I'll second that.

_________________
My Lotr backlog: 305/952[][][][][][][][][][]32% completed
Painting Lineup: Mumakil x2, Rohan Heroes x8, Haradrim, SKoDA

So, Germany will win gold in the Hammer Throw? Male or female or both?
Interesting!

*calls bookie*

_________________
Ash Nazg Durbatulûk, Ash Nazg Gimbatul,
Ash Nazg Thrakatulûk Agh Burzum-ishi Krimpatul.

I guess you missed the fact they closed nearly every store in the southeastern United States.That is way more than 10. None of the major retailers carry any of their products any more. GW expand they are old news and has been. They threw away their fair market share and the good will of their customer base long ago. Do you work for them or something

_________________
But none were more dangerous than the Great Willow: his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning,

In the GTA (one of, if not THE biggest market in Canada) 2 to 3 years ago we had 5 or 6 GW stores in a 30 mile radius, with countless independent retailers stocking vast amounts of the three main ranges. Now there are one or two GW shops and most of the FLGSs have drastically cut back on what they stock. Most will still order from GW if you want a product, but that's no better than getting it from their website.

It's gotten to the point where I'm content just buying stuff cheap when I see it now. I have enough models to field 500-700 points of nearly anything I want to in the SBG. I wanted to expand to WoTR sizes for 3-4 forces, but just getting models locally is now becoming a PITA.

_________________
Gondor: 2339pts
Rohan: 1318pts
Dwarves: 2482pts
Elves: 1091pts
Mordor: 2305pts
Isengard: 1762pts
Moria: 1463pts
Evil Men: 381pts

I have not bought any thing in awhile. There is frankly nothing to buy.

_________________
But none were more dangerous than the Great Willow: his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning,

LOL, I've always suspect something like that of Lorizael. I think he's GW's defense lawyer.

_________________
My Lotr backlog: 305/952[][][][][][][][][][]32% completed
Painting Lineup: Mumakil x2, Rohan Heroes x8, Haradrim, SKoDA

Let not be nasty

_________________
But none were more dangerous than the Great Willow: his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning,

Ha! No, not at all.
I've been playing GW games for nearly 20 years now- I enjoy the games and love the models, just seems to make sense to me to support the hobby that you love and have a sense of loyalty to it. I think the biggest threat to the hobby are the people that constantly moan about everything GW do.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of things I don't like and would rather got changed, but generally I've had 20 years of enjoyment out of this hobby and I don't think that will change any time soon.

GW are struggling in the north america maybe but they do just fine everywhere else in the world and are still recording profits, so it can't all be bad.

Generally I think that the internet doesn't reflect the tru customer base of GW- for every 10 people who complain and moan and say they never buy anything and are leaving the hobby, there are 100 kids who are just starting to collect and play. This is GW's customer base, not the "vets" on the web.
I think people see it as "well I don't like it and won't buy any more" means "well nobody likes it and won't buy any more".

^And just how do you know all these statistics? Is it all based on your 20 years of experience, really? Because you sound like GW management to me just based on your last paragraph. And you're right, thanks for clearing that up, GW doesn't care about maintaining their existing fanbase, they only care about bringing in young blood that don't know any better about what's going on and the history of the hobby and they use their rich mommy's & daddy's wallets to pay for everything.

And by the way, there's a difference between being loyal and being lead around like a fool. You might be loyal to them, but GW lately has been all about $$$the Benjamins$$$. The youngsters don't know any better, and the vets are getting p-o'd by the catalogues, the prices, quality, etc. It seems like GW is not returning the loyalty, which does goes both ways.

Man, I hope you don't live in the Middle-East, because I imagine the pro-Mubarak/Gaddafi supporters to be the ones putting the other people down by telling them that "they're a bunch of moaners and complainers and that they should be happy with what they have and shut up." This is a discussion forum, and this is one of the few places where gamers can vent their frustration about the company they have a love/hate relationship with. I may be a moaner that still loves this hobby, but just admit it you're a sugar coater with almost everything you post on these boards, which I guess makes for a perfect balance of view points on here.

_________________
My Lotr backlog: 305/952[][][][][][][][][][]32% completed
Painting Lineup: Mumakil x2, Rohan Heroes x8, Haradrim, SKoDA

I agree with Lorizael, I find many people just want something to moan about for the sake of moaning about it. I also disagree with many of the things that GW has done but in the end, they are the ones who supply us with this great hobby! I would much rather accept what they are doing because I don't NEED to buy all the things that they bring out, so if there is something I don't like, I simply won't buy it. I might show some signs of disagreement but I wouldn't just moan and go "GW had done **** all to help their customers!" When I go to a GW (i can only go once per year beause of the country I live in) the staff are very welcoming and do show signs of respect for the fact that I have played the game for a while and are very helpfull in terms of painting tips ect... I am even able to speak out against models I don't like in the shop without fearing of being insulted back.

and btw Sacrilege83, your comment about the middle east is drastically out of proportion.... that's almost as bad as comparing things to the Nazis...

Gifts for Geeks have just released a list of releases for the new "Citadel Fine Cast" range at http://www.giftsforgeeks.org.uk/blog/

EDIT: It seems like the blog post has been removed. Maybe they were a little ahead and GW asked them to remove it.

