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Just got home from the bunker and have some good news to quiet some of the mouth-breathign about bits. They are returning end of the month, beginning of next. Bitz service is suspended until the new website is finished... the website being constructed by the fellas who built the Amazon site.

Some bitz are just going away due to business concerns (ones that are simply impractical, like individual gnoblars from the scrap launcha for example... to make those little frickers, you have a LOT of wasted-never-orderd metal pieces). But bitz will be available again once the website goes live (GW employees get to make a free order at the end of the month to make sure everything works, and it goes live for everyone else after that).

The catalogues are done, forever, goodbye. Which is fine by me, because thats alot of other things they can be spending production time on.

As a fun little aside, GW stores are going to get a bitz order station with a touch screen. So go poke your neighborhood GWs monitor. Repeatedly.

Good news.

I hope it pans out to be true, and that the bits selection isn't horrible.

Bitz are returning, or we're getting more Bitz Packs?

I ask because Bitz Packs are useless and Bitz are fantastic. Being able to order plastic sprues, like, say, a Razorback Turret sprue would be good, or the oh-so-precious 'Generic Building Sprue' with the floor tiles would be better. Or perhaps being able to order the Black Templar upgrade sprue without having to buy the whole box and get vehicle doors I neither want nor need.

All of those things are useful. Having to buy GK Halberd arms in lots of 4 plus a sword I won't use is not useful.

BYE

I'm hoping it will be similar to how Battlewagon Bitz was set up. I always thought GW let them stay in business just long enough to see if a bits service was viable.

Overall, I'll be happy to see the return of bits services.

No way are proper bitz coming back - it's gotta be bitz packs he's talking about.

A while ago on 40k radio they interviewed someone working for gw who's been part of the bitz sacrifice process and he seemed pretty certain it'd be bitz packs only from now on.

I was going to ask that. When they say bitz, are they
talking about individual parts or predetermined conversion
sets?

Bitz pack, for sure.

There's a rationale behind, partly the "LOT of wasted-never-ordered metal pieces" evoked by DeathGod, and also because any further detailed Bitz pack would imply too much manpower.

Wonder how BW Bitz ever managed to be profitable, but GW being in UK is perhaps a part of the answer.

I just hope they'll allow separate ordering of sprues.

Harry on Warseer (who's a pretty reliable source) indicated that the new bits system was not going to be the disaster many of us thought it was, but it hard to see how that is going to be the case, and it's an utter, utter disaster right now.

But still, at this point anything is an improvement. If we could just get things as basic as cavalry separate from riders (and monsters separate from heroes), individual models for Inquisitorial retinues or specialist games rather than boxed sets and individual plastic sprues again (making Tyranid Warriors with rending claws currently involves buying 1 box of warriors for every warrior…) then that at least opens some possibilities back up. It'll still be one of Games Workshop's worst missteps ever, but they're the *really* rediculous, unworkable parts.

Phazer

If this is true, it sounds interesting.

I think we all need to keep in mind is that Bitz service is a massive amount of overhead for a company. I think it's why most companies don't even try it. It's jsut too many products to keep track of and GW, while a big name in the games industry, isn't exactly a giant corporation.

I will guess that this new incarnation of the service will be premium priced... Maybe deals on the current Bitz pack stuff, but if you need that elft arm from a figure from 1992, expect to pay. Gotta fund the web site somehow.

Maybe the photography will be good this time. I was really confused when they annoucned the online store would have new photography, which turned out to mean "all new images take with a cell phone camera held by a guy with Parkinson's."

The Phazer wrote:Harry on Warseer (who's a pretty reliable source) indicated that the new bits system was not going to be the disaster many of us thought it was, but it hard to see how that is going to be the case, and it's an utter, utter disaster right now.

Phazer

I think Harry is very reliable for poducts.

I think Harry works on opinion as do the rest of us on implementation.

Which is to say anything he says about new products to be rolled out will probably be right. As to whether or not GW screws up how to implement it, well, Harry will say it's going to be good because, honestly when is Harry ever skeptical of a step taken by GW? He's a true believer and that's fine, but While I'm happy to believe any rumour he says may become a version of the truth, I have utter faith in GW's ability to make it not work.

I just hope I can order lighting claws and jump packs again.

This is a similar story I got from a guy I know at GW who I have been dealing with both as a customer and store manager over about 10 years or so. He said they were streamlining the bits and recodeing everything. Alot of the misc low ordered bits would be gone and fewer codes over all would return but that they would return. I smell a price increase but we all knew that would be the case. He did say the new way would be pretty cool but would not say much more. Guess I will have to wait and see.

To ansere your questions, I just asked my buddy and he says no, its not bitz packs, but individual bitz, and yes, individual sprues will be available. Now im getting yelled at, he needs his computer to go to work...

Phil Kelly was very clear yesterday that stocking the whole range of individual bitz was a thing of the past.
But I don't think he outright said they would only be doing bitz packs from now on. So I guess there's some room to hope that they may resume selling some very popular individual bitz separately again.

