So... Adi Granov is doing the box art for these now.
That explains a lot; I'm sure they had to pay him a butt-load of cash for that, the cost of which HT will happily pass along to their customers, and justify it by adding a few die-cast pieces. It's great that Adi Granov is involved, and we will get his authentic artwork on the boxes, but... I still feel like the whole 'die-cast' thing is a transparent marketing ploy, which will give rise to serious problems as the 'die-cast' figures age.
On the porous surface of a standard plastic figure, the paint adheres extremely well over time, because it seeps into the tiny pores. If a high-quality lacquer is used, even better- because it will actually bond with the plastic surface at the molecular level. Then, as the plastic expands and contracts very slightly with temperature changes, the paint/lacquer expands and contracts with it.
The problem I anticipate with the die-cast line:
Metal expands and contracts much more than plastic does under similar temperature changes; Because the surface is metallic, and therefor less porous, it won't bond with the paint nearly as well as plastic would. Over time, the expansion/contraction of the metal will cause the paint to separate from the metal.
Because the HT Die-Cast line is only partially metal, eventually we will have chips in the metal parts, probably large and small, while the plastic parts will retain their original uniform paint, perhaps for decades longer.
I admit I'm tempted to buy the XVII and Patriot anyway, because they do look good, but I have a feeling I will eventually have to custom-paint them both to BD versions, in order to hide the chips...