The interesting bits are:

10-61 URUK-HAI WITH CROSSBOWS £14.00
10-62 URUK-HAI BERSERKERS £14.00
08-61 GOTHMOG (PELENNOR) £20.50
05-60 ELROND AND GIL-GALAD £15.00
10-60 SARUMAN AND GRIMA £15.00
02-60 GANDALF THE WHITE £20.50
04-60 ARAGORN (THE BLACK GATE) £20.50
04-62 THEODEN (HELM’S DEEP) £20.50
04-61 BOROMIR (ITHILIEN) £20.50
09-60 SULADAN THE SERPENT LORD £20.50
08-62 THE DARK MARSHAL (RINGWRAITH) £20.50
05-61 DAIN AND BALIN £15.00
08-42 GULAHVAR THE TERROR OF ARNOR £30.00
08-43 MORDOR TROLL CHIEFTAIN £25.50
02-40 THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING £37.00

A huge increase in the price for uruk-hai although maybe they are moving from a blister of 3 to a box of 5.

If I thought you meant miniature gaming, I would say that is inane. If you mean "The GW Hobby" yes it is. When you give some one good service they will remember it forever. When you give poor service the same person will tell a hundred people. Where there is smoke there is fire.

I don't know about you but It is my Hobby not GW's. I use the miniatures I like. I use the paint I like. I game with adults. I don't tell people what models they have to use in my games.I don't tell people what games they have to play. I don't treat people like they are stupid.

What am I supposed to be loyal to? Good service? A rule set? OK I know. I am going to be loyal to the street address where the closed GW store used to be.
I am sure you can find lots of models to insult. I was not aware the models could insult back. Must be socialized medicine.My medication works better than that.

It should be 10,000 not 100. That is called fair market share.

_________________
But none were more dangerous than the Great Willow: his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning,

Absolutely my hobby despair has nothing on what the people in the middle-east are going through. But I have to use that example on people who are thick headed to make them understand that there's a reason why people stand up and cry out about something. Usually it's to invoke change or say that there's something wrong and things shouldn't continue down this path. There are multiple issues in this world, on different scales, some drastically bigger than others and more important, but with all sharing a common theme in between which is the reason I brought up that example. Not to say that my woes or anybody else's on this site equals that of the people of the middle-east. Their's is life/death.

Of course there can be crying over spilled milk. But when a company you buy from drastically increases the prices and decreases the quality of service or product, it sure is not Libya, also it's not spilled milk either.

So just like the other posts said above, people already slowed their purchasing to a crawl or abandoned the hobby all together, it's alright by GW because they're getting kids in monthly to replace them. So I guess there is no point in crying foul because GW won't listen anyway, they'll just continue on down the path they're in. Now I wonder what the longterm will be because there has been store closures in Quebec, and Chestnut mentioned in the US as well. According to Lorizael they've been doing alright locally. Will the end of metal models mean the end of GW? Most likely not because the fresh batch of kids that will come in won't even know that metals existed before.

_________________
My Lotr backlog: 305/952[][][][][][][][][][]32% completed
Painting Lineup: Mumakil x2, Rohan Heroes x8, Haradrim, SKoDA

And on top of all that, Maelstrom, and one assumes Wayland, are no longer allowed to sell outside the EU/EEA.

Sad, but I think I've gotten almost everything I was going to buy from them. Though I've added the Galadhrim Knights and the Mines of Moria boxed set to my shopping basket on the thing manys a time :p

Really not sure what to do about it. If anything.

_________________
Dreaming of getting back to painting...any month now.

^That's sad to hear. Went to the site myself to check it out. Hope you take advantage of the voucher until the end of this month to get what you want.

More proof of GW's loyaty to their worldwide customers?

There was also a good mention of resin models being sold on their site replacing the deleted metals. So there we have it, I guess Maelstrom made the announcement for us. Though I think it was mentioned that the Finecast is limited and more expensive than the original.

_________________
My Lotr backlog: 305/952[][][][][][][][][][]32% completed
Painting Lineup: Mumakil x2, Rohan Heroes x8, Haradrim, SKoDA

Are they changing the name of Forge World? They will need to do more than that to over come GW's dead letter department reputation for dismal quality control and poor service.

_________________
But none were more dangerous than the Great Willow: his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning,

GOOD NEWS, take a look at the GW website, the resin is a complete new range called "Finecast"
Metal models continue with no changes, i guess all new models will be resin with old metal continued in metal.
Good news i think

_________________
Harfoots-The first of the Hobbit people to cross over the Misty Mountains and enter Eriador.

It is good news for the people who want to finish a collection.
I will have to see one of these resin models to make up my mind that it is good news.

_________________
But none were more dangerous than the Great Willow: his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning,

I think metal continues until it is sold out, looking on the US site for example Sauron is discontinued. A couple of things are still delayed 4-6 weeks.

_________________
richmondwarmancers we play Lord of The Rings, Battlefleet Gothic, Infinity, some board games, and really whatever tickles our fancy..

Hmm... It would be nice if metal actually continued on, but like someone mentioned it's probably just going to run out. Let's see how resin goes, if the details are amazing or just as good I'll continue collecting. I hope metal continues for "The Hobbit" line for heroes, but it's looking unlikely.

_________________
My Lotr backlog: 305/952[][][][][][][][][][]32% completed
Painting Lineup: Mumakil x2, Rohan Heroes x8, Haradrim, SKoDA