Durgin

Ironically, this unfortunate citizen of Sigmar that I spotted on my Facebook feed proves that some issues might concern any kind of material 😂

one thing I noticed in old FW kits, compared to almost any other resin kit I had in my hands (and I produce resin kits!) is that they were very greasy, and sometimes that really made the assembling phase extremely frustrating. I remember that I struggled a lot with an old Contemptor dreadnought, even after a couple of washes with soap the surface was greasy and prevented the superglue from doing its job u__u So I understand your fear! however, I'm currently assembling a Horus Ascended and it seems waaaay better, so maybe they changed their production process/resin! I think that pins are the best solution, surely it would be better in plastic, but I think that this new "monsieur" will be easy to assemble!

is thick enough to prevent bending or breaking, for the other potential issues...pin ^-^ but in general, superglue is enough for a strong bond.

Well, it's not wanting to have "another GW", but more "why GW is allowed to keep a certain politics concerning its products?" and the answer, in my opinion, is "they are allowed to do almost everything they want in the market because there is not a real competitor that can take away from GW an important % of customers". GW politics on prices won't change a single £, even if people started to buy more and more from 3rd parties small companies because, at the end, you are buying them to play GW games so as soon as you keep orbiting around GW products, they are in a solid position. On the other hand, a true competitor able to "steal" a real slice of customers from GW, would change many things, I don't know if prices, but I'm sure that GW would have to polish better their products to persuade people to keep buying them at their prices, if customers have a real alternative to GW. It's a thin but crucial difference.

exactly, and this issue leads to a vicious circle that makes the main reason why is so difficult to really compete against GW: without solid communities that keep your new game/miniatures range alive it's difficult to attract new gamers/hobbyist and this of course avoid the creation of proper communities and so on. To match GW firepower it needs a big name with an already established industrial production and distribution. I think about Hasbro, for example, or entities like that. GW wins the war mainly in the logistic field, where it is unmatched and incomparable with any other "competitors". So here is why small companies prefer to design products that can be used by GW hobbyist as replacements of GW products, it's a safer way to do business. It's a pity because often many talented and passionate artists and creative work in those small companies, but business is a cruel world and GW is the tyrant of this particular niche. I don't even hope that the average hobbyist might support the small companies, because this is a hobby so I think that it's more than legit that people just buy the product that has the best support and distribution, nobody wants to invest money on something just to see it taking dust on the shelves because there are no players around. And even if we imagine a world where all the hobbyists say "****** GW, we all now play the company X game!", probably it would be a disaster because the average small company in the market couldn't even handle, from a production and distribution point of view, such a big demand.

Despite I agree with you for the most, I would like to add another factor that makes GW the tyrant of the market: capillarity. Ok, Warhammer/warhammer 40k (especially 40k, being the new lore still in development, after they killed their previous and iconic fantasy brand) have a deep and fascinating lore that at the moment can't be matched by other competitors, but I think that the real big gun in GW arsenal is the distribution of their products. Even if, someday, a new competitor manage to create an amazing range of minis, supported by an amazing game and amazing lore, there is a mountain to climb to become a worthy competitor: being able to make your products available in local stores all around the world, and distribute them at the same pace of GW. this is a titanic task, don't forget that the only real competitor of Gw in the past, Rackham Confrontation, failed not only because of bad choices (they invested a lot on pre-painted stuff), but above all because of big issues with distributors. So many hobbyist don't even look around in search for non GW games, nor they start to collect anything but GW products simply because it's not good to invest in an army of "company X" if you know that you will struggle to find a player near to you to play with, or just a community to talk about "company X hobby". I think that the main power of GW are the many communities all around the world that keep their products alive, a thing that often GW itself doesn't remember. Then there is obviously all the miniatures&lore factors, but the best lore without a proper support and availability, is not enough to annoy GW.

At this point I'm starting to think that The Old World will be a game of maps. "who can draw the most beautiful map of the Old World?! Is up to you, take the new Citadel Pencil and draw your mighty map on the new Citadel paper!".

