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I played a game last night at my FLGS. The owner has been in the business for sometime and played games for a while and is very very familiar with GWs games and managing.

He let me know about something that I found intriguing. His shipment of Harlequin codexes is late. he should have had it but it didnt arrive. Its obvious that the strike on the ports is this reason. I'm in hawaii and I know his GW shipments arrive via UPS. I've been there when UPS shows up.

I know last year he showed me the Void Shield Generator he recieved and it was clearly marked Made in China.

most of the GW products say made in the UK including there books right?

from what ive read, the issue at the western ports are affecting shipments coming from China.

so are these new codexes being made in China? labeled "made in the UK"?

doesnt seem ethical. I dont know if its illegal or not.

(Almost) all the minis are made in the UK and those that are are labelled as 'manufactured in the UK' (the voidsdhield generator and one or two other scenery ktis were made of polystone a material GW does not handle)

they also used to manufacture some at Memphis in the US but that was stopped a while back

but they don't do their own printing (boxes/codexs), that's outsourced (I think most of it happens in China, with a few bits elsewhere if they need a shorter turn around time) but I don't think they'll have any location attribution (I've not got one convenient to check)

All the books I have handy say "Printed in China" underneath of a UK flag saying "English Language".

Books are done in China, most of the kits are done in the UK.

They quite clearly state on packaging etc (most) models are made in the UK, (most) codexes are printed in China.

Also, certain Forge World kits were also outsourced to China for a short while several years ago. I had Elysians that on the bag stated were made in China. For all the hatred and negativity towards quality and whatnot towards the Chinese, these Elysians were a million times better than those I had before done up by FW.

Yeah, the books and White Dwarf have been printed in China since at least the late 90's.

Most of their hobby tools and any of the 'special release' stuff that comes with the 'collectors' and 'gamers' editions is also manufactured in China.

It's just a models that are still made in the UK.

Despite a lot of negativity towards China, I wouldn't really mind if GW outsourced to China as long as the quality is good.

Wasn't there some awful FW recasting company in China a few years ago btw?

nightshae007 wrote:
Wasn't there some awful FW recasting company in China a few years ago btw?

There are currently quite an amount of chinese recasters. The quality of what they offer varies significantly between them, from "FW average" to "way better than FW average".

As it's already been said in the thread, Forgeworld outsourced some kits to China a few years ago. Those kits' quality were usually superior if compared with their UK-produced counterparts.

Edit: It's also been rumored GW outsourced some kits to China some time ago, specially big kits (i.e. the Stompa), but it's not been confirmed, and I don't know if it's true or not.

IF model production goes to china:

If prices remain the same or goes up then id be outraged

If prices goes down then it should be cool

Ether case i expect some workers will be selling off extra kits on the side at good prices

In case of FW outsourcing the quality went up by a considerable amount though, making the high price you pay for resin actually worth it for a change.

But I very much doubt that GW is going to outsource anything other than one-off projects to anywhere else but their own factory. They invested heavily into their Nottingham facilities, I do not see them throw it all away now.

The codex'sand rule books were cheaper when they made the in the UK since they started printing China the price has soared. Go figure

That they still produce mostly in the UK is one of the few things they can have some good will for. If they outsourced to China you know it would be purely to cut their costs and increase their profit margin, and not a penny of it would be passed on to their customers.

So I would think the worse of them. While it may make financial sense, it's about the final thing they can do to completely turn to the dark side.

 Desubot wrote:
IF model production goes to china:

If prices remain the same or goes up then id be outraged

If prices goes down then it should be cool

If ... prices .... go .... down... ?!?!?!!

I'm tempted to post a ..


But ... your post count!

Am confused!

They're likely to put the price up if anything, to cater for the costs of moving production out to the far east.

All joking aside, keeping production of minis in the UK is one of the few positive points about GW as a company, as far as I'm concerned. Would be a shame for it to go.

 Chute82 wrote:
The codex'sand rule books were cheaper when they made the in the UK since they started printing China the price has soared. Go figure

Most things were significantly cheaper 20 years ago than they are now.


