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So, GW has released some limited availability plastic terrain kits (void shield generators, plasma cannon thing, the new Tau kit, come to mind).

Why are these kits limited?

Is it simply to drive sales? Or, did GW not make hard tooling for these kits and made molds that would only generate XYZ number of copies?

I can understand that is non-hard tooling will generate X copies and GW believes demand to be less than X, that would be a valid reason to make the kits "limited".

If the "limited" kits are made with hard tooling, it doesn't make much sense to me to limit the availability of the kits. Especially, when I'd like to have copies of all of the sold out ones. :(

So, does anybody have some good intelligence on why GW has some of these terrain kits as limited?

They sell it first as a splash release - they did with the Wall of Martyrs too. Sometimes the splash release is at a comparable discount and the parts that make them up will cost more later. It drives sales since people see "limited time" and they'll snatch it up instead of hemming and hawing over something and deciding to get it later.

If you look in the description for the tidewall, it says they're sold out but they'll sell the components of it later.

Simple supply vs demand.

Slap the words limited edition on things and tell people you don't have many of a thing will cause some who wouldn't have bought it anytime soon to impulse buy it.

 n0t_u wrote:
Simple supply vs demand.

Slap the words limited edition on things and tell people you don't have many of a thing will cause some who wouldn't have bought it anytime soon to impulse buy it.

Except they DIDN'T DO THAT for the Tidewall.

The only persons who knew it was "Available While Stocks Last" were retailers. And today they made it known that the individual components are going to be available for preorder on October 31st.

Very true. GW is smart, they start selling all the components later on for a much increased price, and people will still rush to buy it, being happy they can still get their hands on it.

 Brother SRM wrote:
They sell it first as a splash release - they did with the Wall of Martyrs too. Sometimes the splash release is at a comparable discount and the parts that make them up will cost more later. It drives sales since people see "limited time" and they'll snatch it up instead of hemming and hawing over something and deciding to get it later.

If you look in the description for the tidewall, it says they're sold out but they'll sell the components of it later.

Yeah, sure. And in all honesty, I didn't read the description on the Tau kit on GW's site, just saw that it was sold out on the pre-order splash page. I'm glad I'll be able to get one in the future.

But, I don't believe GW has offered any more of the Plasma Obliterator. So, if it is because they made this kit using a mold that would wear out quickly (like a silicon mold) or because of limited capacity of the factory that makes these kits, if either of those are the case, I'd understand.

My local gaming store said that they will be selling them as individual kits at the end of the month. This was likely a test release to be positive that there is enough interest for further release.