The Bizarre Inequality of GW Box Sets

[Lost Egg]

So recently GW released a new box of boyz...for £29 you get 10 minis, including a Nob, 5 slugga & choppas, 3 shootas and one big shoota / rokkit launcha. There are also a couple of options for the Nob included. So you can't build a full squad of either sluggas & choppas or Shootas

Now this seems a bit of a let down compared to the older Ork Boyz box, which they are still selling by the way. In that you get 11 minis, including a Nob (with options) and 10 boyz who can be armed with all sluggas & choppas or all shootas plus one model can carry a rokkit launcha and one can carry a big shoota...all for £22.50.

So in the older box you get a lot more options for a saving of £6.50 The old sculpts aren't that bad and the new box hasn't replaced the old so why go to all the bother and expense of designing a new kit if you're only going to do half a job?


Now lets look at the Eldar Guardian box they recently announced. No price or release date announced yet but they have shown off the minis and the box art, inside you get 10 guardians plus a weapon platform. The models can be armed with either chainswords and shuriken pistols or shuriken catapults plus one mini can have a melta gun (or whatever its called now) and theres at least one power sword. Plus there are at least two options for the weapon platform. This is a big improvement over the old guardian box where its just shuriken catapults plus the weapon platform (all options included); they have only shown 2 options for that so far so maybe the others are included or maybe not we'll see).

So my question is what's going on? The guardian box has increased its options while the ork boyz box has decreased its options. I don't play the current edition but can you now have a mix of shootas and slugga & choppas in the same squad? If not, you'd need to buy 3 boxes to get enough shootas for a 10 man squad!

I just don't get it. The cost to make plastic kits is meant to be VERY expensive for the molds so why bother making fewer options for a new box set? You are basically begging for your customers to go the 3D printing route or to grab the extras they need off bits sites, neither of which GW should want.


To me it makes sense to identify older kits that need updating but you'd make sure that all options (within reason) are included in the new box, especially if it means you can stop selling upgrade kits (like for the Storm Guardians). You can always throw in a new option or two if you fancy. That way you can retire the old kits, update the aesthetic if you like and have a good reason for bumping up the price.

To do anything else just seems crazy to me.

[Rogue]

I am convinced that getting into the hive mind of GW corporate will likely send you down a rabbit hole that would require so much peyote to understand what they are doing, that Alice in Wonderland will seem like a childhood fairy tale for the "special" kids in comparison. You are absolutely correct that it does not make sense as to what they are doing in how the load out the kits, and that is in addition to the price increases as well as their new models that just look ugly to me. Unless it is a "must have" to finish off a collection, I don't plan to be buying much from GW. I have almost two full armies of Orks, and that means that I can fill almost every slot in the old Force Organization Chart from the 5th and older. I do want to get some more elites, HS and FA. Likewise I have just about the same with the old Eldar as well only with more holes to fill. Perhaps that is something that I need to do is to look at my inventory and see what I need to start looking to obtain.

Overall, yes the 3D printers are looking better and better every time that I see what is being released by GW.

[Lost Egg]

I can only assume they have no plan and that teams work on sets independently with little to no oversight.

I know in the past they have basically said the design comes before the fluff so the designers do some "cool" sketches and someone makes it into a mini then hammers it into the fluff.

It's a shame as say 15 years agoish they were doing a good job of revsing the ranges but then they kinda went off the rails adding anything and everything.

[Commissar von Toussaint]

I can only assume they have no plan and that teams work on sets independently with little to no oversight.

I know in the past they have basically said the design comes before the fluff so the designers do some "cool" sketches and someone makes it into a mini then hammers it into the fluff.

It's a shame as say 15 years agoish they were doing a good job of revsing the ranges but then they kinda went off the rails adding anything and everything.

I haven't bought stuff from GW in a long, long time. I do all my shopping on ebay and frequent storefronts selling broken/incomplete models.

I'm also in the same state as Rogue - the armies are basically complete, I'm just adding some flourishes here and there for specialty scenarios.

As for what they sell and why? I have no idea. Once it became clear that GW has zero fidelity to the fluff or the integrity of the rules, I lost interest in keeping up with their system.

I will say this: I don't have a grudge against GW. If I can find their models at a price that works for me, I will use them. If not, I'll look elsewhere. As noted above, the broken/incomplete kit market is pretty good right now. I've got such a stockpile of bitz at this point that I can pretty much scratch-build or mod whatever I get.

Example: Wanted Orks in mega-armor, didn't want to pay full freight, found some OOP Dark Angel Terminators, bought them, cannibalized the suits, added Ork heads and weapons, saved the remaining parts which I'm now using to outfit some Chaos Terminators.

[Lost Egg]

I'd love it if there was some stores selling old minis round my way.

I too get most of my stuff off ebay and though I have bought some fairly recent(ish) GW minis it's mostly older stuff.

I'm not really too bothered about the price of GW minis as I've never been one for big armies; I'm currently playing around with Rogue Trader / 2nd Ed inspired rules for a squad level game (a squad leader, 2-3 fire teams and a support element).

I was never one for collecting loads of minis...I think my head would explode! I always sold, traded or binned my minis in the past (sacrilege to bin minis I know but as I say I find too much stuff very suffocating due to my autism so I kinda crashed a couple of times and chucked the offending minis).

