GW are reopening their foundry in a limited capacity. And a rather awesome new Catachan is being made available via Indies!

Trying to get the pic, but my email isn’t behaving, bare with!

Here it is:

Description for now? Carl Weather from Predator with binocs and a Powerfist (clearing up a Rumour Engine).

GW are sending a bunch to Indy retailers, free of charge.

You know what do folks!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Aenar wrote:
Here it is:

You’re a star!

That's fantastic

If it bleeds, we can kill it. That is a fantastic sculpt, easily the best Catachan character they've ever released.

Crushesh hope of those ork players who thought the rumour engine picture was ork model. There's that binoculars.

OMG just spotted the glowing green blood on the leaf!

Definitely Catachan Carl Weathers!

Yup, that's a fantastic model, right there.

ooooohhh. Now that's a model I want!

I really need that model.
Easily one of the best guard sculpts in a long time.

Absolutely incredible. GW are going nuts with the Catachan references here, he looks exactly like Carl Weathers and even a bit like Apone from Aliens, 2 of my favorite movies ever. Also the blood splash on the leaf; another awesome reference. I'd been eyeing up Catachans for a while now, then when the lady model was shown I was hooked... and now this guy, oh my god! I've gotta have him!

Now since this was a rumour engine pic before the virus struck do we think this is a hint that the catachans might be getting a fresh wave of plastic?

Or was it going to be an event only model with nothing further to come?

(if they were to get new minis of this quality i'd certainly not say no)

I suspect was always going to be a re-opening model alongside Ripper Jackson?

 LiftForSwift wrote:
Absolutely incredible. GW are going nuts with the Catachan references here, he looks exactly like Carl Weathers and even a bit like Apone from Aliens, 2 of my favorite movies ever. Also the blood splash on the leaf; another awesome reference. I'd been eyeing up Catachans for a while now, then when the lady model was shown I was hooked... and now this guy, oh my god! I've gotta have him!

This gives me hope for a new catachen box that don’t look like clouds in the shape of people.
The command squad showed it’s possible and the 2 new sculpts just reinforce that.

It just needs some... purple and wyrm symbols and it would be perfect.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I suspect was always going to be a re-opening model alongside Ripper Jackson?

Reopening of what? This model was designed like last year so certainly not intended as corona reopening when it was designed. Likely original use was another event exclusive or store opening model but got repurposed due to corona.

General store re-opening, and new stores.

Dillon! You son of a bitch.

Have to say that's very generous of GW to basically give a limited edition model away to the indie stores to mass order for customers!

 Overread wrote:
Have to say that's very generous of GW to basically give a limited edition model away to the indie stores to mass order for customers!

I don't think it's mass ordering. Seeing it's said as limited edition model I suspect each store gets X copies and that's it.

tneva82 wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Have to say that's very generous of GW to basically give a limited edition model away to the indie stores to mass order for customers!

I don't think it's mass ordering. Seeing it's said as limited edition model I suspect each store gets X copies and that's it.

It could be related to their average order value,

For example, and example only?

A FLGS which orders say, £1,000 of stock twice a month would get fewer than one which orders say, £10,000 worth of stock once a month (I imagine Element easily meets that), as those amounts strongly suggest different customer volumes. It also suggests higher or lower potential overheads.

This isn’t altruism. This is GW looking to plug financial holes in their big spenders. A way to give them a neat cash injection so those sweet, sweet wholesale orders are maintained. That’s very much worth a short term hit in their own pocket, even if it means thousands upon thousands supplied. The physical production side of GW’s enterprise are quite low. Oil prices are stupid low, so plastic wholesale has likely followed suit. Running a machine for a day or three to produce? Well, they’re gonna run that machine anyway.

Remember, FLGS provided some solid profit margin. GW need only produce, and send out large boxes. Man and machine hours are therefore limited, and there’s no store cost passed on to GW.

Hopefully supplies won’t be low!

Cool sculpt, I can dig it.

Love that mini, Hope I can get it :(

That is one fantastic miniature.

Would be an auto-buy were it available through regular channels. I wonder how much it'll end up going for at FLGS?

Awesome model, And the prospect of GW doing something at all for Astra Militarum feels huge right now.

To bad this bad boy cant hold his own against anything he go up against. Like any IG officer you put some love in, he will die gloriously like a hero in every battle.

 Snrub wrote:
That is one fantastic miniature.

Would be an auto-buy were it available through regular channels. I wonder how much it'll end up going for at FLGS?

Whatever they feel they can get away with?

Yep, that's a cool model.

tneva82 wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Have to say that's very generous of GW to basically give a limited edition model away to the indie stores to mass order for customers!

I don't think it's mass ordering. Seeing it's said as limited edition model I suspect each store gets X copies and that's it.

Yep - one of my FLGS just said they're getting 3.

Is the green thing on the leaf just a Predator reference ? It looks a bit like a rune or something to me.
And I checked, he does look like Carl Weathers in Predator, but like... 10/20 years laters? Imo he looks quite older, his hair and beard is graying, his mustache is fuller, and his wrinkles are stronger.
Also is it just me or does he have both a powerfist, and a choppa/machete on his back?

GW are giving Independents these free but only in very small numbers. I'm getting 3 which is on the highside apparently.

We can't order him and there was no indication that will change in future.

Giving such tiny numbers to stores feels like a way to turn what was a cool thing really gakky fast.

I inquired with my LFGS and they also confirmed they only get 2 (its a relatively small store that also sells lots of boardgames). They are going to be raffled among those customers that ordered something during the lockdown...

I really don't understand how giving out tiny numbers helps stores at all. In fact all the hassle they'll get from people calling them asking if they have it is probably not worth the revenue from three models.

 The Phazer wrote:
I really don't understand how giving out tiny numbers helps stores at all. In fact all the hassle they'll get from people calling them asking if they have it is probably not worth the revenue from three models.

It might be these are the ones they have to hand, and there'll be more when the factory restarts?

Thats mighty fine

 Snrub wrote:
That is one fantastic miniature.

Would be an auto-buy were it available through regular channels. I wonder how much it'll end up going for at FLGS?

My guess is the initial run will be the 100% freebies to LFGS' and afterwards it'll permanently go Webstore Exclusive like the Black Library Celebration models.

 The Phazer wrote:
I really don't understand how giving out tiny numbers helps stores at all. In fact all the hassle they'll get from people calling them asking if they have it is probably not worth the revenue from three models.

Maybe with offer and demand the store can go all scalper on the price .

Love to get the model but I am in East London and far as I am aware the only place near to me that sell Games Workshop models is the Warhammer stores in Enfield or Romford. I have no independents so guessing this means I am out of luck right?

 The Phazer wrote:
I really don't understand how giving out tiny numbers helps stores at all. In fact all the hassle they'll get from people calling them asking if they have it is probably not worth the revenue from three models.

Good PR for Games Workshop.

Deaf Chas wrote:
I have no independents so guessing this means I am out of luck right?

You could ask a friend. Or, iirc someone in here had create a facebook group for these kind of things, someone might get one for you and send it to you.
Anyone remember the Facebook?

Didn't take long for it to turn sour, huh?

I'd be genuinely surprised if this was the one and only way to get that miniature. It was in the Rumour Engine before this all began, it must be an upcoming store opening/birthday miniature.

Either that or there's some catch with the stores receiving it, having to order x value of product or whatever.

GW works in mysterious ways, but giving away a new sculpt for free and making no money on it, when they put that new Sister on Made to Order for a premium? It doesn't add up.

 Tim the Biovore wrote:
GW works in mysterious ways, but giving away a new sculpt for free and making no money on it, when they put that new Sister on Made to Order for a premium? It doesn't add up.

Each person buying a Sister pays to offer a Catachan to an FLGS! I financed 2 Catachans lol.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

Deaf Chas wrote:
I have no independents so guessing this means I am out of luck right?

You could ask a friend. Or, iirc someone in here had create a facebook group for these kind of things, someone might get one for you and send it to you.
Anyone remember the Facebook?

That’d be me. Details in my sig.

I’ve a smol FLGS in my town. Once I’ve got my sticky digits on one, I’ll see if there are any spare.

The quantities are limited for 2 reasons.
A) it’s not space marines and GW underestimates abything not space marines
B) factories are shut down so they can only give away what they already produced.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
Is the green thing on the leaf just a Predator reference ? It looks a bit like a rune or something to me.
And I checked, he does look like Carl Weathers in Predator, but like... 10/20 years laters? Imo he looks quite older, his hair and beard is graying, his mustache is fuller, and his wrinkles are stronger.
Also is it just me or does he have both a powerfist, and a choppa/machete on his back?

Its green Predator blood.

Ahem, as predicted!

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/786930.page

(well really here: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/784947.page)

I continue to believe this heralds the launch of an all singing, all dancing line of plastic regiments.

Which black sergeant is he supposed to be?! The one from Predator or the one from Aliens? Or the one from Halo? So many identical black sergeants to rip off !! (which all were basically rip offs of the other, lol)

 Kirasu wrote:
Which black sergeant is he supposed to be?! The one from Predator or the one from Aliens? Or the one from Halo? So many identical black sergeants to rip off !! (which all were basically rip offs of the other, lol)

He's obviously a blend of all black sergeants, for maximum badassery.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Ahem, as predicted!

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/786930.page

(well really here: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/784947.page)

I continue to believe this heralds the launch of an all singing, all dancing line of plastic regiments.

Hmmmm....Tallarn dancing girls......need to email Grim skull, wargames exclusive now!

Whelp, we now know what that rumor engine was, I knew it was a Catachan and not an Ork. Not that I'd have complained if it was an Ork mind you, but this is an awesome mini and one I'll definitely get.

I really hope all these new character models were seeing are signs of a Catachan range update. Starting with marbo all these new characters they've released have been pretty good. We just need an updated infantry squad to match

 Kirasu wrote:
Which black sergeant is he supposed to be?! The one from Predator or the one from Aliens? Or the one from Halo? So many identical black sergeants to rip off !! (which all were basically rip offs of the other, lol)

Your choice.

But what better time to produce a figure based on the Mark Gibbons 'kneeling Catachan with power fist that is not Dutch Shaeffer' artwork. The actual metal Captain at the time was not a particularly good figure in my eyes.

What a pair they'd make.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
That’d be me. Details in my sig.

Thanks for your service!

 dan2026 wrote:
Its green Predator blood.

But... predators don't exist in 40k, it's a different IP!!

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 dan2026 wrote:
Its green Predator blood.

But... predators don't exist in 40k, it's a different IP!!

Of course Predators are a different IP. That's why this is Lictor blood on the plant which, just like the Catachan it complements, was created by the designer solely based on the designers imagination and previous GW IP. Like, totally.

Ah, so this is Lictor blood! Well that changes everything!
Didn't know Lictor blood was bright green like this .

 Geifer wrote:

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 dan2026 wrote:
Its green Predator blood.

But... predators don't exist in 40k, it's a different IP!!

Of course Predators are a different IP. That's why this is Lictor blood on the plant which, just like the Catachan it complements, was created by the designer solely based on the designers imagination and previous GW IP. Like, totally.

Nah, it can't be a lictor. Ripley-I mean Ripper (Is that her name, because if so, NOW I get it and why she's on a Nid), this guy is a dedicated Kroot Hunter. And we all know, Kroot and Predators have no similarities what so ever

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
Ah, so this is Lictor blood! Well that changes everything!
Didn't know Lictor blood was bright green like this .

Well, this one's blood is bright green. Because... reasons. It's certainly not because of a reference to an IP GW doesn't own. GW's designers don't work like that.

GaroRobe wrote:

 Geifer wrote:

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 dan2026 wrote:
Its green Predator blood.

But... predators don't exist in 40k, it's a different IP!!

Of course Predators are a different IP. That's why this is Lictor blood on the plant which, just like the Catachan it complements, was created by the designer solely based on the designers imagination and previous GW IP. Like, totally.

Nah, it can't be a lictor. Ripley-I mean Ripper (Is that her name, because if so, NOW I get it and why she's on a Nid), this guy is a dedicated Kroot Hunter. And we all know, Kroot and Predators have no similarities what so ever

Now I get the urge to get out one of my Kroot and convert it to sport some alien looking high tech equipment. I don't know how yet, maybe I'll have a look at Spyrers for inspiration.

Awesome!

Someone once converted a Kroot into a Predator and placed during a Golden Demon. It has the four mandible jaw thing, the iconic claw weapon.

Of course, it was tilted "Chaos Kroot' but...

That's great.

Hmmm...no FLGS in my area carries GW since there is a GW shop just down the road. Normally I would not be interested in an IA figure, but this one is damn great!

Love the Predator reference, also evidence GW can make good Guard models. Wish they’d update the Catachans and Cadians to the Command Squad standards, or even make a plastic version of one of the metal regiments.

That is neat.

 Fayric wrote:
Like any IG officer you put some love in, he will die gloriously like a hero in every battle.

Hey, just like Carl Weathers!

That is a great looking model.

Hope I can get one. My FLGS is doing curbside pickup, and I put in an order form to see if I could get one pre-ordered or held for me.

I'm a huge fan of Predator, so I need this next to my Sly Marbo (I know it's supposed to be Rambo/Sly Stallone, but the most recent sculpt looks more like Dutch from Predator)

Ooooh, I just realized I could put these with one of those awesome Artel W Striking Scorpions.

While I appreciate the Carl Weathers/Predator vibes...this more or less confirms there's a strong chance of a Catachan reboot and that's unfortunate.

 Elbows wrote:
While I appreciate the Carl Weathers/Predator vibes...this more or less confirms there's a strong chance of a Catachan reboot and that's unfortunate.

Isn't that a good thing? As much as I would prefer greatcoat guard as the new foray into the main infantry plastic range for Guard, not having to see the very oddly proportioned plastic Catachans as the mainstay alongside Cadians would be a definite plus in my books.

Ok i'll bite. Any particular reason it's "unfortunate"?

GW is behind the 8ball as usual, madrobot miniatures bits made suitable conversions yrs ago here:
https://madrobotminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_10&products_id=100

https://imgur.com/a/TTY7voM

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Ok i'll bite. Any particular reason it's "unfortunate"?

Because the moment when people might be interested in a whole army of Rambos has passed.

It passed somewhere around 1987 IIRC.

Personally I still think/hope we'll get a plastic reboot of all the major regiments, but I have been known to make mistakes before. From time to time.

My FLG gets 1 and I entered the deathbattle to claim it.
But the real question is for how much will it sell on E-bay?

thomasneverseensuchbs.jpg

Poor form for GW if they're limiting orders so sharply. More models helps FLGSs, fewer only helps scalpers.

