'Eavy....resin?

[Admiral-Badruck]

so no resin? just models have to be bought from GW Direct?

[Primarch]

so no resin? just models have to be bought from GW Direct?

Maybe, Maybe not.
GW has made no announcements, given no information and even their own staff dont know why for certain.

This is all just wild speculation.

[Seb]

I don't know about it all, I like having my centerpiece in metal. Otherwise I don't care so much.

Basically, running a store is expensive. One of the biggest costs is Insurance, where you have to insure every item on your shelves at cost against fire, theft etc. The latest rumour is that GW is pulling all metal stock from their shops to save big time on insurance costs (since you can fit 1 plastic box in the space for 18 metal blisters). By making all the metals direct only they decrease costs in their retail stores by a massive amount

This, however seems to me as a really smart business move and an efficient way of decreasing cost, if this contributes to investments for making better and more models then I like it.

[Spevna]

I don't know about it all, I like having my centerpiece in metal. Otherwise I don't care so much.

Basically, running a store is expensive. One of the biggest costs is Insurance, where you have to insure every item on your shelves at cost against fire, theft etc. The latest rumour is that GW is pulling all metal stock from their shops to save big time on insurance costs (since you can fit 1 plastic box in the space for 18 metal blisters). By making all the metals direct only they decrease costs in their retail stores by a massive amount

This, however seems to me as a really smart business move and an efficient way of decreasing cost, if this contributes to investments for making better and more models then I like it.

I agree. It is a very smart way to drop costs. But how much of that cost costing will be passed on to the consumers? I'll give you a clue. It starts with "F" and ends with "uck all".

[Primarch]

...This, however seems to me as a really smart business move and an efficient way of decreasing cost, if this contributes to investments for making better and more models then I like it.

There is a point here that you have missed.
Where did you get Canis from? Did you but it in Japan or did you mail order it? If you were smart you used either Wayland or Maelstrom and got it at a discount.

If GW were only pulling models from their own stores then there wouldnt be an issue, especially for us since most of us never go into an actual store. But they're not. Metal models are going from EVERY store. They are reducing their own overheads, but screwing the customers by doing so. EVERY metal model MUST be purchased from the GW webstore. That means you cant get them from Yellow Submarine, you cant get them from Ikeda-san's new shop, you cant get them from Iconoclasm or Ring-Tail here in Japan. And most importantly for us, you cant get them from Wayland or Maelstrom with the reasonable discounts (and free shipping from Maelstrom). Everytime you want to buy a new metal model you HAVE to pay full price and full shipping costs.

Now in Seb's case he has his centrepiece model and has said he isnt planning on ever buying more than 1 army. For people like me, M_i_J, Badruck, Pikey etc who do buy new armies and or new models on a semi-regular basis this really stings. Especially for anyone playing Eldar where half the range is metal.

Now, it still hasn't been confirmed as to why they are doing this. Maybe it is them going for the money gouging gold medal or maybe they really are planning to replace the metals with resin. I'm hoping its the latter, but experience has proven that the former isn't beyond them.

I agree. It is a very smart way to drop costs. But how much of that cost costing will be passed on to the consumers? I'll give you a clue. It starts with "F" and ends with "uck all".

Business as usual then.

[Spevna]

I have in the past defended the actions of GW on the grounds that they are just doing business, but to me this seems to be taking it one step too far. Whilst I wont take a Spevna Stance (trademark pending), and boycott them entirely, I will happily boycott their metal range if it turns out that it was one big money grabbing exercise.
If they do change over to resin then that is fine so long as their prices dont go up.

If it has got to the point where Prim has started to think along the "boycott" lines, things must have gone too far.

I am generally pretty one sided in my view of GW, I will be the first to admit that I am far from objective about the whole thing. Prim however has a much more level headed view of the company than I do.

If he is starting to think that this could/may/possibly be a way of gouging customers, I reckon that we will find this to be the case.

I guarantee that if production does move to resin, you will see the price remain the same or go up. Snowball's chance in hell of it going down.

if it is merely a matter of all metal stuff going direct only, you can (obviously) kiss your internet shopping discount goodbye.

Either way, GW customers will end up on the wrong end of a stick(the sharp/rough end for all those that were wondering).

[Seb]

I got it from Iconoclasm I think, they do GW direct as well so I guess many retailers like Iconoclasm will be able to get the minos here to their customers but yeah the price will be a different story.

Just like you say, it doesn't hurt me because I only need 1 metal model for my 1 army but I feel bad for Eldar players. I like to stay optimistic though and even if I don't know the company and their past actions very well I still hope that they will take this opportunity, reinvest the money that goes to insurance into something that goes back to the customers, product updates etc.

[Colonel Voss]

This may just be normal business stuff but I thought I'd post it anyways. Recently put in my request for my miniature paycheck and got an email back sent to several of us. It basically said that certain metal minis are completely out of stock. The list I saw covered several armies in both fantasy and 40k.

[me_in_japan]

interesting point from Voss, there.

If the minis are unavailable to GW staff (which Voss is, I believe), then it could well be that they really, really are gone. Theyd have to replace em with resin, assuming they want people to ever be able to play eldar again...

*ulp* I hope I didnt leave it too late to get my shadowseer and death jester...

[Primarch]

According to lots of FLGS retailers on the interweb, they have received notice from GW that an announcement re: Metal Miniatures will be made on Monday 16th of May.