Wargames Factory under new management/ownership?

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Kid_Kyoto**

There's been a lot of complaints lately on their boards about unfilled orders and not much news, their site has not been updated since December. Apparently they had serious email and server issues.

And now this:

http://wargamesfactory.lefora.com/2011/01/13/end-of-wargames-factory/

I received this on Monday from Lonnie:
We are pleased to announce that Wargames Factory is now under new management. A more comprehensive "official" announcement is in the works but we felt it necessary to give you a precursor of coming events. Tony Reidy is no longer with the company in an official capacity; we wish him well in his future endeavors; a press release is being prepared. In the mean time, please direct all questions to Lonnie Mullins.
So, what does that mean to you?
An accelerated release schedule.
Better fill rates
Faster turnaround times on orders
Our goal on out of stocks is that they will be back in stock within 4 to 6-weeks
Payments for orders by check need to be remitted to:
Wargames Factory, LLC
P.O. Box 3111
Newtown, Connecticut 06470
Payments for orders by credit card will be addressed soon
Payments for orders by PayPal will cease until we set up a new PayPal account
Orders will be sent out with invoices
All of our products will be in boxes
Boxes will have a new "Green" packaging; we will lose a bit on graphics but we will be using materials that are better for the environment
We're sure you have many other questions for us; feel free to contact Lonnie at the number listed below or by email during normal business hours and he'll tell you what he can.
If you currently have an order in house with us we will fill it as soon as possible but please contact Lonnie for details.
Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to a rocking 2011 and beyond!
--
Lonnie Mullins
Sales Director, Wargames Factory
wargamesfactory.com
410-638-8346 Office
410-688-1445 Cell
Lonnie@wargamesfactory.com
M-F 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Miniatures Page has more
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=218471

As a customer all I want to hear is the Samurai renders we saw are coming and that the Greatcoat heavies will come soon. WGF had some great communication with customers and I'd hate to see them go.

**A Black Ram**

Hmm, I kinda just discovered them. This is unfortunate.

First ,Reaper.....

**Kid_Kyoto**

Well I just ordered 2 more boxes of greatcoats, enough to finish my 2000pt urban guard army.

A Black Ram wrote:Hmm, I kinda just discovered them. This is unfortunate.

First ,Reaper.....

Um you are joking about reaper right?

**A Black Ram**

The name is all I was talking about

Yeah yeah, I know. I stil can't get over that my first miniature's company changed their name.

**The Night Stalker**

Their service is total gak, it took a month and numerous complaint emails to bet one box of greatcoats from them.

**Kid_Kyoto**

I bought mine form the Warstore.com. One downside of transparency is I knew how understaffed their shipping department was since they kept talking about it.

Rumors are the Lonnie guy who posted is/was a GW employee leading to all sorts of speculation this is a GW plot.

Other storyline is WGF's CHinese supplier somehow gained ownership.

If nothing else it's interesting reading on a cold January night.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Another interesting thread

http://wargamesfactory.lefora.com/2011/01/14/press-release-from-wargames-factory/

But no news.

**Empchild**

Interesting, I am a little annoyed as I pre-ordered stuff a while back for my webstore that they said would release last month. If you can't stick to your own release shedule then you shouldn't even post one.

**brettz123**

Wow I just saw that over on TMP here is an open letter from Tony Reid

http://theminiaturespage.com/news/787442/

**mikhaila**

Well now, that letter certainly gave food for discussion. You can sort of piece together some of deals that were done, and who did what to whom, from one veiwpoint at least.
I guess we will see what happens.

**Empchild**

Seems to me to be completely unprofessional to post something like that let alone on TMP, one of the wargamming communitys largest news source. No matter the issues one may have that was a poor and childish way to go about it.

**JHall**

Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Rumors are the Lonnie guy who posted is/was a GW employee leading to all sorts of speculation this is a GW plot.

That is some of the funniest internet crazy talk I have seen in years. Lonnie was fired from GW ages ago. The concept that they somehow masterminded all this is right up there thinking that the Illuminati had a hand in it as well. I bet the Freemasons conspired with GW to take down WF as well. They were all too close to figuring out the secret to GW's master plan.

**Kirasu**

GW is trying to find and capture the last ancestor of jesus christ, who is hidden amongst small game companies

**brettz123**

JHall wrote:
Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Rumors are the Lonnie guy who posted is/was a GW employee leading to all sorts of speculation this is a GW plot.

That is some of the funniest internet crazy talk I have seen in years. Lonnie was fired from GW ages ago. The concept that they somehow masterminded all this is right up there thinking that the Illuminati had a hand in it as well. I bet the Freemasons conspired with GW to take down WF as well. They were all too close to figuring out the secret to GW's master plan.

Ohh it wasn't GW it was the inquisitors......

**lord marcus**

brettz123 wrote:
JHall wrote:
Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Rumors are the Lonnie guy who posted is/was a GW employee leading to all sorts of speculation this is a GW plot.

