GW have stopped making metal models

kidterminal · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2011 1:39 pm

Oldman Willow wrote:

Quote:

Which is more likely in your view given GW's corporate track record of behavior towards its long standing and "valued" customers?

GW believes all of their Valued customers are 12 years old or about that. They believe they have sold people like me all that I am going to buy. So they have a tendency to devalue my opinion.They don't listen to complaints like I am not going to buy any more.They don't think you are going to buy any more anyway.They have a toy makers attitude toward us. We are going to grow up and buy sports cars and boats. They are not going to listen like a smaller company might.

So sad, yet so true.

Oldman Willow · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:22 pm

Quote:

So sad, yet so true

.
A competent toy maker would hope to keep you happy so you would buy for your children and grandchildren.
I am not going to argue the point that 12 year old's don't really have any money.

RangerofTheNorth · **Joined:** Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:54 pm **Posts:** 483

Oldman Willow wrote:

Quote:

So sad, yet so true

.
A competent toy maker would hope to keep you happy so you would buy for your children and grandchildren.
I am not going to argue the point that 12 year old's don't really have any money.

Which is why I love my Hasbro collection of stuff, lol they keep pleasing us old fans and still making stuff for the kiddies, its win win

Sacrilege83 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 09, 2011 12:21 am

This news really makes me sad. Now I need to buy that dragon immediately along with all the other metal models I'm missing. If "Hobbit" is going plastic, I'm out. This should be good news for gamers though who want big plastic armies.

Sticky Fingersss · **Joined:** Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:20 am **Posts:** 1776

I honestly don't mind if they stop making metlas all together. As long as they remake the old metals into platics or resin.

Lorizael · **Joined:** Sat Jul 24, 2010 4:58 pm **Posts:** 202

Sticky Fingersss wrote:

I honestly don't mind if they stop making metlas all together. As long as they remake the old metals into platics or resin.

Agreed. I'm happy if I never see a metal model again: as long as the models are remade in a different material then I'm all good.
May buy that Eomer I need just in case...

Ritcherd · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:26 am

Metal models are harder to work with IMO. But then again, I do like a good sturdy material. It doesn't particularly bother me as such, let's just hope it's cheaper

Eaothen-the-brave · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:59 am

I honestly don't really see such a big problem with this, I agree with Sticky Fingersss and Lorizael, I think it'd be ok if they remake it in plastic or anything like that, if they're cheaper that way I think it'd be even beter than metal, collecting an army made out of metals will cost us way to much.. oh well, to much for me to complete all of it.., also converting plastic miniatures will be a lot easier, we won't have to buy all the extra materials like we did for metal miniatures to make sure they'll stay together since plastic glue will 'melt' it all together IMO. But then again, that's just my opinion and view on this all. We'll see how things will turn out I guess..

Pinky Beecroft · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:46 pm

My only problem with this is that if they remake them in plastic/resin the price wont go down. Look at the plastic Balrog kit, I'm not sure how much it was when it was metal but it's still nearly 100 bucks AU. That's bloody expensive for a couple of sprues that other model companies seem to be able to produce for a lot less.

Raukov · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:05 pm

Eaothen-the-brave wrote:

if they're cheaper that way

hahaha

kidterminal · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2011 4:14 pm

GW has always price models based on how important the character is in game play, not on any manufacturing considerations. I seriously doubt this would lead to a price drop. Look at the price of the Forgeworld resins they are significantly more than their metal counterparts.

zilegil · **Joined:** Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:48 am **Posts:** 45

I have heard this rumour in the past, people have been yapping on about it for a while now.
The fact is that they have to be producing metal miniatures, after all if you look there's a lot of metal released for 40k and fantasy, that's the most common argument from 40k and WHFB players. The fact of LOTR might be different, you see there is not many releases for LOTR, as a matter of fact, metal or plastic, but most the sources say that it is an incorrect theory or that all three genres of miniatures will be affected.
Well if it does come to pass. Resin is not the way to go for GW, their primary market is that of 12 year old children who most probably don't know how to handle resin, unless they use a different type of resin that is non toxic and does not disperse into the air as easily.

