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Thanks for the reply but am still none the wiser.
Optimus Prime sells 10 units? 10,000? 10,000,000?

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Thanks for the reply but am still none the wiser.
Optimus Prime sells 10 units? 10,000? 10,000,000?

I don't have figures for units, only for value.

2007 Transformers toy sales was approx £297 million - GW's turnover was £111 million.
Hasbro's profit margin for the period was 11%. GW's was 2%.

It should be noted that GW have improved this substantially - in 2010 they turned over £126 million with a profit margin of 10% (excluding royalties)

ETA, the financial reports are quite interesting reading - http://investor.games-workshop.com/latest_results/default.aspx
For example, this statement from a CEO is quite different to the previous stance (we make minis, the games are a sideline)
"The more fun and enjoyable we make our games, the more customers we attract and retain, and the more miniatures our customers want to buy. This in turn allows us to reinvest in making more and more exciting miniatures and games, which creates a virtuous circle for all."

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:How small is a niche?

Two to five times the size of a crevice.

Would have thought a crevice would be larger than a niche

Thanks Scott.
That helps put it into some sort of perspective.

Scott-S6 wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:There was an old Battlewagon kit? That's news to me. What was it, second edition?

First edition.

Well, in that case, the new tank might as well have been a brand new kit, never seen before. I mean, the old battlewagon could not be bought any more in stores, it was that obsolete.

It was a brand new kit - utterly different to the old one. (think giant buggy)

The point I was making was that for approx 15 years, orks had always had access to a battlewagon even though there wasn't a kit. Yet filbert claims that releasing codexes with units that don't have models is a new thing.

Scott-S6 wrote:It was a brand new kit - utterly different to the old one. (think giant buggy)

The point I was making was that for approx 15 years, orks had always had access to a battlewagon even though there wasn't a kit. Yet filbert claims that releasing codexes with units that don't have models is a new thing.

To be fair, I was only responding to nosferatu's observation that releasing codices piecemeal was a deliberate marketing strategy. I observed that it appeared to be a recent phenomenon. And I would suggest that the Ork battlewagon is the exception rather than the rule - I can't think of many other codices that were missing units; maybe Belial character from DA codex? I can't think of any others but there probably are one or two more.