"Wow! Foundry news..." Topic

From Foundry's Newletter today…good on them!

(Quite) BIG CHANGES COMING AT FOUNDRY

We've been running Foundry since last June. Our plan was to wait at least six months before we made any major changes. We felt it would take that long to get to the bottom of everything. We can't really claim to have actually got to the bottom of quite everything yet.
However, we have now started getting on with those changes!

Our Website
We have to put our hands up and admit to running a mediocre website: ugly, confusing and sometimes so slow it can make you want to weep uncontrollably with boredom and frustration. Our models look awful in the mean little photos, even though the majority of them are very wonderful castings indeed.
Embarassingly, someone chose to pointlessly change the names of many of our models without any reference to historical accuracy or common sense.
Our website must have lost us many customers over the past few years.

We can only offer our apologies, and our heartfelt thanks to all of you for sticking with us through the slow process of putting your orders together on our uncooperative website.

We have started to build a new website in the format that Kevin Dallimore designed for us back in about 2000: when we were in Guernsey.
That was the one with eight life-size packs of models shown on each page. Clicking on them brought the images up massively in size.
You may recall that our site was previously packed with historical information, articles, painting guides, banners, rules and suchlike jollyness. We will put all that back too. This may turn into a big job. I should be able to do much of the legwork but this may take a month or three.

This is a sample page that I put together so that you can see what we are aiming at:

Removing Substandard and UnFoundrylike Models
From some point after 2005, a number of the new models made at Foundry were of either of a substandard quality or inappropriate in style.
It may seem strange to condemn a model soldier for "inappropriateness": but Foundry was originally founded when Cliff Ansell (my grandfather) took over the manufacturing of early Citadel historical models that would otherwise have been discontinued. Foundry started with a selection of mostly models by Michael and Alan Perry, and various odds and ends from Alistair Morrison and Dave Andrews. Since then Foundry has always stuck to a style that reflects the work of the early Citadel sculptors: Adams, Andrews, Ansell, Bibby, Goodwin, Morrison, Naismith and the Perrys.

Where a model obviously doesn't fit that style, we think that it really should be taken out of the Foundry ranges. We think that our customers have a right to expect us to maintain a consistent general style.
We have already removed the hundreds of packs of Napoleonic models that were made over the last seven years to replace Michael and Alan's ranges. We currently have no plans to put them back in production.

We will shortly start taking down all the models on our website that we regard as "UnFoundrylike".
We will continue to manufacture these models permanently, but will give them their own independent website with a new name. Until we sort a new website out we will put them up on eBay ("THE CASTING ROOM: Budget Wargames Miniatures!"). As they go up on eBay, we will remove them from our main website.

Substandard models are a more serious matter. There is no fun at all in selling models that are not adequate in proportion, finish, detail, pose or historical accuracy.
When we took over Foundry, we found ourselves in a painful situation. Customers were buying models from us that we considered to be substandard. This made us very uncomfortable: our instinct was to just discontinue them, we didn't want to push relatively poor models onto our customers. But we didn't want to be pushy newcomers who went about obstructing established customers buying choices either, or deny customers who have different tastes to us the chance to finish their armies.
In the end, we decided that we couldn't just discontinue ranges that people were still collecting and we stuck with our six month rule.

As it happens, when we looked at the sales figures, it turned out that although we manufacture a number of models that could be described as substandard, they make up only a tiny portion of our overall sales. Shortly we will permanently remove all those models from our site. We may offer them for outright sale (see below).

Pre-2006 Fantasy Models
We have a fairly large number of fantasy models in our ranges. My father had quite a few fantasy models made (well, actually over 300 wonderful Orcs and Ogres and Snorklings and Dwarfs and bits sculpted by Kevin Adams and great Elves and Dwarfs by Kevin, Mark Copplestone, Mike Owen and Shane Hoyle). These models were all made before 2006.
My father must have had them sculpted for old times sake!