 Elbows wrote:
While I appreciate the Carl Weathers/Predator vibes...this more or less confirms there's a strong chance of a Catachan reboot and that's unfortunate.

I doubt it because if you look at the equipment he's wearing there's nothing specifically Catachan about it. If he was wearing a shirt beneath his flak jacket and you trimmed the plants from the base he could easily pass as a Cadian, or some other generic Guard officer.

 Arbitrator wrote:

 Elbows wrote:
While I appreciate the Carl Weathers/Predator vibes...this more or less confirms there's a strong chance of a Catachan reboot and that's unfortunate.

I doubt it because if you look at the equipment he's wearing there's nothing specifically Catachan about it. If he was wearing a shirt beneath his flak jacket and you trimmed the plants from the base he could easily pass as a Cadian, or some other generic Guard officer.

Which actually lines it up a bit more with the artwork in the Guard codex.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Poor form for GW if they're limiting orders so sharply. More models helps FLGSs, fewer only helps scalpers.

We have no idea what this model was originally intended for. It could have been a new Store Opening model or a one-off for some event.

In both instances, independents would never have gotten them in the first place.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Ok i'll bite. Any particular reason it's "unfortunate"?

Because the moment when people might be interested in a whole army of Rambos has passed.

It passed somewhere around 1987 IIRC.

You have realised that GW's whole design focus is from the 80s or thereabouts? Even more recent armies like Tau with their mecha are still from way back based on those earlier mech anime and films. Everything else seems to be selling so I'm sure an army of Rambo's will still sell too!

 Overread wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Ok i'll bite. Any particular reason it's "unfortunate"?

Because the moment when people might be interested in a whole army of Rambos has passed.

It passed somewhere around 1987 IIRC.

You have realised that GW's whole design focus is from the 80s or thereabouts? Even more recent armies like Tau with their mecha are still from way back based on those earlier mech anime and films. Everything else seems to be selling so I'm sure an army of Rambo's will still sell too!

Not to mention the nostalgia craze that has been hitting the West in most forms of the entertainment industry is applying to GW as well as you mentioned, so an updated version of the 80's feel for Catachans and Cadians would definitely be a big sell atm.

Going to try and get one. It'll add to my pile of shame (which isn't terribly huge admittedly, though I have zero time to paint with work and a newborn right now!).

I already have a mostly fully painted Vostroyan Guard army, only a handfull of infantry remain to be painted, and several vehicles also remain unpainted (mostly Leman Russes, a Chimera, and a Valkyrie).

But! For this model alone, I would do up a small Catachan force. He's gorgeous. I'll just need to get Sly Marbo because... well just because, and the new female Catachan model as well. It'll be a fun side project for sure!

Take it easy.

-Red__Thirst-

I SEE YOU!

https://youtu.be/1vnIFrtu4G8

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Personally I still think/hope we'll get a plastic reboot of all the major regiments, but I have been known to make mistakes before. From time to time.

I know I'm starting to feel the hype!

It's a nailed on, absolute inevitability that we're all going to have to suffer* through revamped Imperial Guard regiments at this point! To state the obvious, they are a humongously popular aspect to Lenton's signature cash cow but we also exist in a time where Genestealer cultists and Sisters of Battle have their very own, rather gorgeous, plastic armies along with individual Necromunda gangs and quite random, but lovely themed, Warcry warriors also being done in placcy.

A few box sets of Catachan, Tallarn, Steel Legion, Vostroyan and, maybe, probably post fall, semi skimmed Cadians would be a straightforward ask these days, surely?

Throw in a few generic vehicle kits that they can all use between them with the odd sprinkling of special snowflake super tank and a set of transfers and you're looking at gangbuster sales.

Just keep the designer of the Taurox in a corner, please!

*not me!

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Ok i'll bite. Any particular reason it's "unfortunate"?

Simple. Of all the Imperial Guard regiments, the two currently on sale/prominent are the most boring. Cadians are fething dreadful, and the Catachans look like ass, and are one of the less interesting regiments. While I fully expect a reboot of "the" Imperial Guard range I was hoping they'd have gone in a different and interesting direction.

Attention being paid to Catachans means it's a bit more likely we're keeping them as a prominent regiment....which is a shame.

Cadian equals star ship troopers
Regardless their entire planetary system has been taken over blown up so they are basically in the tanith last and only attrition until they disappear... not that I expect the star ship trooper look to disappear anytime soon.
I don’t expect tallarn
Or steampunk I mean vostroyan
And I think catachan would make the easiest conversion opportunities for genecult sprues Compared to other options such as greatcoat or vahallan


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 Elbows wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Ok i'll bite. Any particular reason it's "unfortunate"?

Simple. Of all the Imperial Guard regiments, the two currently on sale/prominent are the most boring. Cadians are fething dreadful, and the Catachans look like ass, and are one of the less interesting regiments. While I fully expect a reboot of "the" Imperial Guard range I was hoping they'd have gone in a different and interesting direction.

Attention being paid to Catachans means it's a bit more likely we're keeping them as a prominent regiment....which is a shame.

Catachan have the best rules the most special characters and are the most played in tournies.

Feel free to make DKOK if you don’t like the look. They have pretty much every option you need and a bunch more regiment specific options.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Arbitrator wrote:

 Elbows wrote:
While I appreciate the Carl Weathers/Predator vibes...this more or less confirms there's a strong chance of a Catachan reboot and that's unfortunate.

I doubt it because if you look at the equipment he's wearing there's nothing specifically Catachan about it. If he was wearing a shirt beneath his flak jacket and you trimmed the plants from the base he could easily pass as a Cadian, or some other generic Guard officer.

Which actually lines it up a bit more with the artwork in the Guard codex.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Poor form for GW if they're limiting orders so sharply. More models helps FLGSs, fewer only helps scalpers.

We have no idea what this model was originally intended for. It could have been a new Store Opening model or a one-off for some event.

In both instances, independents would never have gotten them in the first place.

According to gw this was originally going to be a limited run for a GW anniversary. They repurposed it to help the flgs, originally it would've been a GW exclusive

That actually makes things kinda interesting then. I wonder if they're allocating the stock that normally would have gone to their shops to the independents, then putting it up on the webstore as a Made to Order/Web Only product later like they've done for Eisenhorn?

Catachans are going to have the coolest kill team ever. Harker, Straken, Marbo, the lady catachan, this guy. So much win!

 Kanluwen wrote:
That actually makes things kinda interesting then. I wonder if they're allocating the stock that normally would have gone to their shops to the independents, then putting it up on the webstore as a Made to Order/Web Only product later like they've done for Eisenhorn?

I doubt it, at least in the numbers they seem to be allocating to the indies.

You can make a whole astra militarum kill team with only 5 miniature? I expect them to require much more miniatures to work.

 Hulksmash wrote:
Catachans are going to have the coolest kill team ever. Harker, Straken, Marbo, the lady catachan, this guy. So much win!

Indeed.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
You can make a whole astra militarum kill team with only 5 miniature? I expect them to require much more miniatures to work.

Well, with those 5 he mentioned, run as what they are, they could easily handle most killteams. Harker has an assault heavy Bolter and rerolls, marbo can do all kinds of sneaky melee and sniping stuff, the new model is a Catachan commander with a fist, a force to be reckoned with in killteams, and straken is literally that but scarier. Really the only lightweight here is the limited ed Bolter sarge and she could easily be used as a platoon commander with a Bolter, not a bad loadout.

Hell you'd be pushing 200pts just with Straken, marbo, and harker.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Poor form for GW if they're limiting orders so sharply. More models helps FLGSs, fewer only helps scalpers.

Limited edition models are rarely cast in advance and these were cast and done before corona became even close to issue. So even if GW wanted to give more to stores they literally would have none. They were likely intended for some event exclusive/Whatever and stock was what they had available.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Scrub wrote:

A few box sets of Catachan, Tallarn, Steel Legion, Vostroyan and, maybe, probably post fall, semi skimmed Cadians would be a straightforward ask these days, surely?

So. Does doing 2 regiments double the sales for GW? 3 triple? 4 quadruble? If not don't expect multiple regiments.

 The Phazer wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
That actually makes things kinda interesting then. I wonder if they're allocating the stock that normally would have gone to their shops to the independents, then putting it up on the webstore as a Made to Order/Web Only product later like they've done for Eisenhorn?

I doubt it, at least in the numbers they seem to be allocating to the indies.

For those who might be unaware, most GW shops for events like this get maybe 20 or so models...beyond that, you're 'ordering' one by purchasing it the day of the event.

If they're providing independents(which I would think there are more of than there are GW shops, even if going strictly off shops that have trade accounts with GW rather than going through distributors) with 1-3? That makes a kind of sense when considering the sheer numbers involved we're talking about.

tneva82 wrote:
Limited edition models are rarely cast in advance and these were cast and done before corona became even close to issue. So even if GW wanted to give more to stores they literally would have none. They were likely intended for some event exclusive/Whatever and stock was what they had available.

You're acting like they can't make more...

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
You can make a whole astra militarum kill team with only 5 miniature? I expect them to require much more miniatures to work.

You could add the bald guy with glasses and cigar from 2nd edition, the snipers and the medic from the command squad.

Yeah so this minis is going to be really hard to get.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Yeah so this minis is going to be really hard to get.

Should have know there was an annoying catch somewhere, I'd almost forgotten who we were dealing with here!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Limited edition models are rarely cast in advance and these were cast and done before corona became even close to issue. So even if GW wanted to give more to stores they literally would have none. They were likely intended for some event exclusive/Whatever and stock was what they had available.

You're acting like they can't make more...

With a closed down factory no, they cant. This is probably what they had laying around for an event.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
Well, with those 5 he mentioned, run as what they are, they could easily handle most killteams.

You can play them as such in kill team? I know you can play Marbo, but I can't find point costs for anything but the only other I'm seeing point cost for in Kill Team Annual 2019 is Company commander with a fist, and Platoon commander with a bolter. And I don't have Kill Team: Commander (or whatever it is called) but I thought you could have only one commander in a kill team!

(I'm pretty sad we got lockdown before we could play our first game of Kill Team at work with the colleagues )

Quick reminder of the traditional Catachan handshake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcIjFeWE4fE

 Geifer wrote:

 Kirasu wrote:
Which black sergeant is he supposed to be?! The one from Predator or the one from Aliens? Or the one from Halo? So many identical black sergeants to rip off !! (which all were basically rip offs of the other, lol)

He's obviously a blend of all black sergeants, for maximum badassery.

Carl Weathers was a CIA pencil-pusher, not a sergeant. A sergeant wouldn't have given away our position one more time.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Limited edition models are rarely cast in advance and these were cast and done before corona became even close to issue. So even if GW wanted to give more to stores they literally would have none. They were likely intended for some event exclusive/Whatever and stock was what they had available.

You're acting like they can't make more...

They literally can’t

This man got a point!!!

1. That is one hell of an awesome model. I absolutely adore the design as someone who grew up with Halo and Aliens, the resemblance to Apone/Johnson is epic!!

2. I think it is extremely cool of them to give this to the stores to sell for 100% profit to the FLGS. Keep up the good work GW!

3. I think it is also sad that this is likely a one time thing and not a lead in to a fully fledged new sculpted Catachan army for Guard. Something that as long as they kept it away from the silly gravity tech of space marines, I would throw trucks worth of cash at. I mean just update the range, maybe re-proportion the Leman Russ so that it doesn't look so much like a tonka truck. No GRAVITY floaters. Treads!


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gungo wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Limited edition models are rarely cast in advance and these were cast and done before corona became even close to issue. So even if GW wanted to give more to stores they literally would have none. They were likely intended for some event exclusive/Whatever and stock was what they had available.

You're acting like they can't make more...

They literally can’t

Why? What's to stop them from buying molds and putting it into production, you're high dude if you think that this is literally un-re-producible.

Their production is shuttered for the time being. That's why.

If this is anything like the 500th store Lt/Nighthaunt? There's going to be a month or two until they would have actually produced+fulfilled all the orders they had done at the time.

 Kanluwen wrote:
Their production is shuttered for the time being. That's why.

If this is anything like the 500th store Lt/Nighthaunt? There's going to be a month or two until they would have actually produced+fulfilled all the orders they had done at the time.

I don't mind waiting, I just really really want them to give this level of quality treatment to the guard and revamp the whole line.

gungo wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Limited edition models are rarely cast in advance and these were cast and done before corona became even close to issue. So even if GW wanted to give more to stores they literally would have none. They were likely intended for some event exclusive/Whatever and stock was what they had available.

You're acting like they can't make more...

They literally can’t

Remember Sly Marbo? Just make a followup announcement stating the initial run will be limited but will get a wider release down the line, even if it ends up being 2021's Warhammer Day model. Most people would be happier waiting a year than not getting it at all. LFGS will still get their 'free' model in advance - which will no doubt sell out instantly anyway - GW gets to keep it's good PR and doesn't burn it all away by making it impossible to get again.

I hope whoever sculpted this gets a raise! I feel like some GW stuff lately has been a bit hit-and-miss, but look at this beautiful burly boy! He's gorgeous! And no silly mid-flight ULTRA-DYNAMIC POSING, no smoke, ooh he's just a treat! More of this, please GW!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Limited edition models are rarely cast in advance and these were cast and done before corona became even close to issue. So even if GW wanted to give more to stores they literally would have none. They were likely intended for some event exclusive/Whatever and stock was what they had available.

You're acting like they can't make more...

Maybe in future they can and will. But a) this is marked as limited edition model. Those are never cast in huge niumbers b) GW factories are atm SHUT DOWN! Read that again. SHUT DOWN. Do you know what that means? No production! You know why? CORONA! And because of UK RESTRICTIONS. Are you telling GW should restart factories ignoring goverments restrictions just to cast more plastic sprues?

Lol what a joke idea. Ignore what goverment tells you to do just to cast more plastic sprues.

Are you real?


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 Togusa wrote:

Why? What's to stop them from buying molds and putting it into production, you're high dude if you think that this is literally un-re-producible.

Ah yes. Let's go against what goverment says. Yeah. Real good idea. REALLY good idea.

In case you haven't noticed GW is going beyond what goverment is saying for safety of people. But seems for you plastic sprues are more valuable than real human lives. Let people die as long as plastic sprues flow. Priorities eh?

It's not a question of GW can do nothing or they can reopen their factory just so we can get Catachan Carl Weathers.

There are middle grounds of course.

GW could, and hopefully will, communicate to stores they're getting a first batch free and can accept preorders for a second batch to ship [in the promised age of normalcy] at regular wholesale rates.

Early adapters and collectors can then fight in the arena to have them in May and they rest of us can wait for the promised age to get them at the only slightly insane price of $35/model.

