.... If I ran GW

[Barnaby]

If GW let a single fan run the company for a single day it would be a marked improvement!

 

[DVS Design]

Back to the idea of movies again and how 40K wont work. Am I the only one that realized that the Chronicles of Riddick movies where basically a story right out of Necromunda. It even had guys with burnt out vision that could use psychic powers to navigate the stars >.<

I think in all the fluff they would have no problem coming up with some thing that would work in Hollywood.

Oh and for cartoons Orks all the way just turn Gorka Morka into a series lol

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

You know I pretty much agree with everything you have said Chern apart from store closures and moving to the USA. America has raped the UK of too much of its heritage business, just look at the sting Kraft did to Cadburys, promises made then broken whilst the ink was still wet on contracts.

GOD!!!! Do not get me started on that F***ing Kraft business. THEY HAVE RUINED MY FAVOURITE CHOCOLATE. (Throws arms back and cries to the heavens!!!!!)

F*** Kenny, They Killed Cadburys - you bast****!!!!!!!

dfb

 

[griffongames]

I'm getting to this party a little late in the game but I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned your 30% number of independent retailers. I can tell you, without at doubt, that if GW tried to do that it would most definitely affect their sales in a dramatically negative way. That is, many stores would choose to no longer carry their lines. As a retailer who has been in business for a decade I can tell you that with certainty. GW product is one of our best selling product lines but it's dropped dramatically in overall sales since we opened in 1999. If GW decided to try to try to increase their profits by reducing mine I can tell you that we could probably find a more profitable line of products to put into that rather large footprint in our store. I'm not seeing GW shoot itself in the foot like this in the near future.

Also, GW has, if I'm not mistaken, only a single third-party distributor. At least in the US.

 

[Chern Ann]

GW has multiple third party distributors. Alliance, ACD, E-figs, Warpath to name a few. And while your store may be fine without GW product, many other stores, at least from their miniature section, have GW accounting for more than 50% of miniature sales, if not more. So dropping GW would effectively mean stopping miniature sales; any store who did that would probably find someone else that is close by more than happy to pick up the business. The stores in our local area actually discount at least 10% already in order to compete with online discounters.

 

[griffongames]

GW has multiple third party distributors. Alliance, ACD, E-figs, Warpath to name a few. And while your store may be fine without GW product, many other stores, at least from their miniature section, have GW accounting for more than 50% of miniature sales, if not more. So dropping GW would effectively mean stopping miniature sales; any store who did that would probably find someone else that is close by more than happy to pick up the business. The stores in our local area actually discount at least 10% already in order to compete with online discounters.

Any store with a reasonable amount of diversity can do without GW if they really wanted to. If a store was dependent on GW sales for their livelihood and then discovered that they'd lost 10 points overnight they would be in big trouble. If they were already discounting 10% then they would be making little to nothing on each sale after such a move on GWs part. Of course, I'm talking B&M stores exclusively here. I don't know what the overhead of the average online store is.

I didn't realize that GW had that many third party distributors. They had cut it to only Alliance at one point and since we go direct I've never had to investigate the other options.

 

[Chern Ann]

If they were already discounting 10% then they would be making little to nothing on each sale after such a move on GWs part.

The original post in full also notes that the online discounters are squeezed, instead of offering 20% off they would only be able to do 10%+. The B&Ms will then be able to price at MSRP again. Of course, the assumption here is that B&Ms are already discounting to compete.

 

[Kalidane]

Thought experiment:
GW reboot their entire business model with the goal of recapturing the mindspace/market share they have frittered away.

o 1-man stores are ludicrous and presumably violate labour laws in every country they operate so cut it out before you're found out.
o recognise the utility of GW stores and operate them accordingly i.e. attracting new gamers, helping beginners and providing a venue. The product sells itself - cut out the hard sell bs.
o correct global pricing disparities and review every 6m (or 12m or whatever; the point is it gets reviewed)
o roughly 16% price cut. That puts a battleforce at GBP50
o work and continue to develop that IP
o do away with silly trade and pricing restrictions
o play a volume game, not price a 'captured' gamer can be bled for many years. piss him off and he eagerly supports new firms where each incremental gain in the customer base makes them materially stronger. GW only recognise the trivial lose that one gamer/collector/painter represents - they are ignoring the fact they are helping fuel the growth of their direct competition

Meant to type this hours ago so have probably missed a couple things but I think the broad strokes are there.

It is assumed they resolve their current resin issues. I might stockpile a mini for a decade+ before opening the blister so I need to know it is sweet before I even look at your line.

