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 the_Armyman wrote:
A SM Tac squad cost $22.99 in 2000.
A SM Tac squad costs $40 today. Same sculpts, same number of little men, added some bits and bobs to the sprue.
74% increase

That's not entirely fair, as the new sprue added bitz that everybody was buying anyway, in the Plasma, melta gun, and powerfist. Of course, this was a time when you could order bits like that for a buck a piece, so maybe its a wash. Still, there is value in the fact that codex options are in the current kit.

It's a huge jump in price compared to a small but significant increase in value though.

A 2nd Edition SM Rhino cost $24.99 in 2000. Resculpted in 2002 to the current model, still only $24.99 (WHAT?!)
A SM Rhino costs $37.25 today.
49% increase

Those are the metrics that matter to the vast majority of players of GW games. And before someone makes the ridiculous argument that you now get some new weapons on the sprues making it worth the price increase, remember that GW used to sell bitz by the gram. A metal meltagun to add to your plastic tac squad was something like 20 cents.

Ooops. I dunno man, I hobbied pretty hard in the early 2000's, and I never was able to actually get bitz by the gram. Even then, it would only be a few bucks to add the special weapon and power fist you wanted. But even then, taking a $23 kit to only $25 makes the increase only 60%, instead of 74%.

It's easy to file all of the price increase as greed, but between inflation, more components, and (frankly) superior modeling, the money is going somewhere other than pure profit margin.

 Polonius wrote:

It's easy to file all of the price increase as greed, but between inflation, more components, and (frankly) superior modeling, the money is going somewhere other than pure profit margin.

Kirby's pockets, of course

 the_Armyman wrote:
A SM Tac squad cost $22.99 in 2000.
A SM Tac squad costs $40 today. Same sculpts, same number of little men, added some bits and bobs to the sprue.
74% increase

A 2nd Edition SM Rhino cost $24.99 in 2000. Resculpted in 2002 to the current model, still only $24.99 (WHAT?!)
A SM Rhino costs $37.25 today.
49% increase

Those are the metrics that matter to the vast majority of players of GW games. And before someone makes the ridiculous argument that you now get some new weapons on the sprues making it worth the price increase, remember that GW used to sell bitz by the gram. A metal meltagun to add to your plastic tac squad was something like 20 cents.

 Polonius wrote:
My theory is that prices are always the thing that finally makes a long time hobbyist stop buying.

When you're new, it's all exciting, and you buy everything. Then you start doing tournaments, building converted armies, or expanding to Apoc size, and you buy bigger. Then, you have enough to play, so your buying slows down, with most purchases meant for "some day."

One day, you realize that while you have thousands of dollars of product, you barely play, and need to buy a hundred dollars worth of rules just to play, and god knows how much in models to be even remotely competitive.

It's not that the prices are that much higher, or that suddenly the gamer can't afford them, its that there simply isn't any value there.

Pretty much sums up my hobby progression over the last 15 years. It's not that I can't afford the hobby, I just shake my head and laugh at the prices, all the while saying "NOPE!"

Dont do price comparisons without adjusting for inflation, it's disingenuous.

I think a lot of people are looking at other companies products , especially in independent retailers.To draw comparisons to.

So to many its the cost per minature of GW plc plastic minatures compared to Warlord games and Perry Minatures plastics.

And then they realize GW plc is spending over £50M on a B&M retail chain they may not get any benefit from.
(And as the store only generate £35 M profit they loose GW plc money every year.)

BUT everyone has to pay a B&M store tax when buying from GW plc.
Knowing half the retail price is just to keep the chain of B&M stores open, is quite galling to customers who do not or do not want to use a GW B&M store.

And as said before the quality of the rules COULD add value to the minatures IF they were focused on long term game play.

So if GW plc corporate managers actually did market research, they may find good rules sell more product than B&M stores, and cost a tiny fraction of the price!

Polonius wrote:

Ooops. I dunno man, I hobbied pretty hard in the early 2000's, and I never was able to actually get bitz by the gram. Even then, it would only be a few bucks to add the special weapon and power fist you wanted. But even then, taking a $23 kit to only $25 makes the increase only 60%, instead of 74%.

The first Games Day I went to in Baltimore was 2000, and they had a huge table setup in the store area, Metal bitz were mounted to boards with code numbers. You filled out a form with code numbers, they bagged the bitz, weighed them, and you took the bag to the register. The price was by weight, not component. You don't remember that, Polonius?

