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The new Stormclaw box in 40k is limited edition as were other products of GW in the past.

What's the whole thing with impuls buys? Does it make sense in the miniature market? I don't get it.

 wuestenfux wrote:
What's the whole thing with impuls buys? Does it make sense in the miniature market? I don't get it.

They think we're idiots + they concentrate on short-term profits to make the next report look good over long-term sustainability + forging a narrative = Limited edition boxes and books and other nonsense.

GW often put out limited bundle boxes. It probably promotes sales because people who want the stuff will grab it straight away knowing the price will only increase rapidly once the bundle is sold out.

Ebay has changed the game dramatically, driving the value of their long available models down into the toilet but driving the limited edition models through the roof. By limiting the supply of certain models into the market they limit the secondary market's control of both their pricing and sales while simultaneously increasing the demand for their items right out of the gate. If you want the new Terminator Captain, you have to buy the Limited Edition STRIKE FORCE ULTRA (which is a great deal) or drop $75 on the secondary market for what would otherwise be a $30 mini.

Also keep in mind that GW is still limited by the amount of shelf space they are afforded by hobby stores. Too many big kits and the stores won't stock new ones. By making sure that the kits they order fly right off the shelves, GW ensures that their retailers will pick up whatever the next LE kit is.

Also it offers things at a pretty significant discount as well as being 40 bucks more than the other rules bundle and coming with all those models.

Two limited edition characters are just icing on the cake

My expectation is that they start pushing out a new boxed set every year or so, so it probably is legitimately a "limited" run, albeit a pretty large one.

This is all complete speculation by me, mind you, but it seems to align with their recent business processes and actually makes a decent amount of sense.

They want to develop their market like the 1980's and early 1990's comic book market. It's going th same direction too.

Just to be clear, in retail terms, "impulse buy" and "Limited edition" are not necessarily the same thing.

While any product can be bought on the spur of the moment and thus be an "impulse buy", the term usually refers to smaller items that are made available (often at the point of purchase) that a buyer will pickup on "impulse".

A "Limited Edition" is just that, an item or collection of items that is only available for a limited time.

Both make sense for GW.

Impulse Buys would be great for GW either it doesn't seem to be a GW priority or they assume their customers are primed to pay higher prices even at "impulse". GW does offer a few miniatures (asside from paints, bits and ebooks) at the $10 price point, and even some psychic cards at $7, but no miniatures at the $3-5 price point where companies like Reaper can offer minis so cheap that folks will just grab them without thinking twice.

Limited Edition is a strategy that seems to work VERY well for GW. They have a long history of limited edition products and making certain miniatures only available (or only available at first) in large boxed sets. GW customers are already primed to pay more, so these products seem to sell consistently well enough that GW continues to do it.

Also, in GW's favor, unused GW product sells quite well on the secondary market so someone buying a big boxed set knows that they'll be able to sell the parts that they don't want at only a moderate loss.

Limited Edition seems to be a strategy that reaps rewards for GW without hurting the later sale of their product, so expect to see it continue.

I really don't understand the idea of them doing limited everything; impulse buys generally aren't for things that cost as much as GW products do, at least with normal people.

It gets the buzz talking though, so that's probably all they want.

With Wayne here


I think they have convinced themselves we are a horde of idiots. The truth is, if this is the continuing habit, you wont see anymore younger games coming in.

GW have been limited edition miniatures since the 80's and included them in boxers for nearly as long.

This is nothing new or something to complain about.

If you want one buy it if you don't then don't.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 wuestenfux wrote:
What's the whole thing with impuls buys? Does it make sense in the miniature market? I don't get it.

They think we're idiots + they concentrate on short-term profits to make the next report look good over long-term sustainability + forging a narrative = Limited edition boxes and books and other nonsense.

Didn't you say you had ordered this set.....forged by your own narrative it seems.

These boxes aren't targetted at current collectors/gamers/...

They are starter kits for potential new entrants to their customer base. The 'limited edition' tag makes the punter fel thay are getting something even more special.

If you are in the market to increase your wolves or orks then you may get some benefit from the box BUT they aren't primarily targetted at dakkanauts.

 Massawyrm wrote:
Also keep in mind that GW is still limited by the amount of shelf space they are afforded by hobby stores.

I would suspect the bigger factor is how much shelf space they have in their own stores, since they dictate the range that independants need to carry anyway.

There was a time a few years ago when GW gave shelves to independent shops to put GW stock on.

Whatever their logic, all the second guessing of customers is exhausting. I'm out.

StewRat wrote:These boxes aren't targetted at current collectors/gamers/...

They are starter kits for potential new entrants to their customer base. The 'limited edition' tag makes the punter fel thay are getting something even more special.

If you are in the market to increase your wolves or orks then you may get some benefit from the box BUT they aren't primarily targetted at dakkanauts.

Them you think it would be non-limited, as most will be bought before they even reach the stores to "bring in new players".

Flashman wrote:Whatever their logic, all the second guessing of customers is exhausting. I'm out.

Good for you, it is nice when people that don't want to see or read something don't unstaed of bitching about it, other could follow suit, in thous other thread.

Noir wrote:

Flashman wrote:Whatever their logic, all the second guessing of customers is exhausting. I'm out.

Good for you

Cheers - it's been a long time coming but 7th "good news - there are no rules" edition was the final nail in the coffin.

To be fair, this campaign box is a reasonably good deal, but it's not a product you can save up for or make plans to buy because within a day of being on the web store, it's sold out. But shrug, it doesn't affect me anyway.

Limited Editions function on the principle of psychology in marketing that states that loss is always felt greater than gain. The anticipation of loss (not being able to get one in the future) can be exploited quite easily. It's not GW specific and is a regular marketing ploy.

