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does anyone have a comprehensive list? I'm curious.
wave serpent, basilisk... what else?

and feel free to chime in any thoughts you have about it.

The Wave Serpent is actually available again - to the best of my knowledge, it reappeared for general sale at the start of December.

The list is growing every month, some plastic kits (hills, fences, Manor House) are even discontinued.
As an example: Currently all High Elf core units are mail order only to make room for the new kits.

What scheme are they up to now?

idespair wrote:
The Wave Serpent is actually available again - to the best of my knowledge, it reappeared for general sale at the start of December.

Hm... Can anyone confirm this? Wayland Games still doesn't have any WS for sale.

 snurl wrote:
What scheme are they up to now?

They get a higher percentage of profit from direct sales than through FLGSs, and of course if they stop letting FLGSs sell them then everyone will flock back to GW to buy things direct because GW is the Hobby(tm).
Therefore they will undoubtedly make more money by shutting down the various channels people use to buy their product. Duh.

 Gorlack wrote:

idespair wrote:
The Wave Serpent is actually available again - to the best of my knowledge, it reappeared for general sale at the start of December.

Hm... Can anyone confirm this? Wayland Games still doesn't have any WS for sale.

Dark Sphere have them in stock in store and on the website again, so I'd everyone else's favourite retailers to catch up over the next week or two.

idespair wrote:

 Gorlack wrote:

idespair wrote:
The Wave Serpent is actually available again - to the best of my knowledge, it reappeared for general sale at the start of December.

Hm... Can anyone confirm this? Wayland Games still doesn't have any WS for sale.

Dark Sphere have them in stock in store and on the website again, so I'd everyone else's favourite retailers to catch up over the next week or two.

Ah great! Dark Sphere have been my favourite from time to time, so that's just as fine, I'm not that loyal after all

But did check a couple of other british webstores and none of them had them... But off to Dark Sphere it is

Wave Serpent isn't direct anymore. I have three on my shelf right now

Gorlack wrote:

idespair wrote:
The Wave Serpent is actually available again - to the best of my knowledge, it reappeared for general sale at the start of December.

Hm... Can anyone confirm this? Wayland Games still doesn't have any WS for sale.

Confirm!

snurl wrote:What scheme are they up to now?

1.) Sales lists are not done by people familiar with the game anymore. Module 1 (basic level for retailers) lists 5 boxes of Dark Angels and none of Eldar and Dark Eldar, because some accountant checked sales numbers shortly after DA Codex release. Side note: Seems the number of people starting an army and buying standards is neglegible.
2.) It is all about new stuff, GW doesn't care about existing products. That is one reason why all price hikes are concentrated on new stuff.
3.) GW is in a process of power shrinking, trying to reduce their product range to accomodate for sinking sales and customer numbers. They already cut almost all metal and finecast from general retail, so now GW is cutting to the bone. With standard marketing and advertising plus reasonable pricing they could easily grow again, but that is not what they aim for.

 Kroothawk wrote:

Gorlack wrote:

idespair wrote:
The Wave Serpent is actually available again - to the best of my knowledge, it reappeared for general sale at the start of December.

Hm... Can anyone confirm this? Wayland Games still doesn't have any WS for sale.

Confirm!

snurl wrote:What scheme are they up to now?

1.) Sales lists are not done by people familiar with the game anymore. Module 1 (basic level for retailers) lists 5 boxes of Dark Angels and none of Eldar and Dark Eldar, because some accountant checked sales numbers shortly after DA Codex release. Side note: Seems the number of people starting an army and buying standards is neglegible.
2.) It is all about new stuff, GW doesn't care about existing products. That is one reason why all price hikes are concentrated on new stuff.
3.) GW is in a process of power shrinking, trying to reduce their product range to accomodate for sinking sales and customer numbers. They already cut almost all metal and finecast from general retail, so now GW is cutting to the bone. With standard marketing and advertising plus reasonable pricing they could easily grow again, but that is not what they aim for.

Not sure if serious or melodrama...

so wave serpent is back. strange. they cant make up their mind? testing the waters?

anyone know what plastics are still direct then?

Is GW going to make their mind up with what to so with the WS?

I had someone in my painting night yesterday talk about this with the nids. Supposedly gaunts of both stripes will be pulled from stores when the new stuff comes out... in an effort to push the new stuff over.... well... what you actually need to run the army.

I go to a place that is a new carrier, and he only carries what the direct order form has, which has no Eldar or Dark Eldar. He has been able to rustle up some transports and buildings though.. but for the most part we just direct order from him.

 Gorlack wrote:

idespair wrote:
The Wave Serpent is actually available again - to the best of my knowledge, it reappeared for general sale at the start of December.

Hm... Can anyone confirm this? Wayland Games still doesn't have any WS for sale.

I can confirm it. In late november i was in my LGS and they had a sign on the counter that said "YES WE HAVE WAVE SERPENTS". I thought it pretty odd, so i asked about it.

