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I don't complain much about the prices of models, I have a full Mech Eldar running 7 Grav Tanks, which was fairly expensive in terms of money.

I have a semi mech (3 rhino) CSM army which was much cheaper in terms of models as well.

I am interested in adding a 3rd army to my collections and settled on Chaos Deamons. I built a list, liked the look and feel of it, and then went online to check out the prices of my models.

I am running 12 Blood Crushers, and just found out the price of individual models from our store. Since I am in South Africa, availability of stock is much lower, but the cost of my elite slot alone is the same cost as my ENTIRE CSM army.

That's just ridiculous. What the hell were they thinking?

Warhammer 40k can easily be considered a cheap hobby.

Let me put it this way.... This year I have spent more on video games than 40k over the past 5 years.

I have spent more on 2 Standard Decks for magic the gathering this year than a 2k point Dark Eldar army. The Standard Decks will change in the next month, and I will have to upkeep the cards, while my Dark Eldar army will be the same for the next 10 years.

I do not find wargaming expensive at all. It is rather cheap. 800 bucks on an army is nothing when you compare it to how much my computer cost me for my gaming hobbies.

The price shock of GW models is basically when you compare them with historical wargame figures.

Three Raveners = £27.

14 Perry Brothers French Napoleonic Hussars (cavalry) = £15

On the plus side, you can use an army nearly forever.

BuFFo wrote:Warhammer 40k can easily be considered a cheap hobby.

Let me put it this way.... This year I have spent more on video games than 40k over the past 5 years.

I have spent more on 2 Standard Decks for magic the gathering this year than a 2k point Dark Eldar army. The Standard Decks will change in the next month, and I will have to upkeep the cards, while my Dark Eldar army will be the same for the next 10 years.

I do not find wargaming expensive at all. It is rather cheap. 800 bucks on an army is nothing when you compare it to how much my computer cost me for my gaming hobbies.

I played magic and quit because the hobby died in South Africa due to lack of players. And yes I have spent more on Magic in the last 15 years than of my other hobbies.

I have paid for a WOW subscription, a PS3 console, Band hero, Guitar hero and many other games over the last 3-5 years that vastly overshadow the cost of my Warhammer hobby.

The issue I have is the difference in cost between two different armies. It's not the money that is my issue, it's the scale difference. I have a well paying job and I can afford the Chaos Deamons army. But I am just wondering why it costs almost double in price of my other army.

It just doesn't make any sense to me.

I just want to clarify again that I don't think the Hobby is expensive. My other hobbies are much more expensive and the only ones that gives me the same kind of value (time used vs cost paid) is World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy.

4 boxes @ £32.50 a box? They're quite expensive but not too bad. Better than when they were metal and £15 each...

nosferatu1001 wrote:4 boxes @ £32.50 a box? They're quite expensive but not too bad. Better than when they were metal and £15 each...

The problem is that there are only single models available in South Africa. So I have to pay per model.

SHip them from the UK. Seriously - order them from the UK site, and they ship anywhere.

Can you only get the old Metal ones?

You could also try other online retailers.

I think Maelstrom ship anywhere, and are normally 15% or so off GW main prices.

phyrephly wrote:

nosferatu1001 wrote:4 boxes @ £32.50 a box? They're quite expensive but not too bad. Better than when they were metal and £15 each...

The problem is that there are only single models available in South Africa. So I have to pay per model.

Nooooo.....



Wayland Games or Maelstrom will ship to you and give you a better price in the first place.

I have never considered warhammer to be "Cheap"
But it's true that most GW models can stay in play indefinitely, with the exception of kitted out models / conversions.

You could have much more expensive hobbies for sure, like keeping up with apple products or new videogame releases, keeping your computer hardware up to date and the like.

But the fact is, amongst wargames, Gw does have some fairly high prices. You can mitigate this by buying online or by playing vulture with people who lose interest on their figures.
If you can't handle any of this, buy one of their PC games / console varieties and live the dream. Hey on that note wait for dark millenium. Hit or miss it's still going to be a solid MMO

I agree also its not a cheap hobby. But there's far more expensive ones out there where you don't have the finished product forever afterwards. Or has high maintenance costs.

It's only when you take a look at the piece of plastic you have in your hand or the chunk of metal that you think it's expensive. In the long run, any hobby is going to be just as expensive, however when you compare a GW plastic kit to, say, a lego set, you feel you really got cheated on the amount of plastic you got. However, try justifying how some people pay 30+ something for a piece of cardstock in trading card games.

The hobby has a high entry fee, but not much after that, as long as you can stick to one army. I can't. Haven't figured that out yet.

spireland wrote:The hobby has a high entry fee, but not much after that, as long as you can stick to one army. I can't. Haven't figured that out yet.

QFT

GW models, in most cases (but not for the likes of Terminators or any plastic set on a 60mm) tend to cost the same or less than an anime figure of the same size, but the latter has a poorer quality plastic and way less detail.

Buy at a discount retailer online..

Its really the only way to go..

I order for 20% off. No Tax.

A shop i go to on occasion gives 10-15% off, but by the time we add 7-9% tax back on, its not much.

phyrephly wrote:

nosferatu1001 wrote:4 boxes @ £32.50 a box? They're quite expensive but not too bad. Better than when they were metal and £15 each...

The problem is that there are only single models available in South Africa. So I have to pay per model.

Who is selling them as single models? It sounds like they're selling the metal models...