We have a vast fantasy range, but we sell hardly any of them: regardless of their quality. I suppose that as we are a company known for military miniatures, fantasy is just not what people expect us to be doing.
Foundry's last management reduced the price of our fantasy packs from £12.00 GBP to £10.00 GBP to try and get more sales in: but it made no difference.

We have done a proper costing of the earlier fantasy models.
It seems that for the big models which make up the bulk of the older fantasy ranges, we would have to charge closer to £20.00 GBP a pack, just to break even.
This being the case, we have decided to withdraw all those fantasy models that date from my father's time from our website while we think about things. However, we don't want to leave anyone in the lurch, so we will still supply any models you need to finish your collection or army over the next couple of months: you just need to ring us up.

More Recent Fantasy Models
Some of the new fantasy stuff made more recently between 2006 and 2012 is pretty good.
There's a lot of it, but it's a bit of a random mishmash. We are going to remove all of them from our website and put them up on eBay. The new eBay site is called "FlytesofFantasy". We haven't put much up yet as we are waiting for eBay to go through their technical machinations to increase our selling allowance.

Unreleased Masters
Foundry's last management left us with surprisingly large numbers of masters of unreleased models. We keep finding more of them.
Some of the masters are rather sad: the underlying structure is fine, but the surface detail is quite poor.
The sculptor must have been taking the (as we say here in Nottinghamshire).
We plan to hang on to them and use them as training tools for new sculptors. Eventually they will probably be nicely sorted out and will see actual release.

Others will probably be manufactured and put up on the "FlytesofFantasy" eBay site.
We have some very eccentric Steam Punk Orks that we will most likely put into production eventually.

Others (recently discovered Marlburian pikemen for instance, or power armoured science fiction warriors) are of little interest to us, so will probably be auctioned off on eBay. If we do that, we will sell them complete with the rights to manufacture them. This might be the first time manufacturing rights for model soldiers have been sold on eBay.

Cheers

Marcus

Just read the email… Quite an eye opener…

All looking very promising,

Tally Ho!

A applaud how frank the new Foundry management is while presenting their case. I look forward to seeing what happens. My Foundry figures are among my favorites from my collection.

Perhaps I should move the minis wanted for "the lion eats tonight " to the top of my purchase list!

I hope the 2000AD and Street Violence models remain--they are great figures.

We have a vast fantasy range, but we sell hardly any of them: regardless of their quality. I suppose that as we are a company known for military miniatures, fantasy is just not what people expect us to be doing.

Well, fantasy is not as "hot" today as it was several years ago, but these things are cyclical I would imagine.

However, it might be a combination that shipping costs sucked, so sales went down. The website sucked, so sales went down. No promoting of the figures at. Some of the figures are a bit nasty, but some are really nice, such as the goblins. Lowering prices doesn't always fix everything! Keep the stuff sculpted by the good sculptors and ditch the rest. Same with the sc-fi. Build your rep back up.

Personally, I always saw Foundry as too expensive, so I can't even remember all the discontinued figures!

Foundry was charging as much for the fantasy stuff as GW but the quality wasn't nearly as good. I agree wholeheartedly with ditching the Fantasy range. I don't see Street Violence as "Fantasy." Nor 2000AD. I wonder if the recent SYW and Greek Myths stuff will count as below standard? In my opinion it certainly was way below par compared to the earlier stuff.

The real question is who are they going to get to sculpt for them in the Foundry style moving forward? Have to wonder if any of the old sculptor's would even want to work for them any more. My wargasm would be if they got Copplestone back, but it'll never happen…

Don't forget reducing the number of figures per pack (for the same price) and then claiming not to have raised prices in years! Or the outrageous prices US vs UK which in no way reflected any actual exchange rate.

I wonder what an "Unfoundrylike" miniature looks like? The Street Violence line?

Couldn't locate any of these named eBay stores/sellers.

Bummer about their fantasy ranges, quite liked them.

Don't forget reducing the number of figures per pack (for the same price) and then claiming not to have raised prices in years!

Yeah, that was the one that did for me. With my current budget it's academic, but I can certainly see myself returning to the Foundry fold at some point; they really do seem to be making great progress turning things around.

