isotope99
07-29-2011, 07:04 AM
I thought I'd add my two cents to the discussions on GW's activities over the last year or so. Bit of a 40K bias here as I don't play fanatasy and just dabble in the minis.
Let's be positive and start with THE GOOD which does seem to get swamped by the other:
Cool models:
There have been a few missteps (the storm raven air vent and the Dredknight baby carrier come to mind) but generally GW still produce the best miniature kits. The new DE in particular have received almost alll positive reviews.
More options:
We've been moaning for ever about getting more options in the kits and GW has responded (not as much as we would like perhaps but still a vast improvement on older kits where you could double the cost with metal special weapons guys).
The new grey knights, DE and Storm raven for example have been as close as can reasonably be expected given sprue sizes to being fully loaded with all the weapons available.
Additionally, many of the new Warhammer kits have been able to create two different monsters. hopefully the fire prism is an example for 40K to follow but they've missed the opportunity with the DE flyers.
Updates:
Recently FAQs have been arriving much faster than before (still not a substitue for well worded rules Ward :mad:) and have generally been reasonably sensible IMHO.
We've also seen second waves for the latest two armies (BA and DE) arrive promptly and both ranges are now close to complete. Except for plastic henchmen (which we may never see) and release of the Aegis line sprue with quad autocannon only, GK are fairly well covered too.
Micro Plastic kits:
They're just starting to arrive for fantasy but the new small plastic sprues for HQ choices could be a positive sign of things to come. More plastic is always good and they're markedly cheaper than the equivalent metal/finecast models.
Now let's look at THE BAD Boo, hiss
Prices:
Oh, how we all hate price rises. Rather than complain about them in general, I'm going to accept that long term they have to go up (inflation is not a GW conspiracy) and pick on what I see as the worst offenders.
1) Double digit rises - Cut this out, it just makes people mad. Even where the prices haven't been put up in a while, whoever siad that raising prices 35% on some kits during a period of economic challenges for consumers needs slapping with a wet fish. Small rises people can accept, even if they don't like it, but jacking the price the way GW does on some kits is disproportionately annoying, especially with squads where you have to buy more than one.
2) Old kits - I know its a policy that equivalent choices should cost similar amounts, but hiking prices where there is no improvement in the kit to match a newer better kit also rankles. Most recent example is the falcon rising to match the fire prism. If I wanted a falcon now , I'd convert one from the fire prism, as the kit gives you so much more.
Advance orders & WD
Is rumour control good? Maybe, its too early to say, but given that everything leaks online (deliberately or otherwise, it makes no sense to screw over your customers who order from the official store at premium prices or subscribe to WD by making them wait longer.
Does the extra couple of days hurt? No, not really.
Does it feel disrepectful and unnecessary? Yes it does, and so enourages greater use of discount retailers.
Embargo
I'm going to leave this one alone as I really don't understand Australian economics well enough to say whether this is a legitimate local cost problem or GW being greedy (which is probably the popular opinion)
Finally, THE UGLY
There can be only one candidate for this, the finecast launch fiasco.
My limited experience with the actual material so far has been reasonably positive (lighter and better detail)so I'm not yearning for a return to metal, but the launch process has been a mess.
Quality control:
Is there potential for a new product to have some teething problems on production? Yes
Is the level of complaints/QC failures acceptable for a company that supposedly prizes quality? No
Is pretending that everything's awesome and basically ignoring the problem acceptable? Even more no, and I think this what bugs people more
Prices:
Let's launch our new product with a new wave of price rises, after all its better quality, or it will be in six months once we fix teh casting and run down the stock from the early batches.
Time will tell whether the steep rises of metal kits will stop and we may one day forgive if the prices stay down.
Let's be positive and start with THE GOOD which does seem to get swamped by the other:
Cool models:
There have been a few missteps (the storm raven air vent and the Dredknight baby carrier come to mind) but generally GW still produce the best miniature kits. The new DE in particular have received almost alll positive reviews.
More options:
We've been moaning for ever about getting more options in the kits and GW has responded (not as much as we would like perhaps but still a vast improvement on older kits where you could double the cost with metal special weapons guys).
The new grey knights, DE and Storm raven for example have been as close as can reasonably be expected given sprue sizes to being fully loaded with all the weapons available.
Additionally, many of the new Warhammer kits have been able to create two different monsters. hopefully the fire prism is an example for 40K to follow but they've missed the opportunity with the DE flyers.
Updates:
Recently FAQs have been arriving much faster than before (still not a substitue for well worded rules Ward :mad:) and have generally been reasonably sensible IMHO.
We've also seen second waves for the latest two armies (BA and DE) arrive promptly and both ranges are now close to complete. Except for plastic henchmen (which we may never see) and release of the Aegis line sprue with quad autocannon only, GK are fairly well covered too.
Micro Plastic kits:
They're just starting to arrive for fantasy but the new small plastic sprues for HQ choices could be a positive sign of things to come. More plastic is always good and they're markedly cheaper than the equivalent metal/finecast models.
Now let's look at THE BAD Boo, hiss
Prices:
Oh, how we all hate price rises. Rather than complain about them in general, I'm going to accept that long term they have to go up (inflation is not a GW conspiracy) and pick on what I see as the worst offenders.
1) Double digit rises - Cut this out, it just makes people mad. Even where the prices haven't been put up in a while, whoever siad that raising prices 35% on some kits during a period of economic challenges for consumers needs slapping with a wet fish. Small rises people can accept, even if they don't like it, but jacking the price the way GW does on some kits is disproportionately annoying, especially with squads where you have to buy more than one.
2) Old kits - I know its a policy that equivalent choices should cost similar amounts, but hiking prices where there is no improvement in the kit to match a newer better kit also rankles. Most recent example is the falcon rising to match the fire prism. If I wanted a falcon now , I'd convert one from the fire prism, as the kit gives you so much more.
Advance orders & WD
Is rumour control good? Maybe, its too early to say, but given that everything leaks online (deliberately or otherwise, it makes no sense to screw over your customers who order from the official store at premium prices or subscribe to WD by making them wait longer.
Does the extra couple of days hurt? No, not really.
Does it feel disrepectful and unnecessary? Yes it does, and so enourages greater use of discount retailers.
Embargo
I'm going to leave this one alone as I really don't understand Australian economics well enough to say whether this is a legitimate local cost problem or GW being greedy (which is probably the popular opinion)
Finally, THE UGLY
There can be only one candidate for this, the finecast launch fiasco.
My limited experience with the actual material so far has been reasonably positive (lighter and better detail)so I'm not yearning for a return to metal, but the launch process has been a mess.
Quality control:
Is there potential for a new product to have some teething problems on production? Yes
Is the level of complaints/QC failures acceptable for a company that supposedly prizes quality? No
Is pretending that everything's awesome and basically ignoring the problem acceptable? Even more no, and I think this what bugs people more
Prices:
Let's launch our new product with a new wave of price rises, after all its better quality, or it will be in six months once we fix teh casting and run down the stock from the early batches.
Time will tell whether the steep rises of metal kits will stop and we may one day forgive if the prices stay down.