But seriously order online and have it shipped to you

Lexx wrote:I agree also its not a cheap hobby. But there's far more expensive ones out there where you don't have the finished product forever afterwards. Or has high maintenance costs.

Absolutely. A day's tyres for most motorsports costs about the same as an army.

Kilkrazy wrote:
On the plus side, you can use an army nearly forever.

Say that to my chaos dwarfs.... *grumble grumble*

agnosto wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:
On the plus side, you can use an army nearly forever.

Say that to my chaos dwarfs.... *grumble grumble*

I think he meant you could use a Real Army

Also, i seem to remember some people being rather annoyed about squats.....

Scott-S6 wrote: Absolutely. A day's tyres for most motorsports costs about the same as an army.

Absolutely true! I raced go karts with my father when I was younger and all the rest of my dad's family races stock cars and midgets. Just getting into the go kart stuff was like a $5,000 investments for my dad and I. Then a set of tires ~$200 (and you need a lot of tires). I burned up a clutch one race, $500. Entry fees and gas just to race for an evening easily over $150. The race winners might, MIGHT break even for the evening.

Wargaming is by no means cheap, but GW does make good products and I know a lot of people in MUCH more expensive hobbies. This hobby can be fairly cheap if you want it to be. It's just noone wants it to be.

Shipping isn't really an option since I have to pay very large shipping costs when get it sent to remote places in the world. I have some frieds travelling to the UK over this period and I will just ask them to buy it and bring models back for me.

phyrephly wrote:Shipping isn't really an option since I have to pay very large shipping costs when get it sent to remote places in the world.

Maelstrom doesn't charge for shipping, as long as you spend more than 10 pounds.

AlexHolker wrote:

phyrephly wrote:Shipping isn't really an option since I have to pay very large shipping costs when get it sent to remote places in the world.

Maelstrom doesn't charge for shipping, as long as you spend more than 10 pounds.

Even to south africa? What is the link for their site please?

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:GW models, in most cases (but not for the likes of Terminators or any plastic set on a 60mm) tend to cost the same or less than an anime figure of the same size, but the latter has a poorer quality plastic and way less detail.

Are you talking about models like gundam and the like? Because if so, you couldn't be more wrong. The plastic is only less detailed because the much larger scale compromises much of the model's final appearance. The actual engineering of the sprues is far better than anything GW does (they actually attempt to hide flash whenever possible, whereas GW just throws pieces wherever they want on the sprue).

Went to Anime North this year. Those tiny display figures for anime characters cost 4-6 bucks a piece. They were only a smidge taller than a Space Marine, but alot lankier and really plain in detail. Actual gundam model kits are, more or less, the same cost as an equivallent size GW kit, although I do agree they have better sprue engineering than GW. However the plastic is far more inferior. Cheaper Gundam figures (like snap-on ones that only cost 10 bucks) are cheaper than GW, but lack even more detail and complexity that the more expensive ones compensate for.

phyrephly wrote:

AlexHolker wrote:

phyrephly wrote:Shipping isn't really an option since I have to pay very large shipping costs when get it sent to remote places in the world.

Maelstrom doesn't charge for shipping, as long as you spend more than 10 pounds.

Even to south africa? What is the link for their site please?

I found the site thanks. And they do ship for free to South Africa so I am going to try it out. They don't seem to have the Deamons I am looking for in stock but there are some other models I want.

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:Went to Anime North this year. Those tiny display figures for anime characters cost 4-6 bucks a piece. They were only a smidge taller than a Space Marine, but alot lankier and really plain in detail. Actual gundam model kits are, more or less, the same cost as an equivallent size GW kit, although I do agree they have better sprue engineering than GW. However the plastic is far more inferior. Cheaper Gundam figures (like snap-on ones that only cost 10 bucks) are cheaper than GW, but lack even more detail and complexity that the more expensive ones compensate for.

The good gundam kits (ie, MG and PG), as well as other Japanese kits are very good quality. They don't need the high detail on each individual piece as miniatures do. The composition of all the smaller, simple pieces fills out the look. Anything else would be arbitrary. The moulds are excellent, parts fit perfectly, and the engineering of the overal design is immaculate. Compared to the DE raiders that a friend was putting together over the weekend, that's a huge step. They could use higher quality plastic that's better for smaller detail, but why should they when they can get the required detail with cheaper plastic that is also stronger?

Fafnir wrote:The good gundam kits (ie, MG and PG), as well as other Japanese kits are very good quality. They don't need the high detail on each individual piece as miniatures do. The composition of all the smaller, simple pieces fills out the look. Anything else would be arbitrary. The moulds are excellent, parts fit perfectly, and the engineering of the overal design is immaculate. Compared to the DE raiders that a friend was putting together over the weekend, that's a huge step. They could use higher quality plastic that's better for smaller detail, but why should they when they can get the required detail with cheaper plastic that is also stronger?

I have a PG grade Zaku from a good 8 years back or so. It broke very easily and alot of the parts refused to fit together. Dont know about recent PG or MG scale kits, but I got a smaller Keroberos BuCUE and the parts absolutely refused to fit together, and when they did they refused to come apart (I had put two pieces together too soon, so the joint that was suppose to go in couldnt be put in. I had to take the hobby knife to it).

EDIT:

@ phyrephly: Make sure to check their Fantasy Section for Daemons. They dont update their 40K Daemon section at all it seems. Some Daemon items are direct order, and Wayland does it I think.