Games workshop price hike iminent

[BobbieTheDamned]

From White Dwarf Online:

"PRICING UPDATE
As everyone knows costs are going up all over the world, and just like everyone else we are seeing increases in the price of oil, metal, printed materials and transport. Up until now we've absorbed these increases, but the recent and dramatic doubling in the price of tin is simply something we are unable to ignore and therefore some of our prices will be going up too.

As from 29th September 2008 we will therefore be increasing the price of all metal models as well as a selection of other items including most of our books and some accessories including paint.

The good news is that we do not intend to raise the price of our plastic kits at this time which means Games Workshop's plastic range remains excellent value for money for all hobbyists. This has also encouraged us to accelerate our plans for expanding our plastic kit range even more quickly so keep a look out for new projects in the future."

So grab them metal mins whilst they're cheap (can you call GW miniatures cheap at the moment?)

[MortiS-the-Lost]

ah this seems to be written in an strange dialect used by the GW sales department ... but fear not for I have taken the trouble to translate it sentence by sentence for you fine people


As everyone knows costs are going up all over the world, and just like everyone else we are seeing increases in the price of oil, metal, printed materials and transport.

As everyone knows things cost money 

Up until now we've absorbed these increases, but the recent and dramatic doubling in the price of tin is simply something we are unable to ignore and therefore some of our prices will be going up too.

We have a lot of money, but recently we've had to pay twice as much for tin (a minor component in White Metal), so we have slightly less money. So to make sure we still have a lot of money most of our prices will be going up 

As from 29th September 2008 we will therefore be increasing the price of all metal models as well as a selection of other items including most of our books and some accessories including paint.

As from 29 th of September 2008 we will be charging an even more pretendus amount for metal miniatures and vital Rulebooks

The good news is that we do not intend to raise the price of our plastic kits at this time which means Games Workshop's plastic range remains excellent value for money for all hobbyists.

The good news for us is that we already charge more that twice the basic value for plastic miniatures and thus make lots of profit from them

This has also encouraged us to accelerate our plans for expanding our plastic kit range even more quickly so keep a look out for new projects in the future.

This means we will be producing lots more crappy plastics and rushing the design and sculpting process like we did on the new Night Goblins and Dwarfs. So buy more plastic!

[BobbieTheDamned]

yeah that's what I thought lol.

I'm guessing all blisters will be going up £1-2 at least and boxes of metal troops going up by about £3 to £5, that's if they're feeling generious. GW already charges rediculas amounts for their rules, as nicely layed out and packed with pictures (most of which have been arround for 15-20 years in various rule sets), I don't think they can up the price much more.......Can they? I might see if I can work out who it is that I know that's a wholesale buyer and see if they've got a new price sheet just to see what the damage is.

GW plastics are already as much as most companies metal figures and some are really bad. The new chaos terminators are blobbier than anything I've seen in hard plastic, hell they're not even as crisp as the 2nd edition airfix figures from the 70's! And the fact the night goblins are obviously completely the wrong size (Erm did someone forget to make test miniatures??) is probably due to the fact they were designed on a computer and no one realised until far to late.

A lot of miniatures compaines are feeling the econoic downturn but so far I've only seen a few putting their prices up and then its been by things like 5p a figure. One of the 15mm historicals companies I use (LKM) have said they're not putting their prices up until at least 2009. If a small company with comparably small profits can absorb the price increase why can't GW?

[MortiS-the-Lost]

At a guess I'd say they are just going to step-up the price for each price code letter that will require a minimum amount of effort on their part. As far as the rules go I imagine they will put the prices up £2 a book. Personally I think GW produce the nicest looking rulebooks on the market, %90 of the art work in the most recent books is brand new and made specifically for the tome in question, not that I mind them reusing old art work.

Plastics are definitely getting worse, the quality is going down as the price is going up. Nearly all of the  current generation of plastics are single pose figures and only multi-part in the sense that you have to assemble them. There is next to no variation in detail from one figure to another while this is ok for organized and uniformed units of High Elves it doesn't work at all for a rabble of night goblins. Which makes it ironic that the High Elf regiment is one of the best examples of multi-part multi-pose plastics, while the current Night Goblins are a line after line of barely distinguishable single-pose miniatures that mostly come in 2 or 3 parts  (and not I'm talk about the Battle For Skull Pass miniatures). And I still can't figure out why they are so bloody small either, the new Plastic Night Goblins are smaller than the plastic Gnoblars (which are also horrendously bad figures). In fact quite a few of the newer plastics are rather small, including the new skeletons which are now back to being the same size as the original Skeleton Hoard miniatures!