Yes there are several "lines" of bandai products, concerning gunpla: they have different scale and, consequently, level of detail and amount of parts to assemble. you probably bought a RG kit, which are the cheapest but I honestly consider them good quality products. The MG kits, and above all the Ver.Ka line, are top quality kits that allow you to build impressive mecha, with tons of sprues and parts and a premium quality for what concerns the kit layout and engineering. If you think about, having the chance to change the pose of your model would be extremely interesting also for wargaming purposes, especially if we consider the latest GW kits where models are more and more difficult to modify, and oblige you to have clones in your army because it's difficult to change the pose of your minis. Going back to mechas, and when I think about mecha I can't help but thing about GW kits like titans, wraithlords, T'au battlesuits, dradnoughts (all iconic GW non-organic characters which are similar as a concept to Gunplas), think about having the same versatile build of a gunpla, where you can easily modify the pose of your model at your taste, it would help you to diversify the look of your models, especially if you play 2/3x of a same kit.

Yes, bandai doesn't work on organic surfaces, but think about all those products like, well, SPACE MARINES (caps lock activated only to suggest to read it with a space marine voice XD). Said so, it's not difficult to produce organic surfaces, it's just a matter of sculpt them enhancing the engraves of the model. I said it because my best friend, and sculptor of all my own miniatures range, is also a sculptor for Malifaux (his name is Valerio Terranova), so we discussed a lot about this kind of things because sooner or later I want to make plastic kits too. What really makes the difference is the engineering process behind the layout of a sprue, think about, for example, hot to cut the original sculpt into separate components: GW, for example, is very good in making a good compromise between a complex sculpt and a smart way to divide it into components. Many Malifaux kits, instead, are cut in a worse way, because all the engineering process is made in China and they obviously cut the original sculpt into components without thinking about the simplicity in assembling or painting them. Gunpla kits layout and engineering is out of this world, and I can only imagine how they could handle a (for example) classic tactial squad kit, it would be awesome (and cheap for sure XD).

well, if we talk about raw engineering power, we can compare them especially if we compare a classic Gundam kit with the T'au suits (that are obviously, a variation on the same theme). Don't get me wrong: Gw plastic kits are awesome. But simply they are not the best plastic kits on the market, at least if we talk about technical specs. What, in my opinion, we should consider is that GW plastic kits cost a huge amount of money, if we look at the ratio £ per sprue. I mean, if we took an average bandai kit, and we apply to it the same price ratio of GW kits, they would cost 3-400€ each ^-^"

From a technical point, bandai kits (gunpla) are way better than GW ones. At the cost of a Riptide (85€), which contains 2 plastic sprues, I can grab the which is one of the most luxury lines of gunpla products: the level of engineering is incomparable, being the gunpla fully repositionable with many parts that can move (just the engineering of joints is something that GW simply can't do), the amount of sprues contained is almost 10 times the Riptide, the quality of plastic is huge (fewer mold lines, because of how the kit is divided into components), the dimension of the fully assembled kit is bigger and, if you are a lazy ass hobbyist, you don't even need to paint it. This, just by comparing two equivalent products in their technical specs. To show better, this is a sprue of a RG, basically the cheap line of gunplas: an average RG kit contains A LOT of these sprues, and as you can see both the quality of plastic and the level of details is impressive and totally comparable to, for example, the Crisis Suits kit. The price, however, are way different.

you know, this reminds me somehow the classic move of stores here in Italy during the season of sales, when a 10€ product goes suddenly 30€, then it is discounted 50% for a final 15€ cost XD And many people, unaware of the initial price, buy it thinking of having found a good deal!

