The LAF Games Workshop Discussion Thread

[Andym]

the quality of that set was very high.

Totally agree! The miniatures alone were pretty amazing! Easily the best termies EVER made!!

[Kitsune]

Looks like I chose a good time to offload my own copy onto ebay. Made a tidy profit

[Too Bo Coo]

Anyone see this yet?  What does this mean for GW?  

MOD EDIT:

I had to remove the link since, after closer inspection, it was such a blatant advert for illegal copies of GW Miniatures that it falls under our Copyrighted Material rules. Basically, it's about a chinese company selling copies of GW Miniatures recast in some kind of resin, with highly variable quality as it appears.

Critical as we may be of GW's business practices and their non-sustainable model skull consumption rate, we will not endorse piracy of any kind.

Westfalia Chris

Sorry about that guys, I didnt mean to post something that could get the site into trouble, as I wrote after this post, I was just quite shocked at how blatant it all was and was curious what the community thought of this all and what it could mean for GW.   Thanks for pointing out the legal issues Chris.

[Major_Gilbear]

What does this mean for GW? 

...Drop your prices and essentially snuff out the opportunity for thieves to undercut you and still make a margin?

Otherwise, whilst I am not surprised, I am saddened to see blatant theft in any form (regardless of who is stealing from whom).

(I also hope that this doesn't now turn into one of those horrible, horrible threads about IP/theft discussion...  ).

[Vermis]

(I also hope that this doesn't now turn into one of those horrible, horrible threads about IP/theft discussion...  ).

Ditto. 

[Too Bo Coo]

Ditto again, mine was more a practical rather than theoretic question.   It seems that if these Chinese chaps can turn out such nice kit, and openly advertise their work, what could this mean for GW?  Granted the stuff is resin, but GW people have become desensitized to Crapcast already.  It's interesting to see what they may do, especially since they are not in the best financial shape already.  I have no interest in this stuff even if I played their games still, but I have little doubt that others may not feel the same.

[Tactalvanic]

Virtually every company on Earth uses Chinese manufacturing.

In many cases the same factories making the official items also make the "unofficial" versions to, or make it very easy for others to do.

They have the expertise available.

As dickheadish as I find GW at times they are far less dickheadish than a chinese tong. I know which pack of not so great guys I would rather give my money to.

Absolutely. But regardless I cannot see it impacting on the behavior or decision making of GW regards pricing.

Still - have there been any indications yet on pricing of the "new" version of the  previous limited edition  Space Hulk yet?

[von Lucky]

I only wonder if wargaming as a hobby is active in China. If so, will we see a local company/game on the scene soon?

[Cubs]

If GW had treated consumers with a little more respect perhaps buyers would feel a little more loyalty towards them?

I'd buy from them in a second, my reservations being more about reliability than morality.

I recently bought some 'Fruit of the Loom' vests from China - complete and utter knock-offs (which I kind of guessed from the price) but the quality was fine and the customer service was surprisingly good. The only problem was that their version or 'XL' is more like the UK's version of 'M', so now my wife has swiped them all.

[nic-e]

If GW had treated consumers with a little more respect perhaps buyers would feel a little more loyalty towards them?

I'd buy from them in a second, my reservations being more about reliability than morality.

I recently bought some 'Fruit of the Loom' vests from China - complete and utter knock-offs (which I kind of guessed from the price) but the quality was fine and the customer service was surprisingly good. The only problem was that their version or 'XL' is more like the UK's version of 'M', so now my wife has swiped them all.

Alot of the people who buy from "the chinaman" (as the main knock off caster is known) tend to be from /tg/ and treat it as some awesome secret only they know about.

[Westfalia Chris]

Please do keep it secret - the potential impact on GW and the whole issue is well worth discussing, but just as a small reminder of the forum rules, no links to recasters and no suggestions on how to purchase these.

[nic-e]

Please do keep it secret - the potential impact on GW and the whole issue is well worth discussing, but just as a small reminder of the forum rules, no links to recasters and no suggestions on how to purchase these.

Don't worry, i have no interest in sharing the means of attaining these illegal recasts. I personally may have no issue with recasting for personal use,but this is large scale criminal activity.
 
My point was that alot of the people who buy from these people do so not because of the savings ,but as a way of being edgy and sticking two fingers up to games workshop, you only have to monitor a thread on the topic(they come up fairly regularly) to see that.

[Tactalvanic]

My point was that alot of the people who buy from these people do so not because of the savings ,but as a way of being edgy and sticking two fingers up to games workshop, you only have to monitor a thread on the topic(they come up fairly regularly) to see that.

Which is also sad mainly due to it being true, because it would be much more edgy not to actually play GW's game, put two fingers up at them playing something else.

- In the end its sad they are doing it, but its no surprise really that they are, apart from perhaps the professional level of the activity.

Beyond that, not much interested, in real or knock-off versions.

Still plenty of other things to spend me hobby money on are readily available.

But how much is that new Space Hulk slightly limited edition going to go on sale for?

I only have the first one, and if I had that one, I would not need the previous version of this new limited edition one....

Is it 4th Edition or 3 and a bit? Will it have more skulls?

Skulliness - This is more important/interesting than the man from China.

[eilif]

I've seen the site where these are being pirated.  Two interesting points.

1) It may be cheaper than GW, but it's still not inexpensive by a long shot.
2) These are not some hero stick-it-to-the-man people who are just attacking the big dogs.  They're also pirating Perry and Dark Age minaitures.

If I want something GW I'll buy used (Squats and Necromunda mostly), but mostly I'll just not buy GW, and certainly not from these recasters.

[Too Bo Coo]

Please do keep it secret - the potential impact on GW and the whole issue is well worth discussing, but just as a small reminder of the forum rules, no links to recasters and no suggestions on how to purchase these.

Hi Chris,  Did I make a mistake posting the YT vid?  I thought it was ok only because it was a review of products and the context I introduced it in.  Just wanted to check.