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I stopped playing at the tail end of 3rd Ed. 40K due to a move and a job change, and kept the hobby stowed away in the attic for several years. I recently got the bug again and started dusting off and trying to recreate army lists out of the mishmash of models I had left.

Today, I tried to go fill in some gaps with the Games Workshop website, and I have to say that it made me kind of sad to see how ... sparse... the selection is. I remember calling up the mail trolls back in the day and ordering some really random and esoteric sprues and models without them ever blinking an eye. But now, it seems really hard to track down the bits and bobs I used to take for granted (transfer sheets, models with specific weapons, flying bases, and stuff like that).

Does the old way still exist, or does the current web offering really represent what's available?

Strelka wrote:I stopped playing at the tail end of 3rd Ed. 40K due to a move and a job change, and kept the hobby stowed away in the attic for several years. I recently got the bug again and started dusting off and trying to recreate army lists out of the mishmash of models I had left.

Today, I tried to go fill in some gaps with the Games Workshop website, and I have to say that it made me kind of sad to see how ... sparse... the selection is. I remember calling up the mail trolls back in the day and ordering some really random and esoteric sprues and models without them ever blinking an eye. But now, it seems really hard to track down the bits and bobs I used to take for granted (transfer sheets, models with specific weapons, flying bases, and stuff like that).

Does the old way still exist, or does the current web offering really represent what's available?

Why would you ever pay GW retail prices? Hit up thewarstore.com and save yourself 20% off.

The also have Battlewagon bits, which is a pretty comprehensive plastic bits store.

I surprised you're surprised.

Does the old way still exist, or does the current web offering really represent what's available?

Old way, nope don't even get a free gift w/ a WD sub anymore gatta pay for it. Current web offering is what you get. Their the best!

Sadly, it's true, the bits service you remember has long since gone away. The web site really does represent what's available, though I've heard whispers of GW staff having access to older stuff that hasn't run out yet.

Alas. It's a shame, because that was a handy service.

BUT, thanks to eNvY for pointing out The War Store. That'll take care of the lion's share of my bits needs.

Do yourself a favor and check out other Bits servics before Warstore. Not a knock on his service, but Warstore's Battle Wagon Bits is the most expensive I've seen. There are bargains to be had on E-bay with some sellers that are as good as Warstore. There are also other bits services that offer MUCH better prices, but their shipping times are a bit longer.

There's an ebay guy by the name of Hoard O Bits or something similar that also has an amazing selection of pretty much everything current anyway. Check him out too!

Yes, the bits are dead and gone. The great phone service is no longer. The special deals are an endangered species. Every now and then a great old model will be re-released (like, for example, the great metal rat ogres - my avatar is one!) at a price you could never have imagined a decade ago.

Such is the price of progress. Don't worry, we're here for you until you can cope with the pain. Some of us never leave. Sometimes I wish there was a 'craaaaaazy' Orkmoticon...

The worst thing is that the GW store has some of the widest selections on the web. If you ordered a Warrior Priest from Maelstrom or Wayland you might receive any of the four priest models at random but GW gives you the specific one.

That's the reason to order from GW or buy something in-person... you can be sure you're getting exactly the right model.

Although, I did an online order from a small company for a few warhawks (the warstore didn't have them in stock and I needed them quickly) and I was able to call and ask for the one I wanted

I played through the entire period the ops describes having been absent from.

and pardon me for throwing rocks here

It's always been shocking that GW cut their bits service, their answer was always 'to hard to keep track of'.

Selling portions of kits at premium prices, to hard to keep track of?

Pathetic.

By comparison go check out the website Reaper minis has,

http://www.reapermini.com/figurefinder

you can get everything even old pieces have notes on them. You can search by terms and categories, it is far superior.

All GW does is showcase their new stuff.

I can understand GW's reasoning to some extent. They are not a little company like Reaper. GW deals in millions. And to run a bits service they would need several dozen employees sorting thousands of bits. That's gotta cost.

Besides, we have bits services that offer more precise bits selection at a lower price, so it is not like we would need the service from GW as much as we once did.

terribletrygon wrote:I can understand GW's reasoning to some extent. They are not a little company like Reaper. GW deals in millions. And to run a bits service they would need several dozen employees sorting thousands of bits. That's gotta cost.

Not to mention that molds have 10-20 different figure bits contained within them. If 1 bit is popular, you still need to spin the entire mold. Even if the metal is just re-melted - that's a lot of wasted effort for 1 piece. I completely understand why the new bits service from GW is confined to a handful of complete bits sets - 1 mold, 1 cast, 1 dump into a packing bag.

And I remember the great bits grabbag sell-off after GW's bit storage room suffered a disastrous shelf collapse.

Battlewagon bits really shows why large scale bits provisioning is a difficult thing to do. Look at the prices for popular bits, like terminator TH/SS, LCs. some of the wings, and others. Some of those are on their own sprue, but most are not. Even if GW was making it, that means for every set of popular bits, you also have the stuff that doesn't sell and just kind of piles up.

