The LAF Games Workshop Discussion Thread

[matthais-mouse]

who is buying this crap? Seriously a grand for a dragon...

I hope no one buys this and they realise just how ridiculous they have become as a company. This will probably not happen but we can hope haha.

[Tactalvanic]

There are already better dragon models available

They deserve a fail with that level of insanity pricing.

No doubt some die-hard fanatic cult of GW members will actually mortgage their souls/houses/children/kidneys accordingly but this is such a kick in their own armoured drop pods its ridiculous.

I cannot begin to imagine the calculations/sales prediction they came up with to justify the price.

Can only assume that they expect to sell so few that its up that high  to do the usual and attempt to pay for the costs, from tiny sales numbers.

Is it limited edition by the way? The mini, not the price that is..

Back to work and eye-ing up the Mantic KOW rules kickstarter thing on the side..

 

[Vermis]

It doesn't offend my eyes, but then I think that's more down to Weta and John Howe and the fact I think this is a pretty kickass dragon design. It almost makes me want to go see the movies. Almost. This blurry pic of a model is already better than just about every dragon GW has ever put out, and miles better than most of them. (I mean, remember the first LotR dragon from GW? Brrr.)

The sculpt, though, does seem a bit stiff in places. And from what I can see someone's gone with the tired (exhausted) cliche of layering concrete shingles all up and down the top and bottom of it's neck. On a character design that doesn't have them. And specifically stated to have a soft underside...

And yeah. £500. Erm, no.

There are already better dragon models available

To be fair: not many.

[Tactalvanic]

To be fair: not many.

Very true, but one is still enough - and still cheaper.

Still, it is certainly better than any they did before, but as you say thats probably due to having someone else's designs to copy?

And it needs more legs..

And I don't see many skulls lying round...

-

Could not resist, had a quick bounce around GW website

Again.

Those prices are just 

Glad to see I am still immune to temptation and unsuitable for Cult GW membership indoctrination at this time.

[Vermis]

Still, it is certainly better than any they did before, but as you say thats probably due to having someone else's designs to copy?

I have a sneaking feeling this is a Trish Carden sculpt, seeing as she is (or was) GW's go-to (reptile) monster sculptor, and the fact someone couldn't resist those roof tiles. If that's the case, see what can happen when things are steered away from her usual old dragon-rote?

And it needs more legs...

To be honest I was never very convinced by the over-earnest never-the-twain-shall-meet classification of dragons vs. wyverns (vs. drakes, vs. wyrms, vs. whatever), especially when so many sculptors and artists lack the ability or the will to make either look convincing.

[Ajsalium]

To be honest I was never very convinced by the over-earnest never-the-twain-shall-meet classification of dragons vs. wyverns (vs. drakes, vs. wyrms, vs. whatever), especially when so many sculptors and artists lack the ability or the will to make either look convincing.

Come on, Vermis. You do know that dragons have separate arms and wings...

[Tactalvanic]

Apart from picking fun, not worried really about forelegs, twolegs, four legs, no legs or otherwise.

I think we pretty much all  agree overall its not a bad likeness to Smaugenbach - its just not worth handing over that amount of money.

[Vermis]

Come on, Vermis. You do know that dragons have separate arms and wings...

  Somehow I knew that was going to be Trogdor before I clicked on it. I swear too many people use Strongbad's instructions, too. (The number of dragons with beefy arms coming out of their necks...)

[Mr Brown]

The marines are now on 32mm bases so you'll have to either rebase your mareen army or buy a new one...

Well obviously you don't 'need' to but I wonder how many kids will be misled into telling mum and dad that they 'need' more models. Just in time for Christmas.

Wait that sounds overly cynical... 

[beefcake]

Even though Smaug is going to be horrendously priced it will sell well. The officially licensed Smaug Miniature that looks like the one from the movies is going to draw in more than just the wargaming crowd even at that price. At half the price I am sure they would sell a tonne more (maybe not make more of a profit though, I don't know the margins). It's beyond me caring really though as even if I could get it at the cost of the resin to make it I wouldn't as I think that would still be too much for me. Plus I have nowhere to put it.

Just a thought. Can you imagine a LOTR collector that has very little knowledge of resin, paying for this, paying for a professional painjob, then sitting it above their fireplace with a roaring fire going? That wouldn't end well.

[eilif]

Even though Smaug is going to be horrendously priced it will sell well. The officially licensed Smaug Miniature that looks like the one from the movies is going to draw in more than just the wargaming crowd even at that price...

...Just a thought. Can you imagine a LOTR collector that has very little knowledge of resin, paying for this, paying for a professional painjob, then sitting it above their fireplace with a roaring fire going? That wouldn't end well.

These LotR/Hobbit prices make it pretty obvious that GW is deliberatly prioritizing the collector and LotR fan over the wargamer.  An uber-fan is going to be willing to slap down uber-bucks for a display piece or just something to add to the MISB boxes of collectibles in the closet.  The prices are just too high to sustain a large player base.

Of course there hasn't been a large player base for LoTR/Hobbit SBG for a few years now, so maybe this is just what GW has to do to make the license pay off.

The marines are now on 32mm bases so you'll have to either rebase your mareen army or buy a new one...

Well obviously you don't 'need' to but I wonder how many kids will be misled into telling mum and dad that they 'need' more models. Just in time for Christmas.

Even GW doesn't require rebasing or rebuying.  Their standard for tournaments (used by many other tourneys) has always been that you can use the current base size or the base the model was sold with.  The new BA tac squats then will have to be on 32mm bases, but the only folks that will be rebasing will be those who want continuity across the line or genuinely prefer the larger bases.

Of course if you want to rebase, there's only one company making 32mm plastic bases right now and you know who that is and how much more they cost than 25mm slottas from a company like EM4.

[zemjw]

paying for a professional painjob

Sadly an all too accurate description of working with F***cast

[Mr Brown]

Note that my post was decidedly tongue in cheek regarding the 'need' to rebase. It's a current trend that gw have built on over the last year or so to introduce new or unusual base sizes.

As for your second point about the number of manufacturers making 32mm bases? There was definitely more than one prior to the announcement that gw would use them for the new BA models. After the announcement? I'm sure there are now loads of third parties willing to jump on the 32mm wagon!  

[beefcake]

Sadly an all too accurate description of working with F***cast

, didn't even notice the typo.

[zemjw]

There are two things that worry me about the new base sizes:

1. It implies that figure creep has now become so bad that they've had to increase the base size to stop it looking too silly
2. They're giving themselves more room for future scale creep

Perhaps the 54mm Inquisitor figures from years ago weren't a one off, but were in fact a few blisters from the future that had fallen through a wormhole onto a GW staffer's desk.

It all makes sense now