I also applaud them for their efforts. Sounds like great business to me, and that is what we need: strong companies to survive.

Foundry is still my all time favorite figures.

Is it a good idea to go about, taking down or shifting fantasy ranges, when they're just about to release a new fantasy game…?

Some of the new fantasy stuff made more recently between 2006 and 2012 is pretty good.

Does that include the beastmen and trolls? There's a humdinger of a reason why fantasy isn't selling.

Some of the masters are rather sad: the underlying structure is fine, but the surface detail is quite poor…
We plan to hang on to them and use them as training tools for new sculptors.

Is that to pretty them up, or to show the new sculptors how not to do it?

All very interesting … and the rhetoric does indeed sound very promising. The tone and candour of the language is refreshing. It would be great to get the old Foundry back – the one that lead the market in quality and offered real value, not the cheapest price point, but real value.

The challenge of plastic is now very real and rising. I too sneered at plastic originally and only bought metal but I was wrong and now actually find I prefer the plastic ranges available. It will be interesting to see how this new Foundry meets the plastic challenge.

I appreciate that they acknowledge bad past business decisions and need to fix them. Foundry is back in the running for my war gaming dollar.

I agree that currently in my opinion their prices arent worth it or at least when another company (no matter the material) can do it just as good and most likely cheaper

Maybe they'll be a household name again. I know that many new wargamers, even if they dip into historicals instead of sci fi/fantasy, tend to gravitate to people other than foundry

As always, I will grab all the Foundry I can find tat's cheap on eBay or flea markets.

Sounds like good policies. I love my classic Old Foundry ECW figures so I may add some more.

Very interesting….I love their old Perry sculpted stuff and will always buy the Renaissance stuff- to me they are just beautiful!

I have 100s of Foundry figures, and I love them. Sad to see their Fantasy ranges go, as I liked their elves (and not all of these were produced) and landsknecht ogres/orcs. I'll have to check out their ebay shop.
It'll be good to see their site get a revamp though, far too clunky at the moment. Hopefully, all to the good.

lets hope they are talking about ditching dsome of their recent output – most stuff since the Perries left has been shocking. They should also look at their postage costs – that's what really stopped me buying them (they are pretty pricey as it is)

HaHa just been forwarded to this page.I await to see the outcome of this with my big claw for cheap e-bay sell offs if we are lucky :)

What about the new "God of Battle" rules by Jake Thornton, due for release next month? I believe these rules are based around the Foundry fantasy ranges. This doesn't bode well for the future of these rules presumably ?

It does seem alittle ill timed for the new rules as they carry some of the fantasy sets on the cover.We'll have to see?I want to see these made but never seen ranges/singles to see if they are any good for VSF.

Very interesting news letter, frank and honest, very nice to hear that coming out from the Foundry.

I have a couple of really big 28mm Ancient armies, i really like the Foundry figures, just wish they would finish ranges rather than pick out the popular bit's and move on.

I can live with the cost of the figures if shipping was not so high. Wish they had a US vendor to sell them here in the states.

VR
James Mattes

Seemed pretty garbled to me. There are now going to be three ebay stores? The existing plus the two listed in the email?

The new fantasy stuff is better than the old? Come on! Really?

altfritz 5 sites,the original home page,

wargamesfoundry.com
the fantasy page set up over a year ago which discounted some lines.

foundryfantasy.com

Plus the three on ebay.Two of which are new, but don't seem to be working yet.I can't find them in a search anyway. ;) lol To be fair to Foundry the dely in the two new ones could be ebay adjusting their seller level status.

I think they will be merging a lot, as it would seem to be hard to run 5.

Well I wouldn't hold your breath on grabbing bargains. The first sets on Ebay a few weeks ago were about £5.00 GBP a pack, now they're £12.00 GBP

Just noticed the postage,their standard £4.00 GBP an order but unlike the main site they are adding £0.50 GBP to items added to the order.They are more expensive off ebay.Naughty!