Jobu · **Posted:** Tue Apr 12, 2011 11:17 am

It is happening for the LoTR range as well,Duinhir, mauhur(and command), thrydan and faramir prince of ithilien can no longer be ordered for distribution. These are all models that have been released in the past year so this is not a phase out of old models sort of thing.

Harfoot · **Posted:** Tue Apr 12, 2011 4:49 pm

I have noticed the latest WH Tomb Kings release for May has no metal figures, they normally release a couple of plastic kits and several metal Captains , Generals or Magicans, but not this time. Also the prices of the Tomb King releases, WOW they really our pricing them selves out of the market, people will simply stop buying them and go on to over hobbies. Look at the prices of Airfix kits, same manufactouring process still with licences to pay for, the kits are much cheaper.
I am a 43 year old painter and gamer and have to justify buying the models for myself, how do people buy for kids, they are not pocket money prices.
There comes a point when you look at something and think "ITS JUST TO EXPENSIVE" make you wonder how they will price the Hobbit releases?
Look at prices of similar models say on the Perry Brothers Web Site, half the cost of GW with more figures.
Luckily I have nearly all the LOTR figures, just need a couple more and 10 years to finish painting them. Thank you.

Jobu · **Posted:** Tue Apr 12, 2011 5:21 pm

I agree, but they are huge models, not far off mumak size, which is significantly more expensive with fewer pieces. A plastic balrog is still $50. A troll of $33 and no where near as big. Not saying that GW pricing is NOT ( <-had to edit this since I forgot this most important word )out of line with reality, it is just consistent.

theOneRider · **Posted:** Tue Apr 12, 2011 6:07 pm

The $33 plastic Morgul Knights box set isn't all that big - I got two of them on a discount at Amazon, so I know. Got the Mumak, too, a long time ago, and $85 is honestly more than it's worth.
GW charges a lot more than they would need to in order to be competitive. Because they've essentially got a monopoly on their own games, they can pretty much charge whatever they want while people are still coming back for more. Personally, I like a lot of the models they offer, but I get them elsewhere because I'm not willing to pay their excessive prices - I could eat for a day on what GW wants for just one of their box sets!
I think that the assessment that people are going to start abandoning them for cheaper lines is an accurate one. GW is putting a lot of effort into choking off all sources of their product where you can consistently get it at better prices, eventually forcing everyone to either pay way more than we want or just go somewhere else.
Happily, there aren't a whole lot of minis they offer (that I don't already have) that are still high on my list to get, and I've got a backlog to last me for a year at least. :roll:

Lorizael · **Joined:** Sat Jul 24, 2010 4:58 pm **Posts:** 202

I see some odd comments sometimes.

How can GW price themselves out of a market which they own? There is no competition if you want to play Warhammer/LotR etc.
There is no other option if you don't want to pay for GW stuff bar ebay/2nd hand. Buying from independants makes no difference because it's still giving the same money to GW.
GW are still a hugely profitable company that has been expanding over the past few years during a recession- doesn't really show that people are abandoning the hobby...

In regards to the new Tomb Kings- the prices are consistent with previous releases: Arachnoroc, Phoenix Guard, Blood Crushers all match up well.

A box is worth whatever an individual thinks. In the end if you want something you will pay for it and feel that you have worth from the goods. If you don't think something is worth the cost then you don't buy it. Surely there's no issue there?
I think that the LotR infantry boxes are amazing and will happily fork out for them.
The afore mentioned Mumak on the other hand; I couldn't ever justify buying it because it isn't worth as much in my eyes.
Every time you buy goods you're saying the price is worth it.
It's all about the individual.

Anyway, back to the actual topic:
No metal releases for TK is a BIG signifier that something is happening. Many independants have reported that they can't order metal models any more and the blister racks of GW stores are starting to look rather bare...

Getting rid of metal has got to be a good thing. If it means plastic replacing metal units then following previous metal to plastic transfers it'll mean a price decrease. Win.
Metal characters getting replaced with resin or another material will be good also: much easier to work with and paint than metal. And for how often I buy character blisters, I'd be happy to pay a little more if the model wasn't metal.

