Helo Drab (an greenish color), Tan, Gray, and white.

There are a few exceptions to the disc, these are models that have recently been released such as the Overland Motor Works Onager, a tracked vehicle and the just released Jeepvee (another Hummer styled vehicle), fortunately these are available on the Ebbles Miniatures site for about $2.50 per model, unfortunately that $2.50 will only get you one color scheme. I also believe that some of the forum exclusive re-skins of a couple of the models may not have been included in the archive.

Other then these few models not being included, I will find use for the M11, M9, M8A3 as military vehicles (and police for the M11 and M9, Civilian for the M11), the UD-41 (the newer 2010 released version, a high tech Castle Pharmaceuticals Transport plane) the Folding Unit Structures (structures for a Military outpost/base/refugee center), the Convoy (Military transport trucks, and maybe as a Survivors convoy), and maybe some of the props from the Derelict II set (an interior set one could use as a bunker/Space Station/Vault).

I may get around to building some of the Mecha models though the wont be used in my ATZ games. Over all the DVD Archive is well worth the price, and it is only available for a limited time, once Ebbles Miniatures transfers all the files for the Models over to the World Works Games storefront, the DVD will be no more (the copies of the DVD still on hand will be sold, once those are gone there will be no more print runs of the DVD).

For those not familiar with both Ebbles and World Works Games (WWG), while technically they are/were competitors they had a close friendship and if say Ebbles had the model someone was looking for on the WWG forums, WWG staff would point the forum user over to Ebbles and vice versa, Ebbles would send users over to WWG for models he didn't carry.