Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Pretorian Heads ... over pricing?

Ok ... just a simple observation here ... I as many of you out there follow Tabletop Gaming News ... I noticed that over the past few years there has been an EXPLOSION!!! of epic proportions of garage companies selling GW related bitz. I'm shocked that sue happy GW hasn't been suing the living crap out of many of these mom and pop shops as was there old practice. I'm happy that GW isn't doing that and I wholeheartedly wish all these guys well ... it expands all of our gaming options ... saves us time etc.  But I have noticed some of these companies putting out products at prices as high or higher than forgeworld .. which leads me to believe that there is alot more room for such product in the marketplace (something most of us have been saying for years as well). Whether we are in a 3.5 D&D OGL era glutted market period for minis ... or a true renaissance for mini gaming ... I don't know ... does anyone out there have an opinion? statistics? share if you do.
My main point for posting this quick blurb though has been to discuss a specific product and its cost vs. other readily available products.

15 bucks for 20 heads   ..... OR ..... Five bucks for five

However you get THE ENTIRE figure including alot of other bitz from Wargame Factory Plastics ... Secret Weapon Miniatures ... you just get five heads.  I'm honestly not too impressed with their sculpts for those prices.

It seems like every other somewhat well followed blog out there is pimping one of these garage companies and their somewhat over priced product. 1 buck for sculpy-hobbiest quality sculpted shoulder pads from one place ... 40 bucks for some friggin wolves that are recasts of kids toys with a saddle and some extra armor ... etc. There is alot of low quality stuff out there ... coupled with some pretty high prices. I have complained and bitched for years about GWs prices ... but they put out professional quality product, sculpted by industry professionals, using high quality industrial processes. Even Forgeworld ... as many miscast pieces, etc. as I've gotten from them over the years ... their general sculpts and quality of their miniatures are AMAZING usually. I'm sorry but there is alot of stuff on the market place that is really shoddy and people are apparently paying top dollar for it.  Anyway I noticed this one pretty big discrepancy and just wondered why people wouldn't go with a much cheaper plastic alternative ... ok sure if you want five alt heads ... or you just need five heads ... maybe paying more for less is worth it. But if your doing an entire Pretorian army (and you could just use the entire fig .... 20 troopers for 15 bucks ... erm ... a little converting ... adding guard weps and bitz here and there ... bada bing ... done and done ... for ultra cheap).

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