Heroscape water (& more!) tiles by 3rd-party manufacturer

[Vanilla_Thunder]

Having a hard time understand how these don't infringe on any patents currently held by WotC. They look like existing tiles were molded and mass produced.

If I were a lawyer for WotC, I'd be all over these.

[DesertScrb]

Well, other manufacturers can make toy bricks compatible with Legos, so maybe it's the same principle here.

[wulfhunter667]

Maybe they won'y sell well and he'll have a fire sale. I'd buy them if they were BOGO.

[ScottManDeath]

You put the spray stencil on your kitchen table. Then you spray paint over it, or use a brush roller to make the paint go through the gaps of the stencil onto the table.

Then you remove and clean up the stencil. Now you have a nice hex pattern on your kitchen table and can play each morning without setup time, while you munch your morning cereals.

[Grim]

It looks like these tiles do not have the indentation on the bottom, and if so they wouldn't "sit" on top of regular tiles with any stability.

[DesertScrb]

Originally Posted by ScottManDeath

You put the spray stencil on your kitchen table. Then you spray paint over it, or use a brush roller to make the paint go through the gaps of the stencil onto the table.

Then you remove and clean up the stencil. Now you have a nice hex pattern on your kitchen table and can play each morning without setup time, while you munch your morning cereals.

Of course, depending on what your significant other thinks of this, you may be eating your breakfast alone from now on.

[KingZombie]

Originally Posted by DBC

Anyone know how the spray stencil maps work?
Are they like Lexan Maps, but can be painted in any preferred color?
Or can they actually hold onto tiles unlike Lexan Maps?

A shame they haven't made any swamp tiles matching sparkling water. That would be really cool.

I would like to hear actual customer feedback on this. It's awefully pricey to take a gamble on.

[Eirikr]

Originally Posted by Grim

It looks like these tiles do not have the indentation on the bottom, and if so they wouldn't "sit" on top of regular tiles with any stability.

Ya, that was my first thought. At this price I might be tempted by the mud tiles and maybe the acid tiles if they were molded exactly like the existing heroScape tiles but as it stands I think I'll just leave this one alone.

[Therrian]

1 - They don't fit properly on heroscape tiles.
2 - You have the irritation of having to find the right side when using them on your maps.
3 - They currently cost a buck each per tile

All in all...sounds like a fairly lame product to me.

[Hogg]

Originally Posted by Therrian

1 - They don't fit properly on heroscape tiles.
2 - You have the irritation of having to find the right side when using them on your maps.
3 - They currently cost a buck each per tile

All in all...sounds like a fairly lame product to me.

But supporting products like these encourage more 3rd party support. I'd like to see more options (walls) avaliable, even if its not through WotC.

[Therrian]

Originally Posted by Hogg

But supporting products like these encourage more 3rd party support. I'd like to see more options (walls) avaliable, even if its not through WotC.

While I agree with you in principal, I don't think supporting what, to me at least, seems like a pretty weak product at a heavily inflated price is the right way to go about getting additional 3rd party support.

If these guys at least took the time to make their molds from the existing water tiles so they laid properly on scape hexes, then the high price might be something to look beyond, but as it stands I wouldn't support this product with my money and I would much rather support folks like FatDragon Games that seem to be trying to make things that people are asking for at a really reasonable price.

My for what it's worth.

[Onacara]

Originally Posted by Vanilla_Thunder

Having a hard time understand how these don't infringe on any patents currently held by WotC. They look like existing tiles were molded and mass produced.

If I were a lawyer for WotC, I'd be all over these.

In all actuality WOTC or Hasbro for that matter do not own the rights to the tiles intelocking design. That patent is owned by Craig Van Ness and these are totally infringing on that patent.

The stencil would be fine as far as I know because CVN hold the patent to the interlocking 3D tiles. However...you could just as easily use a regular hex stencil which would cost you alot less. Look at Cav's Lexan Mats for example...the original ones had the Heroscape hex shape and all of the newer ones just have the plain hex...and they work alot better. He could probably explain it better than me but....something happens in the process of attaching all of those jagged lines that they do not match up exactly uniformly across the mat.

They are also cut from single sheets of plexiglass. If you read the feedback on the site they mention the other person who was making these and he is a member of this site (though I haven't seen him in awhile).

Here is the big problem with these tiles (even if they were legal) the interlocking parts will snap off of the tiles if you do not take them out just so. 1/3 of the ones I got from millermixture have broken already and I dont even use them that often.