"The Hobbit - Plastic Lake Town House Preview " Topic

Nice!

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Amicalement
Armand

Nice scenery…nice figures…but at present some of them, like the Champions of Erebor set are priced at more than their weight in Sterling Silver.

From what I can determine the x14 figures (priced at $236 USD) weigh in at about about x5 ounces of resin. Sterling Silver runs about $17 USD/ounce right now…so each figure is priced at about 350% the cost of pure Silver…

Armand posted a pic to a preview of the upcoming plastic Lake-town House. Did your message belong to another thread or are you just complaining about something unrelated, just to see your name printed?

TO be fair I think that SBminisguy's comment is relevant to the pic. The models are superb quality – the plastic terrain is fabulous. But the cost – wow.

Yes, it's a relevant comment. GW produces some very nice figures -- but how does it compare on a quality/price basis with alternate suppliers? This isn't a "GW SUCKS!" thing, it's a Consumer thing. I have limited budget, and when I want to expand my collection and terrain I have to choose where to plunk down my money.

So do I buy *this* kind of terrain from GW, a simple platform layout for 45£?

Or do I buy this kind of terrain from Four Ground for 47£ that has interior details in multiple levels??

Or if I don't mind a bit of DIY, I can buy this unfinished MDF kit for 20£.

So yep, nice looking terrain. And then what?

But, I don't see any figures in the picture in the first post. So what figures are you talking about? I also don't see any price listed for that lake town scenery. Care to let us know what the price of the lake town scenery is and where you saw it listed?

Otherwise, complaining about the price of some other figures or some other scenery doesn't seem to have anything to do with this thread about the lake town scenery.

We always have a choice……

But, I don't see any figures in the picture in the first post. So what figures are you talking about? I also don't see any price listed for that lake town scenery. Care to let us know what the price of the lake town scenery is and where you saw it listed?

Otherwise, complaining about the price of some other figures or some other scenery doesn't seem to have anything to do with this thread about the lake town scenery.

1. The simple plastic Goblin Town platform that could double as a dock costs $65. USD I can imagine that the nice looking Laketown House, based on current GW prices, will be something on the order of $100 USD or more.

2. If I want the OFFICIAL FIGURES to place on my cool GW Lake Town house, then you will pay more than the price of Silver. Maybe I wanna pose Alfrid the Uni-Brow on my cool terrain…he costs $22 USD…for one 1/3oz resin-cast figure. Since Sterling Silver is $17 USD/oz, Alfrid the Councillor costs 388% the price of pure silver.

The basic warrior plastic box sets can be quite affordable, but if you want any characters or specials you will pay through the cloaca. GW stuff can be freaking crazy expensive, and that's being nice.

Certainly seems Judge Doug's question was sufficiently answered in the affirmative.

Wow, the Champions of Erebor is ridiculously priced. 14 minis cost more than their Deathwatch Overkill game…

Well…
1. GW is a tad pricey. On my search for the actual building I followed the link, clicked on "Hobbit" and found Smaug for 385 EUR, though no house.

2. No house to find on the link – nice preview. I hope it prices as comparative plastic sets between 20 and 40. I do not expect it to. What good is a set that is unaffordable. Well, hope lives.

3. not "Laketown" but lake town houses:
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4. More plastic kit previews (not GW):
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@SBminisguy: There's no point in arguing with these WAAAGHzites…

I suppose, I'm just an old jaded gamer fart who started playing Warhammer when it was a three book box set. It was a totally new approach to gaming, and great fun to play.

It was a pretty bold move for the guys at White Dwarf magazine to re-invent themselves into a game company with a new game, a new miniatures line and everything. And I rewarded them with my money and my time. I really liked the evolutionary changes in the game…2nd Edition…3rd Edition…4th Edition??…. 5th Edition??…6th Edition!?!… 7th Edition!?!?….8th Edition *&!@*(?!?!! Age of Sigmar fr**ing *&@?!?@*&@#&!!!!

And at each step the game became more and more canonized and dogmatic to the point where any of my Warhammer collection is now "Oldhammer" and is no longer supported in the Age of Sigmar. Meh.

I followed along with Warhammer 40K the same way, starting out with it when it was called Rogue Trader. Same thing. 1st Edition, 2nd Edition (which sucked), 3rd Edition (which made it fun again) and so on up to 7th Edition. And at each step they formalized it until what was once a fun free-form game became really uptight and official and moved away from any idea of DIY figures and kitbashes to a very official game system, and each edition may arbitrarily nullify previous army lists and entire figure lines (hasta la vista, Squats!!). Meh.

And I'm still annoyed that they burned Mordheim and Necomunda down as well I suppose.

GW revolutionized the gaming industry and spawned its own competition, often formed by former GW alumni -- Mantic, Warlord, etc. And frankly, many of these companies produce great products at a highly competitive price.

