The State of an Industry

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alexvintage

New member
Well well well!

Its been a looong time since i posted in these forums! Its good to see the same levels of \'sanity\' are still evident amongst the multitude of crazy rants, crazy people and crazy paintjobs that echo round these halls.

Its been a long-severed relationship with the modelling industry but just like the ex-girlfriend who you know is just no good for you, I\'ve just gotta climb back into bed with it!

Which brings me to my question folks, you see when I last frequented the depths of the modelling industry at the beginning of the year there was an uneasy feeling in the air, GW had just declared that its yearly takings consisted of half an eaten mars bar, an iou for 53p from rick priestly and a stuck together copy of razzle. Rackham hadnt released anything \'really stunning\' for a time, and smaller cottage companies where hitting the skids. Yet 9months later and it seems like nothings happened! How is it all going for these companies does anyone know? Have GW\'s shares stopped falling faster than Tony Blairs opinion polls? Has WoW turned anymore great painters into lvl 60 catatonic vegetables?

Whats the news peeps? Whats been goin on this year?

AlexVintage, formally Alexdakid.

PS. Big shout out to SJB, Finn17, Ash and the whole southwest crew! London town will just never be cornwall!
 
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demonherald

New member
From what I can tell the industry is doing not too bad....
The Games Workshop slide caused by a mismanagement leading to their biggest overheads ever coinciding with their biggest slump in sales caused the emergency brake to be applied and seems to be recovering a bit..
Rackham have produced some stunning stuff IMHO a lately including a ridiculously big Dragon....But the Ophidian Darkness Apostates really do it for me.
Smaller companies are waxing and waning as usual...
Wyrd have had some nice stuff lately and Illyad are producing possibly the most popular minis on here at the moment.
Dark Age and Crocodile Games are both poised to release new ranges.
Quite a lot going on..
More than I can knowledgably go into...
Overall all companies are struggling a little with the current retail slow down but hey as long as I\'ve got a spare tenner or two I\'ll be buying minis.
 
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Ritual

New member
Demonherald pointed out some of the most noticeable things... I\'d just like to add a few things, though.

Rackham finally have got the Cadwallon train rolling and has released some of their best work yet there. Some of the Cadwallon minis have a lot more character than the Conf/Rag stuff, IMO, and I look forward to seeing more Cad releases. I know there\'s at least a few really top minis that haven\'t been released yet.

GW\'s new Orcs & Goblins is probably the poorest stuff I\'ve seen in decades. And that line usually have been one of their best in my eyes. :(

There\'s a new French game in the works for which Ilyad will produce the minis. It\'s called Hell Dorado and the stuff I\'ve seen so far is brilliant.

54 mm fantasy seems to be gaining ground. Andrea Miniatures\' Warlord Saga range is awesome (there\'s a 32 mm range in the works as well with the same characters) and Latorre\'s Enigma Miniatures have been producing some pretty amazing 54 mm stuff too. Reaper also has some in the works, but that doesn\'t truly float my boat.

Most likely there\'s more interesting stuff going on, but... you\'ll have to do some digging on your own. ;)
 
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Avicenna

New member
I think the word Cadwallon says it all

imaginative sculpts with a good deal of humour much akin to the old GW stuff from the 80s, but with the vastly improved quality that Rackham is reknowned for.

Oooh, and Howling Peak barbarians from Ilyad... *drool*
 
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alexvintage

New member
Its good to hear stuff all bak
ck on track! Ahhhh, ive missed unreality. Does anyone here frequent the Plaza GW? I feel the urge to go and buy myself pointless things and get painting again! :rolleyes:
 
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supervike

Super Moderator
Welcome back!

I don\'t know much about the industry per se, but hopefully I am doing my bit to help it stay propped up!
 
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Torn blue sky

New member
\'ello
As far as we know the mars bar dissapeared, last seen in the vacinity of Paul Sawyer...
Rick Preistly is in the middle of the law suit from hell after failing to return the said 53 pence...
The pages of Razzle have been seperated and cleaned by the \'eavy metal boys, and is curently doing a round robin of the toilet facilities...
Apart from that it\'s situation normal :yes:
 
SJB

SJB

New member
It seems that Bucky\'o\'Hare has returned to the Russian Mafia Disco... hello Alex...

