Battletech Ral Partha RARE Mauler MAL-R NEW in blister!  

The miniature is packed in its original Blue Card blister, complete and in good condition (some scuffs on corners, bent mark, price tear and crushed plastic), nevertheless sealed and unbroken suitable to fill a collectoin and  also a fine specimen for any Battletech force.

A bit about the Mauler:

Lest face it, the Mauler is the most wasteful of all mechs in terms of space and weight. It weights 90 tons and its armed with two ER Large Lasers, two LRM 15 launchers and FOUR AC/2, each weighting 6 tons plus 2 tons of ammo, that makes 26 tons of space dedicated to four 2 damage point weapons. Oh! true, you can reach your opponents at the other side of the board, for a few 2 point damage shots. But Wait!. You can also do that with the LRM Launchers! if a bit closer. By the time the enemy reaches you, you may have delivered...12 points of damage? C´mon FASA!

On top of that, its 11 double heat sinks do not allow you to fire at will the really powerful weapons, you cannot even fire the ER lasers at the same time without overheating!, also, you are slow like.... like a 90 ton mech! and have a relatively poor armor of 11.5 tons (compare it to the 14.5 tons  the battlemaster or the stalker which are 5 tons lighter).

Then Why do you want a "Mauler". Well simply because the platform is too good to drop it. As it stands, throw away the AC/2 and is ammo, now you have 26 tons to spend in... many things. To start, you can simply add four medium lasers in the Autocannon bays, plus 4 tons of armor and still gets10 Double heat sinks, even then you have 8 tons to ad more equipment. How about jump jets?

Or trow away the ER lasers, and the A/Cs, and replace the lasers with PPCs and add four pulse lasers and a bunch of double heat sinks. You now have a really powerful long ad short range mech.

Whatever you do, the mauler brims with possibilities.

The truth about the mauler lies in that it was intended to be a Solaris Mech, you can see the prototype in the Prometheus, a mech depicted in the Mechwarrior RPG adventure "Unbound". Whatever the case, it is your choice and this is a fine specimen to start with.

I offer these last minis of my collection so you can also be part of it and to save for my future daughter fund, I keep at least one of each unseen for me, whether painted in my display cabinet or in the list of those waiting. No matter if you joined the club a year ago or have been a fan for 25+ years (I had been around for around 18) what matters is these minis will never be seen again and you can own one, two or compete your collection.

Get them, care them and use them! That’s what they were intended for.

Thanks for your attention. God Bless you and your loved ones.

The Mauler is not an Unseen, however, you might want to read a bit about these rare minis below and why not? check the ones I am offering on auction.

The “Unseens” archive

So much has been said about the Unseens, and much is false or deceiving, some people even modify the Wikipedia or Sarna.net wiki and place a link to it in order to create a false impression or to boost a sale while the lie lasts even confusing other fans. However, there is a story behind the so called “unseens”.

A simple (if personal) definition for an unseen would be:

Unseen (Battletech): A Mech design used in Battletech thru any of its first 3 editions which had a miniature produced by Ral Partha and was based on a Japanese anime series or the Japanese version of Battletech and was later removed from Battletech sources from 1996 onwards.

For example, the Stone Rhino Mech (Behemoth from Technical readout 3055) is not and never was an Unseen, proof of this is that the design appears in the cover and/or interiors of subsequent editions of this book and other books (Battletech Compendium 3^rd ed) and the Miniature can be purchased directly from Iron Wind Metal (successor of Ral Partha). The design does not appear nor resembles any Japanese existing mecha.

Also, not all mechs packed in a blue card blister can be considered “unseens”, these are rare, collectible, first edition, spiritually enhacing, made of lead and much more, so look for them avidly but , they are not unseens.

Finally, many sellers argue they got a “secret massive chaché” of unseens. This is not true 99% of the time. An avid player may have a dozen of each of these minis and may sell them, much rare are the collectors minis (packed in blister) but be wary as many “unseens” offered out there are recasts made of plumb soldering. Yes, that means poor detail, awful castings, high price and a lot of troubles. Worse is, you know you have a fake but  there is little to do to demonstrate it. I myself had purchased a couple and was very disappointed.