I think the biggest mistake GW made was in getting rid of their Mail Order bitz service.

 Polonius wrote:

It's easy to file all of the price increase as greed, but between inflation, more components, and (frankly) superior modeling, the money is going somewhere other than pure profit margin.

Unfortunately, where the extra money is going is irrelevant. Somewhere is that magic price that is both reasonable for me and profitable for them, and they crossed it. I'm not trying to be a grognard about it, but maybe that's what I've become

Dont do price comparisons without adjusting for inflation, it's disingenuous.

I don't need to research CPI to realize that items in my life that I buy (excluding things tied to commodities [food] or cartels [oil]) aren't 50-80% more expensive than 15 years ago. Why is that disingenous?

I started playing 40K partway through 4th edition I think around 2005. The cost of a codex for my tyranid army was around $23 Canadian. Today the 6th ed nid dex costs $60. That is a huge increase over 10 years for rules. Not only that for nids to get all the rules to make the army work decently you needed the dataslates (another $45), maybe Leviathan book or FW models such as the malanthrope (and you need the IA book to use FW models where I play).

So when I look back and $23 bought me all the rules for my army for 40K to make a variety of builds that were decent the situation has become disgraceful today with the amount of money I would need to spend just to have most of the rules to try to make my nid army work (and even then the products (rules) are so poorly balanced to be even worth less than before. So to me GW prices have increased to absurd levels in a relatively short period of time for some things while the quality has eroded (ref nid rules and game rules).

 the_Armyman wrote:

Dont do price comparisons without adjusting for inflation, it's disingenuous.

I don't need to research CPI to realize that items in my life that I buy (excluding things tied to commodities [food] or cartels [oil]) aren't 50-80% more expensive than 15 years ago. Why is that disingenous?

Here are the inflation rates for Great Britain for each of the last 20 or so years:

http://www.inflation.eu/inflation-rates/great-britain/historic-inflation/cpi-inflation-great-britain.aspx

Those rates alone don't support anything more than 35-40% increases in costs over the last 15 years for typical goods (some products and industries will be more and some will be less, of course).

@Ventus - The price didn't exactly creep up gradually, though. The product changed drastically from a black-and-white softcover that was essentially a rulebook, into a thicker, hardcover, full color, picture-filed fluff/illustration/rulebook.

Ironically, in comparison, you could call the current standard edition books a "special edition" compared to the old ones; like I said, they're much more suitable for a library or shelf than gaming, because frankly, nobody wants to lug around heavy books when gaming.

Personally, I appreciate the color/hardcover, the inspirational art, and the fluff, but I get all the reasons that people wouldn't. I've mentioned this before as have lots of other people, but they should just print a softcover B&W that's smaller format and cheaper.

The irony is that I would buy one of those for gaming, and one of the standard editions to do the first read and stick on a shelf after (I'm not a collector of the LE's).

The other option right now is digital, which ARE cheaper, to be fair, and the iPad versions are pretty good. But I like muh paper.


@Saldiven - It's comparing apples to popsicles, though -- CPI (Consumer Price Index) measures the inflation of necessities like fuel, food, housing, clothing. It doesn't measure things like toys. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that GW products haven't become less affordable (though other toys may also have gone up in price more than inflation, too, and also become less affordable).

The first thing I ever bought was a box of Tyranid Gaunts and a squad of 3 Tyranid Warriors, they cost me £30 back in 2003.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Now Tyranid Warriors cost £31 pounds on their own and gaunts are 18. I believe they were 15 pounds each back when I bought them, so whilst the price of the gaunts isn't too bad, the warriors have gone right through the roof.

 the_Armyman wrote:

Polonius wrote:

Ooops. I dunno man, I hobbied pretty hard in the early 2000's, and I never was able to actually get bitz by the gram. Even then, it would only be a few bucks to add the special weapon and power fist you wanted. But even then, taking a $23 kit to only $25 makes the increase only 60%, instead of 74%.

The first Games Day I went to in Baltimore was 2000, and they had a huge table setup in the store area, Metal bitz were mounted to boards with code numbers. You filled out a form with code numbers, they bagged the bitz, weighed them, and you took the bag to the register. The price was by weight, not component. You don't remember that, Polonius?

I think the biggest mistake GW made was in getting rid of their Mail Order bitz service.

I remember hearing about it. I started in about 2001-2002, and by that time, it was all bitz at prices. They were still really cheap though.

