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So, yesterday I was surfing the GW store just because I was bored, when I encounter how...

The Stompa of the Orks cost 70 pounds
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Ork-Stompa

And the Morkanaut 65 pounds
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Morkanaut

A Imperial Knight costs 85 pounds
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Knight-Paladin

I was a little confused by that, so I go to google a size comparison pick and...

I know GW prices don't make any sense, and normally you pay more for bigger things and more elite things (Like paying more for 5 stenguard that for 10 Tacticals)... thats why... how the price of the Stompa makes sense? He is more expensive in points and is double the size!
This baffles me because I don't like the Stompa model, to me it looks like a girls doll with a metal skirt, and in the other side the Morkanaut/Gorkanaut is pretty cool, but I can't just justify to buy that model by so small price difference!
I think maybe this doesn't make sense to people, but It just feel wrong to me, to pay so much when I can have a model double the big just for a little more!

Anyone knows if GW has give a reason for this difference in prices and sizes?

cough the stompa ins't cheap its an old kit, the new kits are just expensive.

 oldzoggy wrote:
cough the stompa ins't cheap its an old kit, the new kits are just expensive.

Yeah, actually I thinked about this after posting. is not the stompa that is cheap, is the other kits that are so much expensive

Gotta pay those sculptors the big bucks for new models.....

As others have said, you are looking at this the wrong way around.
The Stompa is not cheap, it is the Knight and Morkanought that are expensive.

Yeah its just age don't forget they added that turret to the knight kit putting it up £10.

It's like the difference in the Monolith and the Obelisk: parts count, complexity and thickness of the plastic. The Stompa is large, but the parts aren't especially thick and most of it is simple sheets of textured plastic.

hobojebus wrote:
Yeah its just age don't forget they added that turret to the knight kit putting it up £10.

GW. The only company to charge £10 for the luxury of a tiny plastic addon.

You must be fairly rich to consider a $120 model to be "so cheap".

 master of ordinance wrote:

hobojebus wrote:
Yeah its just age don't forget they added that turret to the knight kit putting it up £10.

GW. The only company to charge £10 for the luxury of a tiny plastic addon.

https://www.apple.com/es/shop/product/MMEF2ZM/A/airpods?afid=p238%7CsccY29GNz-dc_mtid_187079nc38483_pcrid_190743740540_&cid=aos-es-kwgo-pla-btb--slid--product-MMEF2ZM/A-ES

 Talamare wrote:
You must be fairly rich to consider a $120 model to be "so cheap".

As everything in this life, cheap or expensive is relative. Personally, yes, to me a 120$ dollar model as big as the Stompa with that quality of plastic is cheap. But one thing is having the money and other spending it in products you don't think should cost what they cost. For example, Imperial Knights and the Morkanaut/Gorkanaut.

 Galas wrote:

 master of ordinance wrote:

hobojebus wrote:
Yeah its just age don't forget they added that turret to the knight kit putting it up £10.

GW. The only company to charge £10 for the luxury of a tiny plastic addon.

https://www.apple.com/es/shop/product/MMEF2ZM/A/airpods?afid=p238%7CsccY29GNz-dc_mtid_187079nc38483_pcrid_190743740540_&cid=aos-es-kwgo-pla-btb--slid--product-MMEF2ZM/A-ES

 Talamare wrote:
You must be fairly rich to consider a $120 model to be "so cheap".

As everything in this life, cheap or expensive is relative. Personally, yes, to me a 120$ dollar model as big as the Stompa with that quality of plastic is cheap. But one thing is having the money and other spending it in products you don't think should cost what they cost. For example, Imperial Knights and the Morkanaut/Gorkanaut.

The difficulty of the shape is another big thing to consider than the raw cost of the plastic. If a model required more molds to reach its final, then the cost will be higher.

Just wait till you look at the Baneblade vs the Knight Warden.

One has 7 Sprues, the other has 3. All of them are the large slab kind.

Guess which one has the higher price?

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
Just wait till you look at the Baneblade vs the Knight Warden.

One has 7 Sprues, the other has 3. All of them are the large slab kind.

Guess which one has the higher price?

Yep, I have see it now. I understand that Imperial Knights are lovely models and quite impresive, but they are very, very overcosted I think. I can understand the 125€ of Archaon as a "over pricing" because who he is, but... man.

 Galas wrote:
This baffles me because I don't like the Stompa model, to me it looks like a girls doll with a metal skirt, and in the other side the Morkanaut/Gorkanaut is pretty cool, but I can't just justify to buy that model by so small price difference!