To avoid this be cautious if:

1)     1) The seller is offering tons of rare minis or “bought a huge lot of them” and now offer it for sale.

2)      2) The miniature is “primed for your convenience”

3) The miniature is painted to a “basic standard”. True players who still have originals and sell today had a nice painted collection, not all were artists of course but they spent time on their minis. Most people who had surplus or attic collections sold them 5 or 6 years ago. 

Of course, these are only guidelines and suggestions, if you wish to risk or don't mind, go ahead.

I would like to tell you a bit about the Unseens if you have the time, please read and use the list below for your future reference.

Beginnings

When Fasa Corporation created their Giant Mecha Combat game called Battledroids (later renamed Battletech for the Second Edition due to legal issues with Lucasfilm –Droid being a patended term-).  They considered it would be quicker and more convenient to use existing Mechanical designs than produce their own. Thus, they talked to TCI, a company dedicated to the import and translation of several Japanese strategy games and toys to the U.S.

Fasa offered TCI to buy the rights to use the Mech designs from several Japanese anime series  such as Macross, Fang of the Sun: Dougram and Crusher Joe. Unfortunately, TCI did not have the rights to license these works but Fasa paid the rights and included them in their first edition game Battledroids.

Later, Harmony Gold, editors of Robotech (a paste up with changed dialogues of three Japanese anime series tied up by a loose story –Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeada-), who actually held the distribution rights for Macross designs (only), sued Fasa for using these Mechs without permission. Unfortunately Fasa had several of their designs based on Macross Mechs (see below) and thus started a legal struggle which lasted over 10 years.

Harmony Gold also included the other Mech designs whose rights they did not own as part of their demand (from Dougramand Crusher Joe) and stirred the Japanese company Sunrise to join the demand.

In 1996, Fasa agreed not to publish again the designs, not only those from Macross but all based on Japanese anime.  Thus, the “Unseens” designs and its miniatures became the stuff of legend.

Fasa deleted them from onward publishings but they remained to be part of the historical background of the Battletech Universe. But this would hardly work as the background was rich and original, no one can forget Jaime Wolf’s Archer (a design based on the Spartan from Macross) or Natasha Kerensy´s Warhammer (based on the Macross Tomahawk) nor Hanse Davion riding his Battlemaster to mention a few.

The sue also managed to prohibit several other designs whose rights were legally paid by Fasa, such as the Clan versions of the inner sphere mechs (Phoenix Hawk, Marauder, etc). Which were depicted and properly credited in the first edition Technical Readout 3055).

Original Unseens

The official unseen lists is the following, I added the original series  and name for your convenience

Name                                    Series                   Original Name
Locust                                  Crusher Joe           Ostall
Stinger                                  Macross              Valkyrie VF-1A
Stinger LAM                        Macross              Valkyrie VF-1A (Gerwalk Mode)
Stinger LAM (Infocom)        Macross              Valkyrie VF-1A (Gerwalk Mode)                             
Wasp                                    Macross              Valkyrie VF-1S
Wasp LAM                           Macross              Valkyrie VF-1S (Gerwalk Mode)
Valkyrie                                Macross              Valkyrie VF-1J
Ostsol                                   Macross              Tactical Pod
Phoenix Hawk                      Macross              Super Valkyrie VF-1S
Phoenix Hawk LAM            Macross              Super Valkyrie VF-1S (Gerwalk Mode)
Griffin                                   FotS Dougram   Soltic
Scorpion                               FotS Dougram   BlizzardGunner
Shadow Hawk                      FotS Dougram   Dougram
Wolverine                             FotS Dougram   BlockHead
Ostroc                                   Macross              Tactical Pod (with missiles)
Rifleman                               Macross              Destroid Defender
Archer                                   Macross              Destroid Spartan
Goliath                                  FotS Dougram   Crabgunner
Thunderbolt                          FotS Dougram   Abitate Iron Foot
Longbow                               Macross              Destroid Phallanx
Warhammer                         Macross              Destroid Tomahawk
Marauder                             Macross              Glaug officer pod
Battlemaster                         Macross              Soltic Bigfoot
Behemoth                             Macross              Destroid Monster