Well, let's see then my personale experience, just to add some other data. I own a small company that designs and produces resin miniatures. To ship my products I use Spring, which is a super cool system to deliver all around the world, managed by PostNL and strongly connected with the various local posts. Before the pandemic, to ship from Italy to Australia an average parcel (about 250grams) I paid about 4.5/5€. Now I pay 5,30€. The price has raised, it's true, but still I can live with it. And I think that, being mine a small and newborn company, I should have a waaaaaaaay worse pricing than GW, a global company whose incomes are hundreds of millions of €, basically I think that earns more GW selling abaddon black color drops in 30 minutes than my company in a two years. Concerning shippings, as you may imagine the costs lower as the volume of shipments rise, so I fairly guess that, if you look at the singular shipment, GW should pay less than me. Same with all the other "costs" that you correctly mention: GW has costs bigger than all the other competitors, it's true, but luckily for GW they also generate profit. Again: I don't say that GW has no right to rise prices, or that there are not reasons for a company to rise prices. I only say that, as soon as I remember (so 25years of hobby, 'till now) GW has raised prices every 2 years, applying at the same time an exchange rate horribly wrong (that generates huge profits without spending a single pence), so it's difficult for me to justify another + on prices, for products that are already extremely overpriced. When WH underworlds started (2016), a single box costed about 25€. I assume that GW priced those boxes to earn some profit, am I right? Now a single box costs 34€ and, with the incoming augmented price we are talking about 40/42€. It's a big difference, and I can hardly justify it only based on the "well, the inflation rises and we have many expenses" thing..

It is undoubted that the last years of pandemic made the prices of raw material, energy and logistic go up significantly. What I am wondering is: how does this rise of costs affect GW? I try to explain despite my horrible English (I know, it's painful). A) let's imagine I own a pizzeria. An average pizza (margherita) costs about 0.5€/0.8€ in ingredients/general production costs, and is priced 5€/5,5€. If the cost of ingredients goes up, and I have to face 1,5€ of costs, it has a huge impact on my finances. B) I'm Cracco (a famous chef here in Italy). In my restaurant, an average pizza (margherita) costs about 1.5/2€ in ingredients (because of higher quality raw materials etc), but I sell it at 16€ each. If my costs go up even by 100%, I would still have a very consistent margin of profit. In what case does GW belong? I think we are more talking about the B case. GW products are already waaaaaay over priced, compared to the market. Of course, there is a reason why they can afford this kind of prices: people love their products and is highly loyal to the brand, Gw products are considered (often wrongly, just think about all the hobby tools like wire cutters etc) the very best money can buy. It's legit, it's market so I don't argue with that because I am one of those customers. Said so, I honestly can't buy the "inflation and production costs go up so we have to rise up our prices too and we are sad about that", because I think that the average GW product is already so over priced that it can easily absorb the rising of raw materials, keeping also a more than decent margin of profit. We are talking about products like the 30€ for a single space marine character, or 35€ for 3 boltboyz. Moreover, as a EU based buyer, I honestly can't accept the inflation thing when GW applies a £/€ exchange that is out of this world, closer to some black markets of Venezuela. "Fury of the Deep", for example, is priced 105£, which is roughly 124€ at the current exchange: Gw priced it 140€ instead (118£). And things get worse if we consider the US Market (fury of the deep is priced 170$, which is 125£). On this basis, when you literally earn money from nothing applying an exchange rate that is out of this world, how can you expect me to believe you, when you try to say that "oh, inflation is high so from March 7th prices go up from 5 to 10%"? When I pay 140€ a product that should cost 124€ on your own market, I'm already paying you the whole inflation thing, and even something more XD! It's not because the inflation, or because without increasing prices you are risking not to be able to pay your bills. It's just wanting to keep intact an enormous margin of profit on your products. Which is perfectly legit, again, but at least don't try to act as you're really sad and in needs XD

unfortunately this is not something related only on UK economy. Here in Italy, energy prices in 2022 will go up by 55% (electric energy) and 42% (gas)

Every time I see one of these announcements by GW I thank God for not being born in UK. It must be difficult to live in a country where inflation rises up from 5 to 10% every 2 years. Well, at least this is what I've learned from the last 20 years of GW announcements XD

