Creaky wrote:
LordoftheBrownRing wrote:
I understand your stance on them but I can almost guarantee without any statistical backup they'd make more money if they released plastic sets of ten instead of fine cast.
You would hope so, but if, following their data from the sales of the plastic kits for AUJ, they can determine that the (huge, and upfront) cost of manufacturing plastic kits is unlikely to return a profit by the time their license expires, it might well be the better business decision to finecast everything than risk making a loss on a kit that might not sell well enough to justify it's expense. It's not like with 40k where they can produce a squad of plastic minis for whatever faction and let it sit around for a decade or more before they replace it - all but guaranteeing it becomes profitable. If GW has decided that it's better for their brand to can SBG when the licenses expire, then that puts a finite shelf life on the product - not a good thing if it has large upfront costs.
(It's for similar reasons I'd be dissapointed to see NO plastic of any kind, too. We know the Laketown sets were fully tooled, with at least some produced, so maybe some other kits got as far as steel mould production before the decision was made to cease plastic development. If we truly end up with no plastic, then that's actually really weird - 90% of the costs are in the development and tooling, you'd think they'd want to recoup as much as possible before the end.)
I share your view on the Elves, though. "Elves are overdone?" Nonsense, Middle Earth without the woodland realm would be a horribly incomplete place. Just because other fantasy settings can't do something other than iterate on Tolkien isn't his fault.
Man.....lol....on paper it looks like the better decision. If you live in reality, look at the community and see the costs of finecast. Look at the people willing to buy plastic kits as opposed to finecast 3 piece [word deleted].
If you think Lord of the Rings wont sit on the shelf a decade and still be bought, youre mad.
People, even with the Hobbit releases, Creaky, are buying original Lord of the Rings releases! The Lord of the Rings has a more dedicated following than 40k ever will. This community is as passionate as you can get. If they made plastic kits of Elves at the Battle of Five armies people would buy them in December 2014, and they would buy them in December 2024. Its Tolkein. Theyre pushing us away because the contract giving them the rights ends soon. And they dont want to pay for it again.
I know, and ive talked to....maybe not a lot of people....somewhere between 15-30 people. Theyve said they will not buy 1 penny worth of finecast 3 packs, but would buy from 1-5 or so boxes of plastics. That alone guarantees hundreds of dollars worth of money for GW.
Personally, had they made laketown and Gundabads, and now, BOTFA elves in plastic packs....I would have spent at least $500 on those armies. Thats one person. Gw have killed themselves with their decisions. If you want to disagree, youre misinformed.