Technical Readout 3055 Unseen

While still on the legal struggle, Battletech was licensed to be released in Japan along with its first videogame, the original (and only) edition of it, included all of the “unseens” from Btec h third edition but they were redesigned by Victor Musical industries. All of these designs were completely new and resembled other Japanese designs of the era  (see Patlabor, Bubblegum Crisis and even Gundam to see what I mean).

Some of these designs were later released in Technical Readout 3055 as the Clan (evolved)version of the original design, thus a locust IIC was a stylized locust.

However, these designs were also deleted from the records at the time and thus, can only be found on the first edition of TR 3055. These mechs are:

Locust IIC
Jenner IIC (although not being based on any Japanese design but on the original Jenner design by Fasa)
Griffin IIC
Shadow Hawk IIC
Phoenix Hawk IIC
Warhammer IIC
Rifleman IIC
Marauder IIC

Fun that a Clan enhanced version of an inner sphere mech is actually a standard Mech in Japanese Isn’t it?

Return

The unseens returned (with a pun and vengeance) in Technical Readout Project Phoenix, a book containing  the original stats for these mechs but with new designs. Iron Wind Metals produced new minis and the Battletech Universe recovered balance.

However, the legal pursuit by Harmony Gold continues nowadays, more as their only proved way to generate money than any other reason apparent. In 2008, Piranha Games was sued (again) for including a “too similar” design of the Warhammer mech in their game Mechwarrior V.

This demand stopped the videogame development and caused too much controversy as Harmony Gold has barely produced any original work on their overvalued Robotech “anime Frankenstein" short of a first release of the Shadow Chronicles which promised a sequel to be released 3 years ago.

The unseens are part of a tradition,Battletech has a long standing story, the most noble being that the latest editions of it were produced by fans. But wheter you play or had played any other mecha game such as Mekton, Heavy Gear, War Machine, Palladium or “name your favorite”, Battletech started it all in the West, most if not all of the designers and producers of these games played Battletech at least once and if they did, I can assure you they played it to use one or more of the now called Unseens.

Buy it NOW!!!

Please check my other auctions, I have other interesting items of this same genre you may like!

Terms and Conditions

Please READ, it may be boring but its important!

Being a particular seller, I always do my best to offer a top quality service as my seller feedback can asset, please refer to the following instructions, they will ensue a pleasant and hassle free transaction for us both:

- Please, serious bidders only.

- I do combine postage for multiple purchases. Items offered as having free shipping are posted according to the mentioned postage method, if combined, these items do not increase the cost of postage but other items pay regular fees.

- I pack with utmost care to ensue your items are delivered without damage, I am a buyer mostly , not a seller so I am on your side and offer what I expect from a premium seller.

- Bidders with zero feedback please contact me BEFORE bidding or buying!.

- Payment is expected within 3 days of auction’s ending/purchase and by PAYPAL only. Contact me if you have any issues.

- Postage options offered are always tracked online, delivery times vary, for registered airmail is from 2 to 4 weeks and for express postage (Mexpost), is 1 to 2 weeks.

-All items require signature on delivery.

- I do not accept returns, please be sure you wish to purchase this item and ask any question BEFORE making your offer or purchase.

- I am not responsible for any custom fees generated at your end, please inquiry at your local post office to verify if such charges apply. I can mark items as gift if you require (and only if you require).

- If you have ANY problem please let me know, I am an understanding person and will do everything possible to solve the matter. I am mostly a buyer, not a seller, so I can easily understand your situation.

- I hope you feel comfortable with these rules, however, if you don’t agree, please don’t bid nor buy

stating these terms here is a liable and declared part of our contract as buyer/bidder you accept these terms if you buy or bid from me.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to look at this item!