Upgrade kit for loyal and chaos Astartes

[Gederas]

If you look at valrak's video about the IF box, there is an IF upgrade sprue with heads, pads, a fist and some bits and bobs. It'll most likely be released by itself at some point.

Per the manager at one of the local GWs near me, 6 to 8 months from now.

[Marshal Rohr]

My money is on that being the release for the next major Primaris wave then.

[Sete]

6 to 8 months it's a long time...

[Axineton]

Sod your upgrade sprues, give me more decals and decals for lesser known chapters or how about gw do an ordering service for decals people want? They’d sell billions

[Sete]

Sod your upgrade sprues, give me more decals and decals for lesser known chapters or how about gw do an ordering service for decals people want? They’d sell billions

Ironic...

[slitth]

Sod your upgrade sprues, give me more decals and decals for lesser known chapters or how about gw do an ordering service for decals people want? They’d sell billions

 

Could it not be better if WG the a shapeways for upgrade sprues and decals.

Maybe with the option to upload some creations yourself

[MARK0SIAN]

Sod your upgrade sprues, give me more decals and decals for lesser known chapters or how about gw do an ordering service for decals people want? They’d sell billions

GW have to order The decals in too large a quantity to make an ordering service for lesser known chapters practical.

[DuskRaider]

Sod your upgrade sprues, give me more decals and decals for lesser known chapters or how about gw do an ordering service for decals people want? They’d sell billions

Yeah, not really... just ask Forge World.

[Steel Company]

I’m amazed GW don’t do more upgrade kits. They just seem like such a no-brainer. They have very little design cost since they’re not designing new connection points just using an existing CAD design with new logos...

Full stop.

 

The CAD/CAM work might not take a long time and or be a major cost, but the die for the mould will that is where all the major costs of the kits come from... depending on size and details it could cost upwards of $10-20,000 for said mould, that's not an insignificant cost for something that might not sell in the quantities large enough to make back the design costs.

[slitth]

 

I’m amazed GW don’t do more upgrade kits. They just seem like such a no-brainer. They have very little design cost since they’re not designing new connection points just using an existing CAD design with new logos...

Full stop.

 

The CAD/CAM work might not take a long time and or be a major cost, but the die for the mould will that is where all the major costs of the kits come from... depending on size and details it could cost upwards of $10-20,000 for said mould, that's not an insignificant cost for something that might not sell in the quantities large enough to make back the design costs.

 

 

There must be some profit to be made, they will after all release a Imperial Fists set that has an upgrade kit in it.

 

 

Besides if a mould for such small frames cost so much, it would not be fare fetch that GW will look in the 3d printing of such secondary items like upgrade kits.

Perhaps they are already 3d printing moulds for the production run.

[Sete]

Let's see considering that GW makes a sprue for BT. It's 8 quid.

Having a look at the BT FB group with 1466 members, if everyone buys one GW gets 11728£ (but really people would buy at least 3 for a small army like the IF box it's above 30000£)

 

Considering that the current old sprue is 10 years old and 20 quid and each one of those 1466 guys bought one (I personally have bought at least 8) they got around 29300£.

 

Yeah they make money out of it.

[Jukkiz]

Let's see considering that GW makes a sprue for BT. It's 8 quid.

Having a look at the BT FB group with 1466 members, if everyone buys one GW gets 11728£ (but really people would buy at least 3 for a small army like the IF box it's above 30000£)

 

Considering that the current old sprue is 10 years old and 20 quid and each one of those 1466 guys bought one (I personally have bought at least 8) they got around 29300£.

 

Yeah they make money out of it.

Ah, but that depends what´s in it too. Shoulder pads are sure going to use but to others it ain´t sure buy because of just those. Sad, but true.

[Halandaar]

Considering that the current old sprue is 10 years old and 20 quid and each one of those 1466 guys bought one (I personally have bought at least 8) they got around 29300£.

 

Yeah they make money out of it.

 

Sure, they make money on it now, but it probably took a long while to break even on it when it first came out. Remember that 1/6 of that "income" total you've suggested is VAT, so that's nearly £5000 gone straight away. Then there's all the other costs;

• Designers salary time (including conception > sculpting > sprue layout)
• Prototyping
• Injection mold die

Then each time you cast some;

• Production setup cost
• Raw materials
• Production staff labour cost
• Packaging
• Opportunity cost of not casting something more profitable

I wouldn't be at all surprised, if you were to take all the costs above and apply them to the quoted 1466 buyers, there would actually be no profit at all. (Obviously I'm well aware that many of those 1466 will have bought more than one sprue, and that they will not be the only people to ever have bought one, so that's not exactly a relevant conclusion to the overall profitability of the kit).

[Steel Company]

 

 

 

I’m amazed GW don’t do more upgrade kits. They just seem like such a no-brainer. They have very little design cost since they’re not designing new connection points just using an existing CAD design with new logos...