The LOTR and Hobbit lines are brilliant sculpts, love 'em. However, do I pay $22 USD for a single figure from the Hobbit or take that money elsewhere for more figures to game with or collect? I'm not a collector, which is what many of these seem focused on appealing to, the "Official Collector" market rather than the gamer market. But if I were a collector I may be more interested in Mithril Miniature's 28mm/30mm line of quality Lord of the Rings & Hobbit figures (btw, GW did try to sue them but failed since Mithril had prior rights from the Tolkien Estate), since that's what they focus on.

I understand GW's need to keep selling books and figures, that's their business after all, and if they don't sell they perish. But at each turn they have made decisions that make it more and more difficult, for me at least, to purchase their products. I guess I don't get GW's business model, maybe I never will.

Hilarious. Ladies and gentlemen, for your amusement, the order of events:

1. Tango posts a preview image of a Laketown House.

2. SBminis complains about the price of some other miniatures that are not the Laketown House.

3. Judgedoug questions the relevance of SBminis' statement.

4. SBminis gets back on topic and informs the thread that he "can imagine" that the Laketown House will cost "something on the order of $100 USD or more" and then proceeds to complain about this high price he plucked from the sky.

There must be a name for this type of logical fallacy, but I can't be bothered to look it up.

I think sbminisguy's comments were interesting. I bought heaps of the LOTR figures but I gave up on The Hobbit figures. Price gouging is what I view it as.

I was recently quoted 35c a metal 28mm figure and 80c injection molded plastic. "Pre-painted" 3D color printed was $5 USD a figure.

If there was anything unrelated to the house it would have to be a link to a site with no information about the product.

So… you like the house of not?…. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Its hard for me to pass up a chance to kick a so here goes:
1. Photo posted of nice GW model. The assumption I'm working off is such a photo is posted as a statement of "wouldn't it be nice to own this model"
2. A responsive post indicated GW in fact makes nice models but they are expensive so its hard to justify owning them.
3. Flames began. I have no problem with disagreement or even flames but I find it hard to credit the point of view that the original post by SBminisguy was somehow out of the blue or irrelevant. GW stuff is expensive. Sometimes I buy it, sometimes(most times) I don't. Markets eventually respond to consumers. If enough people actually voice their opinions (mostly through the purchasing decision)the market will respond.

@ HUBCommish Supporting Member of TMP

4. SBminis gets back on topic and informs the thread that he "can imagine" that the Laketown House will cost "something on the order of $100 USD USD or more" and then proceeds to complain about this high price he plucked from the sky.

There must be a name for this type of logical fallacy, but I can't be bothered to look it up.

It's called a prediction, and it's based on past experience and the current cost of a much simpler Hobbit terrain piece on the GW website that costs $60 USD:

link

Wanna go in on a bet? 1 week of self comment exile for the loser. I will bet you, HUBCommish, that the very nice looking house as pictured in Tango's post from GW will cost $100 USD+ when the price is released. I may be totally wrong, maybe it'll fall closer to $80 USD, or even $60 USD, but lets see what happens, shall we??

GW stuff is expensive. Sometimes I buy it, sometimes(most times) I don't. Markets eventually respond to consumers. If enough people actually voice their opinions (mostly through the purchasing decision)the market will respond.

Yup.

Heck no SB, I'm aware GW is fully capable of surprising folks with outrageous prices. Plus, I can exile you from my sight for eternity with the mere click of a button at my leisure, it's hardly necessary to subject you to such a thing of your own volition.

My beef is not that some folks think GW minis are sometimes expensive (which is true) but that a nice photo of a much anticipated kit immediately leads to more of the same old same old about GW figures pricing. Eyeroll inducing!

Well, I for one would like to see GWs pricing reduced. Anything that helps in that regard is welcome.

I do like many of their models, and despite spending an awful amount of money (my wifes wording) on miniatures and accessories, I cannot find myself willing to pay what they demand for some of the stuff I want.

If they offer his house for $30 USD I buy five. If they want $60 USD I MAY buy one, but if they move higher I am out, despite liking it (that one for Tango!). So GW needs to find out wether they rather sell 5 at $30 USD or none at $80 USD of a kit that costs $5 USD in production/set.

My beef is not that some folks think GW minis are sometimes expensive (which is true) but that a nice photo of a much anticipated kit immediately leads to more of the same old same old about GW figures pricing. Eyeroll inducing!

Well, that says more about people's experiences with price expectations from GW than anything else -- in my experience GW makes some nice products, but also has the highest prices of any game company I can think of except maybe Grand Manor's terrain products.

When I worked for the evil empire here in the states back in the 90's it was widely considered stupid by mgmt to sell something for less than people will pay for it.

After all gaming budgets are finite and it was considered unlikely that if prices were lowered that GW customers would spend more money – they'd only get more stuff for the same money.

I recall several price raises where I thought we'd see decreased sales – but alas – counter intuitively – sales, volumes, & profits rose (I still scratch my head)

The only way we'll see lower prices is if the product consistently fails to meet sales goals.

Of course GW always failed to consider that there are other companies that customers can buy stuff from – but at least back then – most GW customers did little if anything outside the 'GW Hobby'

Here endeth the lesson.