They finally got a WS restock, but GW, for some reason, sent them out in plain brown boxes, rather than the normal box you'd expect - and i mean the model itself, not the shipping box. 15 units due to backorders and general popularity.

What a clusterfeth. This was the day after thanksgiving, fyi.

 Medium of Death wrote:

Not sure if serious or melodrama...

It looks like melodrama when you view posts like that on their own but when you look at GWs behavior as a whole over the last few years it makes perfect sense.

This may be far-fetched, but could they be trying to boost sales by creating a perceived shortage or pending discontinuation?

It sounds like they are reboxing the product and in the time whilst this is changed over/redistributed, only sending out in plain boxes?

We have seen new artwork/style on the recent releases and i'd imagine they are moving these items over to that uniform look.

I'm sure we've had these issues with plastics before and that's all it was?

I think it's more likely that someone made the decision that X unit is not selling well and to cut costs they should produce less of them. As Kroot suggested these people making decisions have no idea about the game at all and failed to put one and one together so when the new dex comes out and suddenly everyone wants X there are none to go around and they become direct order only (at least for a while).

 Medium of Death wrote:


Not sure if serious or melodrama...

Could be both? there are those who love torturing themselves with GW's malevolent behaviour - and of course some of those fantasies turn out to be real. But not all of them.

In any case, in Dark SPhere yesterday they showed me a standard WS which they now have for retail. They surmised that while stocks were short GW used direct only as a method of eking out supplies (and obviously increasing their markup).

The new tyranids reputedly have termagants as direct only. They have also slightly reduced the price of carnifexes (and actually warriors with lashwhips, plus the hive/tyrant guard are arguably less expensive if you factor in the upgrades). I wonder which of these two aspects of this corporate behaviour will attract more comment?

Another example what GW managers think is essential stock for retailers ("module 1"):
Each stockist should have 4 different boxes for Vampire Counts (including the rare Zombie dragon), but only one single box representing ALL good races ... High Elf Dragon Princes (yeah, the list was made shortly after Vampire release and second wave High Elves).
Every single High Elf standard unit is mail order only.
Now tell me that these decisions were made by someone in any way familiar with the game.

Putting High Elf core units on direct is absolutely ridiculous. It's almost as if "Well we don't have any spearmen in stock, but the battalion box has some in it!" kind of deal. Ugh.

gnoblars (but very slow seller)
Dwarf thunderers
Dire Wolves
Minotaurs
Warsphynx
Catachans (but old models)
Space Marine Whirlwind
bretonian archers, men at arms
Empire Outriders/engineers

 Gorlack wrote:

idespair wrote:
The Wave Serpent is actually available again - to the best of my knowledge, it reappeared for general sale at the start of December.

Hm... Can anyone confirm this? Wayland Games still doesn't have any WS for sale.

GW stores got them back in stock for sure.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Coldhatred wrote:
Putting High Elf core units on direct is absolutely ridiculous. It's almost as if "Well we don't have any spearmen in stock, but the battalion box has some in it!" kind of deal. Ugh.

That's basically exactly the line of thinking.

Remember this is the company that got rid of bits and told their employees to suggest the full box instead.

Why not just make everything direct only? local stores could still sell paints and army books tho of course.

 mikhaila wrote:
gnoblars (but very slow seller)
Dwarf thunderers
Dire Wolves
Minotaurs
Warsphynx
Catachans (but old models)
Space Marine Whirlwind
bretonian archers, men at arms
Empire Outriders/engineers

Thanks for the list, mikhaila. I'm guessing you left off the already discussed items (high elf core choices) since they were previously mentioned.

I saw in another thread, you also mentioned Kroot... are Kroot boxes really direct only? I thought they were a pretty popular choice for Tau armies (not that it matters to those making the decision, just saying).

 RiTides wrote:

 mikhaila wrote:
gnoblars (but very slow seller)
Dwarf thunderers
Dire Wolves
Minotaurs
Warsphynx
Catachans (but old models)
Space Marine Whirlwind
bretonian archers, men at arms
Empire Outriders/engineers

Thanks for the list, mikhaila. I'm guessing you left off the already discussed items (high elf core choices) since they were previously mentioned.

I saw in another thread, you also mentioned Kroot... are Kroot boxes really direct only? I thought they were a pretty popular choice for Tau armies (not that it matters to those making the decision, just saying).

It appears so. I have no official source, but I was cruising the web for a box of Kroot the other day and only one of the six or seven webstores I checked had them. Same goes for the Catachans that Mikhaila listed. Only a few of the stores I browsed stocked them.

Asked my local GW manager about this not too long ago.
Essentially the lowest selling items in a range are moved to direct only. This makes space for new model kits on the shelves and also reduces production for low selling items.
GW can keep a low stock of an item in warehouses and only need to manufacture more when they run low, rather than continually producing items to maintain stock levels across 400 stores + indies.
He was told this by some guy at the top of UK sales apparently; he asked him because he was miffed when the WS went direct only just as C:Eldar was released.
Since then WS sales have picked up (surprise surprise) and they've been moved back to main line.

I guess Whirlwinds don't sell well either...