Archived from groups: rec.games.miniatures.warhammer (
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John Hwang wrote:
> Spack wrote:
>
>> "Kenneth Coble" <flintlocklaser@triad.rr.com> wrote ...
>
>
>>>>> That makes perfect sense, actually. They can throw a small sprue in
>>>>> there with the chap-specific shoulders, and some of the typical
>>>>> bitz: swords and feathers for the Deathwing, wolf tails and teeth
>>>>> for the Wolf Guard, whatever. Who wants to bet on what the markup
>>>>> for that little 'extra' sprue will be, though? My money's on $10 US
>>>>> more per chapter-specific box.
>
>
> At the rate GW is increasing prices, that may be the case. I'd guess $5
> USD, but then I'm not an especially greedy bastard.
>
>>>> My money's on metal bitz, as the existing sprues already have the
>>>> generic shoulder pads on. Cutting a sprue for a relatively small
>>>> production run, and having to take another larger selling mould off
>>>> the production line to make them, would likely cost more than casting
>>>> up metal parts. A box would have the generic sprues plus the metal
>>>> bits, probably for an extra £5 (or if the financial people get
>>>> involved, £10).
>
>
> That's a very short-sighted viewpoint. GW will convert everything to
> plastic. It's just a matter of time. GW is making money hand over fist
> with plastics, and using that money to buy more injection machines, more
> molds, and so forth. This allows them to minimize profits by increasing
> investment and tooling costs. But make no mistake: GW *will* do
> Chapter Termie sprues. If not in 40k4, definitely for 40k5.
>
>>> Wow, that's interesting. Despite a horrible summer job working QA in
>>> an injection molding plant (I worked on the line that made disposable
>>> pipette tips, yay), I didn't know this point about the economics
>>> behind miniature production. I'd have guessed that metal bitz would
>>> be more expensive than the plastics - you learn something new every day!
>
>
> Designing and sculpting bitz costs about the same either way. The
> difference is that metal bitz require rubber molds that can be made for
> under $10 USD in materials and a relatively inexpensive metal casting
> machine. Plastic sprues cost an order of magnitude more to create the
> mold and buy the machine. However after investment costs are taken care
> of, plastics are practically free to produce, whereas metal bitz have
> actual materials and labor costs. Metal bitz also slowly destroy their
> molds, whereas plastic molds last forever. This is why GW is moving to
> plastics.
>
>> Had a chat to some of the plastics guys at GD last year - apparently
>> GW only have a limited number of machines, so if they need to produce
>> a new sprue, something has to come off the production line. It might
>> not be cheaper part for part to do smaller runs in metal, but when you
>> factor in the cost of creating the mould, production time lost
>> changing moulds on a machine, and the reduction in output of the sprue
>> that the previous mounted mould was for, it can result in being more
>> cost effective to cast up lower level productions in metal than plastic.
>
>
> Yes, but GW is buying more and more machines. How? Because the savings
> in plastics allows them to do so. When you think about what GW has
> converted to plastic, and so forth, GW is definitely making money by
> converting to plastics.
>
> It just takes GW some time. And if you count the number of kits, total,
> and as a percentage of each army, it is very clear that the rate of
> conversion to plastic is definitely accelerating. GW is generating a
> *lot* of profit to do this.
>
>
I would futher say that buy Putting everythig in plastic box sets they
get to up thier price point compared to blisters. People buy the boxes
as they are better deals and can use the extra bits for whatever. This
makes the blisters sell less and eventually that can show that Metal
does not sell and put everything in $35-$50 plastic kits.
This seems like it would be huge profit due to the fact that Revell
sells thier 1/48 scale planes for $16-20 a $30 Rhino seems like a very
good deal for GW.