Ah it’s a nice mini and would love one, don’t stand an ice cubes chance in hell in getting one down here in deepest darkest Somerset.
Still on the bright side it saves me some cash I guess. Although most of my funds now go to Warlord games so imagine they will get what I would have spent with GW in the end.


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Ah it’s a nice mini and would love one, don’t stand an ice cubes chance in hell in getting one down here in deepest darkest Somerset.
Still on the bright side it saves me some cash I guess. Although most of my funds now go to Warlord games so imagine they will get what I would have spent with GW in the end.

Both local FLGS confirmed they are getting , respectively , 1 and 4.

Which doesn’t even cover part of a day’s losses.

eBay is going to make morebon these than most FLGS.

GW had the right idea but needs to rethink this. One of the owners already said that he’s now in an awkward position of having multiple regulars all wanting the same thing , can’t please all of them so most are going to be disappointed. Any business owner will tell you that is a bad thing.

I’m not suggesting that GW reopens to make this , just rethink what the purpose of this is. You want to actually help indies ? Made to order this fir a week and give it a low trade price so they make more, just cover GW’s actual costs. One FLGS has thirty of us interested , so let’s say it retails £22.50. GW staff can buy a £22.50 model for £11.25. Let’s say it cost GW that (it won’t ) - that’s potentially £360 could be made and £720 put into the cash flow of the business assuming GW doesn’t want immediate payment from retailers. Even if the FLGS only has that money for a week , it could be enough to carry them through to limited reopening for sales or a decent delivery coming.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Limited edition models are rarely cast in advance and these were cast and done before corona became even close to issue. So even if GW wanted to give more to stores they literally would have none. They were likely intended for some event exclusive/Whatever and stock was what they had available.

You're acting like they can't make more...

Exactly. Why on earth does GW insist on producing a mold for a plastic model - expensive but designed to recoup its cost over thousands and thousands of uses. Then making them a limited run? They seem to be doing this regularly now. Why? Do fomo sales really outweigh long term sales?

This is likely to be another Store Opening model in future, the buddy for Ripper Jackson.

 Gimgamgoo wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Limited edition models are rarely cast in advance and these were cast and done before corona became even close to issue. So even if GW wanted to give more to stores they literally would have none. They were likely intended for some event exclusive/Whatever and stock was what they had available.

You're acting like they can't make more...

Exactly. Why on earth does GW insist on producing a mold for a plastic model - expensive but designed to recoup its cost over thousands and thousands of uses. Then making them a limited run? They seem to be doing this regularly now. Why? Do fomo sales really outweigh long term sales?

I think that they can make molds out of aluminium. Which is a lot cheaper to make but does not last as long. That maybe though resin models I'm thinking of.

This is exactly what they do for limited runs, just make an aluminium prototype mold for a couple of hundred models.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Yeah so this minis is going to be really hard to get.

In other words:

I won't get Carl Weathers & the Catachan girl because they are limited. Typical GW consumer friendliness.


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 Ashes and Temples wrote:
Quick reminder of the traditional Catachan handshake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcIjFeWE4fE

LOL!

tneva82 wrote:
Lol what a joke idea. Ignore what goverment tells you to do just to cast more plastic sprues.

Are you real?

Now you're just putting words into my mouth and spouting random bull gak.

That Dillon inspired model is on point

tneva82 wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Limited edition models are rarely cast in advance and these were cast and done before corona became even close to issue. So even if GW wanted to give more to stores they literally would have none. They were likely intended for some event exclusive/Whatever and stock was what they had available.

You're acting like they can't make more...

Maybe in future they can and will. But a) this is marked as limited edition model. Those are never cast in huge niumbers b) GW factories are atm SHUT DOWN! Read that again. SHUT DOWN. Do you know what that means? No production! You know why? CORONA! And because of UK RESTRICTIONS. Are you telling GW should restart factories ignoring goverments restrictions just to cast more plastic sprues?

Lol what a joke idea. Ignore what goverment tells you to do just to cast more plastic sprues.

Are you real?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Togusa wrote:

Why? What's to stop them from buying molds and putting it into production, you're high dude if you think that this is literally un-re-producible.

Ah yes. Let's go against what goverment says. Yeah. Real good idea. REALLY good idea.

In case you haven't noticed GW is going beyond what goverment is saying for safety of people. But seems for you plastic sprues are more valuable than real human lives. Let people die as long as plastic sprues flow. Priorities eh?

What are you on about? I never suggested they immediately begin to make this model. Don't put words in my mouth.

 Rolsheen wrote:
This is exactly what they do for limited runs, just make an aluminium prototype mold for a couple of hundred models.

Is it?

Terminator Chaplain and Captain have been in service for years now.

The others?

You’re having an in-store event. Something you’re pushing. Bods in shop not only = cash in till, but also increased chance of repeat custom. The more people revisit your store, even if it’s just for a couple of paint pots once a week say? All cash in the till.

The Event Exclusive Models? The ones you can only get on that day? Let’s ask Slightly Upset Simeon what he thinks they are!



A nice, shiny plump worm of a lure to get people through the door on that day. The sculpt/mould itself needn’t ever pay itself off in full. Because that’s not what these particular trinkets are meant to do.

Keep in mind when I’m off Looting, I’m often ordering 40 or more of a given model, per Loot opportunity. Last year I did five or six (it gets a bit hazy as collection from Worthing was.....complicated). So however many they’re producing? It’s a damn sight more than a few hundred.



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This time around?

Well, it is disappointed. As a concept it’s fantastic. A way to provide FLGS, who buy a lot from GW, and do even more for the wider Hobby, a shot in the arm when they reopen.

Bravo. Seriously. That is an awesome gesture.

But....two, maybe three (I’ve seen this cited by various reliable FLGS sources, here and in my FB Group) per store? That’s.....kinda a double edged sword.

See, normally such exclusives are Made To Order. When I’m about my nefarious business, I’ll order Week 1, collect Week 2. That means nobody attending missed out. And it reduces the local potential for scalping.

Here? Sadly it’s just going to encourage Scalping. Mr Neckbeard will do whatever he can to get hold of his local store’s ones, and then? Straight on eBay at a stupid markup.

And it doesn’t have to be this way. At all. GW could, and frankly should*, loosen up on this. Make say, the first 10 or 15 Gratis for the FLGS. Drop in the ocean to GW, but assuming** a £20 equivalent price tag? That’s £200-£300 for the FLGS to keep. Bit of the old cash flow.

The others ordered? Standard retail terms (I don’t actually know what those are, but I’ve seen 60% bandied around regularly), and the FLGS can order as many as they’ve orders for - or maybe some extras for stock/prizes/whatever.

But hey. GW are listening these days. And we’ve seen some impressive turn arounds of late, often mere days after an initial announcement went up, then down like a lead balloon. I’ll be encouraging the Loot Group to email GW, asking them to reconsider the exact approach here.

*Look, this is serious. How serious? This is me actually criticising GW serious.

**and we know what assume does!


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My email to GW, sent just now wrote:
First of all, I want to offer my thanks on behalf of Hobbyists everywhere for your efforts to support FLGS. This is a great idea to help them get back on their feet.

I work in the insurance/banking industry, so I’m aware how few Business Interruption Policies cover a Government ordered shutdown, pandemic or not. So if you’ll excuse slightly colourful language, I suspect a lot of such businesses are on the bones of their arse.

But, I’m a wee bit concerned at reports saying they’re only getting a handful sent out to them. I rather fear this is mostly going to benefit uh....shall we call them ‘eBay Entrepeneurs’. It may also leave a bad taste in the mouth of FLGS customers who miss out.

So I’m writing you to ask you to slightly reconsider the approach here. As well as providing the current handful free of charge, please please please also make them Available to Order for all FLGS. Even at the usual wholesale rate (whatever that is, I’m just a customer) it’ll give them a re-opening week shot in the arm.

That’s important to any business reopening as it’ll massively help them with their cash flow. And as I’m sure you can appreciate, it’s often a bottle neck in cash flow, rather than a lack of customers, that can send a company under.

Please.....please consider my begging here.


Yours

If you’re of a similar mind, please do email GW. But I’d ask you no to simply copy/pasta my text to them. Template based write-in campaigns strike me as less convincing! I mean, you can if you want. I’m not gonna sue you, or even know, after all!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Lol what a joke idea. Ignore what goverment tells you to do just to cast more plastic sprues.

Are you real?

Now you're just putting words into my mouth and spouting random bull gak.

Sorry, gotta agree with H.B.M.C. here.
GW are giving independent stores some free models to thank them and people are losing their minds. These models could have been put nto limited production before the outbreak or done on a skeleton crew whilst retaining social distancing. As a former staff member who has been into the factory a number of times, I can say that the process is mostly automated.
There is also a possibility that the miniature will be put into production again further down the line. We've got a global pandemic and people are going crazy over a plastic miniature.
Priorities..........

 TwilightSparkles wrote:
Both local FLGS confirmed they are getting , respectively , 1 and 4.

Which doesn’t even cover part of a day’s losses.

eBay is going to make morebon these than most FLGS.

GW had the right idea but needs to rethink this. One of the owners already said that he’s now in an awkward position of having multiple regulars all wanting the same thing , can’t please all of them so most are going to be disappointed. Any business owner will tell you that is a bad thing.

I’m not suggesting that GW reopens to make this , just rethink what the purpose of this is. You want to actually help indies ? Made to order this fir a week and give it a low trade price so they make more, just cover GW’s actual costs. One FLGS has thirty of us interested , so let’s say it retails £22.50. GW staff can buy a £22.50 model for £11.25. Let’s say it cost GW that (it won’t ) - that’s potentially £360 could be made and £720 put into the cash flow of the business assuming GW doesn’t want immediate payment from retailers. Even if the FLGS only has that money for a week , it could be enough to carry them through to limited reopening for sales or a decent delivery coming.

Now, I might have my cynicism hat on just a little too tight... but...

...could this whole "only giving FLGS 1-4 of these minis" be GW actually trying to very pointedly show these independent stores exactly what side of their post-corona bread is buttered?

Just about any FLGS is gonna be feeling the financial hurt right about now. Social distancing, lockdowns, customers in pretty dire financial straits - all of them have had their profits pretty surely kicked in the teeth - after all, if GW, one of the UK's safest companies is doing weird hustles like Made-to-Order, semi-re-opening, dragging out previews over 3 weeks and teasing SUPER FOMO ONLY THIS ONE TIME BUY IT OR YOU LOSE stuff...

...the nerdcave down the street is in the proverbial gak.

But 4 limited edition minis, of a really cool character, from a popular army that hasn't had any dedicated love in years? These are gonna sell. You could almost price them however you like, and they're gonna sell. You could even just sell them to your staff, as a kind gesture, to sell on ebay or something, because the staff are sure as hell not having a great time, monetarily. You could even go the same route yourself, and try and make paying rent on your store sting less.

but 1 mini? When you're the only FLGS for miles around? It's barely even going to be on the shelf. Could it be that GW are trying to illustrate just how reliable, just what a unflinching money-spinner their product is, just how much any FLGS needs them to stay afloat, especially after the beating that their profits are and will be taking?

Your conspiracy would be more accurate if it wasn't for the fact that Magic is what keeps stores afloat.

My favoured FLGS is raffling their off.
Either:
Donate through them to the NHS,
Put in a local drop-off order, or
Put in an online order.
to get a 'ticket'.

They say they are getting 3 models, and had 28 of us asking about it within the first 2 hours.

 posermcbogus wrote:

 TwilightSparkles wrote:
Both local FLGS confirmed they are getting , respectively , 1 and 4.

Which doesn’t even cover part of a day’s losses.

eBay is going to make morebon these than most FLGS.

GW had the right idea but needs to rethink this. One of the owners already said that he’s now in an awkward position of having multiple regulars all wanting the same thing , can’t please all of them so most are going to be disappointed. Any business owner will tell you that is a bad thing.

I’m not suggesting that GW reopens to make this , just rethink what the purpose of this is. You want to actually help indies ? Made to order this fir a week and give it a low trade price so they make more, just cover GW’s actual costs. One FLGS has thirty of us interested , so let’s say it retails £22.50. GW staff can buy a £22.50 model for £11.25. Let’s say it cost GW that (it won’t ) - that’s potentially £360 could be made and £720 put into the cash flow of the business assuming GW doesn’t want immediate payment from retailers. Even if the FLGS only has that money for a week , it could be enough to carry them through to limited reopening for sales or a decent delivery coming.

Now, I might have my cynicism hat on just a little too tight... but...

...could this whole "only giving FLGS 1-4 of these minis" be GW actually trying to very pointedly show these independent stores exactly what side of their post-corona bread is buttered?

Just about any FLGS is gonna be feeling the financial hurt right about now. Social distancing, lockdowns, customers in pretty dire financial straits - all of them have had their profits pretty surely kicked in the teeth - after all, if GW, one of the UK's safest companies is doing weird hustles like Made-to-Order, semi-re-opening, dragging out previews over 3 weeks and teasing SUPER FOMO ONLY THIS ONE TIME BUY IT OR YOU LOSE stuff...

...the nerdcave down the street is in the proverbial gak.

But 4 limited edition minis, of a really cool character, from a popular army that hasn't had any dedicated love in years? These are gonna sell. You could almost price them however you like, and they're gonna sell. You could even just sell them to your staff, as a kind gesture, to sell on ebay or something, because the staff are sure as hell not having a great time, monetarily. You could even go the same route yourself, and try and make paying rent on your store sting less.

but 1 mini? When you're the only FLGS for miles around? It's barely even going to be on the shelf. Could it be that GW are trying to illustrate just how reliable, just what a unflinching money-spinner their product is, just how much any FLGS needs them to stay afloat, especially after the beating that their profits are and will be taking?

More like it's just about good press for them. Another thing people can point at and use to justify buying from Games Workshop because 'they've changed! They totally donated free models to local stores!'

Like Platuan4thMade says all the upkeep money comes from Magic.

My only real beef with the model is the feet. The dude must secretly also be Ronald MacDonald, his legs are 30% foot lol. Aside from that he's great. It is pretty lame that he's hardly being distributed, should have been made to order, but only through FLGS so they get the love.

 Arbitrator wrote:

gungo wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Limited edition models are rarely cast in advance and these were cast and done before corona became even close to issue. So even if GW wanted to give more to stores they literally would have none. They were likely intended for some event exclusive/Whatever and stock was what they had available.

You're acting like they can't make more...

