It's a November release so it should be available for preorder the first of second week of the month with the release date being the last week of the month.
Carlos even showed that gesture in the video IIRC. About the mini - I don't like it. It doesn't feel like Haqqislam unit, doesn't fit the scheme of Haqq. The old one was much better IMO, with a pose of a true leader, standing straight and proud. One of my favourite minis. So the good thing about it all is that I won't have even a slight desire to buy the new Sal :P PozdRawiam / Greetings
Nice, I am excite I agree that he doesn't really evoke the same Haqq feel as the old one. I really do love the old model, especially for all the decoration on his cloak. I could see picking up several more to go all in on the Holoecho/Holomask meme. The new model hold a different kind of of appeal for me, personally.
Along the lines of the holoechoes, if I was asked to choose a pose, I would have done the same as the arms crossed Hafza. I think it would have been a fun similarity between Saladin and the man who often pretends to be Saladin.
While the pose doesn't rankle me, the mini as a whole is... disappointing. In my opinion, he neither takes enough design cues from Haqq to tie him in, nor from Aleph really, to mark him as an outsider (apart fro the combi rfile). Add in the ridiculous shoulder plates and the sword that looks as if he loaned it from a Space Marine(TM) - why even redesign the Haqq sword from out of nowhere?
Maybe it will look better once they show it with paint. I like the pose and the clothes are growing on me. But, I just can't get over how odd the gun looks for a Haqq model. I know it's an O-12 gun, and there is precedent with the Kaplan and Druze Shock Teams, but I can't get over how weird it looks. I wish he only had the holstered sword and pistol, like his old model.
I've never liked that the profile has a combi. He's a genius tactician, but he's never figured out that the rifle+lsg is a vastly superior weapon to the combi. But since the profile has a combi, there's really no way for his sculpt's gun to fit the Haqq look, since there is no Haqq combi. I did like the old sculpt with no gun at all, stoically surveying the battlefield. And it stands up really well in terms of details and such. But the scale is out of date so I'm kind of glad they released a new one which is also pretty damn cool. I think I like everything about it except the giant face microphone. Don't they have bluetooth earbuds in the future?