Nostalgia - Missing GW Bits Service

[techsoldaten]

Sometime around 2008, Games Workshop discontinued their mail order bits service.

 

Just before it went away, I ordered several sets of wings from various kits. They arrived in small, transparent bags bearing the Citadel logo. Came across one I hadn't used last night, brought back memories. Not just of the service, but how different the miniatures were.

 

Over the last year, I bought a lot of used miniatures, including store armies with lots of conversions. Am in the process of unconverting them, finding many pieces are gone or unrecoverable. Apothecaries without Nartheciums, Chaplains missing caped backpacks, Librarians with no books, a Pedro Cantor with no right arm, a Marneus Calgar with no arms. It's a very long list.

 

Anyways, anyone else miss having this service?

[Magos Takatus]

Yeah, it would have been very handy to have an equivalent service nowadays but since I prefer working in plastic the closest thing for me is the bits seller websites which are very often out of stock of the one component you need. :p

[MARK0SIAN]

I’ve emailed them directly for a replacement bit before and although they don’t have the bits service they did scrounge up a spare for me and sent it out. It was great customer service. Obviously I don’t think they’d be able/willing to do that for lots of kits or very old ones but it might be worth an email if there’s one particular piece you’re really keen on getting.

[andes]

I remember queuing up for the big bitz board at the GW Grand Tournaments years ago. I swear it was half the fun...

[Dark Shepherd]

Cant remember which youtube channel it was but they suggested GW licensing a 3rd party company to do a bits service by 3d printing parts, seems unlikely, but would be a good idea or a win/win. They could get pretty dang high margins on bits even by their own standards

[Lexington]

I do miss this. The shift to plastics for 90+% made this untenable, but it was great while it lasted. What's more of a bummer - for me, at least - is the slow disappearance of the plastic bits seller over the last several years, which was at least in part due to GW's monkeying with retailer contracts.

[Firedrake Cordova]

I remember this ... it was great when you could order individual components (if anyone's curious what the catalogues were like, you can find them online). You could even order individual sub-sprues (e.g. one marine sprue from the Jes Goodwin marine re-design, where the box was 10 sub-sprues). Obviously, the way GW design their sprues makes this non-workable these days. :( It would be nice to be able to order "half a box of", where the box is 2 sprues, though ...

[Kurgan the Lurker]

All my Vulture Chapter helmets came via Bitz buying at Games Day. $.25 a gram last time I bought them in bulk (200-250 helmets or so).

[infyrana]

Yup, I miss this too, I used to use it a lot and still have many of the bits I bought in my collection somewhere.  Unfortunately with how they've made the latest sprues for sets like Indomitus, they are just not compatible with that service - a shame since I could have used it having been short change some pieces in a recent order.

[Evil Eye]

Yep, I too miss the bitz service. It's a real shame because even aside from being able to get very specific parts, the loss of being able to order backpacks, weapons and wings really, really sucks. Like I'd love to buy Plague Drone wings in bulk, but I don't want to buy a box of Plague Drones every time I need wings. And I say that as someone that loves that kit! I understand with how kits are sprued up and the loss of non-plastic minis it's not exactly practical for them but it still sucks.

What I would like to see is more "conversion fodder" upgrade packs. Stuff like the Skulls kit, but with other subjects. Weapons (melee and ranged), wings, heads etc. I'd buy them all!

[MaliGn]

Back then it was *the* way to convert stuff, I remember bits ordering all kinds of obscure parts to get a conversion *just* right. Sometimes you could still order bits of kits that were already discontinued. Just left over parts. I remember a chaos biker lord that had bits from the noise marine kit, metal daemonettes, fabius bile, fantasy slaanesh lord, emperor's children lord, beastman chariot whip, doom rider, dark eldar jetbikes, all sorts. Heady times.

[Doghouse]

I remember when we had to order models via the post. You'd fill in your form and then drop it in the mail and within 28 working days you'd get your stuff.

 

One time when I was very young I made a complete mess of the form but only had one form left so sent it off complete with cheque enclosed hoping to get my brand new Grey Knight Terminator but instead got five and the connecter ring from the torso and legs of an Epic Warhound titan.