They literally can’t

Remember Sly Marbo? Just make a followup announcement stating the initial run will be limited but will get a wider release down the line, even if it ends up being 2021's Warhammer Day model. Most people would be happier waiting a year than not getting it at all. LFGS will still get their 'free' model in advance - which will no doubt sell out instantly anyway - GW gets to keep it's good PR and doesn't burn it all away by making it impossible to get again.

if they do remake it in the future which they might. It’s going to be a long time out even with their expanded production facility gw is months behind on production (I still haven’t got the ghaz box set) and they are already selling existing stock again which means even their base stock is now being depleted. They are months behind schedule and everything shows that even when they open production they will be social distancing and likely slowing down that production. They already have several promo models scheduled for production so gw will need to wait for a window to shoehorn in this model. I honestly wouldn’t expect this model this year if they decided to reissue it.

GW isn't necessarily "behind on production". They're behind on distribution for sure, which is why you haven't gotten Prophecy of the Wolf.

It was in their warehouses here in the US, ready to go out...and then bam.

But I did get prophecy of the wolf in the US.....

It occurs to me there will be look alike STLs of this all over Patreon by next week.

So I guess we can calm down?

You know, I would laugh really really hard if in the end GW put out two super-duper-limited Catachan models, get everyone's hopes up, and then a few weeks after the lockdown they put out a new Catachans supplement with a big song & dance and it's just the same 20 year old mutant plastics in a new box.

I hope you're right though Kid_Kyoto and this thing gets 1:1 duplicate sculpts done for 3D printing, same for the sergeant lady most of us will never see a proper one of.

Although it will never happen but maybe Gw could have released this model as a charity thing, I don’t know maybe calling it something along the lines of Frontline Heroes for Frontline Heroes where 2 thirds of the money made from each sale goes towards fighting this crappy pandemic.

It's a very nice model and I'd get one if possible, but reading the comments here the situation seems just absurd. It sounds like it's being handled extremely poorly. It being "free" for the store doesn't mean it can't be criticized for how they're doing this.

I get that it's a limited model so regardless of how it was done there wasn't going to be a huge amount of them....but to claim it's to "support" independent stores only to allocate nowhere enough for a small shops staff or even a tiny portion of just their regulars, let alone just customers in general, is just baffling.

The idea of it being used to get people in the store in hope sof getting it and them going on to buy other things while there doesn't even seem to apply. With so few there's absolutely no chance, and it's going to sell for just ludicrous amounts of ebay - even more so than limited stuff usually does. There's already not a huge amount of independent stores in the first place (there's none in my area), which makes it worse with how few models are available. If they really wanted to help and reasonably support stores, they could make it an actual independent store exclusive, as a made to order item ordered via those stores.

I just don't see how giving out a model that no one can get, won't actually do anything to provide financial support and will only annoy customers is meant to be a positive thing, beyond the basic "here's a free thing" side. It just feels like its a token "charitable" gesture that will make them look good while potentially doing more harm than help.

So they should not have done? Because options were: Do this as is or don't do. They can't generate more sprues out of thin air. In case you aren't aware sprues are generated by machines. Machines that are shut down. Machines that can't do anything.

Miniature sprues aren't made out of thin air with wave of hand like some people seem to think. And # of models made was decided months if not year ago when there was no corona worry or anything to worry about and this was completely different purpose model.

tneva82 wrote:
So they should not have done? Because options were: Do this as is or don't do. They can't generate more sprues out of thin air. In case you aren't aware sprues are generated by machines. Machines that are shut down. Machines that can't do anything.

Miniature sprues aren't made out of thin air with wave of hand like some people seem to think. And # of models made was decided months if not year ago when there was no corona worry or anything to worry about and this was completely different purpose model.

I don't see how that makes much of a difference, they can make more of them, just not currently. The same situation applies to Games Workshops other limited miniatures, too - other "made to order" stuff (like the 2 available right now) which currently can't be made because they can't manufacture anything, is still still available for pre-order and will be sent out once they're made. They could have done that with this too.

The page for this on the community site even mentions "made to order" with this, despite it not being.

Most of this thread wouldn't look out of place on r/choosingbeggars.

Ugh, stop giving stuff away wrong.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
Most of this thread wouldn't look out of place on r/choosingbeggars.

Ugh, stop giving stuff away wrong.

You don't see a problem with making the claim that it's being done to help "support" FLGS and then do it in a way that does very, very little towards that, rather than a more reasonable way? Beyond the basic premise of "here's a free thing", how is this being handled in a way that both those shops and their customers should have pleased about?

I'm just not writing in a plot-convenient number of sprues so I can get all angry about a narrative I've invented.

Sometimes five fish is just five fish.

They had some sprues sitting around, they gave them away. Everything else is invention and invective.

So GW should have given, freely, 10-20 models to every store and sucked up the cost of development, production and shipping (worldwide shipping too I'm betting)... and because they haven't/couldn't/can't the fact they're giving any out to stores is a .. bad.. act?

Because those other wargame companies are doing the same thing right, they're giving out free stuff for stores to sell and taking a hit financially to do so?

 BroodSpawn wrote:
So GW should have given, freely, 10-20 models to every store and sucked up the cost of development, production and shipping (worldwide shipping too I'm betting)... and because they haven't/couldn't/can't the fact they're giving any out to stores is a .. bad.. act?

Because those other wargame companies are doing the same thing right, they're giving out free stuff for stores to sell and taking a hit financially to do so?

Easy dude. Easy.

GW’s gesture is a solid one. But, many think the execution is a bit wonky.

10-20 free? Nope. Say, 5 three, and being able to order more at standard Wholesale? Much, much better.

Which is exactly what I put in my email to GW asking them to reconsider expanding this somewhat.

Literally nothing and nobody says these are all the sprues and there's no more ever being produced; tough [Expletive Deleted]s, sucks to be you.

For the sake of easy maths, lets say there's 1m game stores worldwide and GW have 2m sprues. How do you send ten sprues to each store?

Them having a small number of sprues currently available is a complete explanation. Why you're all trying to find a conspiracy is quite beyond me.

There’s a comment a friend received from GW on their 40k FB page.

Seems they had 10,000 already cast up, and this is them dishing them out.

With that lens in place, the numbers being sent do make sense.

But, that there’s no pledge to provide more as Made To Order is a wee bit odd. Even if they placed a cap on the number, to maintain some kind of exclusivity.

That’d give people an excuse to seek out their local FLGS - assuming the cap was equal across all FLGS (say, 50 per store, as a purely illustrative example).

FLGS gets a trade boost (not just from this. It’s a rare Nerd that only buys what they went in for! Spesh in the current Paint Drought) and more people get the chance to pick one up.

Yes, people are still going to miss out - but fewer than current.

 BroodSpawn wrote:
So GW should have given, freely, 10-20 models to every store and sucked up the cost of development, production and shipping (worldwide shipping too I'm betting)... and because they haven't/couldn't/can't the fact they're giving any out to stores is a .. bad.. act?

Because those other wargame companies are doing the same thing right, they're giving out free stuff for stores to sell and taking a hit financially to do so?

Retail 101. Customers who have a bad experience are surprising difficult to bring back to your store.

Bob goes to his LFGS to get this model, or perhaps he phones up in advance. Turns out they only got four of them and they were already reserved, or maybe the staff just kept them for themselves, who knows. Bob knows there's no chance of seeing this model again unless he goes to the Ebay scalpers - oh and there's already bids up to £250 on one a LFGS staffer put up. Needless to say Bob isn't happy with his local LFGS. The blame will likely land on the store owners themselves, whilst GW will have another session of their Defence Forces going "l-look! They gave away free models! Bestist company ever!"

The Bobs who went to the store to get one won't spend any money because they didn't get what they wanted and never will. Promptly do an about turn and leave. This is contrasted by if GW promised to fulfil orders the LFGS puts in for say... two weeks. I'm sure most store owners would rather pay GW their usual amount and get their hands on this exclusive, limited model than get just four of them for free and a boat load of annoyed customers.

And by that same vein, the Bobs wouldn't have been able to get it from their independent to start with if GW hadn't decided to ship the ones they made for their own shops to independents instead.

Because it's apparently another anniversary model:


Image is making the rounds on twitter at the moment, predictably with "OMG why is it going for so much!".

Well said Arbitrator.

It’s all kicked off a bit in the Loot Group, as some FLGS have bunged some on eBay. Given we’re anti-scalping, the sentiment is understandable, but for me, misguided.

Why? As I said in the group...

Me, in the Loot Group wrote:
Folks.

Thoughts on the Catachan Colonel, with some insight that you may not have considered.

The Covid-19 lockdown has hit small businesses hard. Some may have had to shed staff, few if any will have been given a reprieve on their rent and other overheads. Government Loan schemes are dragging like a Seal’s Ringpiece.

Even those with online stores that’ve remained open? They’ve run out of in demand stock. So even their takings will be down a considerable amount.

Bills, as you’ll know, wait for no man. Could be a spod like me, could be a Sole Trade, Micro-Enterprise or larger. Doesn’t matter. The Bills keep on marching through the letterbox, demanding their cut of whatever money you have.

Yes, Business Interruption Insurance is a thing. Except......due to my profession, I’ve read a few policy wordings for friends trying to make a claim. Did you know that not one of the policies I’ve read explicitly covers Government Mandated Shutdown due to Pademic? Well, you do now.

The poor sods affected have been sitting with their bums out the window the past few weeks. They’ve no influence on events. Stores HAVE to close. Insurers are NOT paying out. Sure, something could work out in the end.....but that takes time.

Few FLGS work on substantial profit margins. So few will be sitting on a handy pile o’cash for these extreme times. Doesn’t matter if they usually make ends meet of a month when you’re facing this sort of cash flow disruption.

Yes, some have put that lovely new model on eBay, for a price that’s a bit eye watering. But this isn’t classical scalping. This isn’t Captain Neckbeard leaving only Dorito Crumbs upon the shelf, planning to eBay up enough profit to buy a new Waifu body pillow, their old one having worn through in places they’re embarrassed to explain to their Mum.

These are small businesses taking any chance they can get in the current climb to get some form of cash flow going. Time is not on their side. Insurance is not on their side. You simply cannot adequately plan for a clusterfeth like Covid-19.

Bear this in mind, and chill. The model will be available again - likely at new Store Openings. And we will have each other’s backs when that rolls around.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
There’s a comment a friend received from GW on their 40k FB page.

Seems they had 10,000 already cast up, and this is them dishing them out.

With that lens in place, the numbers being sent do make sense.

But, that there’s no pledge to provide more as Made To Order is a wee bit odd. Even if they placed a cap on the number, to maintain some kind of exclusivity.

That’d give people an excuse to seek out their local FLGS - assuming the cap was equal across all FLGS (say, 50 per store, as a purely illustrative example).

FLGS gets a trade boost (not just from this. It’s a rare Nerd that only buys what they went in for! Spesh in the current Paint Drought) and more people get the chance to pick one up.

Yes, people are still going to miss out - but fewer than current.

Yep.

This situation creates bad feeling and lots of work for indies for no financial reward.

A made to order situation for them even if it's months down the pipe makes that go away and everyone is happy.

And this should have been entirely forseeable.

 Arbitrator wrote:

 BroodSpawn wrote:
So GW should have given, freely, 10-20 models to every store and sucked up the cost of development, production and shipping (worldwide shipping too I'm betting)... and because they haven't/couldn't/can't the fact they're giving any out to stores is a .. bad.. act?

Because those other wargame companies are doing the same thing right, they're giving out free stuff for stores to sell and taking a hit financially to do so?

Retail 101. Customers who have a bad experience are surprising difficult to bring back to your store.

Bob goes to his LFGS to get this model, or perhaps he phones up in advance. Turns out they only got four of them and they were already reserved, or maybe the staff just kept them for themselves, who knows. Bob knows there's no chance of seeing this model again unless he goes to the Ebay scalpers - oh and there's already bids up to £250 on one a LFGS staffer put up. Needless to say Bob isn't happy with his local LFGS. The blame will likely land on the store owners themselves, whilst GW will have another session of their Defence Forces going "l-look! They gave away free models! Bestist company ever!"

The Bobs who went to the store to get one won't spend any money because they didn't get what they wanted and never will. Promptly do an about turn and leave. This is contrasted by if GW promised to fulfil orders the LFGS puts in for say... two weeks. I'm sure most store owners would rather pay GW their usual amount and get their hands on this exclusive, limited model than get just four of them for free and a boat load of annoyed customers.

Then I guess it would be in the FLGS best interest to find a way to give everyone as close to an equal chance to get the mini, be it a silent auction, a raffle or a random drawing instead of just blaming GW.

Oh, and if Gw change tack in the next few days?

I claim all the glory because of that email wot I sent. So nyerrrrrrrrrrrr

Just because this is something GW have decided to do for free doesn't mean any sort of criticism of the way they've decided to do it should be avoided.

How does being sent 1-2 miniatures for free do much worthwhile, compared to making that miniature made-to-order (even at manufacturing cost) and making both customers and the shop happy? Them deciding to give the miniatures for free is obviously a commendable and generous thing, but the lack of availability for both the shops and the customers isn't suddenly a non-issue because of that.

tneva82 wrote:
So they should not have done? Because options were: Do this as is or don't do. They can't generate more sprues out of thin air. In case you aren't aware sprues are generated by machines. Machines that are shut down. Machines that can't do anything.

Miniature sprues aren't made out of thin air with wave of hand like some people seem to think. And # of models made was decided months if not year ago when there was no corona worry or anything to worry about and this was completely different purpose model.

Accept preorders but only through FLGSs.

Done.

Eh. Its a pretty lame underwhelming sculpt to be honest.
But it'll appeal to the "Hey! It's the Aliens/Halo guy!!!".

 Mentlegen324 wrote:
Just because this is something GW have decided to do for free doesn't mean any sort of criticism of the way they've decided to do it should be avoided.

How does being sent 1-2 miniatures for free do much worthwhile, compared to making that miniature made-to-order (even at manufacturing cost) and making both customers and the shop happy? Them deciding to give the miniatures for free is obviously a commendable and generous thing, but the lack of availability for both the shops and the customers isn't suddenly a non-issue because of that.

A silent auction could bring in a fair bit, depending on the store's clientele and how bad they want the mini (and believe others want it as well).

 Ghaz wrote:

 Mentlegen324 wrote:
Just because this is something GW have decided to do for free doesn't mean any sort of criticism of the way they've decided to do it should be avoided.

How does being sent 1-2 miniatures for free do much worthwhile, compared to making that miniature made-to-order (even at manufacturing cost) and making both customers and the shop happy? Them deciding to give the miniatures for free is obviously a commendable and generous thing, but the lack of availability for both the shops and the customers isn't suddenly a non-issue because of that.