I think eliminating Bitz hurt hobbyists, but I think it was good for their bottom line in the long run. there were a few actions they took around the same time they dropped the bitz service: they stopped selling bases in size specific bags, and they really doubled down on plastic production, with more and more of the bitz being in each kit. I think they were going after the used market. The reality is that you used to be able to buy used metals, or even plastics, strip them, break them down, and rehab them with new bitz and bases for pennies on the dollar. This ended up hurting guys doing crazy conversions, but it also allowed third party bitz sellers to really blossom.

 Polonius wrote:

It's easy to file all of the price increase as greed, but between inflation, more components, and (frankly) superior modeling, the money is going somewhere other than pure profit margin.

Unfortunately, where the extra money is going is irrelevant. Somewhere is that magic price that is both reasonable for me and profitable for them, and they crossed it. I'm not trying to be a grognard about it, but maybe that's what I've become

I'm not talking literally about where the money is going, but rather pointing out that it's not a strict apples to apples. The kits have become better, with more included value.

If the price is too high for you, it could be because they have crossed some mystical line. More likely, two important things happened: 1) Diminishing returns kicks in, where you get less utility out of each army/unit you buy for a game beyond the first, and 2) decreased fun playing the game. If the game is less fun, and you already have a few armies, what exactly would you be buying anyway?

I don't need to research CPI to realize that items in my life that I buy (excluding things tied to commodities [food] or cartels [oil]) aren't 50-80% more expensive than 15 years ago. Why is that disingenous?

there was some interesting posts showing that a lot of stuff hasn't climbed as much beyond inflation as you'd think. Other stuff did skyrocket, but those fell into two types: ancient plastic kits that were part of that $20-$25 a squad class back in early 2000s, and units that have been redone in modern plastic, for a huge bump in price.


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 welshhoppo wrote:
The first thing I ever bought was a box of Tyranid Gaunts and a squad of 3 Tyranid Warriors, they cost me £30 back in 2003.
Now Tyranid Warriors cost £31 pounds on their own and gaunts are 18. I believe they were 15 pounds each back when I bought them, so whilst the price of the gaunts isn't too bad, the warriors have gone right through the roof.

that's a third archetype of ridiculously priced GW kits: things for which there are few third party competitors. The more stuff can "counts as" the unit in question, the lower the price in general. Stuff that has no direct analogue on the market can be sky high.

I can understand getting rid of bitz, as people ordering several right arms of obscure figures isn't likely to be worthwhile for them. But the axed all their back catalogues, entire miniatures ranges. You couldn't even get whole sets of figures. This threw the baby out with the bath water. Limit bitz, sure, scrap everything? Then to soften this they claimed that they'd make some things available on a rotating basis, and some things like overpriced stuff chaos champions appeared for a bit. But in reality there's been very little, almost nothing other than the Goff Rockers, once gone it was gone and they didn't try to do anything with their back catalogue. Reading between the lines of some comments about stuff they rule out ever being made available again, it seems likely they've broken up many older moulds.

 Howard A Treesong wrote:
I can understand getting rid of bitz, as people ordering several right arms of obscure figures isn't likely to be worthwhile for them. But the axed all their back catalogues, entire miniatures ranges. You couldn't even get whole sets of figures. This threw the baby out with the bath water. Limit bitz, sure, scrap everything? Then to soften this they claimed that they'd make some things available on a rotating basis, and some things like overpriced stuff chaos champions appeared for a bit. But in reality there's been very little, almost nothing other than the Goff Rockers, once gone it was gone and they didn't try to do anything with their back catalogue. Reading between the lines of some comments about stuff they rule out ever being made available again, it seems likely they've broken up many older moulds.

I heard a story that at one point, one of the shelves hold the bulk of bitz collapsed, and they all became intermingled. With Bitz being on such a tenuous profitability, they decided to just melt it all down and scrap the service. that's almost certainly not true, but I'd guess some bean counter saw how little the service made compared to the rest, and they couldn't show enough residual sales to justify it. Meaning, for every random right arm purchased, there was likely a brand new model that received it.

But it is scary. 10 years ago, you could order nearly everything GW made in metal (except squats, of course) going back to the 80s. Now, there are huge swathes of the range that are gone, seemingly forever.

Or... GW is just cynical, and realized that if there really is a market for bitz, eBay and recasters will fill it with their far lower margins anyway.