While on the one hand I appreciate their efforts to improve, I also vehemently dislike it when they remove anything from the list of available models. I hope even the substandard and unfoundry-like models will still be available somehow for more than a few months. One never knows when one will want to expand an old army or finish and old project.

I much prefer Reaper's policy of casting anything no matter how old, to order, so long as they haven't sold off the molds.

I much prefer Reaper's policy of casting anything no matter how old, to order, so long as they haven't sold off the molds.

I like that policy as well. Foundry probably don't because multiple pack codes are in the same mold, so to spin one pack for an order they might wind up spinning two or three other packs that in that mould, making things more expensive.

Does this make sense? I can't write or speak well today. :-(

Vojvoda,

The WarStore carries most of the popular lines in the US, and could probably get anything else to order …..

Foundry do have an enormous number of moulds, each making (IIRC) two sets of the same code. But it's been ten years since I worked for them.

Don't Reaper cull their lists on a frequent basis? I often buy OOP Reaper stuff from the excellent Miniature-GIANT, which offers much/most of the stuff that Reaper isn't currently selling (or, at least, advertising as being available).

The new fantasy stuff is better than the old? Come on! Really?

That's what confuses me, too. There's no way they can claim that with a straight face.

Reaper has their boneyard, and you can order individual components from models if you ask nice.

I really like there fanstasy and if money was no object I'd buy them.

BTW does anyone have the link to their new site?

MJS,
Except for molds that have been sold or figures whose license has run out, Reaper claims to still sell nearly every miniature they have ever produced. However, these are not available in their regular catalog or on their website pages.

You have to go to the website download the NIC (not in catalog) catalog and search through it to find the miniature you want. Then you can order it though your local retailer or the website.

It would be sad if the "Mercenary Ogres" (and the respective Orcs) would go – imho these are some of the best miniatures around. I would make them a trade brand rather then stuff them.

Still no signs of the new e-bay pages,unless I missed them?Anyone else found them on ebay?

Didn't they just release a set of rules for thei fantasy minis?

Still no sign of the new e-bay pages.Come on Foundry we know you read TMP and have accounts.Please clear up our confusion and help us not to think the worst or go off into conspiracy mode.

Here's the latest offering
auction

Read the terms carefully, suppose you bid £27.00 GBP to get randomly selected figures at 75p each (which isn't a great bargain)and no-one else bids. You will win the auction at £150.00 GBPp, so you'll get 1 randomly selected figure for £1.50 GBP + £4.00 GBP p&p. I'll pass.

Cheers Buff couldn't find it or the other page on e-bay searches.

Word is they are going to Salute this year and will be taking the "unfoundry" ranges with them.For those lucky enough to get to London this year it maybe worth walking over to their booth.Not sure if they will be discounted but if it was me I would if you wanted rid of the ranges.

Ok, so how do I know which fantasy ranges are going and which aren't – witchcraft?

I've noticed they have dropped some prices on the main e-bay making them more reasonable but still can't find the ("THE CASTING ROOM: Budget Wargames Miniatures!") page.

In my random WGF checks I've come across a rather fair offer for Zulu Wars Brits.Looking at other companies prices they aren't that bad auction starting to go the right way there Foundry. :)

Extract from Wargames Foundry message.

"You will probably notice that our website has changed its appearance. As many of you will realise, we have gone back a decade or so to the website that the mighty Kevin Dallimore designed for us way back then.
We think that we have put up over ten thousand different models: all sculpted between 1978 and 2005.
Each page on the site contains a Collection of (usually) eight related packs which you can buy individually, or you can buy the whole page at once and receive a discount.

For the time being we are going to be selling our individual packs at £10.00 GBP each: so a typical collection will cost you £70.00 GBP

We are suspending all our other discounts and offers while we run the £10.00 GBP price.

Postage rates will be £6.00 GBP to the UK and £8.00 GBP to the rest of the world: with post free coming in at £80.00 GBP Unfortunately it looks like our postage rates are going to have to go up in the relatively near future: all the shipping companies seem to be bringing in price rises at once.