A silent auction could bring in a fair bit, depending on the store's clientele and how bad they want the mini (and believe others want it as well).

A shop being sent maybe 1 or 2 miniatures they can auction or raffle does not seem anywhere near as supportive, available or beneficial to them or their customers than a more reasonable way of making that limited edition miniature "made-to-order"-able via that shop, even if they paid the manufacture cost.

The current idea of sending a pitiful amount of free miniatures with no way to get more later on is a bad way to do it for both the people who want the miniature and the independent shop that this thing is supposed to support. It's not having them order-able to be made later on that's the problem, as obviously they can't manufacture them at the moment.

So GW should have kept it as another Anniversary model instead is what you're saying, because an increase in production most likely is not going to happen. It's up to the stores to determine the best way to handle what GW gave them and complaining ultimately will get them nowhere.

Remember the old proverb, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

Which part of they only have 10,000 of them and no production capacity are you struggling with, exactly?

 Excommunicatus wrote:
Which part of they only have 10,000 of them and no production capacity are you struggling with, exactly?

Again, the problem here is that there is seemingly no way for shops to order more for when the manufacturing is able to resume....the same thing as those 3 other recent "made to order" miniatures are? It more information is revealed and shops can get more later on, then that's all fine...but currently it seems like it's bad for both customers and shops.

 Platuan4th wrote:
Your conspiracy would be more accurate if it wasn't for the fact that Magic is what keeps stores afloat.

it doesn't anymore. I hear complaints from the stores all the time about how Magic sales are dropping as more and more people are choosing to stay home and play Arena rather than in person at the FLGS.

My local game store is currently keeping its doors open thanks to AoS and 40K. I know that is the exception, but I think Magics days are numbered, just like what happened with Comics.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
Which part of they only have 10,000 of them and no production capacity are you struggling with, exactly?

The sun will rise again, the factory will reopen and preorders could be accepted.

I hope this is what GW will do.

Not sure how our FLGS is going to distribute the ~3 models they're getting, but I talked to the owner and he has a few ideas.

One will be a fun 40k tournament prize to the tournament winner.

One will be in a raffle style thing (everyone gets an equal shot at it, one entry per person).

Any beyond that will be determined at a later date, as he's not sure how many he's going to get but is confident it'll be at least two models.

I personally agree with the store owner here. People want it, and he feels its only fair to try and give as fair a chance to as many people as possible to get one of the very few he's going to get.

Take it easy.

-Red__Thirst-

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Which is exactly what I put in my email to GW asking them to reconsider expanding this somewhat.

I also emailed them, asking if FLGS will get a second wave or if he'll be available elsewhere and I've just gotten this reply:

GW Customer Services wrote:Thanks for contacting us!

That Catachan Colonel model was originally made and set for another promotion. In the light of the global situation, we thought a better use for it would be to provide it to Independent stores reopening after lockdown.

There are over 10,000 of these models out in the world. With our factories still under lockdown conditions, we will be dividing this existing stock as fairly as possible between our independent stockists around the world, depending on the size of the store.

At this time, we do not know if he will be returning to stock, but the Warhammer Community page will announce any plans should they come up!

I hope this helps--please let us know if we can assist with anything further.

Warm Regards,

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
GW’s gesture is a solid one. But, many think the execution is a bit wonky.

So, in other words, the same as everything else GW does?

I suspect they don't want to commit to producing more until they've got a handle on their production facility. They've still no idea when it can come back online - it might be until the end of May before restrictions start to lift and even then they might only be able to operate a skeleton crew due to required social distancing rules and regulations.

Remembering that GW before the shutdown was already operating at full capacity; so this is really going to hit their supply system hard; esp when not only have they not been able to produce but there's also a general boom in sales demand right now.


Plus they've all their original release plans for long term products that they want to get out there into the market.



The unknown and the limits make all things a bit crazy and GW likely also is having to plan for the fact that they might get to turn their factories on one month and then a month or two later turn them off again with a second lockdown.

 Overread wrote:
I suspect they don't want to commit to producing more until they've got a handle on their production facility. They've still no idea when it can come back online - it might be until the end of May before restrictions start to lift and even then they might only be able to operate a skeleton crew due to required social distancing rules and regulations.

Remembering that GW before the shutdown was already operating at full capacity; so this is really going to hit their supply system hard; esp when not only have they not been able to produce but there's also a general boom in sales demand right now.


Plus they've all their original release plans for long term products that they want to get out there into the market.



The unknown and the limits make all things a bit crazy and GW likely also is having to plan for the fact that they might get to turn their factories on one month and then a month or two later turn them off again with a second lockdown.

They committed to producing more of the others, though. They changed the release plan for the other exclusives - unless I've got something wrong, Lieutenant Amulius and Librarian Varos were both meant to be at this years Adepticon last month, so those went from having a limited number already made to just "made-to-order" without a specific limit.

True and I believe GW is also supplying them through 3rd parties as well (though I'm unsure if stores are able to order with discount or if they are just customer loyalty orders - ergo low to no profit for the store but if they get your sale you're more likely to buy other things).

 Togusa wrote:

 Platuan4th wrote:
Your conspiracy would be more accurate if it wasn't for the fact that Magic is what keeps stores afloat.

it doesn't anymore. I hear complaints from the stores all the time about how Magic sales are dropping as more and more people are choosing to stay home and play Arena rather than in person at the FLGS.

My local game store is currently keeping its doors open thanks to AoS and 40K. I know that is the exception, but I think Magics days are numbered, just like what happened with Comics.

You mean the same Arena that Hasbro sent FLGS' codes for to support those stores and let them continue to run events through? Your stores may want to contact Hasbro if they didn't get their codes or weren't properly informed by their WotC reps as to how to continue to be supported by their MtG players.

Your store is definitely an outlier as the vast majority of stores still had most of their nightly event calendars stuffed with MtG before this went down.

 Gimgamgoo wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Limited edition models are rarely cast in advance and these were cast and done before corona became even close to issue. So even if GW wanted to give more to stores they literally would have none. They were likely intended for some event exclusive/Whatever and stock was what they had available.

You're acting like they can't make more...

Exactly. Why on earth does GW insist on producing a mold for a plastic model - expensive but designed to recoup its cost over thousands and thousands of uses. Then making them a limited run? They seem to be doing this regularly now. Why? Do fomo sales really outweigh long term sales?

Because the production costs for HIPS miniatures are nowhere near as high as some have claimed. So of course GW will jump on the "limited" product bandwagon.

Blastaar wrote:
Because the production costs for HIPS miniatures are nowhere near as high as some have claimed. So of course GW will jump on the "limited" product bandwagon.

When you're GW, who has been in the plastic producing game 30 years now, and have your own warehouse and production facilities, of course producing HIPS moulds is going to be dirt cheap. GW would have this whole "thing" as close to a science as possible.

If you're any other company then it's going to still be prohibitively expensive in most cases. Expensive as it was 10/15 years ago? No, maybe not. But still out of reach for the overwhelming majority of players.

 BroodSpawn wrote:
So GW should have given, freely, 10-20 models to every store and sucked up the cost of development, production and shipping (worldwide shipping too I'm betting)... and because they haven't/couldn't/can't the fact they're giving any out to stores is a .. bad.. act?

Because those other wargame companies are doing the same thing right, they're giving out free stuff for stores to sell and taking a hit financially to do so?

Why not? WOTC is giving LGS's 10 or more BOXES of mystery boosters for free.

Blastaar wrote:

 BroodSpawn wrote:
So GW should have given, freely, 10-20 models to every store and sucked up the cost of development, production and shipping (worldwide shipping too I'm betting)... and because they haven't/couldn't/can't the fact they're giving any out to stores is a .. bad.. act?

Because those other wargame companies are doing the same thing right, they're giving out free stuff for stores to sell and taking a hit financially to do so?

Why not? WOTC is giving LGS's 10 or more BOXES of mystery boosters for free.

And those retail for something like $160 USD.

 Platuan4th wrote:

Blastaar wrote:

 BroodSpawn wrote:
So GW should have given, freely, 10-20 models to every store and sucked up the cost of development, production and shipping (worldwide shipping too I'm betting)... and because they haven't/couldn't/can't the fact they're giving any out to stores is a .. bad.. act?

Because those other wargame companies are doing the same thing right, they're giving out free stuff for stores to sell and taking a hit financially to do so?

Why not? WOTC is giving LGS's 10 or more BOXES of mystery boosters for free.

And those retail for something like $160 USD.

I wouldn't necessarily say they should do that, personally. What should they not do though? Well, that's easy. They shouldn't announce financial relief for indy retailers in the form of a couple of LE plastic minis per retailer (effectively zero financial relief). That would be a rather transparent and clumsy attempt at a PR grab at a very inappropriate time. They definitely shouldn't do that. Oh wait, they did that, didn't they?

 posermcbogus wrote:
And no silly mid-flight ULTRA-DYNAMIC POSING, no smoke...

It's ok, I fixed it:

No Swirly Bull Gak™.

0/10. Would buy again.

Right, for all the people hopping up on their majestic white chargers to ride to the defence of Milady GW, let me try and explain this issue to you in a nice simple way:

Firstly, GW are not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. Every FLGS in the world could go bankrupt tomorrow and nobody making these decisions at GW would even bother to pretend to be sad, were it not for the fact they themselves would lose revenue. They are doing this for exactly two reasons: to keep FLGS owners on-side so they'll keep ordering GW products after this whole fiasco is over, and to garner some positive PR by presenting themselves as the Caring Corporate Daddy who looks after their Valued Partners etc. The fact that their motivation is so obviously cynical immediately invalidates any of your "but they're doing a nice thing so you should shut up and stop being a meanie-weenie!!!!1" guff.

Secondly, regardless of what their actual motivations are, GW gave a clear stated goal for this course of action to achieve, and it's entirely valid and fair to point out that the course of action is a rubbish way to achieve said goal. By failing to indicate in the marketing material how rare these are going to be, rather than making customers better disposed towards FLGS they are in fact engendering ill-will towards them by making them be the ones who have to repeatedly disappoint people who call up trying to order one. And as for the idea literally less-than-a-handful of free miniatures is going to make any meaningful difference to their income - ahaha. Given the previous, it could do the reverse, as people who *would* have made purchases go off in a huff because they can't get the fancy Catachan model(and don't start moralising - whether they're justified in throwing a hissy is irrelevant, plenty of them will do so, and that fact is entirely foreseeable).

Thirdly, this pantomime act that you have going about poor GW just trying to do their best with a limited resource, oh noes they only have 10,000, oh boo-hoo it's a limited anniversary model so what more could any right thinking person expect them to do etc, is bad comedy.

GW own the design. GW own the molds. GW made the decision what kind of model it would be and how it would be sold. They are evidently capable of changing any of those previously made decisions, as evidenced by the fact they already did when they chose to give them to FLGS. There is nothing whatsoever preventing them from going further if they wanted to.

No, they can't crank out extras right now at this exact moment, but what exactly is stopping them from making this product Made To Order exclusively through independent retailers, giving them the models wholesale(or even, whisper it, at-cost), with the understanding orders will be fulfilled when the lockdown ends and the factory is up & running again? They are in complete and total control of all the factors that would allow such a course of action, and they're sitting on a giant pile of cash reserves so it's not like it would bankrupt the company(hell, if they were doing them at wholesale prices, they'd likely make far more money than they would have selling a few thousand exclusively at store anniversaries).

If they were actually interested in boosting the incomes of poor defenceless FLGS owners, that's the kind of thing they'd be doing, not this ineffectual PR stunt.

Criticism is entirely warranted.

..the way this is apparently being distributed is not so great, but hey, a model with feet placed firmly near the ground, and its IG! yay for this at least.

...how many Catachan models have they put out recently? I wonder if that means anythin'.

Friend of mine said this to me earlier today:

"The smarter thing for GW to do is make this a made-to-order thing that is ordered through the FLGS, and they sell the model to the FLGS at cost + 5%. Then there is no limited supply and everyone is happy."

 Yodhrin wrote:
Criticism is entirely warranted.

'Tis a grand shame that I have but one 'like' to give.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=Astra+Militarium+Catachan+Colonel&_sacat=0

And so it begins.

 OPULENCE wrote:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=Astra+Militarium+Catachan+Colonel&_sacat=0

And so it begins.

Yep - and at least one store has taken their auction down due to on-line abuse.

More fool those doing the bidding, I guess.

Except the auction supporting Help for Heroes, a military veteran’s charity. They can all rock on most righteously.

beast_gts wrote:

 OPULENCE wrote:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=Astra+Militarium+Catachan+Colonel&_sacat=0

And so it begins.

Yep - and at least one store has taken their auction down due to on-line abuse.

Oh that is appalling. I actually know one of the stores selling and the owner was honest about his plan as he had so many customers asking for it and he was only getting two. Fair play to him if it keep his store in business. His other one heis going to use as a prize when he re opens.

I am disappointed I can't get one but not going to throw a radger about it - it is just a model after all.

 Yodhrin wrote:
Right, for all the people hopping up on their majestic white chargers to ride to the defence of Milady GW, let me try and explain this issue to you in a nice simple way:

Firstly, GW are not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. Every FLGS in the world could go bankrupt tomorrow and nobody making these decisions at GW would even bother to pretend to be sad, were it not for the fact they themselves would lose revenue. They are doing this for exactly two reasons: to keep FLGS owners on-side so they'll keep ordering GW products after this whole fiasco is over, and to garner some positive PR by presenting themselves as the Caring Corporate Daddy who looks after their Valued Partners etc. The fact that their motivation is so obviously cynical immediately invalidates any of your "but they're doing a nice thing so you should shut up and stop being a meanie-weenie!!!!1" guff.

Secondly, regardless of what their actual motivations are, GW gave a clear stated goal for this course of action to achieve, and it's entirely valid and fair to point out that the course of action is a rubbish way to achieve said goal. By failing to indicate in the marketing material how rare these are going to be, rather than making customers better disposed towards FLGS they are in fact engendering ill-will towards them by making them be the ones who have to repeatedly disappoint people who call up trying to order one. And as for the idea literally less-than-a-handful of free miniatures is going to make any meaningful difference to their income - ahaha. Given the previous, it could do the reverse, as people who *would* have made purchases go off in a huff because they can't get the fancy Catachan model(and don't start moralising - whether they're justified in throwing a hissy is irrelevant, plenty of them will do so, and that fact is entirely foreseeable).

Thirdly, this pantomime act that you have going about poor GW just trying to do their best with a limited resource, oh noes they only have 10,000, oh boo-hoo it's a limited anniversary model so what more could any right thinking person expect them to do etc, is bad comedy.

