The Minelab Manticore!
We spoke to the Minelab team about their amazing new metal detector, The Manticore.
The Manticore, a powerful and mythical beast is certainly reflected metaphorically in what we know about this metal detector at present.
Within mythology, the Manticore is a hybrid animal, with the head/torso of a lion or man, the tail of a scorpion, and in some cases the wings of a dragon. It’s effectively a hyper realisation of power and dominance, combining the intelligence of man, and the various weapons and power of multiple apex predators. And similarly, we know the Manticore detector is intelligent, we know it’s powerful and we know it’s as lightning fast as the historical monster.
Enough of the metaphors, we needed to know the detail! We needed to find out more, and so we did
Minelab first released a teaser about their new elite metal detector just over a week ago with the image above and since that time have been slowly drip-feeding new information about its abilities. A large cohort of the Minelab team recently presented The Manticore to a particularly excited live audience at a detecting rally in Kent. The detector was held high and questions we flying from everyone in the crowd, everyone reaching out, touching and peering through a sea of bodies to try and find out as much as they could.
From the Minelab teaser, and live event we knew the new machine would demonstrate an air of prowess, but we didn’t realise just how many great features it would boast. It’s already being projected as becoming the world’s highest-performance coin and treasure detector.
We caught up with Mark Lawrie and Ciaran Duffy from Minelab to get more information on the Minelab Manticore.
*You can watch a video of our interview with Mark Lawrie here, or read the transcript below
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Here’s the transcript of our interview with The Minelab Chief Engineer, Mark Lawrie.
Can You do the, ‘Manticore Minute’, a 1-Minute Rundown of the Features of this New Metal Detector?
'The main features are; it’s got about 50% more power than the Equinox, which lets you light up more targets in the ground, and get more depth. We’ve also got a completely revamped engine inside it that will discriminate better, and we’ve got things in the user interface such as the 2-D visualisation that helps the user get all that information and make a decision as to whether to dig or not. So, it’s more power, faster and better at discriminating.'
What are the Best Physical Elements of the Minelab Manticore?
'So, we’ve really tried to make this a really lightweight platform so it’s a carbon fibre, telescopic all the way up. It can collapse right down really quickly and has nice cam-locks. It’s lighter than an Equinox, it comes in at about 1.3 kilos and it’s waterproof to 5 metres.
It’s a really robust platform, we listened to the customers and that’s what they want, so that’s what we made.'
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Which Feature are you Most Excited about on the Minelab Manticore?
'I always get excited with new products that they are going to find more, and that comes down to everything working together in one harmonious system, but I guess for me, redoing the audio, the 2-D system visualisation, the discrimination and just that whole new engine and just going deeper as a result and finding better targets and ignoring all of the ferrous trash that you don’t want to find. Actually, is that one feature? It felt like 4 but that’s what I like.'
What Can We Expect from Multi-IQ - Plus?
'We’ve spent over three years on this project and the engineers back in Australia have done heaps of work on making the discrimination part, that’s the decision-making part of the detector that presents the options to the user, getting that to the next level. Customers are just going to wowed by just how much better it performs in dense trash and situations like that.
It trying to really make sure that it gives you the best shot at making the best decision as to whether to dig.'
Do You Think This is the Best Coin and Treasure Machine Minelab Have Ever Released?
'Ooh, tricky question. I’m going to go with a yes. We’ve definitely taken all of the learning from the Equinox product line, drawn that up and make it a more premium detector than that, but at the same time we’ve borrowed some things from the CTX 3030, like the 2D screen, but we’ve revamped that as well so in a sense, it’s the latest generation.'
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In Terms of Performance, What Makes the Manticore so Epic?
'I think you need to link it mostly to the power. It’s a real beast of a detector. That’s a bit of a tagline, it’s got a lot of power under the hood. But, it’s not just the obvious power that you would get from having more electromagnetic field going into the ground, there’s a lot of power in the way the software is working now and the signal processing that pulls together.'
