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Can someone explain to me why the Blood Knights are so expensive?
You get only five pieces, the Chaos Knights cost nearly half that much and you get ten!

The Varanguard only has three pieces, but I can understand the difference in size and detail.
Kavalos Deathriders are probably the same size and/or have the same amount of detail as the Blood Knights, but again, not that expensive.....

They were a metal mold that was high quality back in the day, when it first came out there was no models anywhere near their quality so the price was marked insanely high (I remember when they came out, they were all the talk for both those reasons). They were different poses, the horses wasn't a crappy static 2 piece plastic, very thin parts, etc... EDIT: (Old chaos knights, not new ones, they used to be 1/2 metal 1/2 plastic).

At the same time (well for fantasy same time so within a few years) there was 3 Calvary released in metal, all of them highly costed, Centigors was one of them, tho they were $80 at the time, when the new BoC battletome came out they went down to $59 ($20 drop) they are also per 5, but are literally 1/2 the details as Blood knights.


EDIT 2: Most people used dragon princes but now that GW stopped selling them (IDK why they were amazing models and in plastic) you could get Chaos knights and mix with Drakespawn knights, thats $126 for 10 over $100 for 5, lol
EDIT 3: Oh.. Pointy Aelfs are coming out, thats why they were removed, most likely getting a new model range.

One of those units GW just put ludicrously high, and probably one of the worst offenders. They are a bit infamous for their price.

 Amishprn86 wrote:

EDIT 2: Most people used dragon princes but now that GW stopped selling them (IDK why they were amazing models and in plastic) you could get Chaos knights and mix with Drakespawn knights, thats $126 for 10 over $100 for 5, lol
EDIT 3: Oh.. Pointy Aelfs are coming out, thats why they were removed, most likely getting a new model range.

The Dragon Princes would have been in Cities of Sigmar. They purged a lot of stuff from the Cities ranges, period.


Blood Knights are so expensive likely because they were effectively treated as 'character' models when they first dropped in WHFB.

No idea. It's utterly ridiculous. Put me off buying and playing a whole army.

I kitbashed mine from Chaos Knights and Daemonette heads, works well and was massively cheaper!

Another thing to note is that GW has a general policy of not devaluing their own product. So they never discount a box once its priced up. As the metal to finecast conversion was basically "the same model" the models kept their old prices.

So as GW's sculpting and plastic tech has easily moved to a point where they can and have created models just as good (if not better) at a cheaper price; GW still can't lower the price on this set due to their policy.

It likely means we won't see the price on them shift until such time as they get an updated sculpt.

 Overread wrote:
Another thing to note is that GW has a general policy of not devaluing their own product. So they never discount a box once its priced up. As the metal to finecast conversion was basically "the same model" the models kept their old prices.

So as GW's sculpting and plastic tech has easily moved to a point where they can and have created models just as good (if not better) at a cheaper price; GW still can't lower the price on this set due to their policy.

It likely means we won't see the price on them shift until such time as they get an updated sculpt.

Centigors was $80 for many years, when BoC new battletome came out they dropped $20

Why are they so expensive? Because people still bought them. On top of that they were when they were released very busted, which encouraged people to buy even more of them (though many complained loudly at the cost they still forked over the cash)

I have not once, in all the years of playing, seen that unit bought or on the table. Not once. People don't buy them.

 Overread wrote:
Another thing to note is that GW has a general policy of not devaluing their own product. So they never discount a box once its priced up. As the metal to finecast conversion was basically "the same model" the models kept their old prices.

Nah, the prices went up when they went to finecast. Because everyone knows that using a cheaper material which gives terrible results needs to be more expensive. That is Business 101.

They used to be a very detailed model for the time which costed a lot to produce and they were a rare unit type from a fairly medium popularity so they didn't sold in high volume. Thus the price was very high. I personnaly used Bretonnian knights with a few pieces from Vampire Count boxes.

If I was in the market for Blood Knights, I'd search E-bay and FEC pages to look for the armoured Vampire Lord that comes with the Zombie Dragon/Terrorgheist kit. There has got to be a ton of those just collecting dust, given that FEC seems like a well represented army that has a relatively low buy in.

Then buy a boxed set of whatever horses I wanted them mounted on.

Edit: Just did some quick e-bay searching and not seeing the mounted Vampire, so maybe not that route.

Prices have dropped on several metal/resin models moving to plastic.
Pretty much the entire daemon line is proof of that (excluding the overly priced BoN)

Price wise it was a king of the kits on release and was more akin to a unit of hero’s rather than a normal unit.

Grossly overpriced though and that’s undeniable.

Best bet is proxy something.
The new chaos knights with head swaps, some filing and some GS would make a solid unit of them.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I have not once, in all the years of playing, seen that unit bought or on the table. Not once. People don't buy them.

This. Voting with wallet doesn't work on GW. I can't think of any single instance.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I have not once, in all the years of playing, seen that unit bought or on the table. Not once. People don't buy them.

They did when they weren't a forced box of 5. When they first came out, I'd see the individual blisters move pretty quick.

The box didn't let people know that the Musician and Standard Bearer both came with lances so they could be assembled as normal Blood Knights, and being able to avoid getting dupes of the Castellan was a Big Deal.

All that said, I did have a set when they were resin. One of the horses had some miscast parts and GW sent me a replacement kit and[ the corrected parts. Ended up with two units of them during End Times. Was not nice.

