ive been looking at the new beastmen releases and saw that it costed: £12- for chaos warhounds big models, lots of options, best value of all of the models, £1.20 each £15-for an ungor heard, not bad- £1.50 each with lots of options £15-for an gor heard, also not bad-£1.50 each, less options but bigger better models £27-for a minotaur heard, not good, more than a giant but cheaper than 3 belisters and with more options £9 each So far all is well, but then we get to bestigors: £25-for an bestigor heard, RIP OFF, £2.50 each, less options than either of the gor sets and only as big as the gor models!! whats the point in charging £10 more for the same amount of models? Geko
I'd imagine it has something to do with the expected demand. If you don't expect as much to be bought anyway, you charge more for it. In other words, it's more profitable to GW. You may have noticed our temple guard are more per model than our saurus, and they're roughly the same amount of plastic as each other. It's the same for clanrats and stormvermin, $33 vs $49.50, respectively. Then again, night runners use twice as much plastic as clanrats and cost less than ten percent more. Go figure
I'd say the TG are nearly twice as much plastic as the Saurus. They are larger, they have more details, and those sprues are loaded with extra bits for customization. At least they are in the battalion box, which I assume are the same sprues as in the TG box.
Isn't the TG box half as many sprues though? The Saurus box has 16 saurus with spear AND HW options, the TG box has 10 TG with just halberds. Both have extra's and command upgrades (though TG has more). That sounds about even to me actually, even after accounting for the extra bulk of TG. Edit: I'm not just looking at the models themselves, but the sprue they're on too. The new and old Clan rat boxes both had 20 rats, but the old one spread these across 4 sprues for the rats themselves, plus a command sprue, plus the shield sprues. The new one has all that on two sprues. That's about 2.5 to 3 times as much plastic for the old set for the same number of models with nearly the same options. If you just look at the models, the TG and saurus boxes are probably even. IF you count the frames they're on too, the saurus probably have slightly more plastic used.
You're not just paying for plastic, though. There is design. There is development. There is paying for molds. There is the molding process. Then there is packaging, any inserts showing how to build a model, cost of shipping from the manufacture site to the warehouse, the cost of the warehouse, cost to get the item from a warehouse to either a store or direct into a customers hands... Etc. ad nauseum. Extra, unmolded plastic probably doesn't cost them too much. Let's face it, plastic costs pennies. I don't know how they arrive at all of their prices, but I do know point cost comes into the equation and unfortunately always has.
That wasn't what I was disagreeing with you on. That would have been this: Apparently, my comment on that statement was a moot point since: However, when I look at the current clanrats and stormvermin, and then look at... I start to question the EXTENT of the above's relevance. In the case of those two sets (clanrats and stormvermin), they have the same number of sprues, same number of molds, same size box, roughly the same level of detail on the models, same number of figures in the box, etc., etc., etc.. As far as development, production, and shipping go, the differences between the two aren't much. Points cost and retail value on the other hand are certainly different and, in fact, roughly proportional. $33 dollars for 80-100 points plus command versus just under $50 for 140-160pts plus command and command options. I don't know how they arrive at all of their prices either, but I do agree point cost comes into the equation.
Yeah GW has had a strange habit for a long time of of pricing their boxes based on the points and value of the model, also how much they think people will pay for it. Massive plastic stegadon, $65, great value. Smaller plastic stank, $96, only slightly less than the old metal one. WTF? Then of course there is the stupidly priced empire greatswords. I am sure there is logic to it, and I am also sure that GW could sell their products for less and still make a healthy profit. Actually they have been running at a loss for a few years due to decreased sales from their constant price rises, yet they keep trying to raise to compensate which just makes it worse. It is a luxury hobby, if you think the model is worth (for you) what they charge, you buy it. If you don't think its worth it, you don't buy it and get something else or seek a cheap conversion opportunity.
GW loves to overcharge for their minis. On a completely unrelated side-note, I need to see my bank about taking out a loan. I wanna get a unit of Blood Knights. --DF2K