 

[griffongames]

o play a volume game, not price a 'captured' gamer can be bled for many years. piss him off and he eagerly supports new firms where each incremental gain in the customer base makes them materially stronger. GW only recognise the trivial lose that one gamer/collector/painter represents - they are ignoring the fact they are helping fuel the growth of their direct competition

One thing that I always felt like GW got right was targeting the young gamers with their stores. Focusing on the 12 year old gamer and getting him to invest heavily in the game while they can seems to be a decent strategy. By the time he becomes embittered with GW he's already spent all he's going to spend and GW's focusing on getting that next 12 year old in the door anyway. I'm not a fan of the strategy because you are essentially saying that older gamers have no value but in a "sales are everything" kind of business perspective it certainly makes sense.

 

[Kalidane]

'Milk 'em while ya can' sort of thing. Well I guess they are happy enough with how that works to continue down that path.

I've been doing my part to object over tha past 5 weeks with a pretty large spend across 6-7 other companies. Just noticed the Perry miniatures plastics and remembered SJB so that's another couple I'll support this month.

As an 'old' collector I'm happy/lunatic enough to buy two boxes of Sanguinary guard because they have parts I can convert easily into combi-meltas, pretty much leaving the box untouched. Or a box of skeletons because I want a skull for a modelling idea. Or 3 boxes of Space Wolf Terminators because I want to play Space Hulk with 'my guys'. Or 3 SW Battleforces despite having a complete army in metal supplemented by the previous plastics. It seems I'm on the far right of the figmentia bell-curve.

Hmmm what I seem to be saying is 'DYKWTFIA???'. I guess I'm still affected by the latest shenanigans.

Ah yes there's my point - there must be some kind of middle ground that get's the kids today but does not exlude the veterans and well-informed. I think they are playing simple spreadsheet games in an attempt to optimise sales and I think they are doing it wrong. I seriously doubt they have a suit with any mathematical understanding in that area. They simply make an elasticity assumption, change the price, and go back to browsing youtube.

Silly rabbits.

 

[cfwheeler58]

I may be alone with this sentiment, but....

Beyond the game is the painter. Look at the markets that Andrea, Pegaso and others
are developing for fantasy figures. LEVERAGE YOUR IP AND POSITION TO TAKE ADVANTAGE !

If I were GW and I wanted to generate some income I would commission
from my best designers and sculptors ONE YEAR of the following:

1) a 75mm Wizard of the Month with a simple dioramic base ( metal or resin ) - 12 in all
2) a larger scale Dragon each quarter ( Look at the Rackham Titan Dragon, only cheaper....) - 4 in all
3) an occasional dragon or monster bust ( great painting pieces )
4) a monthly 200mm warlord bust for each 40k army in turn - what serious painter wouldn't collect them all ?
5) ditto #4 for Warhammer fantasy

Also....

200mm LOTR busts ! Establish footing to do the same for the Hobbit.....
Pirates !
Samurai !

and DON'T do the Forgeworld thing.....general availability !

Go to planetfigure some time and look at the growing presence of fantasy. Get in there....

 

[Chern Ann]

Just received an email from our ACDD sales rep. Finecast will not be available to 3rd party distributors in North America, only to direct trade accounts. Looks like GW is either trying to limit the fallout for quality, and/or removing their products from 3rd party distribution completely.

 

[Master of fact]

I wouldnt be too bothered by the lack of fine cast :eyeroll!:

 

[griffongames]

Just received an email from our ACDD sales rep. Finecast will not be available to 3rd party distributors in North America, only to direct trade accounts. Looks like GW is either trying to limit the fallout for quality, and/or removing their products from 3rd party distribution completely.

This is interesting, I would read this as being more aimed at controlling supplies. They're probably still having difficulties keeping up with demand. I think that the QC issues that we've all seen have been related to trying to quickly get all of this stuff into production. They tried to do too much too quickly.

 

[Chern Ann]

I thought this would be a better place for this post re Finecast:

GW's experience seems to have proven that the process is indeed more expensive, due to their high rejection rate, which must be considerably higher than the rate seen in stores since I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that their internal QC destroys the majority of the product that comes out, so that we only see the least bad examples. This process may have been oversold to management as a cheaper process looking primarily at material cost and ideal situations; a belief that a process is less expensive does not necessarily mean it is true.

4-10 minutes is considerably longer than a metal spin cast, which can be removed in 2 minutes or less. This means productivity goes down considerably for the same number of workers, dropping 50 to 80% is incredibly expensive. Where some hobbyist manufacturers do not place a value on their own time and cost casting time at zero, GW is not able to do so for obvious reasons. Add to this, an increased requirement for QC personnel, and I do not think metal is so expensive that resin casting is a good solution yet for human sized figures.

Further, let's charitably assume 4 minutes per model cure; again, if this model is no good, then someone, i.e. the customer, has to pay for the lost 4 minutes + demold time + QC inspection + safe destruction (I'm assuming resin at close to 0 value). If this rate is higher than 1 in 2 (based on Wayland's report), and about 1 in 10 or 20 for a metal spin cast, you are looking realistically at best, 4 minutes x 2 + (other processes) x 2 to cast one merchantable figure, anything from 15 minutes to half an hour to produce one model sold at 15 quid or less, compared to 2.5 minutes for a spin cast figure. So, best cast scenario, Finecast is currently 5 to 6 times more expensive in terms of labor than spin casting. I doubt very much the savings in metal in a single man sized 28mm figure (estimated to about $1 or less) can possibly make up for this. Since transport costs for man sized figures will most likely be by volumetric weight, the volume of a packaged metal figure will be the major factor and likely be the same as a resin one.

