Jobu wrote: I think GW is only raising prices because they are selling fewer units each year.
I agree with most of what you've said. But GW have always put their prices upeach year. Each price hike drives current customers away, but they are relying on their ability to continue attracting younger gamers, who are spending mummy and daddy's money.
Having said that, when I first started, back in 1990, metal models cost about a quid each, or slightly less. Considering inflation, I'm not convinced that the real cost of rank and file miniatures has increased all that much.
You can buy a really beautiful resin or metal "character" figure from high end companies like Covus Belli or Studio McVey for less than the average finecast miniature. At the same time, the quality (or certainly the quality control) is significantly better. I wish they made LotR figures.
GW has some great sculptors working for them. Finecast however, is a joke.
I'd really like Bolg. I'd really like Thror. However, generally speaking, if I want a LotR mini I will check on eBay to see if I can get it in metal or plastic, and if I can't, I won't buy it.
I'm struggling with my conscience over buying Thror or Bolg. I hate to reward a company for providing a poor quality product at a super-premium price.
In fairness, all my finecast purchases were early in its release, and my track record was awful- a lot more than half the figures I bought had major problems, and I also didn't especially enjoy painting the "raged" surface I found on finecast miniatures, even the ones which were in "good" condition. But I have to confess I haven't bought a finecast figure for almost 2 years.
Maybe GW have tidied up their record on finecast, and maybe the miniatures which have been initially mastered as finecast miniatures (as opposed to metal mini's which have been "remastered") are better. But I got stung, and last time I checked nobody at GW even acknowledged any issues with finecast, let alone an apology for a crappy product.
They certainly haven't said "we had some teething problems, so sorry if you got charged £15 for a piece of mangled plastic, but we've really got our game on now".
I'm not here to "bash" GW unnecessarily, but I don't think it's reasonable to expect people to stay silent about a real issue. I'm not in to negativity, and I also uphold the right of a business to make money- that's what they're there for. If you don't like the price don't buy the product. It's as simple as that. But I don't expect people would remain silent if Mercedes Benz started to make cars which fell apart.
Wargaming is different anyway. Rather than making one big purchase which will see you through a number of years you hop on to a road and invest piece by piece, over the course of a few years.
By the time you decided finecast was a pile of asswangle you had already invested to the tune of many hundreds of pounds, only to find out that not only were you expected to pay to keep up with a hobby (a reasonable expectation, to be honest) but that you'd have to pay a super-premium price for a grossly inferior product.
The problem of course, is that people really do judge quickly, and a bad reputation is hard to shake. I think there's a degree of hubris here, and I don't like to see them get away with abusing their customers the way they did. I want them to be successful so that they keep producing the game we love, but I don't want them to be rewarded for what can only be considered as an adversarial attitude towards their own customers.
I wish they just made 100% plastics. They're far better at that. However, I imagine it doesn't pay to tool for Hobbit plastic character figures. So we're stuck with finecast, or eBay, or sculpting/converting our own.
The latter has its own appeal, as far as I'm concerned  .
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What is more, he hasn't his nose ( 
) and throat needed a little help before painting (there was too much of cast).
but as for miscasts, bubbles and all the usual issues I've no complaints! No miscasts to be found, sometimes a bit of delicate bending required with swords and staves, but nothing too serious. 