GW own the design. GW own the molds. GW made the decision what kind of model it would be and how it would be sold. They are evidently capable of changing any of those previously made decisions, as evidenced by the fact they already did when they chose to give them to FLGS. There is nothing whatsoever preventing them from going further if they wanted to.

No, they can't crank out extras right now at this exact moment, but what exactly is stopping them from making this product Made To Order exclusively through independent retailers, giving them the models wholesale(or even, whisper it, at-cost), with the understanding orders will be fulfilled when the lockdown ends and the factory is up & running again? They are in complete and total control of all the factors that would allow such a course of action, and they're sitting on a giant pile of cash reserves so it's not like it would bankrupt the company(hell, if they were doing them at wholesale prices, they'd likely make far more money than they would have selling a few thousand exclusively at store anniversaries).

If they were actually interested in boosting the incomes of poor defenceless FLGS owners, that's the kind of thing they'd be doing, not this ineffectual PR stunt.

Criticism is entirely warranted.

Oh I'm sorry, we should only criticise GW no matter what moves they do. You're right, they should have totally waited until they had a production slot available in the future, then sell models to stores assuming those stores would still be open instead of giving out items and losing money in the process.

It's almost like GW losing money on a nice gesture isn't enough for some people.

(Is my sarcasm at your complaint too strong here? With all due respect I sincerely hope it's not.)

The long and short of it is this: it's a nice gesture by a supplier/manufacturer to independent stockists of there product. It's not perfect, but then again nothing GW is. If you (and others like you) want to be angry over this direct it at GW's email box.

Oh and on that whole 'white-knight' comment you've gone with: surely those of us in the community that have shrugged and went 'okay, guess it's not for me/not getting one but I can live with it' or are more accepting of this situation don't deserve to be, frankly, insulted for not joining in with the pitch-forks of the 'GW Hate Mob', or did you intentionally write that out knowing you'd get a bite from someone?

It's not perfect, but then again nothing GW is.

I mean i got no dog in this fight but that isn't excactly what you'd call a great defense now is it?

Free puppies are not gifts, they require a lot of work and upkeep and disruption in your life. Especially if you're not expecting or prepared for it and have a lot of other stuff going on in your life.

With these GW has dropped a load of free puppies in the laps of FLGSs and asked them to figure out how to deal with them.

A kind gesture may have been free stock or army boxes or extending credit or better wholesale rates or something, or as I and others have said, allowing them to preorder the Sgt.

Instead stores have to put in extra work and take the heat when folks can't get this product.

And that's the issue. A half-baked plan to help can do more harm than good.

Succinctly put, and a decent analogy. Mostly because I’m Dog Daft.

Nobody is saying GW shouldn’t have made this gesture, at all. What people are saying is that sadly, the execution is lacking.

The original article was cool, exciting and appreciated by all. Shiny new rare model? Yes Please, Santa. And we can get it whilst helping our FLGS get back on its feet following a mess far beyond their control? Excellent!

But.....it didn’t say how few would be going out. And from what I’ve read, it was announced before FLGS were informed.

So we, The Nerd Herd, were expecting something GW simply weren’t going to deliver. And it’s the FLGS having to deal with that fall out.

Those putting it up on eBay? Seems distasteful, but in these strangest of strange days, gotta keep the Wolf from the door. And this isn’t Stinky O’Neckbeard clearing the shelves but for the stale Dorito crumbs, dear reader. Not some selfish sod denying others so they can buy a new full body waifu pillow. Oh no.

These are small, often vulnerable businesses thrown a bone, trying to make what they can from it.

So whilst I won’t be bidding? I cannot fairly fault those putting them on eBay. More fool those who have put in £200+ bids.

And the answer here is so, so simple - and rests entirely with GW. Make Them Available To Order.

Even at standard rates, it’s giving FLGS something shiny we can’t get anywhere else. Even if it’s a strict limit per store, it’s giving them a fat old lure to get customers back through the door when government restrictions allow.

Why does that matter? Few people ever go Hobby shopping and only ever come back with exactly what they wanted. There’s always ancillaries like paint, brushes, glue, let alone ‘sod it, another box of Mortek Guard won’t hurt’ type things.

This could’ve been a more sustained way to get cash flow, erm, flowing for FLGS. But at the moment? The noble intention just isn’t working.

I think, perhaps, the only criticism I can apply to GW is regarding the way the miniature was communicated to the community.

It felt like this was going to be similar to store birthdays or events where we could buy/order for one day only and the store would get 100% of the sales.

However, in hindsight, it looks to be they had 10,000 produced ready for the anniversary before lockdown happened and they have decided to give them to independents, free of charge, instead.

That is a very nice gesture, and kudos to them for it, but 10,000 worldwide is not a lot and probably does equate to approx 4 per store.

This isn't GW's fault as they currently have no means to produce any more but some in the community may, rightly or not, be left feeling let down.

But the independent retailers in a few (so far rare cases) also have to take some criticism in the way they are going about selling them. And it's entirely up to them how they do this, GW haven't recommended a best practice (which maybe they should have).

Knowing these minis are going to be incredibly rare could actually work in the retailers favour.

They could sell their 4 copies at retail and make approx £80 - £100. They could put them on ebay and make £200 each. Either way this is not a huge sum of money and probably wouldn't help them.

If it was my store I would give out a raffle ticket for every £100 you spent which entered you into a prize draw. If 100 people entered that's £10,000 in sales that have cost you nothing. Or, as others have said, make it a prize in a painting comp or tournament.

Maybe GW should have explained on WarCom how limited these were, and maybe they should have given guidelines to stores as to how to sell them. But this was meant to be a nice gesture, maybe it just needed a tad more planning.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Succinctly put, and a decent analogy. Mostly because I’m Dog Daft.

Nobody is saying GW shouldn’t have made this gesture, at all. What people are saying is that sadly, the execution is lacking.

The original article was cool, exciting and appreciated by all. Shiny new rare model? Yes Please, Santa. And we can get it whilst helping our FLGS get back on its feet following a mess far beyond their control? Excellent!

But.....it didn’t say how few would be going out. And from what I’ve read, it was announced before FLGS were informed.

So we, The Nerd Herd, were expecting something GW simply weren’t going to deliver. And it’s the FLGS having to deal with that fall out.

Those putting it up on eBay? Seems distasteful, but in these strangest of strange days, gotta keep the Wolf from the door. And this isn’t Stinky O’Neckbeard clearing the shelves but for the stale Dorito crumbs, dear reader. Not some selfish sod denying others so they can buy a new full body waifu pillow. Oh no.

These are small, often vulnerable businesses thrown a bone, trying to make what they can from it.

So whilst I won’t be bidding? I cannot fairly fault those putting them on eBay. More fool those who have put in £200+ bids.

And the answer here is so, so simple - and rests entirely with GW. Make Them Available To Order.

Even at standard rates, it’s giving FLGS something shiny we can’t get anywhere else. Even if it’s a strict limit per store, it’s giving them a fat old lure to get customers back through the door when government restrictions allow.

Why does that matter? Few people ever go Hobby shopping and only ever come back with exactly what they wanted. There’s always ancillaries like paint, brushes, glue, let alone ‘sod it, another box of Mortek Guard won’t hurt’ type things.

This could’ve been a more sustained way to get cash flow, erm, flowing for FLGS. But at the moment? The noble intention just isn’t working.

We know that even before Covid GWs factories were running full steam. This will only exacerbate their supply problems. I doubt they have time to add more product to their already saturated backlog. In the future they might make this guy available trough other means, but I doubt its any kind of priority right now.

People should understand that it's this few or nothing.

Yeah, using it as a prize for a loyalty buy type deal seems like a more financially productive option than just auctioning it.

It’s simply not ‘these few or nothing’. At all.

The new factory is complete, and so far as I’m aware, up and running (well, it was!).

Even if it it takes them some weeks to fulfil orders? So what? I’d rather wait three, four, five, six weeks and support my FLGS, than have to wait for a GW Store Opening for my chance.

Taking time to fulfil the orders is no reason not to take the orders, provided the delay is made clear.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Free puppies are not gifts, they require a lot of work and upkeep and disruption in your life. Especially if you're not expecting or prepared for it and have a lot of other stuff going on in your life.

With these GW has dropped a load of free puppies in the laps of FLGSs and asked them to figure out how to deal with them.

A kind gesture may have been free stock or army boxes or extending credit or better wholesale rates or something, or as I and others have said, allowing them to preorder the Sgt.

Instead stores have to put in extra work and take the heat when folks can't get this product.

And that's the issue. A half-baked plan to help can do more harm than good.

aye, if it would've been sufficently large quantity like 100000 or even more, then it'd been a great plan because the margine for earning on that mini would be extremely high and decent availability means that there is actual financial impact to a degree for the FLGs.

Koveras wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Succinctly put, and a decent analogy. Mostly because I’m Dog Daft.

Nobody is saying GW shouldn’t have made this gesture, at all. What people are saying is that sadly, the execution is lacking.

The original article was cool, exciting and appreciated by all. Shiny new rare model? Yes Please, Santa. And we can get it whilst helping our FLGS get back on its feet following a mess far beyond their control? Excellent!

But.....it didn’t say how few would be going out. And from what I’ve read, it was announced before FLGS were informed.

So we, The Nerd Herd, were expecting something GW simply weren’t going to deliver. And it’s the FLGS having to deal with that fall out.

Those putting it up on eBay? Seems distasteful, but in these strangest of strange days, gotta keep the Wolf from the door. And this isn’t Stinky O’Neckbeard clearing the shelves but for the stale Dorito crumbs, dear reader. Not some selfish sod denying others so they can buy a new full body waifu pillow. Oh no.

These are small, often vulnerable businesses thrown a bone, trying to make what they can from it.

So whilst I won’t be bidding? I cannot fairly fault those putting them on eBay. More fool those who have put in £200+ bids.

And the answer here is so, so simple - and rests entirely with GW. Make Them Available To Order.

Even at standard rates, it’s giving FLGS something shiny we can’t get anywhere else. Even if it’s a strict limit per store, it’s giving them a fat old lure to get customers back through the door when government restrictions allow.

Why does that matter? Few people ever go Hobby shopping and only ever come back with exactly what they wanted. There’s always ancillaries like paint, brushes, glue, let alone ‘sod it, another box of Mortek Guard won’t hurt’ type things.

This could’ve been a more sustained way to get cash flow, erm, flowing for FLGS. But at the moment? The noble intention just isn’t working.

We know that even before Covid GWs factories were running full steam. This will only exacerbate their supply problems. I doubt they have time to add more product to their already saturated backlog. In the future they might make this guy available trough other means, but I doubt its any kind of priority right now.

People should understand that it's this few or nothing.

The idea of "they can't change their plans to make more of them" doesn't seem to be quite the case as that's exactly what they did with 3 other limited edition miniatures recently.

The difference is that we don't know when the Lieutenant, Sister, or Terminator Librarians will actually be getting fulfilled.

Stores are getting these models in hand, right now, because they were already produced.

10k models would equate to roughly 15-20 models per GW store, of which there's around 500ish...which means these are the initial models that stores would have had on hand before they would have to take orders.

The only issue I'm seeing right now is that they did not say "We'll be taking orders for more" or "this is intended as a fundraising item for shops, where they can set their own price now and then we'll take orders later".

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
It’s simply not ‘these few or nothing’. At all.

The new factory is complete, and so far as I’m aware, up and running (well, it was!).

Even if it it takes them some weeks to fulfil orders? So what? I’d rather wait three, four, five, six weeks and support my FLGS, than have to wait for a GW Store Opening for my chance.

Taking time to fulfil the orders is no reason not to take the orders, provided the delay is made clear.

GW's brand new warehouse space is shared with AmazonUK which might currently be an issue. Amazon are still trading, probably more than ever and it's possible they have co-opted GW's space right now?

It might also make it tricky from a Health and safety/Risk point of view with exactly who has oversight right now and how both companies could manage social distancing?

GW were also embarking on one of the most potentially risky processes for a retail business just when lockdown kicked in. They were completed replacing all of their warehousing and sales systems which was due to happen in March/April I believe.

So I think it will be a while before they fully recover from this and I really hope it doesn't affect them too badly but they must have lost a lot of money globally in the last 6 weeks.

While I agree this is currently doing more harm than good, where are people buying their crystal balls from?

So many posts to the tune of “why can’t they do X or Y in the future” and followed by a barrage of stupidity.
Considering none of us can see into the future, we don’t know what they will do or how they will handle it.
Judging it all based on your own predictions of future events is just pointless and a complete strawman argument.

Only thing people can do is voice their complaint about the limited (very limited) availability and hope that GW actually listens.
It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if they did drop more, but that’s just my take.
I’m hoping they do, but I can only see the current time.

 BroodSpawn wrote:
It's almost like GW losing money on a nice gesture isn't enough for some people.

It ain't gonna be that much money now. We know their margins are huge...

 Kanluwen wrote:
Stores are getting these models in hand, right now, because they were already produced.

Or, more likely, stores are getting these models in hand, right now, because they were taking up warehouse space and that can be quite bad for the all bank balance in the long run.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Those putting it up on eBay? Seems distasteful, but in these strangest of strange days, gotta keep the Wolf from the door.

It is disrespectful to take a super-rare (at the moment) mini and put it up on eBay for a stupid starting price.

Note I said starting price. If people want to bid up to US$300 to get one, then let the fool be parted with their money, but starting the bidding at a level above what most clampack single minis cost is the disrespectful part. Unless it's a charity, as you said. Hard to bitch about people using this mini to raise funds for a good cause.

Jackal90 wrote:
While I agree this is currently doing more harm than good, where are people buying their crystal balls from?

So many posts to the tune of “why can’t they do X or Y in the future” and followed by a barrage of stupidity.
Considering none of us can see into the future, we don’t know what they will do or how they will handle it.
Judging it all based on your own predictions of future events is just pointless and a complete strawman argument.

Only thing people can do is voice their complaint about the limited (very limited) availability and hope that GW actually listens.
It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if they did drop more, but that’s just my take.
I’m hoping they do, but I can only see the current time.

Which is why several peeps I know of have emailed GW.

 BroodSpawn wrote:

 Yodhrin wrote:
Right, for all the people hopping up on their majestic white chargers to ride to the defence of Milady GW, let me try and explain this issue to you in a nice simple way:

Firstly, GW are not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. Every FLGS in the world could go bankrupt tomorrow and nobody making these decisions at GW would even bother to pretend to be sad, were it not for the fact they themselves would lose revenue. They are doing this for exactly two reasons: to keep FLGS owners on-side so they'll keep ordering GW products after this whole fiasco is over, and to garner some positive PR by presenting themselves as the Caring Corporate Daddy who looks after their Valued Partners etc. The fact that their motivation is so obviously cynical immediately invalidates any of your "but they're doing a nice thing so you should shut up and stop being a meanie-weenie!!!!1" guff.

