Plastic is the future!

[Wolfie65 1281xp 0]

@limburger – All  true, but one would think that a company the size of The Great GWulhu would be able to produce top level stuff at top level efficiency. They do charge top level prices – and beyond…

@emomonkey123 – Unless you’re planning on entering official GW contests or playing at official GW stores, there is no need to buy official GW models. You could just get the rulebooks/codices and use whatever miniatures you like. For example, historical minis are usually MUCH cheaper than fantasy minis and Anglo-Saxons would make excellent and very appropriate Riders of Rohan.

[limburger 22468xp 1]

@Wolfie65 you’d think that, wouldn’t you ?

I can almost guarantee you they don’t.
Their margins may be high enough that they don’t need to, but they’re most certainly not running optimum efficiency.
Indie companies are likely to be even worse, which is kind of why they suffer even more when cost of resources goes up as they lack the margin for error needed.

(source: I’ve seen the numbers from regular production companies regarding efficiency … and they’re miserable compared to what they’re capable of in theory. Think 10% of potential and often even worse if they’re not cheating in order to pretend they’re good … )

[Wolfie65 1281xp 0]

One can blame the material for being weak in the first place.

We have become used and desensitized to inferior quality and worse service across the board.

Examples: The Schrack brand, Bakelite-type rotary phone I grew up with in the 1970s was hardwired into the wall, about as portable as a brick, never needed service or repair, never dropped a single call, never needed ‘updating’, reception was always crystal clear, even to overseas, worked perfectly for at least 17 years and would probably still work today if rotary dialing was still supported. Today’s Big Brother tracking- and spy devices masquerading as ‘phones’ are an unreliable, glitchy mess prone to failure under real world conditions, last maybe 2 years if you’re lucky and the few that do are so obsolete after those 2 years that they might as well be broken.

Speaking of the 1970s, I remember very clearly that Nutella hazelnut paste actually tasted like hazelnuts back then, wasn’t too sweet and when you stuck a spoon into a (glass) jar of Nutella, the spoon would slowly fall over. Today’s pretend-Nutella is almost disgustingly sweet, much thicker – the spoon will remain rigidly upright – and if you want any hazelnut taste, you’re going to have to imagine it.

The list of similar examples is literally endless.

[grantinvanman 10292xp 0]

@Wolfie65 How are your 1976 polyester bell-bottoms and open button shiny disco shirt holding up? Literally all you talk about is the “glory days” of the 70s – Minifigs, a Bakelite phone now(?!?) – do you sit at home on Saturday nights and watch Saturday Night Fever on Betamax , listen to the Bay City Rollers on superior 8-track, and shout at the two antenna channels?

My man, you’re stuck in a time warp! Fifty years is a long time to come along. The Berlin Wall fell. Apollo-Soyuz is long over, because the CCCP is gone, dude.

It’s 2026. Not 1976.

 

[emomonkey123 0xp 0]

Don’t knock it. The best Dr Who was Tom Baker and you dont need no BetaMax to watch that, its on iPlayer. If you have tried buying anything for your house you will see how brittle it is. I have bought items made for outudoors that they make out o plasic an it gets weathered and brittle in no time.

I have been looking at stuff from Wargames Atlantic such as zombies for pox walkers but there is n way I will be gettig my son to play fantasy as he is in to his Space Marine 2…My wife also would give me grief.

[Wolfie65 1281xp 0]

@grantinvanman – My Hollister bootcuts from ca. 2010 or so are holding up fine, thanks for asking. I dislike polyester, but did have to get some very cool and very cheap polyester t-shirts from Temu over the past year or so because cool Dragon prints. I used to go out Saturday nights, but the only surviving club worth going to is kinda dead on Fridays and Saturdays, unless you’re into 50-something SingleMoms™. I have hated John Travolta since I had to take Isabella to see Grease a long, long time ago in what seems like a galaxy far, far away….I am, however just about to finish my self-imposed Peter Jackson marathon that has taken me through all 6 of his extended edition DVDs, including appendices, a journey of about 3 months. I watch them little bits at a time while working out.

Bay City Rollers ? lol Not quite. But I did watch Taylor Momsen’s new video about a week ago, looks like she’s over her John Lennon/Blues phase and back to what The Pretty Reckless do best. And got a Hans Albers double CD from Fleabay. Now THAT is a time warp……

And btw, I’d trade ALL of today’s phones for that Schrack any day, no hesitation.

[grantinvanman 10292xp 0]

I knew it – a Shrek phone! 😂

[horati0nosebl0wer 20550xp 0]

Aaaand we’re steering back on topic, considering how upcoming Kickstarters will likely be seeing changes in their stretch goals. Since there have been so many which source from Asia the likelihood of delays and messages about production issues will be greater. I remember both Kingdom Death runs and those were really rough because of the manufacturing in China.

I don’t see the move some companies made to get their products produced in specific economic zones to avoid tariffs helping much without raw materials.

[grantinvanman 10292xp 0]

So this really only affects Kickstarters, which I don’t do, so it has zero bearing on me.

Things are about to get a whole lot worse for those who do, though, unless there’s another TACO Tuesday – market manipulation for the wealthy is fun!

[Wolfie65 1281xp 0]

Last time I checked, the vast majority of manufacturers were based in Europe and North America, where metal is a readily available raw material.

[horati0nosebl0wer 20550xp 0]

Had a headscratch moment after watching a video on another aspect of how plastics and our hobby are affected. You can’t run precision engineered machines without computers. Computers need chips. Chips require highly specific production environments. Those labs demand helium (as byproduct of LNG production). The Gulf States aren’t exactly doing business as usual I hear.

Sheets for resin printers and control boards will be affected and there’s probably some effect on filament production too. Tiny fighting men producers just got sidelined to more important computer demand.

[grantinvanman 10292xp 0]

So much winning. So, so much winning.

[Wolfie65 1281xp 0]

The world was a better place before computers. They are good for some things, but I think we should have stopped computerization at the level of about 2000, anything beyond that is WAY too much.

[emomonkey123 0xp 0]

I agree on that point and I work in it. You have seen nothing yet. Jobs will be done with AI with human blame monkeys signing for liability. Thats the near future.

[pagan8th 14839xp 1]

Remember when computers were tools and not a replacement for a human being?

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