There are also hidden costs in terms of worker safety when handling resins, which tend to have higher toxicity before they set, especially for very exothermic resins. It is plain that this experiment is off to a shaky start on such a large scale. I'd expect to see even more price rises when the accountants add everything up. The question would be whether or not gamers as a whole will reject the higher priced product and force a change.

I suspect the assumption was that the reject rate would be closer to metal, i.e. 1 in 10, which would probably have made resin casting a sensible thing on the prediction that metal prices would continue to rise.

Quick addendum: http://investor.games-workshop.com/

To quote Mark Wells:

"However, manufacturing in resin is a very labour intensive process which involves mixing chemicals in flexible moulds that can deteriorate after a small number of casts. Quality control has to be 100% as the potential for miscasts is much higher than for metal or plastic miniatures. As a consequence the price of each kit is necessarily somewhat higher than the former metal versions and production runs are small to ensure that quality standards are maintained."

This is very illogical behavior if true; if you are #1, everyone loves the product, your first thought is to ... make it more expensive for yourself? This seems to be back-pedaling to justify a very costly mistake. I am sure Mr Wells would have much preferred to have said, "Finecast has allowed us to cut almost 20% in our manufacturing costs due to materials savings, and produces just as good a result as the metal originals, if not better!". The inability to admit mistakes only accelerates any existing downward trends.

 

[phreak0]

lack of finecast is a good thing, the summer warmth proved to everyone in my area that finecast is a huge failure, models melting once the temperatures went above the 30 degrees celsius mark is not good. my models were not suffering from direct sunlight either, just warm temperatures. brought it up with the local store manager and he told me that they actually have to re-bend every single FC model in their cabinet on a daily basis.

so coupled with the failed castingprocess the material is to soft to withstand normal summer temps in frigging Sweden!!! what about warmer climates then huh?

no more finecast for me.

 

[ColtheReaver]

"If I were GW and I wanted to generate some income I would commission
from my best designers and sculptors ONE YEAR of the following:

1) a 75mm Wizard of the Month with a simple dioramic base ( metal or resin ) - 12 in all
2) a larger scale Dragon each quarter ( Look at the Rackham Titan Dragon, only cheaper....) - 4 in all
3) an occasional dragon or monster bust ( great painting pieces )
4) a monthly 200mm warlord bust for each 40k army in turn - what serious painter wouldn't collect them all ?
5) ditto #4 for Warhammer fantasy"

If they want to sell a shed load of models to painters and gamers alike, produce the primarchs in 28mm or 54mm variants. You can bet your ass if they did they wouldnt be cheap but who wouldnt buy 'official' GW primarch models.

 

[freakinacage]

tbh from what i have seen before, the large scale stuff doesn't sell that well for them. while it'd be great for painters, the people who buy the bulk of their stuff are gamers, who have no interest is stuff they can't glue together and plonk on the table (there are exceptions to this rule but it's a good generalisation)

 

[ChemicalFencer]

lack of finecast is a good thing, the summer warmth proved to everyone in my area that finecast is a huge failure, models melting once the temperatures went above the 30 degrees celsius mark is not good. my models were not suffering from direct sunlight either, just warm temperatures. brought it up with the local store manager and he told me that they actually have to re-bend every single FC model in their cabinet on a daily basis.

so coupled with the failed castingprocess the material is to soft to withstand normal summer temps in frigging Sweden!!! what about warmer climates then huh?

no more finecast for me.

Well I'm in Qatar and the temperature is up at 47 deg. C (with the added bonus of Ramadan about to start). I assume that I'll have a puddle of resin if I went outside or left them in my car.

I'm no resin expert but if the resin is mixed components, then cast what happens to the miscasts that don't get sent out? I doubt they can be melted back down and cast again like metal.

I do remember that years ago I was reading something about GW's mission statement. It went along the line of 'producing high quality plastic figurines for . . . . .' It didn't state anything about metal. I think this was around the time when they were releasing all their multi part kits - looks like they are continuing mission.

I like the ideas on ColtheReaver - if GW were to start limited edition sculpts and advertised them well I think they would have a PR boost. I know they did try to do things for painter - anyone remember their master level paint brushes (or whatever they were called)? I'm not sure the number Col mentioned though - it might be too much. I do like the Primarch idea though . . . .

CF

 

[ColtheReaver]

I origionally quoted of CFwheeler58 so I cant/wont steal his thunder but the primarch models where my suggestion.