I think most of the big moves in the industry are outlined above. I\'ll try to make a splash in the near future too. Just as soon as I\'m well enough to stand up for extended periods of time (getting there).

Steve B
 
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finn17

New member
Alex..My man!

Great to hear from you....really!

You are in London....??? good luck mate, but rather you than me, and I was born there:innocent:

IMO, there is a huge lull in the hobby. GW seem to have lost all impetus and are struggling after LOTR..where is the new Necromunda etc...where is any innovation whatsoever, but let\'s not turn this into a GW bashing thread. Many of the competitors have also plateaued with the possible exception of Rackham...

Who knows..

Not me...

Take care Alex...
 
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alexvintage

New member
Well im gonna do my bit to keep GW propped up cos i genuinely love those daft buggers:) I fink if they get fings right wit 7th ed they\'ll be alright, imo the £40 box is a good start, (i love the gobbos, i really do!) and i hear they are re-doing the empire to look more gothic and wierd which will be cool. It seems like they appear to turning a corner and they\'re listening to what people want as opposed to telling them so fingers Xed:rolleyes:
 
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EricJ

Active member
no one has mentioned Privateer Press! They are putting out a ton of quite nice new minis, and have what seems to be a darn popular game system. Also are putting out their own paints soon. Nice stuff
 
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Torn blue sky

New member
Privateer Press are .... Oh too late... ;)
Truthfuly I\'m branching out a lot more into other companies. If GW pull something fantastic out their ass, great! If not, well theres always other lines :)
Variety is the spice of life!...Or was that Oregano...Chilli? The points there anyhow...
 
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Modderrhu

New member
Originally posted by Torn blue sky
The pages of Razzle have been seperated and cleaned by the \'eavy metal boys, and is curently doing a round robin of the toilet facilities...
Click to expand...
Oi! Toss that one into my painting cubicle when you\'re done with it, mate!

Variety indeed. I\'m discovering the wonders of other companies that you people knew about years ago. And that seems to be a trend - too many gripes about GW have made people expand their horizons, though not necessarily move away from GW.
 
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matty1001

New member
Iv only just found out about Rackham\'s stuff, and :eek: was amazed! Only ever had GW stuff, but i might add a bit more basil into my pasta sauce! ;)
 
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DaN

New member
Here was me thinking it was Oregano...

Incidentally, do you say:

\"Oh-reh-gar-no\"
Or
\"Oreg-a-no\" like the Americans do...?
 
SJB

SJB

New member
It\'s worth noting that times have changed. There are so many companies out there now, small and large, that selling decent numbers of a figure is difficult.

Case in point: Spyglass (I\'ve heard similar stories elsewhere but at least I know exactly the case with Spyglass). Early releases like Shae, Katalin and Si\'Rene all sold in excess of 1000 minis. And the sales were steady rather than an explosion. Sales of newer figures trailed off. Now, there can always be arguments that the newer figures weren\'t to everyone\'s tastes quite as much but, before I put Spyglass on creative hiatus I was at the point where I\'d strain badly to sell 100 of even a hot release. In fact sales would often start to dribble at the 40-50 point.

And then there\'s the counter argument against it being a quality issue. Everyone hated Kage Dar the barbarian (well, he didn\'t come across as popular anyway). He still sold in excess of 500 minis. That\'s a wild success by the later standards.

As you can imagine, I\'d kill for a few more Shae-like sales. Not sure it\'s quite as easy these days. I\'d hesitate to say impossible but it\'s a tough sell. Even the 9.5 rated Alejandra didn\'t make big sales.

So, world changed. Guess I need to reinvent my personal wheel...
 
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Herb the bitter

New member
Originally posted by SJB
So, world changed. Guess I need to reinvent my personal wheel...
Click to expand...


Hey Steve,

I\'m just curious. How many of any given figure did you need to sell to make it \"worth your time\"? (i.e. what do you consider decent numbers?)
 
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supervike

Super Moderator
Originally posted by SJB
As you can imagine, I\'d kill for a few more Shae-like sales.
Click to expand...

How serious are you about this, and how soon could it be done?


:rolleyes:


I think its competition....and a flood of the market of companies that produce minis. The comic book industry went through a similar era a few years back. There were tons of new Publishers, new titles, new customers...but once the glut of the market happens, the customers become more choosy, titles start to collapse, and publishers go to the way side.

I think the same thing is happening in the mini world.
 
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