I didn't like the Stompa model at first, but it has gradually grown on me. I do like the looks of the Gorkanaut/Morkanaut better.

As others have said, there isn't much going on in the Stompa kit. It's pretty basic. I haven't seen the 'Naut kit yet, although I want to get one.

As far as price goes, one thing to consider is that if points stay roughly the same it will be a lot easier to spare the points for a 'Naut in your list than it will be to have a Stompa.

I'm really hoping Forgeworld includes Kustom Stompa rules in their Xenos index. What they chose for the Stompa in the main Ork codex wasn't bad, but they gave us very few options which was sad. There was some cool stuff in the Raid on Kastorel-Novem book, and Stompas could be built for as little as 400 points or we could go crazy and kit them up to be just shy of 1200 points (neither extreme seems like that good of an idea, but it's nice to have options).

The superheavies have large, flat peices with very little going on. The newer kits have a much higher parts count and generally have more detail. This means more tooling for the molds. More tooling means more labor. And more labor generally means a higher cost.

That said I don,t know how GW determines kit costs, I am just speaking from a general understanding of how beancounters price products for a company.

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:Just wait till you look at the Baneblade vs the Knight Warden.

One has 7 Sprues, the other has 3. All of them are the large slab kind.

Guess which one has the higher price?

Actually the current Baneblade kit has even more if I recall as it now does the Storm/Shadow chassis as well. It is also bigger than the Knight, and requires more resources to make. Oh, and it comes with a free Officer/Commissar figure too.
Either way though, GW's pricing is utterly out of wack, although I personally think that this has something more to do with the pricing creep in GW's lines than anything else.

Galas wrote:

 master of ordinance wrote:

hobojebus wrote:
Yeah its just age don't forget they added that turret to the knight kit putting it up £10.

GW. The only company to charge £10 for the luxury of a tiny plastic addon.

https://www.apple.com/es/shop/product/MMEF2ZM/A/airpods?afid=p238%7CsccY29GNz-dc_mtid_187079nc38483_pcrid_190743740540_&cid=aos-es-kwgo-pla-btb--slid--product-MMEF2ZM/A-ES

Touche

Somewhat off-topic: I hope the Morkanaut gets some sort of "Gaze of Mork" attack in the new rules. The model looks like it has an eye weapon. Also, a KMK always seemed a little lackluster as a primary weapon on a big model to me, but maybe in the new rules it will be really good.

I want both to have access to the KFF instead of just the Mork variant.

I mean Gork is brutal, but he's cunning. Any a cunning person brings extra protection. ;P

It is in fact fairly good value/cheap for what it is all things considered...at least under 7th. 1 Stompas in general are large and bulky, they are not exactly fine works of art, at most they could have added a detailed inside and the only point for that would have been such as land raiders and rhinos having the same...I just glue the doors shut anyway. In 7th they were the one unit that basically became either a must take or put orks at a somewhat competitive level vs other armies. Consider the points cost and what they are and their value to orks in 7th it's one of the better values for your money.

2 Consider how much FW would charge for this if they did it, and consider how much the FW baneblade used to cost vs the then new plastic one.

They are not that old, they are an old kit but by no means ancient at this point. I would claim anything that is from 3rd or before is old old anything else is just old vs all the pc sculpts thats all. Pretty sure the space marine tanks and some eldar stuff is far older, not counting some of the upgrade rhino stuff that came out later.

 ClockworkZion wrote:
The superheavies have large, flat peices with very little going on. The newer kits have a much higher parts count and generally have more detail. This means more tooling for the molds. More tooling means more labor. And more labor generally means a higher cost.

That said I don,t know how GW determines kit costs, I am just speaking from a general understanding of how beancounters price products for a company.

As a manufacturing engineer I can tell you that the cost is based on the complexity of the mould, the lifetime of the mould and the number if manhours to design what went into the design process. That gives you your sunk cost (one time expense). Then you take that number and devide it buy the number of units you expect to sell (and if it is higher then the lifetime of the mould the costs to produce all the mould you expect to make in it's lifetime.) You then add in the other costs (package design, advertising, labor, meterial, frieght).

Once you have that all calculated you add in your required profit margin and then the required shop markup so your FLGS can make a profit too. The fact that they can keep that extra money if they sell it in the Games Workshop store is a big reason why they push and have the retail stores. It's a lot more profitable.

