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I wasn't sure where to put this but I was wondering if anyone on Dakka knows what GW is up to in Memphis?

Are they still manufacturing there, other than plastics, or have they gone total warehouse?

I was curious since I wanted to know what happened to all their moldmaking and casting equipment. If they are only producing for Direct Sales needs then they are probably only using 1 casting machine out of the loads they had before. Maybe not even that since they could get everything supplied from the UK and sent over in their regular container.

They had at least 2 Nicem semi-automatics, 2 Nicem standalones, 1 Romanoff top-loader and a bunch of top-loaders the UK sent over that AFAIK never got used. At least 8 casting pots as well, plus aspirators etc.

They also had around 12 Tekcast vulcanizers with about 20 or so moldboxes.

If GW isn't using them since they went over to Finecast and plastics I was wondering if they would consider selling that equipment, if they hadn't already.

I know someone who could put it to very good use and is looking for equipment now. He speaks very highly of Nicem machines.

Everyone I used to know that worked for GW there left, so I can't really get any reliable info as to whether or not they are still producing anything. I'm also not sure who to contact at GW to find out what they would do with it all.

I know in Baltimore when they packed everything up and moved it to Memphis they threw all the old equipment out. They filled 2 construction dumpsters with it all.

It would be a shame to see that happen again.

Total Warehouse when I last spoke to them.

When they first went to finecast didn't GWHQ called back all the machines and molds from Memphis?
Seem to remember reading about it on these forums

GW is closing down anything that isn't nailed to the floor. How people can still say their business model is working under these circumstances is pretty hilarious.

 Harriticus wrote:
GW is closing down anything that isn't nailed to the floor. How people can still say their business model is working under these circumstances is pretty hilarious.

FTW!!! Give that man a cigar.

Well that kinda sucks. I knew bunch of people left GW Memphis over the last year but haven't kept in contact with them.

I was hoping to try and see if they were selling off their equipment, but it seems they probably have already although I haven't seen any equipment being listed for sale from them, which is something myself and a couple others have been keeping an eye out for.

Any idea who I might talk to at GW to find out? I haven't had any luck with cold-calling them, no one will give me an answer. Frankly, she (I won't name names) sounded kinda nervous when I asked. I think I may have scared her a bit. Oops, my bad.

Gw's main plan has been to destroy what isn't in use/being sold anymore. So that's a high possibility. There was also talk way back when that it was sent to the UK. So that's also possible. Either way, it won't be available for your buddy. It's just not how they do things. Sorry man. None of us understand why they do this (although they have given reasons), but it seems to be what they want. What can you do, right?

Oh that really is ridiculous of them.

They could have made some money back off selling the equipment, which about now they could use.

Back in Baltimore when all that equipment got thrown out a lot of staff were mortified. The UK manager in charge, Terry, just said "Get it done".

In Baltimore I estimate they threw out about 10 Romanoff casting machines, 30 Tekcast casting machines, 30-40 metal furnaces and a bunch of extra stuff like mold boxes, ladles, etc.

What a waste.

That's just the equipment. They've taken to destroying old moulds as well, so some figures can never be produced again even if they restarted the bits service, or if someone else took over GW and felt they could do something with the older miniatures.

 Howard A Treesong wrote:
That's just the equipment. They've taken to destroying old moulds as well, so some figures can never be produced again even if they restarted the bits service, or if someone else took over GW and felt they could do something with the older miniatures.

They probably still have the masters that could be used to make new molds.

Yeah no point shipping mold back to the UK where the same molds and the masters already exist.

There are old moulds they've destroyed and can't replace. Even years ago it was admitted the moulds for things like the Squats are gone, and I don't think they have the masters. Given their attitude towards older miniatures lines and moulds just taking up space, it wouldn't surprise me if they've broken up an awful lot more over the last decade, but they're not open about it.

In Memphis we had hundreds of molds/masters for codes that the UK didn't even have anymore.

I was told that someone in the UK got a bit overzealous when culling the archive molds/masters and threw out or destroyed a lot of things they weren't supposed to.

In the USA we still had the molds for the Epic Eldar Exodites, Man O War ships, Mighty Empires, Epic and a lot more. Also a lot of unreleased and limited edition models.