What I find a bit annoying by GW when they announce a new (well, another...) increase on prices, is this kind of Timmy the orphan's attitude, like they are begging us for another spoon of soup and they are really sad for having been obliged to increase they already god-tier prices. Don't get me wrong, I don't care about prices too much, because this hobby is a guilty pleasure of mine so it is already a luxury activity: I just buy things I love as soon as I can afford them, then if for some reason I can't anymore, I just put my purchases on pause 'till I have some cash to dedicate to my favorite hobby. I was planning to make a whole Eldar Corsairs army, I will just buy a box and I'm happy the same. Said so, I find a bit disturbing this way of making this hobby unnecessary expensive, just because (and imho this is the real reason why GW constantly increases prices) they can count on a extremely supportive community that seems to be able to absorb the corporative greed. In a idealistic way, I find a bit weird to reward the average hobby enthusiast, who's already paying way more than necessary (GW prices on their paper products is out of this world, for example..), by making his hobby less and less accessible. Despite what they tell, I honestly think that this new prices are more a way to take advantage of the "bubble" created during the pandemic, and restore those unexpected waste of money that GW had for badly managing some crucial logistic factors (think about all the no-deal brexit mess, that obliged GW to pay customs fees on their products shipped outside UK). Said so, I think that Gw can increase their prices even 100% each year: my mountain of shame is so big that I can happily paint for hundreds of years, before going out of minis XD

I would see the interaction between Grungni and KO as a business partnership: Grungni needs the help of KO for his big plan of restoring the Dwarf civilization (the logistic capacity of KO is crucial), KO get in exchange fancy items and AetherGold in abundance. I imagine that maybe some skyport might see this allegiance in a more spiritual way and get more involved (I guess Barak-Thryng guys would be super enthusiastic about it), but I would explain KO in a duardin soup battletome in a simple way: business is business.

Am I wrong or the new Fyreslayers battletome has the same cover image of the actual one? .___. They really invested a few budget on them, I think the rumor of two new FS units at this point can be discarded... For what concerns the two mysterious summer battletomes, I say Skaven and Sylvaneth!

I would say, or at least I'd like, Kruleboyz points discount on Gutrippaz would be awesome indeed!

this is a good point indeed, in that case the physical option would be better for sure. But if I think about players that want to be always updated and maybe skip from faction to faction, a way to give them access to all the rules at a fair price would be interesting as well, imho ^-^

I also have many complaints about how GW is handling their products, but I still enjoy so much this hobby. As soon as it inspires my creativity, and manages to fascinate me with this crazy mix of escapism and colorful puppets, I'm in.

I think that GW should start to deeply think about digital battletomes/codices as the main way to release new rules, leaving the paper versions (of which I'm an enthusiastic collector, don't get me wrong) as more collectors' oriented items. I imagine an app to handle all of that, let's call it "General's Compendium +" in two versions: 40k and AoS. subscribing monthly/yearly to the app, you'll get access to all the rules, battletomes, campaign and updates of that specific system plus the access to the armylist builder. An app to rule them all. No more issues with paper, easy to bring with you all around the tournaments/gaming clubs/etc, more environmental friendly, rules are immediately updated with faqs/errata/general updates etc. Then, as said before, you change the approach to physical books, making them more hobby/fluff/lore oriented.

