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Hi Dakka,

I know this applies equally to 40k, but I'm not a Warhammer player. In fact I havnt bought a Warhammer mini in over 10 years.. But, I've been lurking on the Warhammer section of this August site for some time now as I'm leaning towards playing it again (I havnt played since 5th!) and so was just browsing the Warhammer section of GW's website, checking out Orcs and Gobbos and Dwarfs, these being the two armies I'm considering buying into...

When I see Grom The Paunch Of The Misty Mountain:


And these:


Now these are as old as sin, in fact I remember Grom being released in '96 or '97, and those slayers around the same time.... Now look, I know that some minis don't age and stay great forever. The likes of the 2nd Ed 40k Ghazzy and Makari, but seriously? Grom was a poor mini when he was released and really hasn't aged well. As for the Daemon Slayer:

Actually, that's still a nice mini....despite the fact it's pushing a decade old...

I guess my point is this, even though GW do produce some great models, it seems to be resting on its laurels a little. The Slayers were great minis, 10 years ago, now they are stilted and lack the possible poses that a re-release in plastic would achieve. They just look old...
Does anyone out there know if GW will be putting thier focus onto Warhammer again soon? The list of minis more than a decade old is long.....

It's all about money. Whilst I don't pretend to know exactly why, it just mustn't be profitable enough a venture to update these models.

My feeling is that without the support of new rules, the reaction of most people would be 'meh'. If they re-write the figures into the game with 10 auto-kill attacks and invincibility, they'll get redesigned to look super badass and coooooo

Trouble is, it is more profitable to release a bunch of new shinies than update the old stuff. Veteran players will not replace every model when it is updated, but might want to add a box of the new toys to spice things up. We then end up with lots of flashy Special/Rare choices and a tragically old Core section.
Each release can only justify a handful of kits because moulds are expensive, and so the new flash gets priority over the old rumblers.


Case in point: Tomb Kings.
The Sphinx and Serpent both demanded new kits because they were unique and could not simply be converted. Tomb Guard got a re-release because nobody likes paying Finecast prices for an infantry horde.
No more plastic slots left to update the Skeletons.

Do you want an honest answer? Because GW doesn't give a crap about what its customers want. They make new models only when they have to based on their own internal logic (which has NOTHING to do with you, me, or anybody else other than Mark Wells), or when they create a new character/unit. And sometimes not even then!! And who loses out when they don't? You got it: us.

But in some cases it's the 'shiny stuff' rules wise that is tragically never updated... Case in point:


Yes, it's Teclis. This mini is pushing 15, that's 15 years old! And yet he is one of the best Mages in the game (or was)....Surely being one of the High Elves most famous characters, he is due a new, half decent mini? And it goes on, having a quick look through the Lords and Heroes section of the Warhammer store, I can see at least 10 minis that were released in the late 90's....

Mozzamanx wrote:
Trouble is, it is more profitable to release a bunch of new shinies than update the old stuff. Veteran players will not replace every model when it is updated, but might want to add a box of the new toys to spice things up. We then end up with lots of flashy Special/Rare choices and a tragically old Core section.

Pretty much this. Believe it or not, GW have the sales data on their models, and know what models to put in a new wave. They know what sells and what doesn't, even if they have a misfire or two in most releases. If they're not making a new Teclis model, they know it's because most High Elf players have the model already and probably won't replace it unless it really hits home. Which isn't something you can guarantee happening. With Dwarves, they're in the unenviable position of having an old range and no new book for 2 editions. Slayers were one of those units that just didn't get a plastic kit (like Longbeards), and without a new book for 2 editions, there hasn't been the production on the army to make a new plastic kit.

They will do the update when they redo the Dwarf book. Besides, the Slayer models have actually aged pretty well compared to others. Its the other metal troops that need a slight redo.

GW never releases updated figures just for the hell of it. They release them with an update so that sales will be generated.

 Grey Templar wrote:
They will do the update when they redo the Dwarf book. Besides, the Slayer models have actually aged pretty well compared to others. Its the other metal troops that need a slight redo.

GW never releases updated figures just for the hell of it. They release them with an update so that sales will be generated.

Or, as they've done recently with Fantasy, as a 'primer' to a book release. The trend started well with Vampire Counts, with the Zombie Dragon/Necromancer/Banshee/Cairn Wraith wave causing a buzz and getting people interested in the army again, then wham, army book with huge supporting miniature range. It worked well, so they've been applying it to other Fantasy releases.

They're not going to update a special character that no one wants to buy. Models ARE expensive. They can't order 5 of them. They have to order like 50,000 and hope people buy them. At least some SCs have dual uses and can be something else. But Grom is grom. The other O&G SC riding the wyvern, that could be anyone riding a wyvern. And he's much more popular.

Goblin characters can buy Chariots as mounts right?

They could have released a dual kit that could either make a Wolf Chariot/Goblin character with Wolf Chariot mount or Grom the Paunch.

But they didn't because the release was focused on the new shiny.

 sarpedons-right-hand wrote:
Yes, it's Teclis. This mini is pushing 15, that's 15 years old! And yet he is one of the best Mages in the game (or was)....Surely being one of the High Elves most famous characters, he is due a new, half decent mini? And it goes on, having a quick look through the Lords and Heroes section of the Warhammer store, I can see at least 10 minis that were released in the late 90's....

They did actually update the Teclis model {Edit: link seems to have stopped working, go ahead and have a google yourselves}, at the same time as Tyrion. I hadn't realised they had released the old one as finecast until reading this thread, and I much prefer the old :-)