For WFB and 40K we still had all the older codes from Rogue Trader and the old Regiments of Renown.

Basically everything you guys would spend money on to buy, we had.

It's a shame all of that was thrown out and destroyed.

Still I would have made an offer to GW to buy their equipment. Especially the mold tables and mold boxes we had custom made. I have the plans used to make them, but it still would have been easier to just buy it from them.

Jesus they destroy ALL their old molds?! If they re-released RTB01 even for a month I'd snap a bunch up immediately.

 Bronzefists42 wrote:
Jesus they destroy ALL their old molds?! If they re-released RTB01 even for a month I'd snap a bunch up immediately.

Well, they don't "destroy" the molds, they throw the top half in one dumpster, the bottom half in another and each dumpster goes to a different landfill so no one can go the the landfill and reclaim the molds and reuse them.

The tin masters were probably either melted down into a large ingot or thrown into a metal drum and sent back to the metal supplier to be reclaimed and reused.

 mechanicalhorizon wrote:

 Bronzefists42 wrote:
Jesus they destroy ALL their old molds?! If they re-released RTB01 even for a month I'd snap a bunch up immediately.

Well, they don't "destroy" the molds, they throw the top half in one dumpster, the bottom half in another and each dumpster goes to a different landfill so no one can go the the landfill and reclaim the molds and reuse them.

The tin masters were probably either melted down into a large ingot or thrown into a metal drum and sent back to the metal supplier to be reclaimed and reused.

But yeah, there was so much I wanted to cast up and buy for myself, I just never got the chance to.

Well "destroy" seemed appropriate. But if GW is so worried about people using the molds to make the retro models, why don't they just make the models? I mean if there is enough of a chance these molds will be used illegally why not just use it themselves? I mean obviously there is a demand for them if they are disposing of these molds so aggressively.

 Bronzefists42 wrote:

 mechanicalhorizon wrote:

 Bronzefists42 wrote:
Jesus they destroy ALL their old molds?! If they re-released RTB01 even for a month I'd snap a bunch up immediately.

Well, they don't "destroy" the molds, they throw the top half in one dumpster, the bottom half in another and each dumpster goes to a different landfill so no one can go the the landfill and reclaim the molds and reuse them.

The tin masters were probably either melted down into a large ingot or thrown into a metal drum and sent back to the metal supplier to be reclaimed and reused.

But yeah, there was so much I wanted to cast up and buy for myself, I just never got the chance to.

Well "destroy" seemed appropriate. But if GW is so worried about people using the molds to make the retro models, why don't they just make the models? I mean if there is enough of a chance these molds will be used illegally why not just use it themselves? I mean obviously there is a demand for them if they are disposing of these molds so aggressively.

To be fair, GW has put out a TON of models over the years. If they kept all the molds in storage, it would not likely be worth the hassle for people once in a while wanting outdated molds. A lot of old models are ugly to many and beautiful to some. Example: AzazelX uses old GW ogres in his army that he and a few others love for their nostalgic look, I think the sculpts look ridiculous. (Az, this has nothing to do with painting, only the models. I want to make that clear as BSRM threw a hissy fit when I said IG sculpts were ugly to me and that offended his paint skill). I love the second version of noise marines, but understand that updated models mean the old ones won't be used. Storage just isn't an option for the rare few people who want outdated models. Sucks they destroy them, but storage isn't an option and they fear anybody making money or cheapening their product, so...

 timetowaste85 wrote:
To be fair, GW has put out a TON of models over the years. If they kept all the molds in storage, it would not likely be worth the hassle for people once in a while wanting outdated molds. A lot of old models are ugly to many and beautiful to some. Example: AzazelX uses old GW ogres in his army that he and a few others love for their nostalgic look, I think the sculpts look ridiculous. (Az, this has nothing to do with painting, only the models. I want to make that clear as BSRM threw a hissy fit when I said IG sculpts were ugly to me and that offended his paint skill). I love the second version of noise marines, but understand that updated models mean the old ones won't be used. Storage just isn't an option for the rare few people who want outdated models. Sucks they destroy them, but storage isn't an option and they fear anybody making money or cheapening their product, so...