That's a pretty generic overview. But it kind of works to explain why certain things are the way they are. It probably cost Games Workshop anywhere between 100000 and a million dollars for any given kit.

considering the baneblade was made some time ago, I imagine the cost for it is priced on "2011 dollars" as opposed to "2016 dollars"

 Dakka Flakka Flame wrote:


As others have said, there isn't much going on in the Stompa kit. It's pretty basic. I haven't seen the 'Naut kit yet, although I want to get one.

As far as price goes, one thing to consider is that if points stay roughly the same it will be a lot easier to spare the points for a 'Naut in your list than it will be to have a Stompa.

I'm really hoping Forgeworld includes Kustom Stompa rules in their Xenos index. What they chose for the Stompa in the main Ork codex wasn't bad, but they gave us very few options which was sad. There was some cool stuff in the Raid on Kastorel-Novem book, and Stompas could be built for as little as 400 points or we could go crazy and kit them up to be just shy of 1200 points (neither extreme seems like that good of an idea, but it's nice to have options).

I like them both. The stompa is much more fun however, as the stage for conversions to tell a story with the model is huge. I like a lot of the elements - used the stock pieces differently to create a different head that I like a ton better.
The morkanaut is ok, too, and as you said playable due to points but the stompa is more for display.
For the price, the stompa kit is hands down the better kit IMO.
If you want a super heavy walker for your orks for a game, though, you're onto a gork/morkanaut or a mega dread at 80pounds or so.

The stompa is also extremely useless on the battlefield and a very ugly model, if it was more expensive nobody would buy it. I wouldn't buy it even with a 50% price off.

from memory , it is only made up of 3 jumbo sprues; the knight is made up of 4/5 regular sized ones.

Production cost is largely based on sprue *count* not size, though of course the points raised are valid too ;\

 Blackie wrote:
The stompa is also extremely useless on the battlefield and a very ugly model, if it was more expensive nobody would buy it. I wouldn't buy it even with a 50% price off.

Extremely useless whut. It is the best unit in the ork codex, also the new one has great rules : )

not that we know ANYTHING about what they're gonna be like in 3 weeks

 master of ordinance wrote:

Actually the current Baneblade kit has even more if I recall as it now does the Storm/Shadow chassis as well. It is also bigger than the Knight, and requires more resources to make. Oh, and it comes with a free Officer/Commissar figure too.
Either way though, GW's pricing is utterly out of wack, although I personally think that this has something more to do with the pricing creep in GW's lines than anything else.

Back in the day, GW would increase prices more or less over entire range. People didn't like seeing the prices hiked up year after year and whined about it a lot, so they changed to alternative scheme, where old stuff stays at old price and new stuff is crazy expensive.

 Gloomfang wrote:

 ClockworkZion wrote:
The superheavies have large, flat peices with very little going on. The newer kits have a much higher parts count and generally have more detail. This means more tooling for the molds. More tooling means more labor. And more labor generally means a higher cost.

That said I don,t know how GW determines kit costs, I am just speaking from a general understanding of how beancounters price products for a company.

As a manufacturing engineer I can tell you that the cost is based on the complexity of the mould, the lifetime of the mould and the number if manhours to design what went into the design process. That gives you your sunk cost (one time expense). Then you take that number and devide it buy the number of units you expect to sell (and if it is higher then the lifetime of the mould the costs to produce all the mould you expect to make in it's lifetime.) You then add in the other costs (package design, advertising, labor, meterial, frieght).

Once you have that all calculated you add in your required profit margin and then the required shop markup so your FLGS can make a profit too. The fact that they can keep that extra money if they sell it in the Games Workshop store is a big reason why they push and have the retail stores. It's a lot more profitable.

That's a pretty generic overview. But it kind of works to explain why certain things are the way they are. It probably cost Games Workshop anywhere between 100000 and a million dollars for any given kit.

With respect, it's not just manufacturing costs. At least some of it is down to GW moving up their pricing bands a couple of times between the release dates, in addition to manufacturing costs (which I guess is covered under 'beancounting' generally). Baneblade vs. Knight is an obvious example (though I imagine there's more engineering work in figuring how to build a bipedal standing model than a tank on treads).

 jeff white wrote:
If you want a super heavy walker for your orks for a game, though, you're onto a gork/morkanaut or a mega dread at 80pounds or so.

A meka dread and some parts to kitbash a mega dread are on my list of things to get, but I need to make myself save up enough money to do a big order so I get the free shipping. I keep getting distracted by good deals on used Orks and Tyrands before I get the 260 pounds saved up.

BrianDavion wrote:
not that we know ANYTHING about what they're gonna be like in 3 weeks

...

Nope the stompa is going to be great : )