And GW have a long history of cutting production costs and simultaneously raising prices.

China has been in the GW business for a while now.

I'd be like... Konichiwa, bitches.

 slowthar wrote:
I'd be like... Konichiwa, bitches.

You know Japan and China are different places, right?

 insaniak wrote:

 Chute82 wrote:
The codex'sand rule books were cheaper when they made the in the UK since they started printing China the price has soared. Go figure

Most things were significantly cheaper 20 years ago than they are now.


And GW have a long history of cutting production costs and simultaneously raising prices.

20 years ago? It seems like yesterday. Thanks for making me feel old.

 insaniak wrote:

 slowthar wrote:
I'd be like... Konichiwa, bitches.

You know Japan and China are different places, right?

I can't love this post enough.

I buy GW products made in China all the time.... Oh... wait, did you mean GW products actually produced by GW ?

Books are printed in China and are sent to Britain at least 6 months prior to being released (that's where the bulk of those sneaky pics come from), then from there they are sent around the world to distribution centre at least 3 months prior to release.

Anyway, eventually China will make the bulk of GW products, cheaper, no unions, and a non regulated employee market, a manufacturers market, but that does not mean cheaper retail prices, far from it.

 slowthar wrote:
I'd be like... Konichiwa, bitches.

I am offended!

I'd be like

Most of my GW models are Made in China...

I only care about the quality, so I'm guessing I would be fine with it.

China is doing pretty good today. They are no longer just the source for cheap, low-quality plastic junk. I think almost anything can now be produced in china at pretty high quality, if you take care of propper quality control.

Personally, I don't think that production in UK is so much more expensive. They have everything they need in place. Yes, the wages are higher, but given the possibilities for automatization, I don't think there are that many people employed in production lines anyways. Packaging can be done by students and similar jobbers for low wages...

If GW would actually do some market research and refrain from alienating what fans and customers they still do have, they could easily reduce the prices and still make more money than they do now.

 Kosake wrote:
China is doing pretty good today. They are no longer just the source for cheap, low-quality plastic junk. I think almost anything can now be produced in china at pretty high quality, if you take care of propper quality control.

Personally, I don't think that production in UK is so much more expensive. They have everything they need in place. Yes, the wages are higher, but given the possibilities for automatization, I don't think there are that many people employed in production lines anyways. Packaging can be done by students and similar jobbers for low wages...

If GW would actually do some market research and refrain from alienating what fans and customers they still do have, they could easily reduce the prices and still make more money than they do now.

Personally, I hate the idea of producing in China. It's an immoral, corrupt regime.

It's also no panacea. Hornby, who make Airfix and Scalextric, enjoyed a huge profit hike by outsourcing everything to China. Then they nearly went bust because the factories they were using messed them around, and missed deliveries.

 Hivefleet Oblivion wrote:
Personally, I hate the idea of producing in China. It's an immoral, corrupt regime.

The book in your avatar was printed in China.

Unless it's a "private copy" (nothing wrong with that)

 Korinov wrote:

 Hivefleet Oblivion wrote:
Personally, I hate the idea of producing in China. It's an immoral, corrupt regime.

The book in your avatar was printed in China.

Unless it's a "private copy" (nothing wrong with that)

That is a 'private copy', altho it's not what it seems. But yes, I own quite a few GW codices, and an iPhone 4S, all made in China. I also regularly visit a huge CHinese supermarket to buy noodles, fish sauce, and lemon grass. I'm a shocking hypocrite.

 Kosake wrote:

Personally, I don't think that production in UK is so much more expensive. They have everything they need in place. Yes, the wages are higher, but given the possibilities for automatization, I don't think there are that many people employed in production lines anyways. Packaging can be done by students and similar jobbers for low wages...

I have to agree. China can't be that much cheaper, it's not like a person needs two hours to pack one box of stuff. A chunk of it is already automated and the labour cost should not really matter that much per box of stuff. The downside of not having direct control over what is going on and longer delivery times should be much more important especially with their sales stagnating a bit.