WayneTheGame wrote:
It gets the buzz talking though, so that's probably all they want.

If they wanted buzz GW would be actively using the things most companies now use to generate buzz (ie. social media). GW run in the opposite direction to that, so really we have no clue what they're trying to do (and in some cases I bet neither do they...).

 notprop wrote:
Didn't you say you had ordered this set.....forged by your own narrative it seems.

As I've said on a dozen different occasions, I give credit where credit is due. The idea of doing campaign books with associated campaign model releases/boxed sets is something GW should have been doing right from the start. They dabbled a bit back in 2nd Ed (the Storm of Vengeance box, plus a series of releases for Warhammer) but never went back. The closest they came to doing campaign books were the Armageddon and 13th Black Crusade books, and those left some of us with rule-less armies (hello my Lost & The Damned force!). I also have to put my money where my mouth is, otherwise I'm talking nonsense, so of course I bought this because I want GW to do more of this.

Of course that doesn't mean I can't criticise the stupid aspects of this release, specifically how limited it is.

 notprop wrote:
GW have been limited edition miniatures since the 80's and included them in boxers for nearly as long.

This is nothing new or something to complain about.

If you want one buy it if you don't then don't.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 wuestenfux wrote:
What's the whole thing with impuls buys? Does it make sense in the miniature market? I don't get it.

They think we're idiots + they concentrate on short-term profits to make the next report look good over long-term sustainability + forging a narrative = Limited edition boxes and books and other nonsense.

Didn't you say you had ordered this set.....forged by your own narrative it seems.

ive noticed lots of people who love to bitch, then also buy everything.
kinda funny.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
As I've said on a dozen different occasions, I give credit where credit is due. The idea of doing campaign books with associated campaign model releases/boxed sets is something GW should have been doing right from the start. They dabbled a bit back in 2nd Ed (the Storm of Vengeance box, plus a series of releases for Warhammer) but never went back. The closest they came to doing campaign books were the Armageddon and 13th Black Crusade books, and those left some of us with rule-less armies (hello my Lost & The Damned force!). I also have to put my money where my mouth is, otherwise I'm talking nonsense, so of course I bought this because I want GW to do more of this.

Of course that doesn't mean I can't criticise the stupid aspects of this release, specifically how limited it is.

Yep agreed on all counts. I didn't pick this up, but I did pick up the SM Strike Forces for the bundle and US discounter discounts making for exmaple $50 land raiders which is very reasonable for such a large multi part plastic kit. No intention to play 7th and don't like the models though so I skipped this one, but I can see why people think it's worth getting and I'll definitely consider the next one if they release more like this. People often mischaracterise our stance as being "GW is the devil and do nothing right we want them to fail". It's pretty silly as we love 40k and want GW to improve it - when they do things like this box we say so. It doesn't help that they always couple it with something fething stupid like limiting it far below the demand.

kb305 wrote:
ive noticed lots of people who love to bitch, then also buy everything.
kinda funny.

ive noticed lots of people who fail to read the post above theirs.

 Yonan wrote:
People often mischaracterise our stance as being "GW is the devil and do nothing right we want them to fail". It's pretty silly as we love 40k and want GW to improve it - when they do things like this box we say so.

In another thread az said something along the lines of:

"I spent the weekend painting a bunch of [GW miniatures]. I sure do hate 40K!" in a wonderfully sarcastic manner. I can add to that:

I spent almost all of last week writing rules for one of the 40K RPGs. If I hated 40K, why would I do that?

Yep. In the last week I've read through FFG RPGs and almost bought more (/hug) and considered roping mates into playing it, read through my SM 'dex, played Dawn of War 1, painted Space Marines, received my 3x SM SF Ultras and dicked around creating SM APoc lists to go with all my new SM stuff - though I have no intention of playing I enjoy list creation a lot. We *really* hate 40k don't we.

What do we complain about?
- Rules - Not playing, ergo not hypoctritical.
- Balance - Not playing, ergo not hypocritical.
- Regional pricing - Not buying inside Aus, ergo not hypocritical.
- "DLC" - Not buying any of it, ergo not hypocritical.
- Bad 'dexes - Not buying, ergo not hypocritical.

I'm curious to see how high the ebay prices go for the individual models

I imagine around the £30 mark.


Ive seen the Strike Force Ultra SM Captain going for upwards of £30 on there.

So, in a related note, is Dark Vengeance still in production or do I need to purchase one at full impulse?

That's not going anywhere yet. They're just repacking it with the new rule book.

Wow GW just can't win. The box comes with a mini rulebook that everyone was complaining they couldn't get. Well guess what, now you can.

It also comes with some cool mini's and is a nice little starter set for people to get into the hobby. If you don't want or need it then don't buy it.

They release limited edition stuff like any other company, to create a sense of urgency to get people to buy their stuff and make money. It's the same reason Kickstarters give out limited edition stuff if you pledge certain levels. It's the same reason info-mercials tell you supplies are limited call now.

News flash, GW is out to make money.

We wrote:
Wow GW just can't win. The box comes with a mini rulebook that everyone was complaining they couldn't get. Well guess what, now you can.

No you can't - it's already sold out. So yeah, GW really *can't* win because any time they do something halfway decent they manage to feth it up somehow.

News flash, GW is out to make money.

News flash - they're horrible at doing so.

We wrote:
Wow GW just can't win. The box comes with a mini rulebook that everyone was complaining they couldn't get. Well guess what, now you can.

Except you can't. Oops!

We wrote:
News flash, GW is out to make money.

News flash, that's not a compelling argument for anything.