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THe stores are what gets the next generation of modellers playing and buying. That is why they run them.

If they closed the stores all the model companies would suffer.

Franchises are unlikely to want to spend as much time and space as GW do on intro games, club nights, painting and modelling lessons, etc.

Fair points all, with regard the bits service. I grew through the metal bits era, so very much carry that mentality of easily created spare parts. Back in 1999, I had opportunity to visit and browse in the foundry at the newly minted Nottingham HQ, a short while before they closed the bits dept. I had the opportunity to dictate what molds to spin up for parts I wanted at the time (posted to me after). There was very little wastage as most seemed to be the "accessory mold" and the others were the "body" molds. Curious how this mentality of design has not carried over into the much more straight forward digital lay up era.

In a sense, engineering a sprue that is sure to be the popular "bits" sprue to buy separately at a premium for the hobbyist modellers (eg.Vehicle Command Sprue). A lot of boutique/garage model companies do this, in preparation for a demand on the accessories over the core kit and often for modellers interested in using the parts elsewhere.

Well, GW won't change any time soon. This whole bits market has always left me a little curious as to why, even after some solid points by the Dakka folks.

I find it similar to the whole third party accessory industry that pops up around popular gadgets. This lucrative third-party market currently has the gadget producers being even more bullish with official "accessory" items than before, having largely ignored it initially.

- Tael.