Full stop.

 

The CAD/CAM work might not take a long time and or be a major cost, but the die for the mould will that is where all the major costs of the kits come from... depending on size and details it could cost upwards of $10-20,000 for said mould, that's not an insignificant cost for something that might not sell in the quantities large enough to make back the design costs.

There must be some profit to be made, they will after all release a Imperial Fists set that has an upgrade kit in it.

 

 

Besides if a mould for such small frames cost so much, it would not be fare fetch that GW will look in the 3d printing of such secondary items like upgrade kits.

Perhaps they are already 3d printing moulds for the production run.

With the Imperial Fists upgrade set, it can be dual purpose for the Crimson Fists as well, so that alone doubles the target market.

 

As good as 3d printing is getting, for mass production, it isn't as cost effective as injection mouldings when it comes to the cost of time. Not to mention if you have a large injection mouldings machine you could have several copies of that mould in at the same time to reduce set up time and run time when you are doing a production run, to make a volume large enough to sell the product at a 'reasonable' price.

[Claws and Effect]

It would actually make a lot of sense for GW to start licensing a 3rd party company that is willing to make bits for lesser played or more obscure chapters.

 

Like, say an up front fee plus 10% of the profit from the sales.

 

GW gets to make money without expending anything on production (which could also prompt new sales of models to use the bits on), and the 3rd party company gets to advertise that its product is officially licensed (which gives them a leg up on the competition).

 

And the players get bits for their Carcharodons army that are legal in even the strictest GW store.

 

Everyone wins.

[Steel Company]

Claws, 10% is a bit steep for a royalties, maybe 1-2.5% of total sales of the said products would more reasonable... at least that is how my company deals with royalties on products we licence out.

[Claws and Effect]

Claws, 10% is a bit steep for a royalties, maybe 1-2.5% of total sales of the said products would more reasonable... at least that is how my company deals with royalties on products we licence out.

It was just an example number. I'm certainly in no position to dictate any kind of numbers to GW :D

[slitth]

It would actually make a lot of sense for GW to start licensing a 3rd party company that is willing to make bits for lesser played or more obscure chapters.

Like, say an up front fee plus 10% of the profit from the sales.

GW gets to make money without expending anything on production (which could also prompt new sales of models to use the bits on), and the 3rd party company gets to advertise that its product is officially licensed (which gives them a leg up on the competition).

And the players get bits for their Carcharodons army that are legal in even the strictest GW store.

Everyone wins.

It can be offer even more benefits for GW.

If GW team up with a company like Shapeways, they can have fan made products that they can approve and get royalties from.

That way GW make money any simply approving a product and they get a way to spot new artists that can produce good quality models.

The 3rd part company gets profits from a well known IP, and this may open up for more business later.

The fan that makes the product get no income, but having you name on a approved design is a good way to start a career.

And the fanbase get access to stuff that normally is unavailable

[WandererTheta]

If GW team up with a company like Shapeways, they can have fan made products that they can approve and get royalties from.

That way GW make money any simply approving a product and they get a way to spot new artists that can produce good quality models.

The 3rd part company gets profits from a well known IP, and this may open up for more business later.

The fan that makes the product get no income, but having you name on a approved design is a good way to start a career.

Since you used them as an example I feel the need to point out that 1) Shapeways doesn't do any design work of its own and 2) has a program where it works with IP holders to make officially licensed third party accessories with fan designers who get a share of the profits from the sales of their designs.

[slitth]

 

If GW team up with a company like Shapeways, they can have fan made products that they can approve and get royalties from.

That way GW make money any simply approving a product and they get a way to spot new artists that can produce good quality models.

The 3rd part company gets profits from a well known IP, and this may open up for more business later.

The fan that makes the product get no income, but having you name on a approved design is a good way to start a career.

Since you used them as an example I feel the need to point out that 1) Shapeways doesn't do any design work of its own and 2) has a program where it works with IP holders to make officially licensed third party accessories with fan designers who get a share of the profits from the sales of their designs.

 

I know.

That way I use them as an example.

 

I would be good for GW to work with a company like Shapeways. As it will give them a better control of what people are selling their that is made by exploiting their IP.

But there will some people that will fight this and try to paint GW as the bad guy because they will prevent some people from making money this way.

 

Now there is a compromise that can be made to show that GW is fair while protecting their IP.

Now let say that you make a really cool Blood Angel icon that can be used on vehicles, it that is to be sold on Shapeways all the money would got to GW.

But you name would be on the design and people might contact you to get you to design custom chapters icons.

Yes, it would suck that you can not get money for some of you work, but the business you would get for being a GW approved 3d designer should make up for it.

 

And it will open up the possibility for a lot a extra things. Like steel key-chains with Warhammer 40k iconography and the like.