| Archive for IMPACT! MINIATURES A forum for the discussion of board games and miniatures of the company (Impact! Miniatures) |
| Dark Lord |
Grandma Wendy is a BSo I got an email this morning from an online gaming store announcing a sale because in June Grandma Wendy will be raising their prices.Now, did they just raise their prices in October? WTF? What are single minis up to now? $9? 
Un-freaking-believable. In this economic climate, and after posting the tiniest increase in sales in second quarter 2008 they think a good strategy is to raise prices. WTF?! Their profit margin can't be that thin, can it? If it is, then they are doing something seriously wrong. But I guess most of us knew that already. 
Edit: I just checked their site...and it turns out I underestimated them. Single figs are $10!!! And in June they will be more! Holy smokes! 
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| Stout Youngblood |
From what I heard its the plastics that are going to be raised this time. Last time they said all metal was going up to help keep the price of the plastics down.
Yeah, right Grandma Wendy. 
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| brownrob |
LOL well they wont get any custom from me | ||||||
| Darkson |
Agreed. At a time when money is tight, and hobbies being one of the activities that gets squeezed, raising prices hardly seems like a smart idea. | ||||||
| Dark Lord |
Even if they don't raise the price of the metal figs $10 is an insane amount of money for a single human sized fig.
This is $12 from Grandma Wendy 
This is $5.50 from Reaper. 
What the hell are those idiots at Grandma Wendy doing? Edit: I think a better question is, why are people still buying this insanely overpriced merchandise?! That's not an attack...I seriously want to know! I would bet Norse and Galak would like to know too!
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| Darkson |
Well, if you play at a Grandma Wendy store (and I know people that do, and it's the only gaming they can get), you have to buy their overpriced figs.
And, if I'm honest, the majority of their figs are better than the equivilent figs from people like Reaper (the one above for example). And also, there is the whole "model-in-hand" thing. I know a lot of people won't buy figs online, unless they've actually seen the model "in the flesh", either on the table, or at a store. It may be different in the US, but many towns/cities here just don't have any other miniature ranges other than Grandma Wendy (mainly because the independent stores that did carry them have either been forced out of business, or only stock the lines that shift a lot - i.e. Grandma Wendy). I have 5 or 6 large-ish towns within an easy 45min-1hr drive of me, plus the town I live in, and none of them (to my knowledge) have a shop that stocks anything other than Grandma Wendy. Go back 5-6 years, and at least 4 of them did. Still doesn't mean they're worth almost twice as much though. |
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| Dark Lord |
That's the only thing you said that just baffles me. I don't see what makes the Grandma Wendy fig better. IMO saying it's equal is being generous, but I wouldn't argue it. I mean let alone the static pose (both feet facing forward like a good Grandma Wendy model should! lol) His hips and shoulders are parallel despite the fact that his knees are bent and different angles. This means he walks with a limp because one leg is longer than the other. There's a lot more that bugs me about him...but I'll just point out the ornate armor of the reaper fig, compared to the bland armor of the Grandma Wendy one...oh it does have one bit of detail...wait for it...wait for it...a skull! Hooray! Like I said, I could see somebody calling them equal, but saying the Grandma Wendy fig is "far better" is really confusing to me. Especially when the guys reaper uses are the same guys who do Privateer Press, Ral Partha and Grandma Wendy...or at least used to. I don't know who Grandma Wendy uses now, but IMO the style isn't the same and is dropping fast. Other than that, you are right on the money. 
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| Thom |
D.L. I love the Mad Dog Avi! (Sorry for the thread derail) | ||||||
| MidniteXpress |
generally speaking i do like alot of grandma's figs, but i have to say i much prefer the reaper mini shown above.
my problem, well one of them, with grandma is that they do one or two nice figs for an army and then the rest of the figs that follow are just more of the same. which makes the whole range bland. other "smaller" companies mix it up and keep things fresh. just look at the siringit team from impact. grandma stopped trying to be the best some time ago, and now other companies are becoming real competition they are getting desperate and making mistakes. in my opinion if granny was willing to stock other ranges and allow those figs to be used in store, then the number of customers would dramatically increase and they could afford to keep their prices reasonable, but of course they won't. |
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| Dark Lord |
Wild Dog...but no prob cuz I call him that too! It's a better name. 
Wild Dog's mini-series took place in Davenport and the Quad Cities and used real landmarks from my home town. 
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| brownrob |
The granny mini has a better paintjob, and little else
I think its a poor fig, and I wouldnt pay $4 for it, let alone $12 |
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| GalakStarscraper |
We haven't raised the base prices of our figures since we opened three years ago. Some of the prices have gone up (and some down) over the last year but that was because we base our prices on the USD price and I had to adjust for exchange rates .... but we still charge $4.75 USD for our human figures and $3.50 USD if Phil Bowen sculpted them.