The new plastics lack detail as well and some have horrendously misshapen hands and fingers that only look right directly head on or from the back. The Gnobalrs are a prime example of this and yet the single-piece HeroQuest miniatures never had this trouble. All this is down to corner cutting and laziness in the design process. It seems they sculpt one miniature scan it copy and paste it 8 to 10 times, make some minor changes to each copy and then add a few extras for the command figures. The new Night Goblins, Dire Wolves, Dwarfs, Ghouls, Ogres, Skeletons, Black Orcs, Blood Letters, Chaos Warriors and Dark Elves all seem to have been made in this manor. Notice how all the cloaks on the Chaos Warriors and Dark Elves all flow in exactly the same way as all the others on the same sprue? Notice how the same 4 heads are repeated over and over on a single Ghoul sprue? Notice how all the Dire Wolfs look almost exactly the same save for a few minor details? Notice how the Black Orcs and Blood Letters only have 2 static poses each? Also what happen to all the nice extras we used to get on the spures? Your lucky to get a spare head on the newer sprues ...

I think the wost thing about the price increases is that GW them self don't really notice how it affects the average gamer what with their staff discounts. It's around this sort of time that a dedicated GW staff member will bring up the 'Tale of 4 Gamers' articles, in the older runs of the articles the 4 gamers were given £50 a month to spend on miniatures – for a start I don't know anyone who spends that much a month on miniatures (including my self) and it also doesn't account for buying extra tools and paints you might need for a new project. Secondly the new run of the articles doesn't even keep track of money spend, only 'points' accumulated and just seems to be an advert for whatever Mailorder has on offer.

[BobbieTheDamned]

If they did Tale of four gamers with £50 a month it'd take them a year to get an army that you could actually field!

When I first read that article I could no way manage that sort of spending, I probably now do spend about that much if you take into consideration painting and scratchbuilding supplies and postages ect. for things.

This is one of the reasons I'm moving off to other things I'm interested in that don't involve games workshop in the slightest and I'm not the only one who's doing this.

I agree the GW books are nice and they possibly are the best in the gaming industry but I'd say new artwork is more at the level of 50% or less...at least for the well astablished armies. I like seeing the old artwork but when you get the same full page images over and over and have to pay for them each time when all you want is the newest iteration of the rules it gets a bit taxing. I'm also anoyed they've gone backwards and the army lists are fragmented and confusing again. I like having all the background in one section then all the rules and stats and points all in one place, rather than the new codexes where you've got the stats and points in one place and all the special rules in with the background and not even page referances (I'm looking at you codex eldar!!).

Which brings me onto another rant the 'universal' special rules. I thought the whole idea of a SPECIAL rule was that it was unique and particular to that unit and no one else had it. What they've got now is more like traits, we'll have intellagence, cool and will power stats back next!

:P we appear to have gone slightly off topic but its our forum so I can't see anyone telling us off for it!

[MarkRG]

Sadly as usaul the prices have gone up yet again. Iv been gaming since 1994 starting with 2nd edition 40k i love the game but for the last five years i'm spending obout £300 pounds a year and most of this is from subsription of white dwarf or the novels, the odd codex.

The standard price for a softback book of £6.99 is about right for most of them being 400 page storys. Most new books in the shops are priced about the same but for how long. I do dislike it when i pay the same price for less pages, blank pages in between chapters ( it would be good to see some art work as fillers) and bigger print just to bulk the books out.

Codex,s  I used to buy all the 40k codexs to learn there history the storys and to know what the enermy could throw at me. Because of the price inceases of codexs over the years and the repeat pictures, i have stopped doing this. I only buy about two a year.

i have been looking at other models from other companys through mortis and with the odd disapointment most of the models are on the ball and are better priced. I have just bought a Dwarf warband and althrough i think they have been off the beer lately their bloody good for what you pay.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Latest news on the price hike:

All Codex's (Codeci?) and army books will be £15 and the new price codes will look like this

A - £5
B - £6
C - £7
D - £8
E - £10
F - £12
G - £12
H - £15
I - £18
J - £20

you'll notice -G- hasn't changed, this accounts for 'not all metal miniatures will be effected' that you might have heard from GW staff recently - and yes £20 for a blisterpack, who'd have thunk it!

... here it comes, the new darkage ...

[BobbieTheDamned]

Oh...

dear...

lord.....


Thats some pricey lumps of funny shaped metal!

hmm looks like I better get the last few bits I want before they get even more expensive! I may have to get the last few BFG ships I want before they go up too (that is the ones that haven't disapeared off the webstore already!). I'm going to put a bounty up for Iconoclast raiders, anyone who finds some I'll have them off you ;)

This aside Alan was trying very hard to sell me a black each boxed set when I went in the store for some paint today. Whilst some of the miniatures were nice (the Nobz are pretty awesome) some were pretty bad (warbosses face and the drednaught had some uglyness that may or may not be covered when its put together). The marines were ok, very static though. The terminators were near identical break down to the old plastic ones, makes you wonder why they bothered doing those really complicated ones inbetween doesn't it?