Makes sense, thanks dsfrank.

I wonder what the house will cost?

By the way, my local shop has AoS and The Hobbit boxes for sale at 50% off.

snurl1, what is the name of your shop, and do they do mail order?

Comic Store West, York PA, and I have no idea.

Ziterdes has several models in their foam-ish material that are clearly designed on the Hobbit Laketown style, and are very reasonable in price. I direct anyone there if interested.

The other thing that has not been mentioned in all this (and another post re the Iron Hills dwarven figures) is that this was all part of an announcement (long rumored) that Forgeworld was taking over the LOTR/Hobbit line from GW and was going to put everything back in production. Everything. Including those Dol Amroth or Arnor captains selling for $60 USD pack on EBay. Of course, everyone knows Forgeworld items tend to make regular GW prices look reasonable ….

So people are complaining now about a high price that they invented in their own heads?

This will blow your mind.
At Warhammer Fest, where the pic of the Lake Town house was taken, GW re-released several out of production LOTR models, including the plastic Ruins of Osgiliath set – which was re-released at a discount.

Please find something to complain about GW re-releasing an out of production plastic kit widely regarded as the best plastic terrain ever made… at a discount.

I know you all have it in you… c'mon… waiting for a "back in my day" post…

@YogiBear I am quite excited about new models, as Forge World is cheaper than Finecast. In fact, the current scuttlebut is the warband of 12 Iron Hills dwarves will be priced at current FW resin prices, so about $60 USD for the 12 – or $5 USD apiece. Which is how much current LOTR metal figures are, and cheaper than Finecast (which ranges from $6 USD to $8.33 USD per figure). So a new release from GW in a better material will cost the same as the older metal models!

I hope you are right!

I'm confused…I went on GW's site and I see no sign of this item anywhere.

Was this something that was never released, or only released in the UK as an exclusive limited run type of thing?

Wow, the Champions of Erebor is ridiculously priced. 14 minis cost more than their Deathwatch Overkill game…

Well GW is more than likely in need of cash, which is why we are seeing all of these overpriced stand-alone games.

2nd Edition…3rd Edition…4th Edition??…. 5th Edition??…6th Edition!?!… 7th Edition!?!?….8th Edition *&!@*(?!?!! Age of Sigmar fr**ing *&@?!?@*&@#&!!!!

And at each step the game became more and more canonized and dogmatic to the point where any of my Warhammer collection is now "Oldhammer" and is no longer supported in the Age of Sigmar. Meh.

I followed along with Warhammer 40K the same way, starting out with it when it was called Rogue Trader. Same thing. 1st Edition, 2nd Edition (which sucked), 3rd Edition (which made it fun again)

Same here though they lost me at the end of 5th Edition for WFB.

The one thing that you can be sure of is that if GW is going to put it out it going to cost far more than what it is actually worth.

So yes that piece of Hobbit Terrain would be around $66 USD and quite frankly I could build something for far less.

Since I could go outside and pick up small branches for free.

GW is only hoping that their Fanboyz are dumb enough so that they will fork over their money for something that should cost around $10 USD-$15 if not less.

Wouldn't it be nice if people who wanted to complain about GW pricing did it on their own thread? I already know that GW is expensive, so I don't need it highjacking other threads!

I don't think this is a GW model at all. I think someone has built their own lake-town house! And very nice it is too.

@keithbarker,

No, I think this is actually a planned GW release. You can tell by the design of the lettering on the little placard there. What I'm confused about and nobody has answered yet is why there seems to be no trace of this product being talked about or being available anywhere on GW's site. I'm wondering if it is something they planned to release but then scrapped.

Yeah, it's kind of amazing how even a thread about nothing more than simple notice about an upcoming GW product has to turn into another "the evils of GW" thread.

To the people saying that $100 USD would be an outrageous price for this – I would totally disagree. There are comparable resin building kits out there by various terrain companies for that price, and with LESS accessories than I see here. You get the house, the docks, the boat, all kinds of stuff.

I don't get how it works in peoples' minds if for example Tabletop World charges $80 USD for single townhouse building, it's an awesome deal and Tabletop is an awesome company. But when GW produces a Laketown set for a similar price it's totally evil price gouging.

Not to mention that there are plenty of military kits from various companies that in the $60 USD-$80 range for the really well detailed ones. That's for a single plane or tank model. Or a company like Verlinden, selling military stonecast terrain sets for anywhere from $40 USD-$75 each. I don't hear people protesting about the evils of the pricing of products by Verlinden, Tamiya or Revell!

It was again shown this past weekend at the LOTR/Hobbit tournament they ran, along with loads more new releases (Gundabad berserkers, Gundabad ogres, etc).

It's scheduled for release by end of year as a plastic kit to coincide with the new There And Back Again journeybook for The Hobbit.

Oh, and GW re-released the Final Fate of the Witch King set for £25.00 GBP, completely ruining the secondary market where it was going for upwards of 300 bucks, haha. And the Defenders of Rohan set. I had a buddy in the UK buy 'em for me and ship 'em to me :)