Our old website that this replaces must have been the slowest site in the world. We hope that you find this new one to be a much pleasanter experience. As you wander around, we would be very grateful indeed if you would let us know about any problems that you encounter. This will help us no end. Also, we're very keen to know about anything on the site that irritates or annoys you and anything that you think could be improved. Email marcus@wargamesfoundry.com.

DAFT TEXT
At some time over the last 10 years someone took it upon themselves to change the names of many of our packs. Previously they all had sensible names. The new names are often neither sensible nor accurate. One of the surviving staff here at Foundry was telling us that the reason all those Chinese models were renamed either as "Chinese" or "Bandits" was that the previous management felt that all the silly Chinese names were too difficult for people to remember.

This is terribly embarrassing, and we are going to fix it. Regrettably the new text was printed across the images in many cases. The process of replacing them with clean photos without foolish names is going to be a long one.

ARTICLES etc
The old Dallimore designed site was packed with interesting articles and suchlike. These will return as soon as we can set the time aside for getting all the old articles (and a good number of newer articles) up on the site.

SO: WHERE ARE ALL THE OTHER RANGES THEN???
Our other models: the more recent ones, are all going to get their own new websites (apart from the really cr*p models of course: we will use those as fishing weights).

There will be four sites:
Flyte of Fantasy:
Fantasy models made since 2005.
Casting Room Miniatures:
Historical models made since 2005.
Rustbucket Miniatures:
'Replacement' models made since 2005.
"We haven't thought of a name for these yet' Miniatures:
These are the couple of hundred or more marvellous models that Kevin Adams made for us some time ago. Many of them were never properly released. These will share a home with the very fine fantasy models made for us by Mark Copplestone, Shane Hoyle and Mike Owen.

I feel that I should explain the "Rustbucket Replacements". You won't believe it: but it's true.
At some point the previous management decided that, as a huge proportion of our sales was made up by the thousands of models that Michael and Alan had made for us, they should simply have all the Perry models resculpted by someone else so that we would not have to pay the Perry's a royalty any more.
They have had loads made. We have removed the replacements (though we are still selling some off on the wargamesfoundry eBay site). The entire Perry range is back in stock and dangling from the storage hooks in a factory.

We have recently started the "FlyteOfFantasy" eBay site though it doesn't really have that much up on it as yet.

We started "TheCastingRoom" eBay site last week! We've had five sales today so far! Even less up on that one though.

The "WargamesFoundry" eBay site is doing well selling off our regiments overstocks. We have sold well over 25,000 miniatures on it in the last month. We keep putting up the odd newly found regiments when we discover them in the dusty corners of the Foundry factory. Chinese and Zulus went up recently."

Note that the postage is up to £6.00 GBP in the UK on the main site.Most packs currently are at £10.00 GBP (maybe this is because of the successful e-bay pricing?)Which means your still paying the same price for a single pack £16.00 GBP.

The site its self isn't finished but to me having played on it for 30 minutes it looks poor and is just as hard to find things as the more plush looking old site.But items that were taken off in the past can be now found with a bit of searching.Though its needs to be smoother if they want more sales.

The Casting Room is up now and should have more ranges on it in the future.

Over all a mixed bag from the company so far.:(

Come on Foundry you did good over your Regiments deals don't start slipping back.

Been gaming at Foundry after they started their new open door policy to gamers with 'Foundry Arena'

This has seen their new fantasy game God of Battles being run on a free drop and play system with the games designer Jake Thornton, on the first Saturday of the month 10 am till 4:30pm free tea, coffee and biscuits. Bring a few fantasy mini's or borrow a force and try the game or just play.

They have several gaming tables and all are available for people to make use of.

Which will be taken up later this year with 'The Olde Hammer Community' massive gaming event.

This seems to be part of their new gamer friendly policy and so far has been a real treat to game there.

The ebay sites are:

auction

auction

I thought Casting Room was supposed to be budget priced. (THE CASTING ROOM: Budget Wargames Miniatures)

£9.00 GBP or £10.00 GBP for three horsed figures plus £4.00 GBP postage isn't budget priced in my book.