Manticore November

[Steve Herschbach]

18 minutes ago, PSPR said:

I just don't quite understand the radio silence out of Minelab nor the lack of a PDF manual to download

Gee, I don't know about radio silence. There have been a ton of videos with lead engineer Mark Lawrie blabbing away on the Manticore, and I was just with him at a meet in Australia a couple weeks ago, getting to hold the latest Manticore build in my hot little hands. Very nice detector, I'm sure most people will be quite pleased. Anyone attending those meets has had a chance to see a Manticore in action on buried test targets, etc. As far as shipping dates, it's coming along faster than I anticipated. By end of year is a pretty safe bet at this point.

But as far as aluminum goes, it will be about the same as any White's detector made from the DFX on. The target id range and target id separation capability is on par with what White's did for a long time, and is why I still own a DFX for jewelry hunting. I do think the Manticore will be a better detector for jewelry hunting than Equinox for that very reason. If it was not for the Bigfoot coil attached to my DFX, I might be tempted to switch to the Manticore just for the jewelry improvements alone.

I'm sure the pdf will be along any day now. There is still last minute stuff going on with tweaking and tuning, and so waiting until the final build is baked just makes sense, instead of putting out an incomplete manual with need of revisions.

[phrunt]

I wonder if they'll let Coiltek make coils for it, if they do it's going to be roles reversed, Coiltek won't need to make their 10x5" for it as it basically comes with that as a standard option with the 9x5.5 so it would be crazy to do a 10x5", they'd need to make a 6" alternative as that's what it will be missing sadly.  Perhaps a nice little 5" round solid could come our way.  I hope I'm not in fantasy land on this although it's probably a couple of years away 😞

We are almost mid November and no detectors have even started to be shipped from manufacturer to dealer yet, with none on their way it's not looking like November, times ticking for December and if they haven't started shipping by the start of December it's not looking likely before Christmas, then dealers start to close for a few weeks here so it's all over until late January.

Even if Minelab used something super fast and expensive like DHL it would take 7-10 days to get from Australia to USA, although they probably ship direct from Malaysia.  I can imagine customs is slower this time of year than any other with the flow of Christmas gifts rolling in and stock for retailers coming in on mass from China.

So my theory is if they're not starting to be shipped by the 1st of December, we are unlikely to get one for Christmas then I will be sad, very sad.  I also want the accessory coils for it at the same time!!! don't disappoint Minelab, you've done enough of that lately.

[PSPR]

5 minutes ago, phrunt said:

I wonder if they'll let Coiltek make coils for it, if they do it's going to be roles reversed, Coiltek won't need to make their 10x5" for it as it basically comes with that as a standard option with the 9x5.5 so it would be crazy to do a 10x5", they'd need to make a 6" alternative as that's what it will be missing sadly.  Perhaps a nice little 5" round solid could come our way.  I hope I'm not in fantasy land on this an it's probably a couple of years away 😞

We are almost mid November and no detectors have even started to be shipped from manufacturer to dealer yet, with none on their way it's not looking like November, times ticking for December and if they haven't started shipping by the start of December it's not looking likely before Christmas, then dealers start to close for a few weeks here so it's all over until late January.

Even if Minelab used something super fast and expensive like DHL it would take 7-10 days to get from Australia to USA, although they probably ship direct from Malaysia.  I can imagine customs is slower this time of year than any other with the flow of Christmas gifts rolling in and stock for retailers coming in on mass from China.

So my theory is if they're not starting to be shipped by the 1st of December, we are unlikely to get one for Christmas then I will be sad, very sad.  I also want the accessory coils for it at the same time!!! don't disappoint Minelab, you've done enough of that lately.

I don't think Minelab can stop CoilTek from making their own coils for the Manticore.  Although, from what I've heard, it takes CoilTek a year or longer to get something into production.

How do you know the Manticore isn't already being shipped to dealers or about to be shipped?  I suspect if the Release Date is November 30th that the first shipments will be in national distributors warehouses and maybe dealers hands before they announce.  It would be silly to announce release and have no product for customers to immediately buy.

I don't think dealers close down for weeks on end here in the U.S. for the winter or Christmas.  The dealer my order is with said they ship directly from the distribution centers to the customer so the dealer never even sees the unit.   In Oz aren't you in the beginnings of summer there?  Surely dealers will be open over there.

[Steve Herschbach]

5 minutes ago, PSPR said:

I don't think Minelab can stop CoilTek from making their own coils for the Manticore.  Although, from what I've heard, it takes CoilTek a year or longer to get something into production.

Yes they can, as Minelab controls the coil chipping, just like with Equinox. But I think Minelab may have seen the light on this, and will be more proactive in working with aftermarket people like Coiltek now, than they were with equinox.

[Steve Herschbach]

7 minutes ago, PSPR said:

It would be silly to announce release and have no product for customers to immediately buy.

Have you seen any detector releases in the last ten years? What you are saying is just common practice now. It's normally months between announcements and actual shipping dates, even been  more than a year in a few cases.

[phrunt]

They can easily stop Coiltek by just not offering them the security chips that are required to make the coils.  Minelab dictate who can make coils for their detectors and very likely what coils they can make. 

I know they're not shipped yet as I asked, neither NZ dealer has any product on the way or even knows a date the first units will be shipped.  They are waiting for Minelab to release them, with no known date of this happening.  The NZ distribution warehouse has no stock of course.

Christmas is traditional break time in Australia/NZ, shops tend to shut for a period, especially smaller shops like dealers, schools are closed, people go away on Holidays, everyone gets time off work.   Basically if they don't get in peoples hands by about the 20 of December they've timed the release very poorly for their own local market.

[dsb]

First winter weather here today so i've got till April/May before detecting hibernation ends.  Looking forward to you 'al reporting on it this winter.

[PSPR]

Just now, Steve Herschbach said:

Have you seen any detector releases in the last ten years? What you are saying is just common practice now. It's normally months between announcements and actual shipping dates, even been  more than a year in a few cases.

No, Steve, I'm not familiar with new metal detector releases.  You guys are much more knowledgeable about this than I.  But the "release" you are referring to, I believe, was what happened in August.  The release coming, I would think, is the OK for dealers to start selling the product they where sent to customers.  I could be wrong but I'll go by the advertisement Minelab put in the "Gold Prospectors" magazine that Manticore will be available in time to be under the Christmas tree.

[phrunt]

It's certainly more normal for products to be late than on time, some products over a year late from when they said they'd come out.  The metal detecting industry seems to be like no other from what I've seen with this stuff.

I think half the time they release these coming soon things to slow down sales of the competitors even though their product is a long way off, happens all the time with Detectors and even coils.   It's not limited to one particular brand either, most seem to do it and it's really the normal thing to do.

[PSPR]

BTW, I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes here.  I know I can be very opinionated and sometimes I come across that way.  If anyone is offended by what I have posted anywhere here, please accept my sincere apology.  I don't intend to offend anybody.