I saw them when they were first released back in the day. Over the years people started converting high elf knights or other knights into them because it was cheaper.

Nothing compared to Varanguard! 3 for $100! And it’s the same deal, it’s a “unit of heroes”. Still hurts, but damned awesome sculpts.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Nothing compared to Varanguard! 3 for $100! And it’s the same deal, it’s a “unit of heroes”. Still hurts, but damned awesome sculpts.

Varanguard are big models (but still overpriced as are the Mighty Skullcrushers).

I've been trying to justify a unit of Varanguard because the sculpts are so cool, but I just can't do it. Maybe once I get my Tzeentch force finished.

 EnTyme wrote:
I've been trying to justify a unit of Varanguard because the sculpts are so cool, but I just can't do it. Maybe once I get my Tzeentch force finished.

I bought a boxed set after "Scourge of Fate" came out and I was planning to create the dude on the cover, but alas, it ended up a failed project and I e-bayed them.

Once my slowly growing SCE are done, I'm taking another swing at it.

Really? I thought those sculpts were horrible when they came out. "Chaos Knights, but BIGGER" is about everything that is wrong with modern GW model design.

 Da Boss wrote:
Really? I thought those sculpts were horrible when they came out. "Chaos Knights, but BIGGER" is about everything that is wrong with modern GW model design.

Nah, they're cool models. Converted one into a Vampire Lord.

 Da Boss wrote:
Really? I thought those sculpts were horrible when they came out. "Chaos Knights, but BIGGER" is about everything that is wrong with modern GW model design.

Varanguard are a beautiful kit. If they were $60/box I’d have at least 4 sets already. They’re easily $20-25/model good. Not $33/model.

Because when they were first released in 7th edition they were cast in metal. Even the horses were metal, not just the riders like similar cavalry at the time.

Because of the material cost each one came to somewhere around 25 bucks for a single blister. The cheapest way to get a unit was to get the 5 man box set for 100 bucks.

Then the price of metal spiked hard toward the end of 7th edition which led to GW dropping metal models for resin (Finecast...or failcast for those who bought them during that time). However despite the move to a cheaper medium GW priced them even MORE expensive then their metal counterpart. This was compounded by the fact the GW leadership at the time felt the company was a "Premium model" company instead of, you know, a game company. So the price was hiked even more.

the TL;DR is they are a legacy model from the time GW was hemorrhaging money and GW leadership sought to price hike their way out of the financial hole they were in.

 timetowaste85 wrote:

 Da Boss wrote:
Really? I thought those sculpts were horrible when they came out. "Chaos Knights, but BIGGER" is about everything that is wrong with modern GW model design.

Varanguard are a beautiful kit. If they were $60/box I’d have at least 4 sets already. They’re easily $20-25/model good. Not $33/model.

To be fair, i see goregruntas as overpriced as it is.
I only have 9 as the SC box makes them a decent price on eBay.
Varanguard are just insanely priced, more so considering GW suggested multiple units along with the big man himself lol.

Cronch wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I have not once, in all the years of playing, seen that unit bought or on the table. Not once. People don't buy them.

This. Voting with wallet doesn't work on GW. I can't think of any single instance.

Oh it definitely worked, we didn't see another cavalry unit priced even remotely like that until Varanguard and they were released in the heart of early-AoS; the most delusional Kirby-era of GW's history. I also recall Witch Elves coming put at 10/$60, then after that all the 10-man infantry boxes never went above $50 until, again, early AoS.

Voting with your wallet works with GW, there's just a lag-time effect going on because their product cycle likely locks them into certain choices and price patterns. Plus it takes time to actually work out why something isn't selling and price is only one aspect of that.


Of course sometimes the problem is that GW creates a problem that causes a wallet vote and then makes the wrong conclusions - though I think the afore mentioned Kirby era was worse for that, esp as GW wasn't connecting at the top end with its actual market. Which resulted in really odd choices because it was clearly all closed door management chatter generating conclusions and ideas without consumer feedback.

I think the current GW has a better idea of general consumer feedback. Even if we still have the lag-time effect I think they've a better grasp than they've had in a long while.


AoS even shows the lag-time effect very nicely in that even after the bad launch they kept going with their plan for quite a few months to a year before they could turn things around and change them. Even then it took a few years to reach the AoS 2.0 system.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

Cronch wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I have not once, in all the years of playing, seen that unit bought or on the table. Not once. People don't buy them.

This. Voting with wallet doesn't work on GW. I can't think of any single instance.

Oh it definitely worked, we didn't see another cavalry unit priced even remotely like that until Varanguard and they were released in the heart of early-AoS; the most delusional Kirby-era of GW's history. I also recall Witch Elves coming put at 10/$60, then after that all the 10-man infantry boxes never went above $50 until, again, early AoS.

So "voting with wallets" translates to "GW finding the hard-barrier of pain at which the kits wont sold, then backing down ever so slightly, but not back to previous pricing"? Sounds like we as customers still end up paying a ton, just a ton -10$...50$ for 10 plastic dudes is still patently absurd

Yeah they're never going to re price an existing product because it didn't sell very well. A huge part of their business model is that their products need to be perceived to have a high value. If they just lowered prices due to pressure from their point of view it would be opening the floodgates.

Instead it would inform pricing for future products.