Sticky Fingersss · **Joined:** Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:20 am **Posts:** 1776

This is off TLA:

Quote:

Always curious, I drove to the closet GW store today with the intent of placing a yet another large LOTR character order in the event LOTR metals were kaput. They advised that they have been advised of no plans to discontinue the LOTR metals availability in general from the mail order route. Of course, I suspect that there will always be a number of individual models that are discontinued as time goes by. So I bought half of wanted and some other stuff instead ...

The manager pointed out that the rumor came from a distributor and was tied to the list of metal products being pulled back from the distro chain to the GW mail order channel.

Not sure what it all means, but at least this store was not in panic mode and was cautioning prudence....

Lost Pict

PS - Same place that I saw the SKODA last year, months before the official announcement - so I have confidence that they are reasonably tied into the internal GW plans.

PPS - No stones please, just passing along a little intel.

Beowulf03809 · **Posted:** Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:29 pm

Lorizael, I think you are a little off with two comments:

How can GW price themselves out of a market which they own?
In the end if you want something you will pay for it and feel that you have worth from the goods

I felt that $25 was worth it for a box of plastic infantry, and was ok paying $15 for a blister of 3 metal warriors and $20 for a blister with a metal hero mounted and on-foot. At that price level I was happy buying up new models that came out or picking up a box every few months even when I had no idea when I would be getting to them. You can still find some models on their site with those prices but anything new (and even some of the older ones) are going up. Yes, I understand that's the reality of the world, but I absolutely do not feel like I'm getting worth from the goods at the new prices. I am making about 1/3 of the purchases than I did a year ago and I have friends that have not purchased anything new for LotR for that whole time. Instead we're just digging into our backlog. So they increased the price of several of these models by about 30% and have lost about 30% or more in my purchases and 100% from others. We're still playing the game and, since GW doesn't do anything at all in our region for official tournament support, if we use their models or someone else’s it's all up to personal preference (their lack of support for events the last couple years is also hurting interest in their systems). I stick with GW models because for the most part they reflect PJ's films and that's been pretty on target with how I've viewed Middle Earth as well. But if I find WH Vikings look close enough to Warriors of Rohan, for example, then I won't hesitate to go that route.

Yes, I am still making GW purchases. I’ve been a major LotR fan for about 30 years and a gamer about as long, thought PJ’s vision of Middle Earth really captured the spirit, (most of) GWs models recreate that vision well and I like both of GW’s LotR rule sets. We have an awesome, active group of mature, non-power-gamer LotR players here that I enjoy casting dice with. I accumulated a very large backlog of models because for my several years in this hobby the price of the models was at a level I thought justifiable based on their quality. I was buying for armies that I knew I probably wouldn’t get to for a few more years but that didn’t matter. In other words, GW was making a lot of extra from me and others like me.

Now I won’t buy a single model or WotR base until I’m ready to start cleaning and painting them that week to start playing them within a couple weeks. And when it does come time to make that purchase I’m first asking around our local group and checking online to see if anyone has used versions at a lower cost. I am starting to have more interest in discussions of using other product lines as stand-in for GW models in some areas. But if no one has them used and I just don’t like another line well enough, then I will ask my LGS to order the models from GW for me. I am more than happy to give a little extra to them for all the direct support they offer our club and community, but I do NOT feel that any of the goods are worth any of the newer price points and buy them only because there is no other choice if I want to continue the hobby I enjoy.

This is how GW can price themselves out of a market, even one that they own. New players may not be able to afford to get involved to begin with, existing players that aren’t as much of a fanatic of Middle Earth may just jump to another game system, and long term players may focus their dollars on the secondary market or other product lines as proxy. Or we can simply hunker down and try to get through some of the backlog we have collected.

emperor_thompson · **Joined:** Tue Oct 20, 2009 7:41 am **Posts:** 181

Beowulf03809, I must admit that I feel the same way about all this myself. I've been a long time customer, but as their prices go up, I'm becoming increasingly content to simply reduce my backlog, which should take a few decades. In the past the number of unpainted models I had meant little to me; after all, you can never have enough orcs. Now, however, I think it is time for me to stop. None of their new products interest me, and I have a little of everything I want, even if some of my armies aren't quite as large as I had dreamed. Maybe if they release something interesting I may buy a box, but I doubt I'll spend over $200 on their products throughout the rest of my life, which is quite a big difference as I have been spending hundreds (or more) every year until recently.

GW have stopped making metal models

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