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When you consider your armies basic troop model, how much do you think it should cost? IE in real world dollars, what should the price tag be for each Fire Warrior, Guardsman, Ork Boy, Guardian, Space Marine, etc?

You can factor in whatever you want (packaging, shipping, profits, employees, etc)... Or just take a guess at what feels right to you. A larger model like an individual Terminator or Wraithguard might cost a dollar or two more... A smaller one a little less. But think in terms of the average basic troop.


I was thinking this over and thought it would be worth seeing what others think. The interesting thing will be seeing what the most common value is and the seeing how much a unit of basic troops should cost in the eyes of the community.

Let's use USD to keep everyone on the same page.

Sorry I voted in NZD... but 4 dollars per model puts at 40 dollars a pack, 20 dollars less than retail ish. But for 5 dire avengers it costs 65 NZD compared to guardians which are 60 ish for 10! so 4-5 dollars a model is reasonable I think.

In NZD

Depends on the quality, options, and size.

Secondary considerations would be how many I'd need for a reasonable army.

I honestly can't beg it down to a number. I'll gladly pay 4.50 a Guardsmen from Vic Minis, but I balk at the 5.00 a Guardsmen GW charges for metal Mordians.

It should cost what people are willing to pay for it. Specifically, it should cost what a number of people who, when multiplied by the profit margin, produce the largest profit are willing to pay for it.

7$

At least that's about what I pay for my troops

Funny thing for me was I chose what seemed reasonable per model... But when I multiplied it by 10 it seemed like too much for a squad! Kinda a contradiction in my own perception of the pricing.

I said $5, but then us Aussie's are used to being whipped on price, so I might have aimed too high...

it should be around $2, up to $3 at the very most.10 space marines used to cost £12, or $20 US.

This was expensive at the time.

Add to this inflation, and the cost of extra components, and $3 doesn't seem unreasonable.

However, some kits are bigger, or have more components than others. Models with smaller parts should get more models for the same price (IE: Nids & IG), and the standard troops should have all the options available to them included.

So, to put it in box terms, I'd think a cost of £18/$30 per box should be the acceptable amount. (this would be 10 tac marines, or 20 nids for example).


The current pricing is beyond ridiculous. £35 for 5 DW terminators. that's £7 a model! From counterfeit sources I can get 10 terminators for £15.
GW won't have any more of my money until they become more reasonable.
People always say to protest with your wallet, and this is becoming more and more viable with the rise of recasts, home printers and alternate sources of miniature gaming. GW no longer has the monopoly they once had.

$1.50, around abouts. I play a variety of armies, so I can understand how some might have a higher production cost than others. I can also see how someone within the studio might think it was a good idea to at least partially base cost on how much of your army it's going to represent. (Grey Knights termies, for instance, are more than four times as much as a Kaballite warrior, points wise. I could see people thinking the costs should at least somewhat reflect that.)

How long is a piece of string?

There is no way to answer this question without looking at a specific model.

 insaniak wrote:
How long is a piece of string?

No, no... Ho long do you think a piece of string should be? Make your own assumptions about the color, weight, actual length of the string, etc.

Then you've lost me as to just what the point of this poll is. If I think a troop model should be $2, and someone else thinks a troop model should be $5, but we're thinking of completely different models, how does just comparing the dollar value tell you anything useful?

Yeah, I don't understand this poll at all.

Without any more information, I'm going to have to say $0, because then I'd get all my minis for free.

... and believe you me, that would be a hell of a day when I show up with my full division of guard infantry and my eight friends to help me unload, deploy, and move it.

^ pretty much. Honestly all of them costing the same would be rather odd. Space Marines shouldn't cost the same as guardsman

 StarTrotter wrote:
^ pretty much. Honestly all of them costing the same would be rather odd. Space Marines shouldn't cost the same as guardsman

Or to take a slightly more extreme example, a Tyranid Warrior shouldn't can't realistically be expected to cost the same as a Grot.

For general line infantry - IE - not lighter skirmishers like grots or heavier troops like Warriors or Nobz, I think $3 is a fair price. I can go up to $4 if I don't need as many of them, like a Space Marine army. $3 for a guardsman or Ork boy strikes me as pretty fair.