The thing is, GW doesn't need to make bitz for EVERYTHING. If they just made bitz for all the weapons (and matching arms), most people would be very happy.

For that matter, just make more weapon packs like the meltagun/plasma gun ones. If you want more combi right now, you either have to make it yourself, buy 3rd party, or buy a whole other box to get 1 combi.

I don't expect that if I want to buy half a Dominus that GW will sell it to me, you know what I mean?

 Polonius wrote:


I heard a story that at one point, one of the shelves hold the bulk of bitz collapsed, and they all became intermingled. With Bitz being on such a tenuous profitability, they decided to just melt it all down and scrap the service. that's almost certainly not true, but I'd guess some bean counter saw how little the service made compared to the rest, and they couldn't show enough residual sales to justify it. Meaning, for every random right arm purchased, there was likely a brand new model that received it.

That story is not apocryphal, it actually did occur at GWUS in Glen Burnie. How much hit the floor and what was actually thrown back into the melting pot I'm not sure, but it wasn't insignificant. I'm sure it was far cheaper just to get a shovel and bucket, than it was to try and sort through the mess.

Metal is well and truly gone at GW, I won't kid myself there. But I still think a bitz service could be profitable, and it would generate some cashflow and goodwill at a time when the company could use a little bit of both.

I think the bitz would provide more goodwill then profit.

I used to work for a mail order card company that carried singles. Picking orders, even with a good system, took a lot of time. There were just a lot of cards, on a lot of shelves. I can only assume the bits shelves were a similar mass of boxes/bins. That’s warehouse space being used, labor to not only get the orders together, but to track inventory and make sure the bins are full, etc. A lot of overhead just to sell a few parts for a buck or so.

I did pick up blisters sometimes just for the parts. If I could have ordered say, chaos marauder flail heads, I would have at the time. Instead I just bought 4 blisters of guys, tossed the lads into the back of the things to paint pile, and used the weapon heads to make mounted marauders out of DE dark riders. So GW actually got more money out of me by not having the bits for sale.

 Talys wrote:
@Ventus - The price didn't exactly creep up gradually, though. The product changed drastically from a black-and-white softcover that was essentially a rulebook, into a thicker, hardcover, full color, picture-filed fluff/illustration/rulebook.

The 3rd edition rulebooks were a downgrade from the glorious codexes of yesteryear:



Certainly, the current codecies contain more than the ones of the middle editions. I can't defend GW's current codex pricing as anything but a price gouge. They used to be able to jump on the "full color" aspect, but everyone does that now, and for cheaper. The super-duper premium, gold plated LE versions are nothing but expensive shelf / coffee table decorations as they are too heavy and blingy for actual use. Warmahordes books have hard cover / soft cover options at $42/$32 respectively and are full color (optional if you just run with the cards). The Infinity books only come in one form and are full color -$65 for two books (admittedly not hardcover). IIRC, Campaign Paradiso was $40 for hardcover. They are also optional, if you want to just download the PDFs.

There is an apocryphal story that accountancy lecturers tell about an electrical equipment shop where the owner calls in an accountant to review the business and recommend changes for greater profitability.

The accountant recommends dropping cable ties, as they make no profit and cost a fair bit to keep in stock (ordering, inventory management and so on). So this is done and gradually over the next six months the shop's customers gradually drop away.

Eventually the owner asks a former customer why he doesn't come and get his stuff there any more, and the guy says he used to be able to get all the transformers, sockets, plugs, junction boxes and cables he needed for any job, plus the cable ties, and now he can't get the cable ties any more so he goes somewhere else where he can everything.

The moral of the story is that every single item in your stock does not need to make a profit, it just needs to help bring in customers who buy other stuff too.

The bitz were undoubtedly a huge PITA for GW to keep going, and made even less sense once they decided to change to Finecast, but they did cater to the keenest modellers who did converted armies and provided models to show off in shop windows and White Dwarf, etc.

On the other hand, metal bits services are pretty much premised on the nature of metal casting: You can recycle your excess castings. So "Run this mold for this three parts and then recycle the rest" works out. As does "Run these molds a few times, and fill up the parts bins. If any of the bins get too full, recycle the excess." You might be able to do that with plastic, if you're not outsourcing your plastic production and the plastic mix accommodates reground plastic.

