The LAF Games Workshop Discussion Thread

[3 fingers]

What about Broolian Beastmen Heads from Victoria Miniatures?

I see the ungors are back in stock for the uk.

[Tactalvanic]

Am I right in saying that Warhammer was the game which launched the GW success? Wouldn't they be losing their flagship?

FramFramson - if that does happen, I wonder where they'd take wargaming to...

Games Workshop, and its sister miniature company really started as resellers of other companies games and miniatures under licence.

Their own successes came out of that, and since the original people who set it all up were bought out  by the accountants as such, they have been living off that original success and ideas every since.

Bugger does that make me feel old.

That said they want money from it, and although fantasy did make them money before, its really their business policies that have ruined their cash cow more than anything else.

And will continue to until it gets taken away from them.

Its why more sensible business are able to get in and be successful with fantasy products similar to theirs without difficulty - the market and customers exist, they just don't want to be ripped off - don't care if the miniature is absolutely gorgeous, its not worth 10 quid or 18 quid for a little bit of molded plastic. They don't get it, every one else does.

The game may be great that they have come up with but its simply not affordable to enough people to be viable product.

[FramFramson]

What about Broolian Beastmen Heads from Victoria Miniatures?

A little too beastish for my.

The Ungor heads are basically perfect for doing orc conversions if you happen to be playing a game that has more human-looking orcs. What you do is just trim the heads off.  

There's actually a head I'm looking for in particular, but I'd take any I could get. There's another LAF-er who's very kindly having a look to see if his friend has extras, but as that's two steps removed I'm still looking around on my own.

I *might* have a line on some though, so maybe that'll be sorted too...

that is the plan. Freak people into buying their flagging fantasy stuff by saying they are destroying it all. (luckily there will be warehouses full of old stuff to be found and sold as limited edition....

Nah, see that would make too much sense! It would require someone who could actually find their own ass to come up with something like that, so that puts out GW's current "brain" trust.

[Vladimir Raukov]

I'm not entirely caught up on all the stuff that's going on with the rumours and hearsay, but I could really see them doing some kind of deus ex machina mallarky to set everything back to where it was in the first place.

[FramFramson]

I'm not entirely caught up on all the stuff that's going on with the rumours and hearsay, but I could really see them doing some kind of deus ex machina mallarky to set everything back to where it was in the first place.

I don't know... regressing back to Oldhammer would be a lot smarter than what's apparently the current plan!

[Tactalvanic]

I'm not entirely caught up on all the stuff that's going on with the rumours and hearsay, but I could really see them doing some kind of deus ex machina mallarky to set everything back to where it was in the first place.

Annnd we all wake up and it was just a dream, no giant ratmen - no Historical Empire Space Marines.

I don't know... regressing back to Oldhammer would be a lot smarter than what's apparently the current plan!

FramFramson has the right of it.

Its certainly an idea out there available to them to copy like most everything else... Don't think they could do it, ie admit they are doing things wrong? Change direction?

No. they will steam on until someone else takes whats left away from them or its just gone. Sit back relax, train wreck is coming. But its anyones guess how much more track they have left before it happens.

[Vladimir Raukov]

The more I think about it, the more it seems like an impractically large expansion.

[Streetline]

Those, erm, slightly over stylised rat-ogre-obliterator-thingies appear to be on square bases mind you.

[Tactalvanic]

Those, erm, slightly over stylised rat-ogre-obliterator-thingies appear to be on square bases mind you.

Probably in the new rules you have to have a minimum of ten in a unit - so square bases to rank them up 

Of course they only come in a box of three...

What until you see the new movement trays... huge...

must get back to sleep work..

[beefcake]

If these rumours are true, I despair at all the molds that will be destroyed and put in the skip bin.

[McMordain]

2) LotR/Hobbit sales are tiny - read somewhere that the Desolation of Smaug sourcebook sold in the hundreds.  That's... pathetic - RPG sales figures, not GW and certainly not a licensed product.  That explains the minimal effort put into the Christmas Hobbit releases;

Well I'm sure the over the top pricing doesn't help selling the Hobbit stuff. Paying as much for a plastic Legolas as for the older 12 man plastic boxes is nuts. Even more insane if you remember those were 24 figure boxes for a little more money... Most of them being finecast isn't helping either.
I like most of the hobbit stuff as far as they look, but the only thing I bought was the Escape from goblin town.

[Tactalvanic]

Not sure whether to laugh or cry, or a bit of both

But its a corking bit of literature

http://investor.games-workshop.com/our-business-model/

I must say they do concentrate of their ranges of Fantasy works, and they work on them really hard - it really does show how much effort they put in.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

RE LOTR & Hobbit Sales.

I am sure that the sales have dropped to a very low level but it still surprises me.
It should have everything going for it:-
- The books remain popular.
- The films are very popular and the Hobbit BoFA should have caused a masive sales boost.
- The LOTR SBG rules are very good and easy to learn - I regularly see good comments about the rules on here and other forums.
- The figures are sculpted by the Perry brothers and are excellent.
- The plastic figures are dynamic and well made.

As far as I can see, this was destroyed by GW alone.

I know that I have bought and painted literally hundereds of official LOTR figures.  
I have mostly plastic armies for Gondor, Rohan, Moria, Isengard plus Mamuk, several Trolls, two Ents, two Fellbeasts etc, etc
As the prices went up and up, I collected many of the metal characters and elite troops on EBay (many = well over 100).
I do not want finecast figures because I regard it too delicate for game playing so most of the recent character figures are not interesting.

When the first Hobbit film came out, I bought the Goblin Town Set, Sourcebook and plastic Eagles.
In the past year, the only thing that I bought was 10 plastic Mirkwood Rangers.
I was and still am ready to buy a lot more but the prices & finecast have stopped me.

Mick

[Tactalvanic]

I understand that its not an easy franchise to deal with. But. as you say - could have been better.

In fact the other day I was looking at the mithril miniatures range that is at least still partially available. Ok, out of nostalgia mostly but still, they are there.

As far as GW, its been a wasted franchise, and could have been handled better, rather than just for the money. I have bought some miniatures from the range, but only via ebay, and carefully to keep the number of them/price to a sensible level (my idea of sensible, and did not worry at all about losing auctions when the price went wrong).

I guess thought thats its just not really part of the GW hobby

http://investor.games-workshop.com/the-games-workshop-hobby/

Oh dear, my hobby appears to not be the GW hobby   

[Argonor]

http://investor.games-workshop.com/the-games-workshop-hobby/

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.