What annoys me more with GW is the move away from the interchangable parts; kits have strange cuts and limited posing...I find I lose interest in those kits pretty quickly. I think that's why I am increasingly looking back to older minis...even the original RT plastics (Imperial Marines, Space Orks, Space Dwarfs & Imperial Guard) are better than a lot of the current ones.

[Rogue]

That seems to be more of a problem with GW's offering as of late. All of their mini's are very specific and not that much interchangeable at all these days.

[Lost Egg]

To me it seems odd because a lack of interchangeability surely encourages people to buy minis from other companies that do offer it. Whereas in the past players might have bought just a few 3rd party bits for customisation, instead now they can get whole minis or even armies.

For years I think GW has been unintentionally fostering these companies who have weirdly been both undermining their sales and at the same time boosting the IP. It's a very strange situation and ultimately doesn't promote loyalty to GW but instead to the worlds they created.

[Commissar von Toussaint]

That seems to be more of a problem with GW's offering as of late. All of their mini's are very specific and not that much interchangeable at all these days.

I remember when they announced the multi-pose kits and everyone was excited because of all the flexibility, but now it seems that they're just "multi-piece," and the poses are pretty much predetermined. You can swap out weapons and equipment, that's all.

The funny thing is, my ork army is almost entirely made up of 2nd Ed. boxed set figures - the guys with the spiked helmets, bolt pistol and axe. Do you know, you can actually mod the crap out of those guys?

On some, I cut the center spike off, so they have two horns. Others lost the horns, but kept the spike. Swapping out weapons is easy, as is moving the arms.

And of course, having other armies means you get all sorts of additional conversions - like those spikes and horns go on Imperial marines to "chaos" them. I just enjoy the creative aspect, and I find going with older, cheaper (often broken) stuff is the way to go.

[Rogue]

These days you are luck if you can swap out weapons and equipment. Most of the new models are specifically built so that the only way that it works right is if you put this model together exactly as shown in the instructions or it will not fit together.

[Lost Egg]

Indeed. I was very disappointed when I got some Primaris marines and realised I couldn't clip them into piles of similar parts like you used to be able to, it has to be these arms together and so. Part of the fun for me was playing around with parts from different kits but the new ones barely even allow you to play about with the parts from the same kit.

I notice too that many kits are smaller frames which are repeated more often than in the past, saving GW production costs and yet the kits are as pricey as ever. The old tactical squad kit has loads of options whereas the intercessor kit has almost none.

[Commissar von Toussaint]

These days you are luck if you can swap out weapons and equipment. Most of the new models are specifically built so that the only way that it works right is if you put this model together exactly as shown in the instructions or it will not fit together.

Wow, that's crazy. I still have a couple of the 2nd ed. close combat weapon sprues - one Imperial, one Eldar. Great flexibility!

I do a ton of switching stuff out. For example, I took the bolt pistols of those 2nd ed. box orks and was able to 're-issue' them to Chaos Marines. The positioning of the old models was somewhat wooden, but you could change that with some judicious cuts.

The later models I have require a lot more modification to exchange weapons. It's very much as you say, with some of the models actually having pegs - no flexibility there!

I'll say this: the plastic is much easier to deal with than the white metal. I've got some nostalgia for the old kits, but not the glue it required.

At any rate, it seems clear that GW continues to find new ways to make its operations ever-more profitable. I figured at some point people would have had enough, but I was wrong.

[Rogue]

Alternatives to GW were rather slim when it came to a good proxy for some of GW's lines over the years. You could always find a good alternative for humans be it IG or Fantasy with Imperial, Brettonian, DOW, etc., but I never was able to find a good alternative to any of the Elf ranges that I liked, be it Eldar or Fantasy Elves. All that I ever found was one who did parts for High Elves that I liked. Same problem for Orc and Goblin, Dwarves, and almost all of the other factions that I have collected over the years that were non human.(or in the case of Space Marines non regular human) Perhaps I just like the motif that GW has developed over the years. That is until 3D printing came about, and I have seen plenty of proxies that I have liked. Likewise either give it time, make a request, or learn how to make your own files and you will find something that works perfectly with your vision.

[Zemlod]

Also, most kits were interchangeable between Fantasy and 40K. Especially the Empire Free Company (now sadly discontinued) was a favourite source of bitz for me...

I dread the day, when they'll change Cadians to single piece monopose pushfit models as well...

[Commissar von Toussaint]

Also, most kits were interchangeable between Fantasy and 40K. Especially the Empire Free Company (now sadly discontinued) was a favourite source of bitz for me...

I dread the day, when they'll change Cadians to single piece monopose pushfit models as well...

Oh, absolutely! I've got a couple of Fantasy sprues kicking around as well with weapons I continue to switch back and forth.

All of the old plastics were highly compatible. I converted some Lizardmen Saurus from 5th ed WHFB to Chaos Demons. Added a bunch of spikes, swapped out their clubs for bladed weapons, etc.

So many fun things you can do.

As for alternate models, GW's LOTR range replaced both my High Elf and Orc/Goblin armies. I actually took some of the GW wolves and mounted LOTR Goblins on the backs to be wolf riders. Wonderful variety.

My Imperial Guard is entirely WW II historicals. I suppose if I was doing Cadians, I'd just use modern miniatures. The special weapons are pretty easy - just be consistent and use creative paint jobs (such as painting the rim of the base a different color than the grungs) to differentiate them.

Really, though HMGs = heavy bolters, Panzerfausts = missile launchers, and light ATGs can be lascannon or whatever.