[MortiS-the-Lost]

I got the new Terminator and Nob that came with WD this month their pretty nice, (the multi part ones are nicer) but I'm not gonna go starting a SM army (ever) and I've already got more Orkz than you can shake a stick at (no really I've tried, the stick couldn't take the strain) so I won't be buying any Orkz in a hurry.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Check out this:

WARRIORS OF CHAOS SPEARHEAD: £142

Please note this product will be affected by the forthcoming price changes. To take advantage of this, be sure to order your Warriors of Chaos Spearhead sooner rather than later.

I love that they've written 'to take advantage' ... what advantage? the advantage off getting ripped-off slightly less, GW seem to be treating the time up until the price increases as if it where a sale!

"By the end of the month this will cost more than it dose now .... So if you buy it now it's like having a discount! yay!"

[Scumdog47]

I find it intriguing how a rise in the price of tin affects the cost of books.

I didn't know trees were made from metal.

Except in Norway where pretty much everything is apparently Very Metal...

[MarkRG]

As were on about the price increases. The the new box set so far is not too badly priced. The sprues look not to bad, ok yes the Dreaded dreadnought is smaller, however with a bit of adding and sawing it's gonna make a cool Chaos dread. The terms are gonna get it as well as they drift over to the dark side.

The Ork nobs are going to be Blood axes and im looking forward to trying out fighting with my deth copters.

More to follow in this dark future.

[Scumdog47]

Blood Axes?

They're back?

Well, dang...seems like I have to buy the box after all.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

no Mark's just converting the BR orkz into Blood Axes

[General Biakal]

Its not just the price hikes that tick me off. has anyone noticed the IG basic sentinel no longer comes with the catachan jungle sprue? so while it is still £12 for the basic mars pattern the catachan one is now £17 (the sprue is available on the webiste for £5)

disgusting.

also, the IG codex (how old is that??? 5 years?) has gone up, and to be honest if they have not made a profit on that by now they never will. Oh and let me guess thenew IG codez will be £17 will it?

Im also pretty disgusted by the IG 5 man box. It seems thats the way all plastic will be going soon. Two parts indeed.  i remember my old skeletons were so full of character and unique they virtually spoke.

if this keeps up im gonna give this up and try girls.

[BobbieTheDamned]

yeah what's worse is anchient figures like the Bretonian Green Knight (which has been arround for about what? 10 years maybe?) are now hugely expensive, surely this miniature has paid for itself already and GW is making huge amounts of profit for very little work.

The next IG codex will probably be £18 to fall in line with the SM codex. Maybe £15 if they decide not to do a thorugh background section.

GW makes some lovely stuff, hell I'm sat putting together some sternguard vets right now, but I wouldn't have bought them for the price GW are asking for them!

[MortiS-the-Lost]

all the new codexs will be £15 (at least until we see another price increase) this makes the new SM codex ok-ish value, but I'm sure no other army will get a book even half that thick.

As you may know from reading some of my other posts I'm not a fan of the newer so-called multi-part plastics, yet many would have us believe they are so detailed and realistic ... when it comes down to it t for the most part they only look good strait on from the front or back and awkwardly deformed, if not unrecognizable from all other angles

they won't be increasing the price of exiting plastics any time soon (we already pay 2-3 time what their worth and more in a few cases) but thats not to say we won't see a leap in the prices of newly released stuff, look out for more sets like the Empire plastic Wizards (2 human sized figures for £10)

my advice, look out for alternative figures from other companies (for IG this proves very easy)

[MortiS-the-Lost]

off topic here (what are you gonna do about?)

ROB YOU HAVE AN AVATAR FINALLY!!!!

[BobbieTheDamned]

I quite like some of the single pose figures. The new models from the Assault on Black Reach set are pretty nice if you take time to clean them up and do a bit of work to them. I've been cutting the heads off of mine and sticking on heads from the regular multi-part marines and it really helps them look better. Plus it means I can pick up a tac squad of them on ebay for less than a tenner easy.

I agree the wizards are stupidly priced for plastic.

[General Biakal]

Now i heard or read somewhere they were only going to hike up NEW stock and existing stock would be phased out.

i bought a demolisher on sunday (i plan for it to be a massive centrepiece model) and it had a £30 sticker on it.

he rang it thru the till and said £35 please

oh no, says i. ill pay what the sticker says, for tis' law.

we got talking about the price hikes and i mentioned the new stock only thing (which i may have dreamed) and he said no, they had a pack come thru explaining the new prices and a load of new stickers. new price stickers. to stick onto the old stock.

i actually WANTED a hellhound, but that was priced at £30. if there is a choice of a demolisher or a hellhound  for same price there is no choice. (even tho the chimera is a MUCH better model, with better detail, fit and scale)