We don't see that changing in the near future. What happened was a lot of stores raised their prices when the cost of tin shot through the roof ... we did not. When the price of tin dropped ... most stores didn't drop their prices. Galak |
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| Dark Lord |
I think that's how it is with a lot of products, not just tin. But it seems like Grandma Wendy raises their prices every 6 months. They see a tiny increase in sales and they think the market will sustain a price increase and they don't hesitate. Meanwhile they're selling off their old licenses and focusing on only two games. Grandma Wendy is a game company that only makes two games!
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| Mephisto |
Well, in Spain you have to pay 12,5€ for a single minature (take the currency conversor to see). I only bought Grandma Wendy's minis through onlin stores that offer a minimum of 40% discount like
http://megaminis.co.uk/epages/eshop196361.sf http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/index.php |
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| Darkson |
Must just be one of those things were "different strokes" come in, cos I think that Reaper fig is awful - nowhere near as good as the Grandma Wendy one.
Yep, it is. When I worked for a major UK supermarket, we (and our competitors) would raise our petrol (gas) prices within a couple of hours of the price of a barrel of oil going up. It could take up to a week for the price to drop when the oil price went down though.
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| Norse |
Simon, you are being totally wooed by the paint job.. same goes for the recent Griff and Zug models that a lot of people are raving about.. phenomenal 20 hour paint jobs make an average model look good.. the reaper mini looks like a 2 hour paint job to me.. if the same painter had done both minis you would probably like them both equally..
the Grandma Wendy mini has more facial expression, the reaper mini a much more realistic pose.. facial expression wins 9 times out of 10 because humans look at faces first most of the time (yes, even us blokes know how to look up occasionally.. )
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| Darkson |
Doubt it's the paint job - I didn't honestly think that much of the new Griff, nice paintjob or not, whereas I didn't think much of the paint job on the Zug I did like (the helmet in the air one we're not getting).
Probably because I can't paint for toffee myself, so don't put to much stock on painting. Still can't put my figer on why I don't like the Reaper one, though you might be right on the facial details - maybe it looks slightly elvish to me. |
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| MidniteXpress |
yeah i see what you're saying, especially with the forked spear. although mu first reaction was that he was spanish lol |
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| Xtreme |
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| brownrob |
Some more than most! I couldnt resist!
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| Norse |
Mrs Norse is 5'10" mate, I spend most of my time with a crick in my neck..
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| SillySod |
I have to say that I think Wendy miniatures are usually better and frequently alot better than their competition. I especially like their plastic ranges... partly because they look good and partly because they're generally easy to mix and match and convert into FF, Gorkamorka, and other stuf.
Having said that I havent bought anything to use for 40k or Fantasy in years, I think the last thing I got was the battle for skull pass box when it first came out. This is partly because I've started doing other things and partly because I just dont want to fork out the increasing amounts of money you need for an army (buying an army in small stages is a recipe for disaster). I do still buy myself the odd plastic boxed set to build FF teams out of (because those are small managable projects with a sensible pricetag) but unless I earn alot of money in the future I just dont see myself ever buying in bulk. Then again I think its rulebook changes that irritate me the most. The creation of the Apocalypse "OMG buy more stuff to get us out of financial trouble" rules was pretty much the last straw 
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| Dark Lord |
Ease of use and compatibility are not the same to me as aesthetics. I too like the plastic multi-parts. But I refuse to pay $35 for 16 plastic minis. No way. And I would agree that Grandma Wendy's figs WERE much better looking than other companies, but now I just don't see it. Not because Grandma Wendy has gotten that much worse, I would say more bland, but other companies have gotten that much better. Plus all the guys who used to be almost exclusive to Grandma Wendy are all over the place now. I would love to hear some specifics or comparisons. I wouldn't try to rebut them because it's all opinion, but I really just don't see what makes them so unique anymore. It's like the books. Anyone who has owned or read the books Slaves to Darkness and The Lost and the Damned can attest that at the time those books came out (and even now) the artwork was incredible, the content was spilling over and the generally the books were in the "WHOAH!" range of coolness. What have they made like that in the last 5 years? I feel the same about the minis. I wouldn't call anything they have made in the minis department horrible (well maybe the Hubris Rakarth mini), but I would call it bland and boring. But I must be alone since Grandma Wendy is losing ground in an ever expanding arena. The current store I go to doesn't even sell Grandma Wendy stuff...can you believe it? An game shop with NO Grandma Wendy merchandise. The owner told me that he sweated over the decision but he just couldn't take the way they were treating him. Now he says, if he had kept Grandma Wendy stuff he probably would have been worse off. That's a big one for me. I like to support my local shops and buying from Grandma Wendy undermines FLGS...even when you buy it from their stores. And when you start stacking Grandma Wendy stuff up next to stuff from Privateer Press, Rackham, Wyrd and others I can't see how people can still claim Grandma Wendy's superiority in the sculpting department. Like I said, it's all opinion but justifying their prices by saying their minis are far better than anyone else's is an opinion that I can't even wrap my brain around. |
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| Darkson |
Never said they were better than Rackham, nor Privateer, though tbh, I've never actually seen any of those "in the flesh", as nowhere I know of near here sells them (and I only go to London for FF tourneys, so no time to shop).