That is some of the funniest internet crazy talk I have seen in years. Lonnie was fired from GW ages ago. The concept that they somehow masterminded all this is right up there thinking that the Illuminati had a hand in it as well. I bet the Freemasons conspired with GW to take down WF as well. They were all too close to figuring out the secret to GW's master plan.

Ohh it wasn't GW it was the inquisitors......

NO ONE EXPECTS THE INQUISITION!

ahem....check out the first post of the heresy thread, which also has a letter from whitehouse.

http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?p=848246#post848246

**chaos0xomega**

Well, I guess there goes any chance I have at plastic praetorians... I had finally decided to bite the bullet on that project after 2 years of wrestling with it... and what do I find? WF is probably going to go under, and just about every e-retailer out there is completely out of stock... My local store has 2 boxes of them... I need 24.

**malfred**

Please. GW itself was just a front for the Inquisition to begin with.

**Valhallan42nd**

I'm glad I bought my great coats when I could, and from the War Store.

**H.B.M.C.**

"This will be a month long remembered. It will see the death of Chapterhouse, and will soon see the end of Wargames Factory." - Darth Jervis, Lord of the Sith.

"Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen." - Emperor Kirby, ruler of the GW Empire.

**Valhallan42nd**

All I wanted was Heavy Weapons, that's all I wanted.

Couldn't they have waited to implode until after that?

**AlexHolker**

I might not have liked their sculpting work, but I appreciated what they were trying to achieve. If what Reid and Whitehouse say is true, they are now Wargames Factory In Name Only.

Maybe Ex Illis should be watching their backs, if they use the same manufacturer.

**Kilkrazy**

chaos0xomega wrote:Well, I guess there goes any chance I have at plastic praetorians... I had finally decided to bite the bullet on that project after 2 years of wrestling with it... and what do I find? WF is probably going to go under, and just about every e-retailer out there is completely out of stock... My local store has 2 boxes of them... I need 24.

You and me too. I have one box I was using for experiments and tests. I'm not going to start making the army with an uncertain supply of core infantry figures.

**Valhallan42nd**

At least they make decent shotgun vets, as their basic weapon looks akin to that.

**Mr. Burning**

Theres a lesson here for many a would be business owner.

Trust your gut and hire on merit.

There is also this. With even the best intentions, why give controlling interest in your company to a factory half a world away, if they do not even get your product to you on time?

**Agamemnon2**

Looks like another noble experiment draws to an ignominious end. WF never really had the quality to cut it against the big players in fantasy wargames, and even in historicals they were unfavorably matched, especially against Warlord and the Perry brothers.

The moral of the story appears clear. China is poison for wargames. It's what bit Mongoose in the ass, too, when their contract caster cut a mould three times its intended size, resulting in loss of money, time and hastily-sculpted metal replacement figures.

**Kilkrazy**

China has a lot of quality control issues.

Steiff moved their production back to Europe because they couldn't get the quality from China.

**Kroothawk**

H.B.M.C. wrote:"This will be a month long remembered. It will see the death of Chapterhouse, and will soon see the end of Wargames Factory." - Darth Jervis, Lord of the Sith.
"Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen." - Emperor Kirby, ruler of the GW Empire.

"Not underestimating Nick Skywalker you should! The law is strong in him!"

**brettz123**

Mr. Burning wrote:Theres a lesson here for many a would be business owner.

Trust your gut and hire on merit.

There is also this. With even the best intentions, why give controlling interest in your company to a factory half a world away, if they do not even get your product to you on time?

Another good lesson would be that if your sales aren't allowing you to expand your business you might be in the wrong business. If the original owners of WF had to sell their controlling shares of the company in order to get more product developed it wasn't a company that was in a very good financial position to begin with.

**AlexHolker**

brettz123 wrote:Another good lesson would be that if your sales aren't allowing you to expand your business you might be in the wrong business. If the original owners of WF had to sell their controlling shares of the company in order to get more product developed it wasn't a company that was in a very good financial position to begin with.

Profit lets you expand, but an external source of capital still lets you expand faster. If both parties had control of vital components of the company (the IP on one hand, the moulds on the other), maybe Tony&Co assumed Ghost Studios wouldn't do anything that would jeopardise their asset.

**malfred**

Another lesson from business: It's easy to predict doom and gloom AFTER the fact.

As AlexHolker says, taking on extra capital without cash on hand can also
be the leverage you need to become a player. It just didn't work out that
way for Wargames Factory, it seems.

**brettz123**

Isn't expanding TOO fast a well known small business pit fall?

Automatically Appended Next Post:

malfred wrote:Another lesson from business: It's easy to predict doom and gloom AFTER the fact.

As AlexHolker says, taking on extra capital without cash on hand can also
be the leverage you need to become a player. It just didn't work out that
way for Wargames Factory, it seems.

It can be and is often a good idea the problem isn't that he took on extra capital it is that he sold complete control for the cash. That, to me anyway, just seems like an awfully risky thing to do. It is hard to say though as we have no idea about sales and other details of what the circumstances were surrounding the takeover.