DeathGod wrote:To ansere your questions, I just asked my buddy and he says no, its not bitz packs, but individual bitz, and yes, individual sprues will be available. Now im getting yelled at, he needs his computer to go to work...

As usual, information coming from 'buddies' and 'redshirts' isn't nearly as reliable as one would hope. I just called GW mailorder to get an update, since it concerns how my stores will be selling bitz at our bitz stations. (Which have been lonely wastelands for a couple of months.)

Bitz are NOT coming back. What they have coming in is a large wave of bitz packs. Some of these are the new ones, some are just repackaging of things like steel legion units. They are still following the plan that has been outlined for about a year now.

One can hope that at some time they make a lot more of the bitz available, but that's not happening at this time

oh, and yes to the computerized set up at GW stores.

No to catalogs going away. They will be keeping them around.

well the lack of bitz ordering has made me very good at casting.

Mannahnin wrote:Phil Kelly was very clear yesterday that stocking the whole range of individual bitz was a thing of the past.

Which I think everyone is fine with. Stocking everything was just stupid, all you really need to stock are a selection of the most useful/most common bitz, keep plastic sprue orders a possibility, and keep full range bits for things that really need them (like Necromunda Gangs).

But keeping up bits for the ancient Carnifex? Probably not necessary.

BYE

DeathGod wrote:Just got home from the bunker and have some good news to quiet some of the mouth-breathign about bits.

that's a really spectacular way to start off a post. Just put your resume in at the local GW store didn't you?

Blackheart666 wrote:that's a really spectacular way to start off a post. Just put your resume in at the local GW store didn't you?

Calm down Blacky, and stop using your mouth to breathe.

...

Yeah I dunno what that means either...

BYE

I was under the impression from when they announced the changes to the bitz service that all bitz were removed for the transition (where we are now) excepting bitz packs to carry us over.

When the new system is set up only bitz from the current range of models would be available.
OOP bitz would be available as bitz packs.

Which I think would be about the best outcome we could reasonably expect.

I however will not be buying any bitz from Australian GW mailorder (even though they are to have bitz for the first time) because everything at GWOZ is overpriced horrendously and I can expect an easy 20-25% saving from the US or UK.

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What he said. Buying anything from Oz is just crazy. The prices we pay here are beyond what they should be, even for GW standards. Even with the failing US dollar, I just don't see how it should be possible that it's cheaper to order a box of Terminators and have them shipped to me from a the other side of the world than it is to drive 10 mins to my local GW and buy it there (not even factoring in fuel costs for my car).

All my bitz will come from the cheapest source, which is usually the US.

BYE

mikhaila wrote:

DeathGod wrote:To ansere your questions, I just asked my buddy and he says no, its not bitz packs, but individual bitz, and yes, individual sprues will be available. Now im getting yelled at, he needs his computer to go to work...

As usual, information coming from 'buddies' and 'redshirts' isn't nearly as reliable as one would hope.

Well, mine is a bunker black shirt, who told me after being told by HIS regional manager... so...

Oh boy...

Well, there's that then.

You had me happy for a while though...

DeathGod wrote:

mikhaila wrote:

DeathGod wrote:To ansere your questions, I just asked my buddy and he says no, its not bitz packs, but individual bitz, and yes, individual sprues will be available. Now im getting yelled at, he needs his computer to go to work...

As usual, information coming from 'buddies' and 'redshirts' isn't nearly as reliable as one would hope.

Well, mine is a bunker black shirt, who told me after being told by HIS regional manager... so...

There's always this misconception that GW employees communicate with some sort of GW hivemind telepathy. The second misconception is that what one section knows, the others know. Your buddy works at the bunker, part of GW Retail. His regional manager reports to the head of GW Retail, a VP. All the VP's report to Ernie Baker, the president of GW US. GW US Mailorder is a second part of GW US. Your buddy and his manager aren't in that section, so information flow is more anecdotal.

A more direct line of information would be calling GW Mailorder/Direct Services.

Making things more complex, GW Mailorder does't make decisions on bitz, just sells them. Any decisions come from the UK.

But he was a BUNKER black shirt...not your ordinary black shirt. That makes him kind of elite. Kind of.

In the same way that space marine scouts are elite.

Phil Kelly talked about why Bitz went away this weekend at Adepticon and the way he talked about it i doubt they're coming back.

Mikhaila's post is on target.

Bitz are NOT coming back. They will be returning in Bitz Packs, which should in some way bring back all the parts that people want or need.

But GW will NOT be returning to the old Bitz system.

I suspect the message given out by the GW Blackshirt fell victim to the change of information that happens when you play a kid's game like Telephone.

stonefox wrote:In the same way that space marine scouts are elite.

Or Webelos.

On a related note, am I the only one who had problems with a bitz order placed just before they stopped selling them? I placed one in January and still haven't received it. The store owner is (apparently) trying to straighten things out with GW, but I'm pretty confident I'll never receive my "stock up and buy all the bitz you need for your army" purchase at this point. Which means the GT army I've been working on for the past year and a half is somewhat screwed. Yay for me.