What was the Trickiest Part of the Design of this Metal Detector?
'The coil is very challenging. When you turn the power up on a detector like this, everything gets what we would call, ‘hotter’. Everything becomes more reactive and sensitive. Every time you knock it against some stubble, or object, all of those aspects make it more difficult from an engineering point of view, to keep it quiet and tamed down. It’s like caging the beast! You have to ride the beast and that is challenging.
If we could just keep turning up the power, we’d make it 10x stronger, but there are a lot of physics limits that make it more and more difficult to go deeper.'
Who do you think is the Ideal User for this Machine?
'I would definitely say that everyone that’s capable with a Vanquish or an Equinox would have no problem moving to this. It’s mid-tier to expert level. It’s really targeted at that type of detectorist and it has more configurability than Equinox and with that comes power, but we’ve made it very easy-to-use, and quite accessible to anyone. I would imagine that some people who have never detected before would just be able to run with a default, turn it on, and go!
But it’s got that depth in there, a more advanced screen than Equinox, which means more menus that allow people to configure it how they chose. But at the same time, it’s quite layered and approachable so anybody can just pick it up and go.'
From Design to Announcement, How Long has the Manticore been in the Making?
'About three years in total, with quite a big project team in Adelaide, Australia. All the engineers have worked for a long time to make this mythical beast come to reality. We’re really proud of it. It’s next level in terms of performance and so it’s just exciting to get it out. I’m sure all of the engineers will be watching all these videos and blogs online and thinking, yes, we did that. We brought that to the customers!
It's part of the buzz of working for Minelab. We spend a long time making something, but then it gets into the customer's hands and you get all the feedback online and at rally events.'
Are Minelab Currently Creating any more Mythical Beasts?
'Well, Minelab is always working on metal detectors, whether they get names after mythical beasts, we’ll have to wait and see!'
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More From Minelab!
In addition to talking to Mark, we also managed to grab 5 minutes with Ciaran Duffy, The Business Development Manager (Central Europe) at Minelab.
Here’s a snippet of our conversation with Ciaran.
Hey Ciaran, What is it That’s Going to Set the Manticore Above any of its Competition? What Makes it so Special?
'Hey Scott, well we’ve invested a lot of time, (tens of thousands of hours) into the development of the Manticore, and when I say we, I mean a small army of some of the best electronics engineers in the world. At Minelab, we go to great lengths to ensure we’re pushing new boundaries with our technology, and the new Manticore metal detector does just that. It really is phenomenal, and we’re completely confident that it will be a beast on the UK metal detecting market.'
How About That?!
Not all of the features of this detecting behemoth have been revealed yet, but we do know that the Manticore detector has the following:
· Multi-IQ+
· Highly Powerful (50% more powerful than the Equinox)
· Powerful 2D ID Map – X&Y axis visual target representation
· New Audio System
· Lightweight – 1.3kg
· Compact - Carbon Fibre, Collapsible Stem
· Ergonomic - New ‘Scorpion’ arm cup and new search head fitting style
· Waterproof to 5 metres
· Backlit screen, torch and vibration
Excited? Yes, we are too!
The Minelab Manticore is set to be, as Mark said, the best coin and treasure machine on the market. We know it will be accessible, customisable and most importantly have a vast amount of information that the user can interpret to help them make the all-important decision, ‘to dig, or not to dig – that is the question!
We can’t wait to find out more about the Manticore and know that demand for this machine is going to be incredibly high. Ensure you’re signed up to the Crawfords newsletter below to hear the latest news on the Manticore, you can check out our Minelab Manticore page and for exclusive content about Minelab products and other great metal detecting prize draws, community news and other lovely detectorist information.
We would like to thank both Mark and Ciaran for sharing their time, product knowledge and unique insight into the world of Minelab, and specifically the creation and release of the Minelab Manticore.