 

Spare parts used to be easy to get because they'd just go out back and cast them up when they needed more but converting was less common beyond the newer fancy plastic kits like the RTB01 guys or plastic Daleks or Skeletons.

 

Being able to later order individual sprues further down the line was great, of course the telephone and the horseless carriage had been invented by then which also made things a lot easier.

[andes]

How about this bad boy:

 

http://i.imgur.com/Lqau2O9l.jpg

 

Working on a project and only Ghazghkull's Jaw will do? Not a problem.

 

http://i.imgur.com/ddfbTegl.jpg

 

Complete with prices!

 

http://i.imgur.com/WBHytrvl.jpg

[Mechanicus Tech-Support]

I miss the old bit service so much, I think I still have some of the old legion of the damned pads and the harlequin jetbike front end sitting somewhere in their little plastic baggies..ahh the nostalgia

[infyrana]

Nice find!  Got a few of the old catalogues from 1999 or so myself... prices too along with the old black n white printed booklets they did.  But I cry when I see prices for rhinos and full 10 man units for less than the price we'd pay now for half a character model.

 

 

 

 

I miss the old bit service so much, I think I still have some of the old legion of the damned pads and the harlequin jetbike front end sitting somewhere in their little plastic baggies..ahh the nostalgia

Oh my, did you have the same magazines as I did ?  I sold my harlequin face jetbike front, the epic war titans I had and my metal wraith lords recently.  But I still have backpacks, pads, n guns from LotD along with a mass collection of dragon shields, coffin shields and bits of old metal terminators I kept.  Plus a host of so many other bits ^^;

Edited April 23, 2021 by infyrana

[Mechanicus Tech-Support]

I WISH I had that magazine I would love to just flip through it and reminisce.  I bought mine at a local GW convention/tourney in my city before they stopped happening here. It was the only time I was happy to go and perform at a piano recital because the GW event was happening literally 2 blocks away from there. 

[Schlitzaf]

Does angone else miss the model catologues?

[Dwango]

I used to constantly fill out mail order forms for various nid models, biovores and carnifexes. I was only about 15 so couldn't afford them so they never got sent off.

 

I did place an order so i could make 5 exodite riders out of metal cold ones and some very large dragon tails. I saw a conversion in a WD and had to copy it. Still have the models although they need some tlc.

[techsoldaten]

I WISH I had that magazine I would love to just flip through it and reminisce.  I bought mine at a local GW convention/tourney in my city before they stopped happening here. It was the only time I was happy to go and perform at a piano recital because the GW event was happening literally 2 blocks away from there. 

 

Does angone else miss the model catologues?

 

Yes. But they are available online, at least we have that.

 

Look at the links at the bottom of the page, there are links to most of the catalogs.

 

https://archive.org/details/1996CitadelMiniaturesCatalogue19861991/1980%20-%20Citadel%20Miniatures%20Catalogue%20Red

[Chaeron]

Being able to later order individual sprues further down the line was great, of course the telephone and the horseless carriage had been invented by then which also made things a lot easier.

 

:lol:

 

So very true though, fond memories of filling in the page at the back of White Dwarf as a sort of Wishlist. Being able to see all the component parts of models at the time was immensely exciting.

 

I'm also nostalgic for the packaging from the Mail Order Trollz too - the branded boxes were a nice touch, and I've got one for storing very important bits still!

[LameBeard]

Ah, the mail order trolls! I remember sometimes they would put in a flyer about their deal of the month, usually the miniatures in question hadn’t even been photographed, but instead, laid flat in the photocopier.

[Lexington]

Just flashed back to my favorite Mail Order Trolls deal ever - the bitz to make Adrian Wood’s famous kitbash Dreadnought!

 

 

Had one way back in the day and sold it like a damned fool. Probably only the size of a Killa Kan now, but what a fun little thing.

Edited April 27, 2021 by Lexington

[Magos Takatus]

I remember that conversion looking amazing back at the time but now I can't ignore how the lascannon arms would stop the klaws from doing well, anything really. It's a shame  because I still love that squat, boxy aesthetic even if I'm happily using plastic Deff Dreads these days.

[Lexington]

Think I'm gonna make a small project out of finding those bits and building one as a Kan so it doesn't have that problem. :D

[MegaVolt87]

....upcoming mystery announcement the return of the bits service?