So replace "An accountant recommended dropping a (seemingly) minor service the company provided..." with "Production technology changed and the (seemingly) minor service the company provided was no longer feasible like it used to be...."

 solkan wrote:
On the other hand, metal bits services are pretty much premised on the nature of metal casting: You can recycle your excess castings. So "Run this mold for this three parts and then recycle the rest" works out. As does "Run these molds a few times, and fill up the parts bins. If any of the bins get too full, recycle the excess." You might be able to do that with plastic, if you're not outsourcing your plastic production and the plastic mix accommodates reground plastic.

So replace "An accountant recommended dropping a (seemingly) minor service the company provided..." with "Production technology changed and the (seemingly) minor service the company provided was no longer feasible like it used to be...."

That is true to an extent and I agree, I don't expect a bitz service when the range is mostly plastic.... but bitz were dropped long before GW dropped metal.

If GW had of kept bitz until most stuff was plastic and then announced in White Dwarf and/or their website "We are getting rid of our bitz service as our range is now mostly plastic and it is impractical to carry on" they'd probably get less flak for it.

Highlighting the fact that communicating with your customers is also important

As a personal thing, the dropping of bitz did reduce my purchases back when it happened because I used to plan out an entire army, including all the conversions that needed bits from other places, and then just make a big order including all the bits. Dropping bits made me buy my stuff more piecemeal, and when I buy piecemeal I don't buy as much because I usually reach the point where I don't want to keep working on an army before I reach the point where the army is at the level I wanted.

But that said I'd rather have all plastic than a bitz service.

So I've got the 2004 Canadian edition catalogue. Going through it I've realized that there isn't a whole heck of a lot you can compare anymore. Whether it's because of a kit redesign or a switch from metal to "Fine"cast or metal blisters being redone as a plastic kit there just isn't a lot that's exactly the same as it was. You can compare easily enough if it's just "I want a Land Speeder!" but so many people are going to jump all over you saying how the extra detail on the pilot's crotch armour is TOTALLY worth the extra twelve bucks.

 Lord Corellia wrote:
You can compare easily enough if it's just "I want a Land Speeder!" but so many people are going to jump all over you saying how the extra detail on the pilot's crotch armour is TOTALLY worth the extra twelve bucks.

This does make it hard to compare. I think most people would agree that models on a whole have gotten better over the past 15 years.... but I think most people who don't like the price rises in GW stuff feel the improvements over the years don't warrant the price rises.

Look at the codices over the past several editions we've gotten hard back, colour, all that jazz. But the price rises just seem to outstrip the actual increase in quality (and I don't mean rules quality as that's a whole different matter ).

Sure, the Space Mareenz now come with more gubbinz than they did 15 years ago. But a box of 10 Space Marines still makes 10 Space Marines even if they now come with a new hat, and these days you need to buy more of them to make up your army as well.

It's the difference between collectors and players.

Hardcore superfan collectors will buy anything new because it's new. Kits having better detail or more parts is a bonus, but some people probably would buy boxes of RB-01 original beaky Space Marines if they were re-issued. At the new price of £60.

However if you are a player you want to play the game. The extra detail isn't necessarily any use, in fact it can make it harder to build and paint the model, and you certainly don't need the extra expense.

 Howard A Treesong wrote:
I don't get these prices, you're not comparing the same models or books in most cases. The codexes priced at £15 were the 2nd edition ones and vastly superior to anything since. The slimmed down ones for 3rd edition were £8, and those are closer to what is on sale today in content.

Such cherry picking. Marines weren't £20 in 1997 unless you're relying on metal prices, regular multipart Space marines were only 10 for £10 when first released for 3rd edition. Almost unchanged they are now £25. Catachans were 20 for £10 and are now 10 for £18.

Multipart plastic marines weren't first released in 3rd edition. Way back in first edition there was a 30 pack of plastic beaky marines for I think £15? Was fantastic value compared to £28 for five devastators today. Now to be fair the quality wasn't as good, but they were good enough to play with and actually quite flexible for posing. I had loads of fun making those up in different poses, and it was a great way to field a decent SM force.

The beakies were £10 for a box of 30 including some missile launchers, power fists, pistol hands, and spare parts like ammo boxes, knives and pistols to customise individual figures.

The Bank of England has a good inflation calculator on its website, if you are looking for illustrative data.