GW has an online store? Oh.. is that the place where you buy stuff at full price and GW makes 100% profit due to selling directly and not through a distributor?

Cant say ive used it post bitz era. If you need a specific model just tell your local store to order it, im sure warstore can do it too.. Its not like "Warrior priests" all have the same #

I miss how it used to have lots of articles and bat reps. Now its all store, no hobby i feel. :(

kaidsin wrote:I miss how it used to have lots of articles and bat reps. Now its all store, no hobby i feel. :(

The astronomicain (sorry about spelling) option has old white dwarf articles and the like. The actual white dwarf archive kinda sucks, though.

Seriously, the astro-what a what is great. It's a small link beneath the main colored bars for their products. Look it up. Sure, I remember that the old, red background site had some great terrain tutorials where you had to buy some gw stuff to do it, and I would've if not for the lack of money right now. So it's not as good, but still not bad.

There are a few articles like http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&pageMode=multi&categoryId=cat1020014§ion=&pIndex=0&aId=9800017a&start=1 that are pretty good. Though i remember more, or maybe i was younger and was more impressed by them. Though i am not sure if there are any bat reps at all on the site; and if you know where some are link me!

terribletrygon wrote:I can understand GW's reasoning to some extent. They are not a little company like Reaper. GW deals in millions....

I can't, except as lazyness.

Could you imagine an automaker without a parts department?

RanTheCid wrote:Not to mention that molds have 10-20 different figure bits contained within them. If 1 bit is popular, you still need to spin the entire mold. Even if the metal is just re-melted - that's a lot of wasted effort for 1 piece. I completely understand why the new bits service from GW is confined to a handful of complete bits sets - 1 mold, 1 cast, 1 dump into a packing bag.

I don't see why there's no middle ground. Obviously someone asking for 20 copies of Nagash's left arm shouldn't be accomodated if it means casting up 20 Nagashs that go to waste. But GW have entirely scrapped whole ranges from their catalogues. They could ask that you buy a fixed regiment of figures or that you buy the whole character, ie a whole Nagash. Instead they have scrapped almost everything meaning the market is entirely in the hands of collectors and recasters. Why for instance are none of the old metal daemonettes available when they are goldust on eBay?

RanTheCid wrote: If 1 bit is popular, you still need to spin the entire mold. Even if the metal is just re-melted - that's a lot of wasted effort for 1 piece.

See, the part I don't get is why, in 2010, there is even any significant human interaction with that process, aside from a QA when packing. You'd think that with all the bits orders being loaded into a database, over time they could accurately forecase which bits are so popular they deserve their own molds, etc etc.

Gamble wrote:Do yourself a favor and check out other Bits servics before Warstore. Not a knock on his service, but Warstore's Battle Wagon Bits is the most expensive I've seen. There are bargains to be had on E-bay with some sellers that are as good as Warstore. There are also other bits services that offer MUCH better prices, but their shipping times are a bit longer.

Yes, but most "bits" websites have like 1 or 2 bits from each kit, in stock. As in, they have like 2. I have more bits than that. Unfortunately, the online Bits industry is completely fine with letting Battlewagon Bits set the market price for bits.

I remember the old 2ed bits service well - I'd fill out my order form in the back of WD and mail it in to the trolls for the specific bits i needed.

I imagine part of the reason they stopped it was the general move from metal to plastic models - if you remember, the bitz service NEVER sold individual plastic parts - it was metal parts, or full plastic sprues.

The newer bits companies will actually take the time to catalog every bit on the sprue and clip off the exact bits you need, and I imagine GW wasn't prepared to do this.

ArbitorIan wrote:I remember the old 2ed bits service well - I'd fill out my order form in the back of WD and mail it in to the trolls for the specific bits i needed.

I imagine part of the reason they stopped it was the general move from metal to plastic models - if you remember, the bitz service NEVER sold individual plastic parts - it was metal parts, or full plastic sprues.

The newer bits companies will actually take the time to catalog every bit on the sprue and clip off the exact bits you need, and I imagine GW wasn't prepared to do this.

Yeah, I used to be able to go to the Glen Burnie battle bunker back in the day when the warehouse was right there and order bits and have someone walk back 10 minutes later with my order. It was awesome. Too awesome I guess, because GW was losing serious money with it. They even said as much in the back of a White Dwarf a few years back. Can't blame them, if it was bad for business they really had no choice. Really had nothing to do with plastic. Just cost cutting.

@OP As far as the GW web store, again I think it was business. They had webteams for each region on GW payroll, so to save money I believe they just let those departments go unfortunately, and contracted out a website service to do it for them. It was extremely bland at the very beginning but its been getting better, with the "Whats New Today" blog sometimes being funny and informative. Just please, bring back Black Gobbo!