Foundry Price Rise!

[Atheling]

This from Foundry in their newsletter:

To reflect these changes in pack contents as well as the ever changing rise in the cost of raw materials we will be implementing our first price rise in over 7 years to our Vikings, Normans, Saxons and Ancient Germans in one week on October 28th, before a site wide change in the near future.

This gives you one week to get these new and increased packs for the same price as the old 6 figure packs!

Most of our standard 6 figure packs will stay the same at £12, our 8 figure packs will increase to £16 and 3 Model Cavalry packs to £15.

I think that's a little too expensive for a company that has not managed to produce any new miniatures of quality for many years.

Just my opinion. Please discuss

[Elbows]

Not sure there's much to discuss.  I haven't purchased Foundry miniatures in a long time, but they'd be under the same normal scrutiny; "Does this miniature warrant it's price tag in my eyes?".

Some of their stuff may slide off that scale in which case they lose a sale or two...other stuff may still warrant its price tag in my opinion. 

[Atheling]

Fair comment.

There are certainly a lot mini's that I would happily buy from them as prices are now. I'm not sure that will be the case if I end up paying £15 per pack. Especially , as I outlined above, when they haven't produced anything of quality since Mark Simm's Viking range.

[Elbows]

Yep, I have to say Foundry is in the "old guys" gaming company bracket for me.  Some nice classic minis, and some solid sculpts (love some of their Gladiators that I have), but they're definitely not on the radar unless I'm looking for really random stuff.

[Dags]

With the way material costs have gone up over the last couple of years be prepared to see price rises across the industry

[emosbur]

Curious that they bring up this now that Toofatlardies is developing a ruleset for battles between germans, gauls and romans... and themselves are buying that stuff. Just saying.

[Inkpaduta]

I have always loved Foundry's figures. However they have been priced high.
Now, I do think that other companies have raised their prices over time so that
Foundry is now competitive. This will put them up higher for me. Living in the US I
always have to include shipping into the cost of buying figures. Given that and how long
you have to wait to get your figures from Foundry, I will likely pass on future orders.

[Duncan McDane]

2 pounds a model, 5 pounds a mounted one sounds fair to me. I only hope their blisters won't contain too many of the same figs. Let's face it, almost all manufacturers have raised their prices in recent years, even Black Tree...
Yeah, I can live with that.

[jetengine]

Their fantasy stuff is stupidly priced so this isnt going to help it in any way. I mean a SINGLE ORC (as in your usual horde of hero-murder-fodder) is £5 before postage. With postage its £10. For the same price I could get a better sculpted GW plastic orc hero, a resin orc hero or to make it a bit more obvious for £30 I can get 20 plastic orcs, 10 orcs riding boars or even 5 giant orcs from GW or.....5 metal orc bowmen.

[Silent bob]

A mate of mine used to work for Foundry and I was talking to him the other day.

Trouble is that Foundry were a premium product many years ago - compared to its peers (maybe Hinchcliffe, Minifigs) consistent sculpting, detail, yabba yabba yabba.......

Unfortunately, the current figure sculptures & makers have matched and surpassed them (as have the marketing strategies of the manufacturers), so they are no longer 'premium' but still try to charge premium prices.

Sales have dropped off, so they put the price up (or changed the blister contents).....so it goes on.

I actually like Foundry figures but tend to buy them second hand......

[Captain Blood]

Gosh, it’s been a long time since we had a ‘aren’t Foundry expensive’ discussion... used to happen all the time...

Which should perhaps tell us that for several years after the current new management took over and changed their pricing and p&p structure, they were indeed pretty competitive for a good while.

And while they haven’t produced anything new in years, why would they? Because they have a hell of a back catalogue, including many ranges that have really stood the test of time, and (in some cases) still compare pretty favourably with stuff that’s being produced today by other makers.

In terms of price, well I guess you’d have to compare it to the products of all those guys who USED to work for Foundry but now work under their own brands. Perry, Copplestone, Owen, Sims, Saleh et al...
Steve Saleh is now charging 4 quid for a 28mm foot figure. I love his latest work and I’ve bought a lot of his Lucid Eye product. But it makes 2 quid for a Foundry figure look quite economical, even if the figures are 10, 15 or 20 years old...

[Westfalia Chris]

Gosh, it’s been a long time since we had a ‘aren’t Foundry expensive’ discussion... used to happen all the time...

Which should perhaps tell us that for several years after the current new management took over and changed their pricing and p&p structure, they were indeed pretty competitive for a good while.

And while they haven’t produced anything new in years, why would they? Because they have a hell of a back catalogue, including many ranges that have really stood the test of time, and (in some cases) still compare pretty favourably with stuff that’s being produced today by other makers.

In terms of price, well I guess you’d have to compare it to the products of all those guys who USED to work for Foundry but now work under their own brands. Perry, Copplestone, Owen, Sims, Saleh et al...
Steve Saleh is now charging 4 quid for a 28mm foot figure. I love his latest work and I’ve bought a lot of his Lucid Eye product. But it makes 2 quid for a Foundry figure look quite economical, even if the figures are 10, 15 or 20 years old...

My issue would be less with Foundry's pricing (some of their ranges still have a high-enough appeal to me) and more with their (IMHO) increasingly unpredictable casting quality over recent years. It may have been a phase, but in 2017 it got so bad for me that since then I haven't bought Foundry unseen (i.e. only at shows or second-hand with pics of the actual items).

That said, if the moulds are in good shape and the casting is good, I quite like them and will continue to purchase them, depending on my level of interest for the particular project and after evaluating any suitable alternatives.

[Kommando_J]

I've noticed a slip in quality as well as postal service times, it used to be order early enough and it'd be sent out that day, now you're talking a week at least.

I would buy more if they would do 'half' packs, I see plenty of minis I want but not wiling to fork out £12 just to get my hands on say one or two out of the pack.

[Westfalia Chris]

I would buy more if they would do 'half' packs, I see plenty of minis I want but not wiling to fork out £12 just to get my hands on say one or two out of the pack.

Don't give them any ideas! The way this will work out, most likely, is that the two figures you want are split over two half-packs! 

[Byblos]

Hi

Attention, it seems to me that the rise in prices concerns only certain ranges, including the Vickings and company precisely!

In the end today the prices of Foundry is in the norm: many brands have significantly increased their prices (I think TAG becomes very expensive!) And I do not even mention the price of brands like Steel Fist that makes that it is out of the question that I buy these figurines (not to mention that they are so big that they are not compatible with other brands!)

And Foundry has a real quality of engraving, and some ranges are very complete or even unavoidable (the "India" range for example) Even some ranges from casting Room Miniatures are ultimately very successful, that's saying!

And at Christmas they make excellent promotions!

And then ... it's not like I did not have enough figurines and projects (and you too huh!) In short I can support a small price increase as I buy less and less figurines (and it's a great thing, my girlfriend totally agrees with me, which is rare so it must be emphasized!)

In short: Long live Foundry!