I am a collector, but my price elasticity has been surpassed a while. Now i am looking for a lot of proxies, and buy second hand, although the idea of plastic 30k marines may open my wallet again

 TPO wrote:

 Howard A Treesong wrote:
I don't get these prices, you're not comparing the same models or books in most cases. The codexes priced at £15 were the 2nd edition ones and vastly superior to anything since. The slimmed down ones for 3rd edition were £8, and those are closer to what is on sale today in content.

Such cherry picking. Marines weren't £20 in 1997 unless you're relying on metal prices, regular multipart Space marines were only 10 for £10 when first released for 3rd edition. Almost unchanged they are now £25. Catachans were 20 for £10 and are now 10 for £18.

Multipart plastic marines weren't first released in 3rd edition. Way back in first edition there was a 30 pack of plastic beaky marines for I think £15? Was fantastic value compared to £28 for five devastators today. Now to be fair the quality wasn't as good, but they were good enough to play with and actually quite flexible for posing. I had loads of fun making those up in different poses, and it was a great way to field a decent SM force.

I know multipart marines weren't completely original in 3rd, I preferred the RT figures to the monopose of 2nd and thought it a backwards step. What I meant was that the current standard multiparts were released in 3rd, the RT figures aren't really comparable products being very different. Whereas the marine box has barely changed since 3rd, only the price.

 Howard A Treesong wrote:

I know multipart marines weren't completely original in 3rd, I preferred the RT figures to the monopose of 2nd and thought it a backwards step. What I meant was that the current standard multiparts were released in 3rd, the RT figures aren't really comparable products being very different. Whereas the marine box has barely changed since 3rd, only the price.

That's fair enough, but I think the original 30 pack of marines is very relevant to the broader discussion of price inflation.

£10 in 1989 is worth £22 now (using the BoE inflation calculator). A modern SM tactical squad is £25 but only comes with ten figures vs thirty you got back then. So the modern price is over three times the old price, even allowing for inflation. Ok, the old figures weren't as detailed, but they were great for gaming and frankly a lot of the difference is due to improvements in technology rather than improvements in quality of the product.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
There is an apocryphal story that accountancy lecturers tell about an electrical equipment shop where the owner calls in an accountant to review the business and recommend changes for greater profitability.

The accountant recommends dropping cable ties, as they make no profit and cost a fair bit to keep in stock (ordering, inventory management and so on). So this is done and gradually over the next six months the shop's customers gradually drop away.

Eventually the owner asks a former customer why he doesn't come and get his stuff there any more, and the guy says he used to be able to get all the transformers, sockets, plugs, junction boxes and cables he needed for any job, plus the cable ties, and now he can't get the cable ties any more so he goes somewhere else where he can everything.

For the DIY market it's screws and for baby products it's branded nappies Whether the original story is true or not, it's an absolute certainty that there are businesses planning their range on that basis.

TBH though, I'm not totally convinced how true it would be for bitz, more likely it's true for certain common bits or bits with high utility (like special weapons or wings) which is why GW did bring back a limited range. Certainly I know I've made decisions on whether I'll buy a unit based on how difficult it would be to equip it as I want.

 TPO wrote:

 Howard A Treesong wrote:

I know multipart marines weren't completely original in 3rd, I preferred the RT figures to the monopose of 2nd and thought it a backwards step. What I meant was that the current standard multiparts were released in 3rd, the RT figures aren't really comparable products being very different. Whereas the marine box has barely changed since 3rd, only the price.

That's fair enough, but I think the original 30 pack of marines is very relevant to the broader discussion of price inflation.

£10 in 1989 is worth £22 now (using the BoE inflation calculator). A modern SM tactical squad is £25 but only comes with ten figures vs thirty you got back then. So the modern price is over three times the old price, even allowing for inflation. Ok, the old figures weren't as detailed, but they were great for gaming and frankly a lot of the difference is due to improvements in technology rather than improvements in quality of the product.

Don't the design rights run out on those old RT marines soon and we can start cranking out masses of new castings? :-P

 Baragash wrote:
TBH though, I'm not totally convinced how true it would be for bitz, more likely it's true for certain common bits or bits with high utility (like special weapons or wings) which is why GW did bring back a limited range. Certainly I know I've made decisions on whether I'll buy a unit based on how difficult it would be to equip it as I want.

It'd totally kill off the 3rd party bits sellers (those that split boxes and those that make compatible bits), but in their world it also stops people buying multiple kits (want a Dev squad with 4 lascanons? Why by 1 box + 3 canons, when you can buy 4 boxes!)