Storage wasn't really a problem. Direct Sales used to have small blue bins that held metal for all codes currently in the range to fulfill bits order and customer service purposes.

Each day I would run a report that would tell me which bits had to be cast since the bins were either empty or didn't have enough metal to fill existing orders. Even a list of hundreds codes only took about an hour to cast and I only had myself and one other person in the department at the time.

We could have easily put those Archive codes in the system to be sold, then "Cast to Order" the components to fulfill orders without having to keep bins of metal on hand. One spin of the mold would fill most orders. One of the larger problems was filling orders we didn't have molds for. Metal would have to be ordered from the UK to keep stock on hand if we couldn't justify making or buying a mold to keep on hand.

Direct Sales metal needs just weren't very extensive. It looked like they had a lot of work to do if you tracked it by the number of codes to be cast, but if you tracked it by the time it took to fulfill those orders it was nothing.

For the box packing department we had already moved to a "Cast to Order" system and the casting orders for Packing needs were far larger than Direct Sales. There was no metal on hand in bins for any of the box sets. We would cast the metal, place it on carts with the work order and other components (like plastics) then wheel the cart to a staging area. Any leftover metal was melted back down so we had no stock on hand that needed to be inventoried.

Well, then I guess we can just ignore what I said. Mine was a theory, sounds like you were in the know, so I defer. I didn't know that before-that DOES make their decision odd/stupid then.

Well, the original intent was to discontinue the range, reorganize the bits to be more manageable, the re-release the range.

When the range was being reorganized we came across some weird things, like the Wings for example.

One wing would sell very well, the other wouldn't. You'd think wings would be sold at about the same rates.

When the range was reorganized we were going to sell them as a pair. It's similar to how shoulder pads are sold now, in sets for whole squads instead of individually. It makes more sense to bundle them.

But, for whatever reason, they never got around to the re-release of the range.

 timetowaste85 wrote:

 Bronzefists42 wrote:

 mechanicalhorizon wrote:

 Bronzefists42 wrote:
Jesus they destroy ALL their old molds?! If they re-released RTB01 even for a month I'd snap a bunch up immediately.

Well, they don't "destroy" the molds, they throw the top half in one dumpster, the bottom half in another and each dumpster goes to a different landfill so no one can go the the landfill and reclaim the molds and reuse them.

The tin masters were probably either melted down into a large ingot or thrown into a metal drum and sent back to the metal supplier to be reclaimed and reused.

But yeah, there was so much I wanted to cast up and buy for myself, I just never got the chance to.

Well "destroy" seemed appropriate. But if GW is so worried about people using the molds to make the retro models, why don't they just make the models? I mean if there is enough of a chance these molds will be used illegally why not just use it themselves? I mean obviously there is a demand for them if they are disposing of these molds so aggressively.

To be fair, GW has put out a TON of models over the years. If they kept all the molds in storage, it would not likely be worth the hassle for people once in a while wanting outdated molds. A lot of old models are ugly to many and beautiful to some. Example: AzazelX uses old GW ogres in his army that he and a few others love for their nostalgic look, I think the sculpts look ridiculous. (Az, this has nothing to do with painting, only the models. I want to make that clear as BSRM threw a hissy fit when I said IG sculpts were ugly to me and that offended his paint skill). I love the second version of noise marines, but understand that updated models mean the old ones won't be used. Storage just isn't an option for the rare few people who want outdated models. Sucks they destroy them, but storage isn't an option and they fear anybody making money or cheapening their product, so...

As someone who works in inventory control i have to say storage is cheap. I work in a hospital doing inventory control and asset management. We have 4 conex boxes and a warehouse full of out dated, useless medical equipment. Does it matter? No, its cheap to store the stuff. This stuff doesn’t even have a value except scrap. Most of it has been depreciated through accounting years ago. These molds do have a value. As a base unit of production they have a value and as a limited quantity item the value is only increased. If GW destroyed the molds they basically burned the capitol purchases. A poor business strategy. The molds depreciate with each single use. If they tossed one mold at a half-life it’s like throwing away 5k in capitol purchases and untold in admin costs and RnD with a loss of potential revenue generated by the mold.