Well, troop models should be as cheap as possible. This would allow one to build up an army core (including an HQ) very quickly.
GW is definitely getting a generation problem since kids have it harder these days to get into the hobby. Our store owner can confirm this. New kids are not on the block, only former gamers who eventually want to get back into the hobby.

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, troop models should be as cheap as possible. This would allow one to build up an army core (including an HQ) very quickly.
GW is definitely getting a generation problem since kids have it harder these days to get into the hobby. Our store owner can confirm this. New kids are not on the block, only former gamers who eventually want to get back into the hobby.

Can't agree with this enough. Building an army on €20 a month (and that is generous as far as pocket money goes) is nearly impossible. And it is not like you can easily get a job as a kid.
A single basic troop model should be about €1 to €2.

Depends on the model. The monetary price of the model, in an ideal world, would be proportional to it's points cost.

This may not actually work from a practical business standpoint, due to cost of production, paying staff ("HAH!" - GW), shipping, maintenance, etc.

Depends on the model and on how much plastic is actually used; part of the issue with pricing in general is that the plastic used is X, but the markup is Y where Y is a lot more than X, when it could be more than X and retaining a profit without being ridiculous.

I think the price of a model should be based on the actual costs of raw materials, production, packaging and shipping rather than pois or size.

This would GREATLY decrease the prices of the models by more than 75% which would mean they would sell huge quantities more so that their (the company) net annual profit would more than quadruple what it currently is which could be put in to further the cycle.

About $3 (US) for pewter, $0.50 for plastics, assuming a basic, human-sized model. Sure, sculpting, tooling, molds, packaging, etc. add up, but it's not like GW is only selling a handful of these things. Some of the models are decades (!) old now and have had no updates. No one can make me believe that GW hasn't gotten their money's worth out of the molds yet. Yes, the price of pewter has gone up, but plastic, like the syrup used for soft drinks. is pretty cheap.

I think I was going under the assumptions that basic troop models should have about these same price, and that the size of the model would affect the price. More specialized units or characters would have a higher price.

I could have been clearer on that, but it sounds like there is enough variability in opinion that it's fine to let people interpret the poll how they will. Like the first post says... Go with what feels right to you.

Still stuck on the details? I guess that's why we discuss Why shouldn't a Guardsman have the same price tag as a Space Marine? Why should in-game points matter when I go to the till to pay? Should an individual Space Marine have the same price as a Lizardman Saurus Warrior?

Id say roughly half the current price. GW would still be making plenty of money from sales (and would sell 2x as many) and they would also be priced by points somewhat (an IG box costing 15, FW costing 18 and marines costing 20)

Pricing adjusted by points values is just plain ethically wrong.

There's no reason why a squad of terminators should cost more than, say, a squad of 20 guardsmen.

In terms of points the terminators are double the cost of the guardsmen, yet in real world values the guard squad easily uses more plastic and manufacturing time.

I can see that you want your horde armies cheaper, but if such a system was included, it would penalize those with elite armies for no reason.

Call me a cheap SOB, but I voted for $1 minis. The cheaper the model the more I can buy. And since I play IG, more is always better.

I think costs should be based on material cost and design costs...not points.

I collect a few armies, and this post made me look at my sprues.

I have a package of 16x Kroot which retails at $36.25 US. It's on 8 small sprues.

Similarly, I have a package of 12x Necron Warriors (which also have 3 scarabs) which retails at the same $36.25. However, it has 6 small sprues only (slightly smaller than the kroot by an inch or so).

The Necrons have no options.

The Kroot have head choices, weapon pose choices, and cool add-ons (pistols, bones, meat for food, grenades, armor, etc.) you can make them very unique....love the models.

The Kroot come out at around $2.26ish each. IMO, a decent price for the options and extras.

The Necrons are more expensive. Possibly harder to design and need to cover overhead? I don't know...but still not too shabby.

On the other hand, Tau Broadsides are $50 each and are only 2 sprues. Granted they are very packed with options and the construction is very smart...I can see this kit has a lot more design costs. $50 is steep IMO.

Honestly I think GW adds a few dollars to the price based on points and how the rules written make them must have units.

For me anywhere from 1 - 3 but under the stipulation that they are mostly single pose mostly assembled models.

4+ for anything that has many more bits for conversion work.

Rank and file are rank and file and should cost as such.