Secondly, regardless of what their actual motivations are, GW gave a clear stated goal for this course of action to achieve, and it's entirely valid and fair to point out that the course of action is a rubbish way to achieve said goal. By failing to indicate in the marketing material how rare these are going to be, rather than making customers better disposed towards FLGS they are in fact engendering ill-will towards them by making them be the ones who have to repeatedly disappoint people who call up trying to order one. And as for the idea literally less-than-a-handful of free miniatures is going to make any meaningful difference to their income - ahaha. Given the previous, it could do the reverse, as people who *would* have made purchases go off in a huff because they can't get the fancy Catachan model(and don't start moralising - whether they're justified in throwing a hissy is irrelevant, plenty of them will do so, and that fact is entirely foreseeable).

Thirdly, this pantomime act that you have going about poor GW just trying to do their best with a limited resource, oh noes they only have 10,000, oh boo-hoo it's a limited anniversary model so what more could any right thinking person expect them to do etc, is bad comedy.

GW own the design. GW own the molds. GW made the decision what kind of model it would be and how it would be sold. They are evidently capable of changing any of those previously made decisions, as evidenced by the fact they already did when they chose to give them to FLGS. There is nothing whatsoever preventing them from going further if they wanted to.

No, they can't crank out extras right now at this exact moment, but what exactly is stopping them from making this product Made To Order exclusively through independent retailers, giving them the models wholesale(or even, whisper it, at-cost), with the understanding orders will be fulfilled when the lockdown ends and the factory is up & running again? They are in complete and total control of all the factors that would allow such a course of action, and they're sitting on a giant pile of cash reserves so it's not like it would bankrupt the company(hell, if they were doing them at wholesale prices, they'd likely make far more money than they would have selling a few thousand exclusively at store anniversaries).

If they were actually interested in boosting the incomes of poor defenceless FLGS owners, that's the kind of thing they'd be doing, not this ineffectual PR stunt.

Criticism is entirely warranted.

Oh I'm sorry, we should only criticise GW no matter what moves they do. You're right, they should have totally waited until they had a production slot available in the future, then sell models to stores assuming those stores would still be open instead of giving out items and losing money in the process.

It's almost like GW losing money on a nice gesture isn't enough for some people.

(Is my sarcasm at your complaint too strong here? With all due respect I sincerely hope it's not.)

The long and short of it is this: it's a nice gesture by a supplier/manufacturer to independent stockists of there product. It's not perfect, but then again nothing GW is. If you (and others like you) want to be angry over this direct it at GW's email box.

Oh and on that whole 'white-knight' comment you've gone with: surely those of us in the community that have shrugged and went 'okay, guess it's not for me/not getting one but I can live with it' or are more accepting of this situation don't deserve to be, frankly, insulted for not joining in with the pitch-forks of the 'GW Hate Mob', or did you intentionally write that out knowing you'd get a bite from someone?

This being something GW are doing for "free" doesn't mean no criticism of the way it's been handled so far is allowed and it's all perfectly fine.

Games Workshop generously announce that they will be sending independent stores who are struggling at the moment free miniatures to, in their own words "help support them". A commendable thing for them to do.

However, the amount of these miniatures shops are receiving are such small numbers as 1 or 4. No-where near enough for staff, a portion of their regulars, or other customers who might want it - they can't make more currently though, so that's fine if they're able to pre-order/made-to-order more for later on! Except they can't do that either. That single miniature being sent to that shop seems like, at least at the moment, that will be it for them, as there's nothing to suggest at all that there will be more of these made available at a later date.

The idea of getting people into the shop to buy other things while there is unlikely to apply much here, as people will ask about the miniature and end up being disappointed at how few there are, and just not bother going or may direct their feelings towards the independant shop itself, as they're the one having to disappoint them. So customers are going to be unhappy because they don't even have a reasonable chance of getting this limited-edition miniature and shops aren't going to be pleased because the pitiful amount of the miniatures being sent, combined with the annoyance to those customers who want it, is not going to have any sort of positive impact towards financial support for them.

Games Workshop claim this is being done to help independent shops, but then have this done it in a way that isn't going to support them much at all and may potentially do the opposite, when there's an way to easily avoid all that. They could do the exact same thing they've done with several other recent limited-edition miniatures that they've changed their initial plans with - have them available as made-to-order, just via those independent shops - but there's nothing at all to indicate that will be the case. That's the problem.

They changed their plans for several other limited edition miniatures (after manufacture) to make a made-to-order item for a limited time, which will be made and sent once they're able to start production again. I would have thought that if they really wanted to support local shops, as they say they want to do, it would have been a similar situation here. If they really wanted to support those independent shops, then they could have them orderable via those shops as a made-to-order item, and even if those places had to pay at least manufacture cost or around that, that would be far more of a beneficial way to do.Customers would be happy with it being more readily available, shops would be happy as they get an exclusive miniature to sell to help them financially, and at manufacture price the cost for GW would be somewhat offset.

But no, the current way of handling it of that appears to be "here's 1 miniature you can raffle or auction or something, that's all you're getting" is something that shouldn't be criticized and everyone should be grateful for just on the basis of it being "free"? It's a nice gesture, yes. That doesn't mean it's being handled in a reasonable way for those who want the miniature, or will support the shops in a meaningful way.

I don't see an issue with people who want to support their FLGS complaining that something that's said to be to a move by GW to support FLGS isn't really supporting them and instead leaves them in a bad situation.

The issue with your comparison is that the models in question that you're using as an example are limited to specific events that are no longer happening.
Amulius? He was going to be at Adepticon before he 'went away forevers'.
Lexicanum Varos and the Sister were likely intended for Adepticon or the UK Games Expo or Warhammer Day.


Colonel is an anniversary model, and once again for those in the back, this is stock that isbeing made available to shops right now. Not next month or "when things get back to normal". It's right now. Otherwise he would have been allocated to GW/ Warhammer shops and once he sold through at the store level, would have had order sheets in-store. Wouldn't have been available via the webstore even.

If people want the model and they want to support their local independent? Then realize that the independents probably are having issues thanks to stock chain issues or people opting to purchase things online instead and they would not have had these models, even in a Made to Order format unless they specifically made group orders for people. You lot damned well should be wanting shops to do these as an 'auction' style thing rather than just the normal $35 pricetag(which you'd be complaining about as "too much" anyways) to pump a bit more cash into them.

If an independent is only getting 1-2 models they should ebay them. An extra $200-400... is helpful.

If an independent is getting 4 or more then should sell them for $30 with when you spend over $100 on GW product. This will probably help the independant more. Giving them away as a prize isn’t going to help them. Regardless free merchandise by ANY company to an independent is a nice gesture regardless of how many they got. Almost every other game company in the world are giving these stores nothing.

But.....it didn’t say how few would be going out. And from what I’ve read, it was announced before FLGS were informed.

The owner of my FLGS also wasn't aware, i hit him up on FB with the reddit article and bought a few gift cards to secure mine.

Honestly i haven't played Catachan in almost a year, i might not even use the model, i'll most likely just give it away as a door prize when my league opens back up, but i agree GW had the right intentions.

I know people are hurting right now so it's hard to criticize anyone trying to make extra coin but seeing these models go for 3 - 5 times MSRP (ebay) is disheartening to say the least.

gungo wrote:
Giving them away as a prize isn’t going to help them.

It is if it brings in more orders that would have been placed elsewhere. Profit is profit, and more, now, is what they need.

Just to underscore the lack of communication, this it the message i got today from my FLGS:

I'm still waiting for an definitive answer from GW. Right now, our reps understanding is that the figure is just for their standalone GW stores.

A lot of people don't realize that the GW branded stores are actually independent retailers. I believe it's a franchise style agreement

If this is true and GW only branded stores are getting these minis that would be pretty self serving to say the least. Not exactly the FLGS saviors reddit portrayed.

The FLGS have posted how many they have been told to expect.
These are non-GW stores that stock GW products.

 Skinnereal wrote:
The FLGS have posted how many they have been told to expect..

The? Independent UK stores?

Asgard Wargames are raffling one off, with all proceeds going to Captain Tom’s fundraiser for the NHS.

£1 an entry, details on FB (search Asgard Wargames). I’m in for £35, because charity.

MiguelFelstone wrote:
Just to underscore the lack of communication, this it the message i got today from my FLGS:

I'm still waiting for an definitive answer from GW. Right now, our reps understanding is that the figure is just for their standalone GW stores.

A lot of people don't realize that the GW branded stores are actually independent retailers. I believe it's a franchise style agreement

If this is true and GW only branded stores are getting these minis that would be pretty self serving to say the least. Not exactly the FLGS saviors reddit portrayed.

Franchise? Since when? It isn’t at all run like a franchise so that would surprise me..
There is a big push from GW when they open a store, generally a franchise doesn’t do that in their H/O announcing it on a community page etc
(See subway for how franchises commonly work).

Also there is no information I’ve ever seen on become a franchisee, just become a stockist etc..
Never looked for it, but it would shock me if that’s the case..


(Also, we know independents Are getting them..)


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Asgard Wargames are raffling one off, with all proceeds going to Captain Tom’s fundraiser for the NHS.

£1 an entry, details on FB (search Asgard Wargames). I’m in for £35, because charity.

This is how I think they should all be done. Whether charity or for themselves. Raffles, fair for all, can raise the ‘shocking £150 eBay price’ and then some, but doesn’t cut anyone out from possibly winning..

MiguelFelstone wrote:
Just to underscore the lack of communication, this it the message i got today from my FLGS:

I'm still waiting for an definitive answer from GW. Right now, our reps understanding is that the figure is just for their standalone GW stores.

A lot of people don't realize that the GW branded stores are actually independent retailers. I believe it's a franchise style agreement

If this is true and GW only branded stores are getting these minis that would be pretty self serving to say the least. Not exactly the FLGS saviors reddit portrayed.

No.

It’s not true. At all. GW do NOT operate as a franchise. Go look at their annual report. Show whomever made this claim. Ask them to point out their ‘franchise’ income.

So they went from Rambo to Predator. Neat.
Maybe we'll get the Expendables at some point.

Danny76 wrote:
This is how I think they should all be done. Whether charity or for themselves. Raffles, fair for all, can raise the ‘shocking £150 eBay price’ and then some, but doesn’t cut anyone out from possibly winning..

Doing a raffle for themselves might fall foul of gambling regulations.

beast_gts wrote:

Danny76 wrote:
This is how I think they should all be done. Whether charity or for themselves. Raffles, fair for all, can raise the ‘shocking £150 eBay price’ and then some, but doesn’t cut anyone out from possibly winning..

Doing a raffle for themselves might fall foul of gambling regulations.

Seemingly no license required if the money is for charity.

MiguelFelstone wrote:
Just to underscore the lack of communication, this it the message i got today from my FLGS:

I'm still waiting for an definitive answer from GW. Right now, our reps understanding is that the figure is just for their standalone GW stores.

A lot of people don't realize that the GW branded stores are actually independent retailers. I believe it's a franchise style agreement

If this is true and GW only branded stores are getting these minis that would be pretty self serving to say the least. Not exactly the FLGS saviors reddit portrayed.

This isn't true, and GW stores are literally never referred to nor have they ever been referred to as "Independent Retailers".
These figures were intended for their shops. That's how these anniversary events work.

Frankly, I wouldn't be shocked if your store is trying to pull one over on you because they use a distributor rather than a GW trade account...because it seems like it's trade accounts that are getting them rather than distributor based stockists.

 Kanluwen wrote:
it seems like it's trade accounts that are getting them rather than distributor based stockists

If true that's pretty

Why would you even remotely think that distributor based stockists would get them?

There's 10k of these models, physically available to be shipped out right now. GW knows that they haven't been getting orders from their trade accounts--they also know that their trade accounts haven't been getting restocks, because GW's warehouses are effectively shuttered.

Distributors on the other hand haven't necessarily been idle, nor have the shops that utilize them--which trend towards being online storefronts rather than physically based ones.

 Kanluwen wrote:
The issue with your comparison is that the models in question that you're using as an example are limited to specific events that are no longer happening.
Amulius? He was going to be at Adepticon before he 'went away forevers'.
Lexicanum Varos and the Sister were likely intended for Adepticon or the UK Games Expo or Warhammer Day.


Colonel is an anniversary model, and once again for those in the back, this is stock that isbeing made available to shops right now. Not next month or "when things get back to normal". It's right now. Otherwise he would have been allocated to GW/ Warhammer shops and once he sold through at the store level, would have had order sheets in-store. Wouldn't have been available via the webstore even.

If people want the model and they want to support their local independent? Then realize that the independents probably are having issues thanks to stock chain issues or people opting to purchase things online instead and they would not have had these models, even in a Made to Order format unless they specifically made group orders for people. You lot damned well should be wanting shops to do these as an 'auction' style thing rather than just the normal $35 pricetag(which you'd be complaining about as "too much" anyways) to pump a bit more cash into them.

I don't get what you're saying about the comparison. Amulius was a model that had stock already manufactured, being available last year and intended to be at his years Adepticon, and so was Varos. Adepticon was cancelled around 2 weeks before they were announced as being made-to-order miniatures instead, so quite a short time frame. Those wouldn't have been on the webstore either, until the plan suddenly changed. All 4 of the miniatures (Amulius, Varos, Sister, Catachan) were intended for events that were cancelled. They say the Catachan will be only available via independent shops and is being given to support them, so why should that be the only one of those that isn't made-to-order, just via those independent shops instead of webstore? How is it a different situation?

First:
Sister is unknown where she was coming from. Varos, alongside of Dacian Anvil, was an event model. The anniversary exclusives for GW stores, which started being available last year were a Stormcast with a spear-blade and the chainsword Primaris Sergeant. Note how the Colonel isn't one of them. The Catachan Sergeant is a store opening model, meaning it wouldn't be available outside of shops getting revamped as Warhammer stores or them opening for the first time at a location.

The Colonel is an anniversary model...but for what? We don't know just yet. Warhammer 40k turned 30 in 2017(we got the Primaris Sergeant for that), but since Games Workshop was founded in 1975...it's likely a 45th anniversary model to celebrate that. So it would make sense that it would have been exclusive to GW stores rather than general release again.

Second:
Do you know how many models they tend to make available for things like Adepticon? We're talking maybe a few hundred at the event proper. And that stock is allocated for the event weeks, if not months in advance.

