Plastic is the future!

[dags 4570xp 1]

As a note on siocast the latter versions are better (and it was never finecast bad) but it is not the sharpest detail and it is still too slow a production method for the truly bulk manufacture

[kingthrall 32xp 2]

Renedra plastics are manufactured in UK and supply a lot of north star products,bases ect. As much as I like pewter their plastics are great.

Not everywhere is a cesspool of exploitation and pollution. Vote with your wallet or accept that your a small part of the issue of legitimising the behaviour.

[horati0nosebl0wer 20562xp 0]

@dags The plastics for boardgames is a big hit. I hadn’t considered much outside sprue based model boxes.

Transportation costs for all will go up. Looking at cutting distance, perhaps precursor material sourcing could move to the EU or in North America. It goes to environmental regulations at that point but costs are reduced from travel expense. The division of and Wargames Atlantic production addressed this well.

 

[emomonkey123]

Metal for the life. I have late 80’s chaos marines (nurgle) and they don’t age one bit. Crazy how much they charge for plastic. What I payed for a new nurgle plague marine character was crazy. Material wise it was made for pennies. I am reusing my late 80s figures as spending 200 pounds on a 40 k army does not make sense.

 

I hear that Unicorn horn material Warcrow uses is pretty decent..Unicron or is it Unicool

• This reply was modified 1 month, 3 weeks ago by emomonkey123.

[Wolfie65 1281xp 0]

METAL !

[limburger 22468xp 0]

An interesting comment in the ‘trolls’ kickstarter by ‘avatars of war’.

Looks like they changed to plastic because their previous material and production method did not scale.

 

Regarding the miniature sets you mentioned from previous campaigns, unfortunately they are not currently available. Those sets were produced specifically for those Kickstarter campaigns, and the production system used back then is quite difficult to sustain over time.

I noticed that their Orcs kickstarter used SioCast and they’re switching to “high-pressure plastic injection with precision steel molds” and “premium-grade PVC plastic”.  I suspect that this is the high end pvc that we’re seeing in boardgames ?

source:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1255941982/stone-trolls-plastic-multi-part-regiment-by-avatars-of-war/description

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1255941982/legendary-orc-warriors-regiment-physical-forge?ref=creator_tab

[horati0nosebl0wer 20562xp 0]

After a sit down and think over the video from John on Gunpla and the mention of general boardgame plastics costs going up, there might be issues with the future of products. I took a look-see at some logistics reports and thought this one was a good glance at current events.

Given that Bandai is a distinct manufacturer reliant on petrochemicals for a good chunk of their products this news gives reason to reflect on the industry. The first wave of companies are the plastics and then a follow on cost increase for printed materials. Paper demands lumber with the costs of harvest and transport before the processing. Then there are the inks for print and packaging. These upstream production costs are the things I wouldn’t normally consider when I pore over a shiny new book.  Ugh, the intricacies of logistics chains is pretty big and the hobby manufacturers aren’t going to have an easy time for the foreseeable future.

[limburger 22468xp 0]

Prices only ever go up for us …

It rarely matters that the actual cause has been solved.
And it doesn’t matter that the actual resources have been hoarded at low prices months in advance.

Prices go up and never down, because they want to maximize profits as soon as we have swallowed their lies.

[Wolfie65 1281xp 0]

Careful, you’re sailing awfully close to some forbidden knowledge….

[grantinvanman 10308xp 0]

[emomonkey123 0xp 0]

The actual actual cost of the plastic used in a 16 pound Games Workshop minature is likely in the pennies. I am gobsmacked when I see 52 pounds being charged for a small number of minatures from GW so if they used the raw material cost as an excuse that will be laughable. I am more worried about the cancellation of my holidays if jet fuel becomes rare. That will be a real thing

[limburger 22468xp 0]

cost of production may be pennies, but the people who designed and marketed it need to be paid as well.

construction of the moulds is another factor.

Plastics tend to work best at scale, but you can’t exactly use scale to your advantage if you can only sell one mini to a fraction of your customers. That’s why a character model is more expensive to produce than a standard trooper model for a horde army.

I doubt the margins for profit are as good as you think they are.
They’re not bad … or else GW would still be producing those unique models in metal or resin.

[Wolfie65 1281xp 0]

I remember reading many years ago that the initial start-up costs for setting up plastic production are quite astronomical, but once you got going, cost per item drops to virtually nothing. In other words, if you produce in volume, your profit margin will be quite huge, sort of like the profit margin for soft drinks. Production of metal items works the opposite way, start-up is relatively cheap, but material costs are fairly high.

What I’d like to know is why Minifigs are able to sell classic sculpts from the 1970s, made in, as best I can tell, from brand new or refurbished molds that yield excellently cast figures while GW are apparently unable to do the same with slightly less classic sculpts from the 1980s or 90s. It can’t be a storage space issue, GW have plenty of very large buildings at their disposal – probably many times the storage space Minifigs have – so there should not be any problem having all those old molds on shelves somewhere. It can’t be a mold issue, Minifigs have perfectly working molds, and they are a much smaller company, at least today. It can’t be a demand issue, there are plenty of us grognards who actually prefer the older fairy tale sculpts over the new video game figures. I personally know 2 guys who quit WHFB because GW axed their favorite army, the Chaos Dwarfs, and were no longer supporting the line or selling the figures. And that’s just me in my little gaming circle, I’m sure there are plenty of other such examples.

[emomonkey123 0xp 0]

I dont want t kick GW too much as I a just getting back intot the hobby reusing some of my late 80’s stuff. I find its something I can do with my teenage son so he is not glued in from of a screen but…the cost. GW recoup the design cost easily frmo the codex, rulebooks and White Dwarf magazines. I know the info is available elsewhere in a slightly messier layout but still you buy the new minatures and there are no stat cards . They expect you to buy the codex rues even for the app.

There is no way raw materal costs will feed into GW’s price

[limburger 22468xp 0]

@Wolfie65 just because a company could technically do it that does not mean they will …

It would be nice if (a) any savings were passed downstream and (b) products  were alway made to the highest standard possible, but that just isn’t how the world works. (and that’s assuming the factories are working at optimum efficiency … you’d be surprised how inefficient production processes can be.)

Heck … we wouldn’t be in the current sitation at all. We still would have x amount of days/weeks/months until the cost increase would hit us. Again .. not how reality works.

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