I'm not totally against a duardin soup, despite it would be clearly a problematic affair to handle for GW writers because "being disunited and having chosen each their own way of life" is basically the centerpiece of AoS duardin lore. Said so, let's be honest: GW doesn't seem to have big plans for Fyreslayers and Kharadron, despite their huge potentials (at least, KO have an amazing range of minis), so I think that a duardin-soup would be a nice chance to give us players a more interesting way to collect and (above all) play both these factions. BUT. I use to dream big and make unrealistic expectations, so here is how I would handle the duardin soup, if I work at the GW. a soup doesn't have to be a downgrade, in my opinion: it's only a matter to choose the right ingredients. What, at the moment, is lacking for a great duardin soup is, in my opinion, a unifying element, so here is my wish: a kind of orruks warclans treatment. Creating a third range to complete the duardin allegiance, and that works as a unifying element: the kin of Grungni, lead by Grombrindal. Grungni has returned, but as you may imagine it's not so easy to make a duardin forgetting a thing like "oh, our God abandoned us", so the Maker has to earn again the respect of their kins and how better way to do it, than claim the ancient dominions of duardins? I imagine this new faction as "The Restorers", including all those duardins that, on the contrary of Fyreslayers and Kharadron, never gave up and never lost their hope for a new age of gold for the duardin kin. They wandered for thousands of years, fighting relentlessly to win back their dominions, but despite they have been alone in this quest, as a proper duardin would do they accepted their fate. When Grungni returned to the mortal realms, and saw these indomitable children of his, was moved to tears and decided to earn their forgiveness and restore the ancient duardin civilization. The Restorers are Grungni's chosen, war-veterans of old ages who never forgot how a proper duardin should be: Grungni gave them new weapons, new powers and worked tirelessly to make them worthy of their new task: to reunite the whole duardin kin! Lead by Grombrindal, the restorers are now unleashed to the mortal realms, fighting anywhere there is a duardin in need, and the rumors of their shiny armies, crackling with Grungni's power, are reaching the ears of any duardin out there, giving a new hope and, in certain case, cracking the bitterness of many. (sorry for my English) How I would manage this concept in real? In my mind, the restorers would represent a kind of update of dispossessed. A small but mighty range of veterans clad in gromril armours, with a strong runic theme (Kharadron incarnate the old dwarf engineering, fyreslayers the slayers-caste, this faction in my opinion should incarnates the runic and metallurgy theme of dwarfs) CHARACTERS •Grombrindal: the leader of the restorers, he acts as Grungni's herald. Double kit similar to Morathi to represent Grombrindal in his normal shape and Grombrindal imbued by Grungni's power (I remember that, in a lore extract, Grombrindal literally increase his size, becoming a kind of avatar of Grungni, to fight Morathi). •Warden King: descendant of the ancient royal blood lineages of duardins. Double kit: on foot or on war altar. •Standard bearer: a duardin who bears a flag composed by a patchwork of ancient duardin banners, so even those who fell in the age of chaos, can see the new golden age. •Runepriest (on foot and a kind of new anvil of doom altar) • the Grudgebearer: a duardin priest who takes note of new grudges, cancels old grudges (if possible) and motivates the troops to put their back on the pitch. classic buffer, with funny lore flavored rules (for example, you can set a grudge-objective before the battler starts, then you gain victory points, or bonuses, if you claim it) TROOPS • Restorers: conceptually speaking, a kind of mix between longbeards and ironbreakers. Gromril armours and weapons and all the nice longbeards tricks to reflect their experience and the fact their are veterans of many and many wars. 3 weapons choice: gromril shield and gromril axes/hammers, gromril spears and gromril shields, two hands axes. • The Fallen: ghosts of fallen duardins of ancient ages, summoned by the anger and bitterness of their living comrades. If you remember, Thorek once had a magic rune-spell on his anvil of doom to summon the ghosts of fallen dwarfs. I would turn this concept into a proper troop, it would be awesome to design. In play, I imagine them work as relentless screens to support the main core troops, with some nice tricks given by their "ethereal" condition. •The Wardens: ancient duardin statues, brought to life by Grungni's power. I imagine them act in-game as monsters (just like lumineths' cows or dankhold troggoth, with different weapon options and abilities (melee-oriented or support-oriented). Add this element into the duardin soup, cook for 2-3 hours and that's it: my duardin wet-dream, a battletome with some narrative coherence, interesting to play, visually appealing (imagine ranks of shiny armored restorers, flanked by fyreslayers, or towering Wardens supported by kharadron ships!), a joy for eyes, dice and brushes. I know, it will never happen.

I apologize for my dwarf(ehm, duardin)-centrism, but the more I look at the wonderful new Avatar of Khaine (such an amazing kit!), the more I feel a bitter taste on my tongue, thinking about Fyreslayers. GW missed a chance to make a Grimnir version of the Avatar of Khaine, and it's such a shame because the whole concept of Fyreslayers, the ur-gold and the search for it to restore the duardin God of War, almost screams a character like that: a chosen of the lodge, who voluntarily allows the rune-priest to forge on his/her skin many ur-gold runes, becomes a kind of avatar of Grimnir, bringing the power of Grimnir upon the enemies of fyreslayers. Obviously, after this insane transformation, the "kamikaze" duardin dies because he/she can't bear such a great power, but his/her soul is now part of Grimnir himself, a priceless honor for a warrior-caste like fyreslayers! Said so, the new Nighthaunt character is really inspired, I love it so much but I think the whole NH range is one of the best among AoS collection. I don't like this new trend of dual box releases, I think that it wastes the hype of the (few) new kits released.