Third:
Amulius wasn't "intended for Adepticon". It was going to be the last time he was available, as he was an event exclusive for 2019.

 Kanluwen wrote:
First:
Sister is unknown where she was coming from. Varos, alongside of Dacian Anvil, was an event model. The anniversary exclusives for GW stores, which started being available last year were a Stormcast with a spear-blade and the chainsword Primaris Sergeant. Note how the Colonel isn't one of them. The Catachan Sergeant is a store opening model, meaning it wouldn't be available outside of shops getting revamped as Warhammer stores or them opening for the first time at a location.

The Colonel is an anniversary model...but for what? We don't know just yet. Warhammer 40k turned 30 in 2017(we got the Primaris Sergeant for that), but since Games Workshop was founded in 1975...it's likely a 45th anniversary model to celebrate that. So it would make sense that it would have been exclusive to GW stores rather than general release again.

Second:
Do you know how many models they tend to make available for things like Adepticon? We're talking maybe a few hundred at the event proper. And that stock is allocated for the event weeks, if not months in advance.

Third:
Amulius wasn't "intended for Adepticon". It was going to be the last time he was available, as he was an event exclusive for 2019.

How does any of that make a difference here? No one has said this Catachan Colonel was to be a general release or wouldn't have been exclusive to Games Workshop stores in the first place. They would have produced a few hundred of Varos/Amulius for Adepticon weeks ago, but then changed them both to made-to-order on the webstore with more having to be produced to cover all those orders. It doesn't matter what the Colonel was originally intended for, they.can do a similar thing with this Catachan Colonel as those others and change the plan to make it made-to-order like they did with Varos/Sister/Amulius, just with the independent shops instead of the webstore as the order point.

 Kanluwen wrote:
The Colonel is an anniversary model...but for what? We don't know just yet. Warhammer 40k turned 30 in 2017(we got the Primaris Sergeant for that), but since Games Workshop was founded in 1975...it's likely a 45th anniversary model to celebrate that. So it would make sense that it would have been exclusive to GW stores rather than general release again.

I'm sure they said for the anniversary of GW stores being re-branded Warhammer (like the store birthday ones).

beast_gts wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
The Colonel is an anniversary model...but for what? We don't know just yet. Warhammer 40k turned 30 in 2017(we got the Primaris Sergeant for that), but since Games Workshop was founded in 1975...it's likely a 45th anniversary model to celebrate that. So it would make sense that it would have been exclusive to GW stores rather than general release again.

I'm sure they said for the anniversary of GW stores being re-branded Warhammer (like the store birthday ones).

That's the Sergeant, not the Colonel.
She was announced on March 1st. The Colonel just kinda...appeared. We had a rumor engine with the binoculars, but that was about it.

Anyways, here's some photos from some eBay auctions shops are running:

Digging the alternative head!

I've seen the phrase "choosing beggars" or things along the lines of basically "it's free, how dare you not like any of this" used a few times in other places (not here) to try and defend the way this has been handled and to me it just seems ...a bit absurd to say that? Kind of hypocritical? It's like wanting this to be handled in a way that would provide more financial support for those FLGS it's said to support, while also making their customers happy with better availability, is a bad thing and that no one should want that because "they're being generous with their single miniature, it's free" as if that's all there is to say. Being given these for free is obviously a good thing, that doesn't mean the whole situation surrounding it is good too and there isn't a better way to do it.

I just don't get why anyone would think the current way is perfectly fine, it makes it seem like people wanting it to be handled better than how this seems to be currently and instead wanting to be able to provide better support to FLGS through it being made-to-order shouldn't be allowed because "it's free so you're a choosing beggar if you think otherwise", even though the free miniature part of this is somewhat irrelevant to making this available as a made-to-order product and they aren't mutually exclusive. Just makes no sense to me.

 Mentlegen324 wrote:
I've seen the phrase "choosing beggars" or things along the lines of basically "it's free, how dare you not like any of this" used a few times in other places (not here) to try and defend the way this has been handled and to me it just seems ...a bit absurd to say that? Kind of hypocritical? It's like wanting this to be handled in a way that would provide more financial support for those FLGS it's said to support, while also making their customers happy with better availability, is a bad thing and that no one should want that because "they're being generous with their single miniature, it's free" as if that's all there is to say. Being given these for free is obviously a good thing, that doesn't mean the whole situation surrounding it is good too and there isn't a better way to do it.

I just don't get why anyone would think the current way is perfectly fine, it makes it seem like people wanting it to be handled better than how this seems to be currently and instead wanting to be able to provide better support to FLGS through it being made-to-order shouldn't be allowed because "it's free so you're a choosing beggar if you think otherwise", even though the free miniature part of this is somewhat irrelevant to making this available as a made-to-order product and they aren't mutually exclusive. Just makes no sense to me.

Games Workshop could literally put anthrax in every package and their defenders would try and put a positive spin on it. Don't think too hard about it.

By that same vein, Games Workshop could (and has!) give you a free model as part of your order over a certain value and people would complain that it's a Space Marine.

The point of this, seemingly, is to give shops an exclusive model that they can sell. How they sell it is their call. I don't see the difference between doing something like this or a raffle for a painted army as part of tournaments with limited numbers.

Hi,

Thanks for contacting us. The Catachan Colonel is being made available to independent retailers via our Trade program as outlined in the Reopening Soon article on the Warhammer Community page. Trade is our business to business sales, which is to say FLGS that purchase from Games Workshop directly (i.e. not our own Retail stores).

That model was in fact, originally set to be made available at the anniversary of our official Warhammer stores. Given the current global situation, we thought it would find better use in support of Independant hobby shops - giving customers a chance to show their loyalty and support for their friendly local gaming store.

I hope this helps to clear up any confusion regarding the model's availability, but do let us know if you have any further questions.

Kind regards,

Direct from GW

Oh sweet! Nice and easy to loot then.

That means that it would be next year's model, as the Marine Sergeant with Chainsword is this year's. Interesting.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Oh sweet! Nice and easy to loot then.

How is it saying that, though? Unless i've missed something there's nothing there that suggests it will be more available than originally thought, just that it's being given out via the trade partner system (I presume based on previous comments Migeul asked about what counts as the stores getting them) and that it was going to be a store anniversary model but not anymore.

June is when the store exclusives get announced and they start to get changed out on July 6th. It's possible that they make it so that the model is available for people who have a certain store set as "My Store" in their webstore.
It's all explained here.

I wonder if this means we were going to see a revamped Catachan range this year?

 Mentlegen324 wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Oh sweet! Nice and easy to loot then.

How is it saying that, though? Unless i've missed something there's nothing there that suggests it will be more available than originally thought, just that it's being given out via the trade partner system (I presume based on previous comments Migeul asked about what counts as the stores getting them) and that it was going to be a store anniversary model but not anymore.

I doubt they’re just going to dish out the 10,000 and call it a day.

Awesome model! Gotta go with the Carl Weathers head.

Everyone of those links reminds me of the art prints I don't have but very much want. Any chance anyone out there sees this and doesn't want theirs?

Also that'll be great if its easier to get. I personally have zero issue with stores auctioning them off to make a days or two sales . Charity store support.

 Kanluwen wrote:
June is when the store exclusives get announced and they start to get changed out on July 6th. It's possible that they make it so that the model is available for people who have a certain store set as "My Store" in their webstore.
It's all explained here.

I wonder if this means we were going to see a revamped Catachan range this year?

I'd hope that's the case, but would have thought they'd have told the shops who are being sent the free ones if it was, though.

 Hulksmash wrote:
Everyone of those links reminds me of the art prints I don't have but very much want. Any chance anyone out there sees this and doesn't want theirs?

Also that'll be great if its easier to get. I personally have zero issue with stores auctioning them off to make a days or two sales . Charity store support.

Got a full set of four.

 Mentlegen324 wrote:

I'd hope that's the case, but would have thought they'd have told the shops who are being sent the free ones if it was, though.

Not necessarily?

If the point is to have a charity model, them also saying "it's available later!" won't let prices get as stupid high as they are now.

Bargains up on ebay right now...

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Bargains up on ebay right now...

I have no problem with this. Silly prices, but that’s what people want to spend their money on? Fine

Keep in mind that those prices are bids. That's how much people have offered to pay for it, not the stores listing it for inflated prices.

Hey I agree, I support sellers rights to charge what they want, and buyers rights to pay what they want, all day.

But damn, people are crazy. I mean, it's not like they're never going to make more of them is it? Just be patient.

Ironically the situation with the virus has kind of made it a perfect storm. People can't go out and spend money, so now they've got money to waste in silly ways such as paying over a quarter of a grand on a toy.

Yeah you aren't able to blame GW for someone getting a model and trying to sell it higher, as nobody is pointing a gun to their heads and making them bid.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Ironically the situation with the virus has kind of made it a perfect storm. People can't go out and spend money, so now they've got money to waste in silly ways such as paying over a quarter of a grand on a toy.

Yeah, I sure would hate to be one of those people...

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:

But damn, people are crazy. I mean, it's not like they're never going to make more of them is it? Just be patient.

Hopefully that's the case and more will be made, but so far there hasn't actually been anything saying they will.

 Aenar wrote:
Here it is:

It's like the sergeant from halo or possibly one of the dudes in the Predator movie (the original with Arnold). Possibly a reference with the green looking blood on the leaf.

 flamingkillamajig wrote:

 Aenar wrote:
Here it is:

It's like the sergeant from halo or possibly one of the dudes in the Predator movie (the original with Arnold). Possibly a reference with the green looking blood on the leaf.

Seems far fetched. Just another GW gem made from whole cloth.

Indeed. GW testified in court that their designers don't use any outside influences, so clearly any resemblance to movie characters is purely coincidental.

The more I look at it the worse it gets. That left bicep, man, seems to be connected to his armpit. Horrible balance and proportions overall, I can see why this one was marked as a limited production.

 insaniak wrote:
Indeed. GW testified in court that their designers don't use any outside influences, so clearly any resemblance to movie characters is purely coincidental.

I suppose that's why sly marbo was a thing. To be fair maybe they don't do that any more.

This is a really strange situation.

Because as far as I can see, it amounts to this: GW had 10,000 figures that it decided to give away to the FLGS's as a promotion.

Unfortunately, because way more than 10,000 people want these figures, what you immediately have is:
- An expectation that there will be scalping, pit fighting, muggings, and other assorted unpleasantness.
- The knowledge that it's going to be completely arbitrary what one person will have had to do to get one if they end up with one.
- An incredible tide of sour grapes as people realize that they probably won't get one of them.

In other words, the logical sequence of:
1. There aren't enough, so I probably won't get one.
2. It won't be fair that I don't get one.

Compared to if GW had stated, for example, "We're sending out these figures to FLGS to use as tournament prizes", or "... to give away in raffles" where if you can't get one, at least you can say that everyone had the same sort of chance.

Of course, you'd probably still have people complaining about imperfections in allocation.

Disclaimer: What is the word for someone that appears to derive a large amount of satisfaction going around being angry about something?

Human.


There would still be complaining if GW had 'intended' them for prizes or raffles. Problem being, unless they do that internally in their own stores, there isn't any way to enforce it (and even internally, some would wander).

 solkan wrote:
This is a really strange situation.

All of this has happened before, it will happen again.

 solkan wrote:

In other words, the logical sequence of:
1. There aren't enough, so I probably won't get one.
2. It won't be fair that I don't get one

I have two secured, the first from my FLGS the other from the "local" GW store.

 flamingkillamajig wrote:

 insaniak wrote:
Indeed. GW testified in court that their designers don't use any outside influences, so clearly any resemblance to movie characters is purely coincidental.

I suppose that's why sly marbo was a thing. To be fair maybe they don't do that any more.

Sly Marbo was removed from the Guard line at the time of that court case... also, I'm sure, completely coincidentally.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Voss wrote:
Human.


There would still be complaining if GW had 'intended' them for prizes or raffles. Problem being, unless they do that internally in their own stores, there isn't any way to enforce it (and even internally, some would wander).

You're never going to please everyone. But giving everyone a chance to win it rather than just selling to the highest bidder would have rankled less.

On the other hand, if GW do go ahead and produce more afterwards, there's going to be some rather embarrassed owners of $300 miniatures out there...

JWBS wrote:
The more I look at it the worse it gets. That left bicep, man, seems to be connected to his armpit. Horrible balance and proportions overall, I can see why this one was marked as a limited production.

I think it’s rubbish, personally. Thankfully limited, so won’t see to many of them

 Mentlegen324 wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:

But damn, people are crazy. I mean, it's not like they're never going to make more of them is it? Just be patient.

Hopefully that's the case and more will be made, but so far there hasn't actually been anything saying they will.

You can make an educated guess that they will.

JWBS wrote:
The more I look at it the worse it gets. That left bicep, man, seems to be connected to his armpit. Horrible balance and proportions overall, I can see why this one was marked as a limited production.

Its your typical GW hype figure.
Pure garbage but it'll gain enough hype to sell out fast.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

beast_gts wrote:

Danny76 wrote:
This is how I think they should all be done. Whether charity or for themselves. Raffles, fair for all, can raise the ‘shocking £150 eBay price’ and then some, but doesn’t cut anyone out from possibly winning..

Doing a raffle for themselves might fall foul of gambling regulations.

Seemingly no license required if the money is for charity.

Sorry to drag this bit back up, but this is sadly not true. My wife is head of fundraising for a UK charity.

A license may not be required if the raffle is done in the correct way, but there are hoops to jump through - if done legally its generally not worth the hassle.

Useful PDF from the gambling commission:
https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/PDF/quick-guides/Running-a-lottery-quick-guide.pdf

MiguelFelstone wrote:
I have two secured, the first from my FLGS the other from the "local" GW store.

Why? Do you need 2?
With the limited number of these available, and the amount of people who can use them, having 2 is a bit much? Add in the people who want it to paint and display, it gets worse.
I'd love to have one, as I play IG, but I'm sitting this one out. If people are going to have 2, when there is a (made-up) ratio of 1:100 of models to people, I want nothing to do with it.

did you not learn anything with the whole toilet roll thing? why get one when you could get...two!

 Skinnereal wrote:

MiguelFelstone wrote:
I have two secured, the first from my FLGS the other from the "local" GW store.

Why? Do you need 2?
With the limited number of these available, and the amount of people who can use them, having 2 is a bit much? Add in the people who want it to paint and display, it gets worse.
I'd love to have one, as I play IG, but I'm sitting this one out. If people are going to have 2, when there is a (made-up) ratio of 1:100 of models to people, I want nothing to do with it.

He did explain why, in the part of the post that I edited out.

Suffice to say that Dakka does not and can not endorse copyright infringement.