Gen Con 2012 Gets Zynvaded!

Even though Zynvaded! has been around for several years, I had never heard of it or seen any of its 1:1 scale miniatures before Gen Con 2012. Think of the “life-size” Zyn resin miniatures as very tiny alien invaders and you’ll begin to get the premise of We Have Issues! Publishing’s game. Since Zynvaded!’s release, WHIP! has also released Don’t Let the Zed-Bugz Bite! and Podz of War, with Don’t Let the Zed-Bugz Bite! pitting Hunters against Zombie Worm Grubz in a survival horror vein and Podz of War taking the action in an arena mech/battlepod direction.

Podz of War Battling at Gen Con 2012 Over a Classic NES and Nintendo Cartridges

Unlike most other wargames, in Zynvaded! the battlefield becomes a regular kitchen table, countertop, or desk with human debris scattered about for the soldiers to battle over. It’s the premise of Toy Soldiers and the Army Men series of video games and the chunky sculpts by John Vogel play off of this theme of battling toys. Another strength of the Zynvaded! games is their Chinese takeaway carton approach to packaging, providing the miniatures, rules, measuring tape, dice, and pencils in a carton for $35 for Zynvaded! and Don’t Let the Zed-Bugz Bite! and a larger carton for $45 for Podz of War, on account of the many bits and weapons that can be attached to each mechanical “pod” suit.

Some of John Vogel’s sculpts are remarkably cute, especially the fat Hunter Decoy for Don’t Let the Zed-Bugz Bite that players can deploy to draw the attention of the Zed-Bugz, which are fairly adorable themselves.

Zynvaded! Resin 1:1 Scale Figures on Display at Gen Con in the We Have Issues! Publishing Booth

Game inventors John Vogel and Justin Nyland take us through each game’s features and also briefly talk about the individual components that are for sale separately: