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6 Months ago a large portion of the classic bits section of the GW bits catalogue had been dropped. This bothered me but I couldn't see myself using any of those models or bits in the future. A month ago I heard that the bits ordering program at GW was going to be "streamlined" (Phased Out) beginning February.
Most classic models are no longer available, along with a lot of bits, certain bits have to be ordered in groups of say 5 (like 5 psycannons). I convert most of my models heavily and have always relied on bits ordering to get the pieces I need. Simply posting online "I need ____" seldom works and can take months to gather everything needed to finish an army or even a squad for that matter. I had no problem paying a premium for choice bits. The reason for this decision was cost cutting. They simply don't make enough of a profit margin to sell an entire range of bits dating to the 1980's. Perhaps sculpting does hinder profits from a shareholders perspective. If I sculpt cool looking Chaos Space Marines with greenstuff and the old sculpts I won't be buying the new boxes. I am just speculating.

Already I have seen people capitalize on this. Suddenly old bits that were worth next to nothing have tripled in value. Fellow gamers/modelers are gouging each other and using the phrase "Well...where else are you going to find these?"

Battlewagon bits is where we go when we need plastic bits. I don't recall them selling many OOP pewter bits. Maybe they will pick up this new niche. I feel now is the time we should be helping each other. This is a community. This hobby is expensive and if you buy a lot of GW product you know as well as I do you are investing in toys that depreciate, for a game system more designed to sell product than improve the game itself. The sculpting/modeling aspect of the hobby has kept me around. The value of bits in general is debatable. Most hold more of a personal value. Some have a more obvious value. We need to stop trying to scalp bits for profit.

To summarize I am asking that those of you who trade online or even in your gaming community help promote the very important aspect of modeling. Anyone can buy GW product and assemble it. The many hours added to that initial assembly is what inspires others to play/paint/sculpt themselves. As time goes on each Edition of 40k crushes a large group of veteran players that move on to other hobbies. This hobby/GW cannot take care of itself, the task is up to us.

Moved to dakka discussions

In Australia where we have never had a GW bitz service the new system is a vast improvement on the lack of bitz we had previously.

However as US online store is 20% cheaper and the UK website not far behind, even after postage (for >$100US) the LOSS of the bitz service from them leaves us waaaaaay behind. Probably even more due to the discount we used to get (that you guys get factored into prices).

The fact GW isn't making the OOP stuff anymore will hamper BWB selling them as you suggested.

My hope is that in the future when they organise the new online system and things are flowing again the bitz service for current models will return.

Otherwise the 12 Torquemada hammers I bought in my last big bitz order before it all went down will prove to be a great investment. :0

I think BWBs and the others could start a metal bitz service now, and do quite well given GW doesn't seem interested in giving their customers something that we all liked (and used) quite heavily. It would also mean that I don't have to buy anything from GW any more. I already buy all my boxes from Maelstrom Games UK (free shipping anywhere + discounts = WIN), so now all our bitz can come from BWB, WookieHole, etc.

BYE

My biggest concern is the now almost complete lack of Steel Legion bitz. Forunately, most of my army has what it needs in the way of squads and command squads, but now I can't really go about customizing models and increasing the variety of my army.

I've barely started on my Dark Angles, but now I can see that customizing them will be back to basics. There's always plenty you can do with the basic parts provided, but beyond that...

I think GW made a big mistake here, and I hope they bring their bitz back. Not only are they losing that revenue, but they'll soon be losing more players who stayed playing more for the customizing then the actual gaming, and would start new armies just to exact their imaginations on a new style of characters/models.

The Steel Legion are the best example of what I am getting at. Who knows maybe they are going to rerelease them or Forgeworld plans on it. Steel Legion models are hot commodities now. They have doubled in value since the bits program was shut down.

Well then fortunately I have almost ten squads complete with three command squads, all the heavy weapon teams (3 RPG, 3 Lascannon, 3 HB), a good batch of extra NCOs and assorted troopers and heavy weapons teams. If I had to build up my army much at all I would leave the IG. The Cadians are actually sort of pathetic, and even though I have several suads of them and heavy weapons with command teams, I wouldn't want to build an army around them. Because of this bitz crunch I no longer plan on expanding my IG army any further than what I have available. What is worse is that I recently realized I can not locate a couple boxes of special characters that are now out of production and had only been available through the bitz section. Fortunately I repaired my Nork Deddog and Commissar Yarick models when I did, or I would be SOL. My Dark Angels army is mostly complete as far as requirements go, and since my IG army is no longer expanding, I don't think I'll expand my Dark Angels either.

Lastly, I had been hoping to start an Ork army at some point, but if weapons and ork bitz are going to be hard to come by, I don't think I'll manage that either. Which hits GW right at their front door, old players who drop a lot of hours of work (for the cash to purchse models), then cash, then time to raise an army, then time to learn how to manage it. This is GW's main customer base, and pulling out their main reason to game, the conversions, is just poor business.

It is sort of like the automotive industry. They keep producing vehicles when each vehicle is a loss, not because they like making vehicles, but to keep things running for when times get good. That is what the bitz section did. I doubt it really brought in the money, but it kept the juice in the market

H.B.M.C. wrote:I think BWBs and the others could start a metal bitz service now, and do quite well given GW doesn't seem interested in giving their customers something that we all liked (and used) quite heavily. It would also mean that I don't have to buy anything from GW any more. I already buy all my boxes from Maelstrom Games UK (free shipping anywhere + discounts = WIN), so now all our bitz can come from BWB, WookieHole, etc.

BYE

As soon as I saw this I searched for the site and did a compare. I am always on the look out for cheaper sites. It doesnt beat the prices on my prefered UK site:

miniaturesbypost.com

The other site I prefer to buy from is:

coolstuffinc.com

These two sites cover all my online purchases, sans bits and auction. I find the above beat even eBay prices.

As I mentioned in the other thread, I'll buy my last bitz and just do without for a while. If GW doesn't want my money, then I don't need their bitz.

I believe that the bits order is coming back, it was only taken down to do a redo of the system, probably some facial upgrades and a sorting our of inventory and the like.
I know on the little blurb they had on thier website it said the bits system would be coming back and most of the stuff that was taken away would be coming back, but i dont know exactly what is going to be gone.

The bitz are coming back as premade packs, not as the individual pieces we've come to know and love. If you want to see what the future of their bitz will be, here's their first waves of bitz packs.

http://store.us.games-workshop.com/storefront/store.us?do=List_Models&code=304731&orignav=304717&GameNav=304717

I'm not impressed.

JohnHwangDD wrote:As I mentioned in the other thread, I'll buy my last bitz and just do without for a while.

Or, on second thought, I won't buy anything.

Yeah, that works, too.

JohnHwangDD wrote:As I mentioned in the other thread, I'll buy my last bitz and just do without for a while. If GW doesn't want my money, then I don't need their bitz.

Ditto to that. I can understand bits for models that are no longer in production. Its annoying but on a business case i can understand it. What I CAN"T understand is why you cannot order plastic sprues for models in production (say for example the sprue in a Leman kit with the side weapon sponson).

jfrazell wrote:

JohnHwangDD wrote:As I mentioned in the other thread, I'll buy my last bitz and just do without for a while. If GW doesn't want my money, then I don't need their bitz.

Ditto to that. I can understand bits for models that are no longer in production. Its annoying but on a business case i can understand it. What I CAN"T understand is why you cannot order plastic sprues for models in production (say for example the sprue in a Leman kit with the side weapon sponson).

Indeed I was going to add predator sponsons to all of my russes (20 of them) but now that's out of the question. Not to mention the plastic sprues I was going to order to build my thunderhawks or other projects I haven't even thought of yet.
I placed my last GW bits order ($150 US) on the last day before the "close." I was able to order the last few ghost warriors I needed for my harlie squad, and a set of tyrus shoulder pads for a terminator commander I'm working on.
What's really sad is my FLGS is just about to get their bits ordering station so they can have more organized bits ordering, its to bad they wasted the money.

Not being able to order sprues is a big downer.

