What will stop you from buying the GW Smaug model?

Sacrilege83 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 04, 2014 5:10 pm

^Why not have the best of both worlds? A red dragon skinned leather handbag!

mikeland · **Joined:** Wed Feb 20, 2013 1:08 pm **Posts:** 72

Dead Marsh Spectre wrote:

hmmm let me think either i spend £300 on a Smaug model or Mrs DMS buys yet another handbag. no brainer for me ... sick of all the dratted handbags.

You mean the Mrs would let you do either or? Mrs Mikeland would expect every hobby £ to be atleast doubled in spending on handbags, pandora charms etc! :roll:

Lhosseth · **Joined:** Sat Nov 22, 2014 7:51 pm **Posts:** 72

Sacrilege83 wrote:

^Why not have the best of both worlds? A red dragon skinned leather handbag!

Now that's the idea lol

Sacrilege83 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 04, 2014 6:56 pm

Oldman Willow wrote:

Don't stop with the Arkenstone. The treasure should be plated with gold, diamonds, rubies and emeralds. :lol:

You know, only if I was rich. :wink:

Dorthonion · **Posted:** Fri Dec 05, 2014 6:28 pm

I might get it, but it will not be built until I have a dwarven treasury worthy of the implausibly humungous calamity himself (I watched DOS EE last night - yes, it is better than the standard length version).

Ukfreddybear · **Posted:** Fri Dec 05, 2014 7:25 pm

Up for pre order now on GW site. Got one heading my way thanks to one very generous customer.

orc-archer · **Posted:** Fri Dec 05, 2014 7:54 pm

So he is forgeworld resin, that's brilliant.

Blue Dragon · **Posted:** Fri Dec 05, 2014 8:17 pm

Out of Stock is the only thing stopping me getting him at the moment. :sad:

Athelas · **Posted:** Sat Dec 06, 2014 10:47 am

$550 Aussie dollars, so 1. Price, and 2. Price...

Awesome that they have made him out of real resin and not Finecast. If he were around $200, I might be tempted to buy one.

legion · **Joined:** Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:58 pm **Posts:** 205

He is well worth his price even at $490. Forgeworld resin on a model that size is right around that price anyway.

Athelas · **Posted:** Sat Dec 06, 2014 12:40 pm

'Worth' is very subjective. If I were of a mind to drop that sort of money on a Smaug model, I'd buy the statue from Weta.

The design of the GW Smaug is more of a collectible than a gaming model. It is certainly priced as a collectible, and its supposed to be a gaming model.

Creaky · **Joined:** Thu Nov 07, 2013 9:26 pm **Posts:** 424

Seems I'll be getting one. Great pose, great resin. Both my barriers blown down. True to my word, I'll pick one up.

Not from the first batch obviously, but by the time they re-stock (in the new year?) I'll be getting an order in. Probably going to see if I can do some wizardry with the base, come up with an alternative 'gaming' base in my usual basing style and see if I can swap him between the display diorama and that one as needs dictate.

Blue Dragon · **Posted:** Sat Dec 06, 2014 10:24 pm

The more I think about it, the more I'm getting annoyed at the way GW has handled the stock issue of Smaug. I would have preferred if they had made a note on the Smaug page stating that there will be no more shipments of him until the new year, but we can still place orders for him. Basically, I'm scared that the next time he's available, it'll be another limited run, and I'll miss out again.

mikeland · **Joined:** Wed Feb 20, 2013 1:08 pm **Posts:** 72

legion wrote:

He is well worth his price even at $490. Forgeworld resin on a model that size is right around that price anyway.

Worth is in the eye (or wallet) of the beholder!

Think about this though. Games workshop took £60000 in an evening by selling 200 straight away. Now with pent up demand over Christmas, that scarcity factor and the fear it may go OOP they will easily sell a stack more in restock.now the sculpt is done and the mould designed the margin on these will be pretty high.

It is almost like printing money for them. I think what it does show is how easily this could have been a plastic kit, at a fraction of the cost and still made them oodles of cash.

But they are a business I suppose, and the bean crunchers have no doubt taken the route that maximises profit and minimises risk... Who can blame them, makes sense in a short term kind of way.

Isilduhrr · **Posted:** Sun Dec 07, 2014 3:55 pm

Would the 60 thousand pounds gotten from the initial release have payed for a plastic mould? I'd be surprised if it didn't, but I have no knowledge of this kind of thing.

Dead Marsh Spectre · **Posted:** Sun Dec 07, 2014 4:13 pm

How about the dratted thing selling out in 25 minutes..... sure stopped me :-(

No matter Mrs DMS is grabbing a Forge world Carmine and Warp Fire dragon for my xmas present to cheer me up before the next Smaug release.

Ukfreddybear · **Posted:** Sun Dec 07, 2014 4:17 pm

Dead Marsh Spectre wrote:

How about the dratted thing selling out in 25 minutes..... sure stopped me :-(

No matter Mrs DMS is grabbing a Forge world Carmine and Warp Fire dragon for my xmas present to cheer me up before the next Smaug release.

That Carmine dragon is nice mate. You'll enjoy thar

Creaky · **Joined:** Thu Nov 07, 2013 9:26 pm **Posts:** 424

Isilduhrr wrote:

Would the 60 thousand pounds gotten from the initial release have payed for a plastic mould? I'd be surprised if it didn't, but I have no knowledge of this kind of thing.

Considering the size of the kit, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't. Depending on the size of the moulds, the tooling costs can come to six figures at times. It's a very expensive business, and GW seems to get away with it mostly by not updating kits unless they need to, and relying on strong sellers to carry poorer sellers - so several years down the line a kit stops being in the black and starts becoming almost pure profit. Hence no plastic for Hobbit 3, as the license deadline prohibits that tactic. Presumably.

And considering that we don't know what their profit is, once stock, manufacturing, wages, etc have been factored in (their end profit is certainly going to be substantially less than $500 per Smaug) it's difficult to say with any certainty that the £60 000 from 200 Smaugs could pay for anything but resin.

Just to cover my bases, I'm not in the business or have any insider knowledge - I'm just an engineering student, but my degree covers these areas, so I have some (only a little) knowledge of the processes and costs involved. Costs are approximate based on recollections from last year, and obviously vary based on many factors, so don't take my word as gospel or anything. I'm just taking educated guesses, and am probably way off on a number of areas.

The Arkenstone · **Joined:** Sat Feb 02, 2013 1:12 am **Posts:** 94

So, either GW dramatically underestimated demand or 200 is all they could get manufactured for the initial release. Seems likely they didn't expect to sell out anywhere near that fast, but 25 minutes is ridiculous.

Looks like I will have to wait for 2015 to get my Smaug fix, but in the meantime I will be very interested to hear reviews of the model once people receive it as well as comparisons to Geene Smaug for those lucky enough to have both...

Moj · **Joined:** Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:58 am **Posts:** 93

does anyone have the Geene Smaug at all? I am kind of tempted by it but then again, if you're forking out that amount of money, you might as well get the 'official' one. kind of torn between the two beasties.

What will stop you from buying the GW Smaug model?

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