The LAF Games Workshop Discussion Thread

[Tactalvanic]

Quote: "there is only a relatively small second-hand market in our miniatures"

Relatively to what, exactly??  I've been buying droves of second hand plastics this last fall.

Probably either

a.The secondhand car market

b. The housing market

I would not be surprised if the second hand GW market is actually larger than the first hand one...

But that perhaps is in another dream/reality/hobby.

[3 fingers]

What about all the boys who leave it their rooms for their mothers to sell when they turn to cars , girls and booze.
Anyway I got a free skaven head  badge with my order,so will never Diss gw again .

[Tactalvanic]

What about all the boys who leave it their rooms for their mothers to sell when they turn to cars , girls and booze.
Anyway I got a free skaven head  badge with my order,so will never Diss gw again .

What a waste - just think how much booze, how nice a car, and girls that amount of money spent on GW could have got them!

Their parents I mean, not the boys...

[eilif]

When I saw this...

I thought sure it was a Mantic Sci-Fi Veer-Myn unit. 

Then I find out it's a WHFB unit!!
What the heck is GW doing?

On the other hand as much as it would shaft the vets, -and I still doubt it will happen- going to a small skirmish game is probably the best thing that WHFB could do.  The cost of an army is too high and if GW refuses to cut prices to make it more financially feasible, then switching to a smaller game is the next best solution to get the kids to play it.

[Cubs]

I can't help but remember my brother and I playing the Warhammer Fantasy Battle (first edition) game with a smattering of models -  Citadel, Runequest, Grenadier, Ral Partha, Mithril etc... anything the cupboard really.

GW only made the Warhammer game because people had been asking for a battle game, so they could have a wargame using their roleplay miniatures.

The old 'Regiments of Renown' were a great idea - my brother's Bugman's Dwarf Rangers vs my Harboth's Black Mountain Orc Boys - and were a really affordable (8 troopers plus 1 'character' model for £3) way to build up your unit slowly.

Even so, with my heart in the '80s, they did seem to peak in the 1990s. It seemed like they really got a handle on the game, on the races, on the rules and all they then needed to do was keep it ticking over, tweaking the rules perhaps with further editions if anything was really broken, but so long as they updated with regular models, they probably couldn't go wrong. Surely. Warhammer was THE game in town and the few fantasy battle competitors who dared take them on for a slice of the pie withered on the vine. In fact, so popular was the game and so playable, that it then of course spawned the Ancient Battles game, for those who wanted the fun without the fantasy.

I can't help but think that the company is looking like Zap Brannigan has taken the helm of a spaceship cruising along on autopilot and steered it into a black hole.

[Timbor]

Looks like the round bases are coming... saw this online.  Notice that the big engines in the background are on rounds:

[Tactalvanic]

Really the peak, best time was late 80's 90's

Basically just before the 'problems' and the management buyout. No real competition from computer games either...

Yes they had issues, in that the guys were gamers rather than business men, but thats really when the heart got torn out and the rule of accountancy set in.

If that had not happened either they would have folded due to poor business decisions, and disappeared in the same way as other similar companies supplying miniatures and games did.

I would like to think that if something else other than the management buyout had occurred they could have scraped through and got stronger after. That Games Workshop would have been an utterly different thing, and I bet we would be all acting very differently towards it.

As Scurv mentions, they could have just kept it all running with simple tweaks and updates, their pricing would have been industry standard, and in effect they would be to.

Now they are the  of the industry and all over the place are the comments of how long can it go on?

No matter how long it takes, they are going to go, bust/takeover/bought etc, its just a question of when and how much will be left.

The saddest part has always been for me the distruction, always destroying past masters/molds etc as "to expensive to store/retain" nonsense.

Nonsense demonstrated by Ral Partha Europe, EM4 (Yay Doug and spacelords), Mirliton and others - back catalogues and old miniatures are still in demand.

I for one would rather buy some of the old stuff now rather than a giant skaven with rock nipples and a gatling gun for a third breast...

[Mr. Peabody]

Yes they had issues, in that the guys were gamers rather than business men, but that's really when the heart got torn out and the rule of accountancy set in.

Revenge of the Sloane Rangers...

Now there is some potential, with a bit of conversion work, for an ironic Warhammer regiment of renown.

[Modhail]

I for one would rather buy some of the old stuff now rather than a giant skaven with rock nipples and a gatling gun for a third breast...

Absolutely. If they'd give us access to their 80's and 90's catalogues, I'd throw every spare penny I have into their coffers... 
Sadly the idiots destroyed every chance of that ever happening. 

[3 fingers]

Looks like the round bases are coming... saw this online.  Notice that the big engines in the background are on rounds:

Wtf is that supposed to be!
Surely you would know if that was in your sewer 

[Modhail]

Imagine the plunger you'd need....

[matthais-mouse]

Imagine the plunger you'd need....

They clearly don't have domestic in the Empire haha...

[Gibby]

****ing hell 

[FramFramson]

On the subject of management buyouts, here's an interesting read about what happened to Wizards of the Coast: http://www.salon.com/2001/03/23/wizards/

I think you'll note some eerie parallels.

It's enough to make a body wonder if it's possible for a games company to ever be large and prosperous without losing its gamer roots and going corporate.

I'd say something about gamers having a lack of business sense, but to be honest, I've found that the basics of business sense are appallingly lacking from almost every walk of life and that this is coming out more and more as we see so many small businesses being started up these days.

[Vermis]

See, that's what I mean. The IoB rat ogres...



... they're inflated overmuscled cartoony pinheads, but they're still well-posed, well-proportioned for what they are, and the sculptor seems to know what they're exaggerating. The new boneripper dials it up to 11, and as a result turned out like a wedge of pink flab with robo-arms poking out of it, and a head that belongs to something else.

Judging by a few bits and pieces, I think the sculptor is still Seb Perbett; but something's gone wrong, man. Something's gone wrong.