I'm looking to start a Crusading Marine army some time in the future, and I certainly don't want to buy boxes and boxes of Black Templar Upgrades, ending up with tons and tons of Black Templar Rhino and Land Raider doors that I simply won't use.

Before the bitz thing came to an end, I ordered a single BT upgrade sprue for my Deathwatch army, and it's a fantastic thing. The other sprue I ordered the most (probably about 30 of them total, plus my friends would've ordered another 30 collectivley) is the "Generic Building Sprue', which, unlike Generic Daemons, is actually quite useful, as it gains you floors for CoD buildings - something we are always in constant need of.

Floors come one to a box with the building boxes, and you get... 4 in a Sector box. Good luck getting anything decent out of that. Just not enough to go around.

I've never bought a plastic Razorback, Predator or Whirlwind in my life, yet I own 6 of the former, 2 of the middle and one of the latter - all through bitz orders and combining them with Rhinos I already had. The Whirlwind was an accident even - the sprue just showed up in an order I made, even though I didn't order it. I've also build considerably large Mordian and Tallarn detachments for my Guard army thanks to the bitz service. I was going to do Tallarn Rough Riders on Cold Ones eventually, but can't do that now. I was even going to get a Vostroyan Platoon... but no such luck there I suppose without resorting to buying entire boxes of models.

I can understand the reasons why their bitz service was costly for them, but at the same time when they do sneaky things like offering all the new Aspect Warriors as bitz but not the new Exarchs, or when it costs more to order a Kasrkin Sergeant by bitz than it does by blister, it's hard to feel sorry for them. I hope these 'bitz packs' become more useful in the future (5 Psycannons? C'mon...), and that sprue orders come back, otherwise all my money's going to BWB, BWBUK, Wookie Hole and Maelstrom.

My only two regrets with the bitz service is that:

1. I ordered two of the same Goliath Juve, rather than the two different ones, and now I can't re-do the order.
2. I didn't order three Iron Hands Thunderhammer arms. Only ordered two, and I really wish I had that extra one.

BYE

Okay - I agree unconditionally that GW's "restructuring" of their bitz sales sucks. It was one of the most useful things when you needed one single exact bit that you couldn't find anywhere else. Granted, paying shipping for a $2.50 bit sucked, but at least you could do it if you had to.

But, this situation just makes things like Dakka's Swap Shop and Bartertown all the more valuable.

My biggest beef is that all those "classic" models that folks would try to sell on Ebay or on Bartertown for ridiculous prices while you could still get them for cheaper on GW's site will now be gone.

Foda_Bett wrote:I placed my last GW bits order ($150 US) on the last day before the "close."

I was going to try and squeeze in one last order, but decided against it.

H.B.M.C. wrote:I'm looking to start a Crusading Marine army some time in the future, and I certainly don't want to buy boxes and boxes of Black Templar Upgrades, ending up with tons and tons of Black Templar Rhino and Land Raider doors that I simply won't use.

If it makes you feel better, the BT Crusader sprues were only $9 each. It was a lot cheaper to order them as bitz than to order BT upgrade boxes. Oh, yeah, I have a handful of these sprues for my Crusading army.

I've never bought a plastic Razorback, Predator or Whirlwind in my life, yet I own 6 of the former, 2 of the middle and one of the latter

Yeah, those Razorback upgrade sprues are a fantastic bargain.

all my money's going to BWB, BWBUK, Wookie Hole and Maelstrom.

You know that BWB (US) got a cease-and-desist from GW, right?

Aduro wrote:The bitz are coming back as premade packs, not as the individual pieces we've come to know and love. If you want to see what the future of their bitz will be, here's their first waves of bitz packs.

http://store.us.games-workshop.com/storefront/store.us?do=List_Models&code=304731&orignav=304717&GameNav=304717

I'm not impressed.

shoulderpads, wee.

Tacobake wrote:shoulderpads, wee.

Ooh - and because you know you want more of those Night Lords helmets!

You know that BWB (US) got a cease-and-desist from GW, right?

For their shopping cart.

BYE