I, and my clubmates, actually like the new 40K rles (in fact I stopped playing in 3rd and 4th editions, and it was only the latest one that drew me back in, and that's despite the 40K fluff being my favourite), but we also ignored the Apocalypse stuff - saw it for what it was. |
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| Dark Lord |
I guess when you said "companies like Reaper" I assumed you meant any non-Grandma Wendy. I didn't know you just didn't like Reaper's brand. To each his own I guess, but like I said Reaper uses the same sculptors as Privateer, Ral Partha, Freebooter and others. I know Jes Goodwin is still at Grandma Wendy but how much sculpting he does, I don't know. It's hard to say since Grandma Wendy is not in the habit of crediting artists. If you don't like Reaper minis that's fine I suppose. I can't argue different tastes, I just wish you would give an example of what makes Grandma Wendy's figs "far superior." It's hard for me to see. Like I said, it's personal taste so it's not like I can say you're wrong because you like smooth egg headed minis with a scratch over one eye, compared to sculpted hair and limbs of equal length.
As far as rules...yeah...I don't think I will ever buy Grandma Wendy rules again. There are just too many other companies that have built better rules, and some are even free. Warmachine/Hordes & The Warengine come to mind. Warmachine in particular just crushes 40K on so many levels it's not even a contest. It's cheaper, more fun, has better minis, and is played in stores without a-hole clerks and smelly kids. SOLD! |
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| MidniteXpress |
DL, can you adopt me? lol sounds like you have a pretty good gaming area where you are (stores and gamers).
i think grandma has pretty much peaked, whereas most of the other companies are still impoving and are surpassing the old gal. it's a bit like D&D. they were the first and best for a long time, and now there are other rpgs of equal or better quality, people still have this nostalgia for the big name. grandma has become bland (but still good quality) and is far far too overpriced. i can'r see me buying from grandma again unless they freshen up the ranges and lower their prices....which of course they won't do |
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| Mephisto |
I had that model some weeks ago in my hands... even his hand with the helmet had been removed and replaced by a claw... (I could have killed my friend for it). Anyway, a great model. I am starting to play WH Fantasy and perhaps LOTR, but only because I buy their stuff at waylandgames or megaminis, online store which offer from 20-50% discount. If that wouldn't be the case, I would not do it. |
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| Dark Lord |
Believe me, I am appreciative. Where I lived before had one game store, run by a-holes and it was a 20 minute drive with nowhere to park. Here there are 3 main stores and some other shops that sell games, comics, action figures and books to pad it out. Plus there's a large enough number of role players to actually have an official RPG group that does monthly meet & greets. It's a blast! I am currently running TMNT, playing Vampire: The Masquerade, Call of Cthulhu, Elfball, several other boardgames, and sooner or later we will be playing Slipstream, Buffy, All Flesh Must Be Eaten or Mutants & Masterminds. Or maybe even a couple of them if the wife lets me out that many nights a week!
I think you're exactly right. I find the phenomenon of 4th edition equally as strange as the Grandma Wendy one. I have not played it but sat in on a session...it was terrible! The combat was sooooo slow and the amount HP on everything was ridiculous. The mage had nearly the same number of HP as the Paladin! WTF?! And role playing? Forget it, what's the point? That game just doesn't know if it wants to be a minis wargame, a dungeon crawl or an RPG and so it tries to be all three and fails at all of them.
That's the way I see it. The minis at a sensible price would be nothing special to me. At the price they are now, they are horrible. |
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| Xtreme |
Are you talking about the Zug model? |
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| Mephisto |
The Zug model which has not been published and who was only a limited edition that was given to the Grandma Wendy staff. Yeah, I mean that. I had it in my hands.
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| Xtreme |
That is a bummer. I have one in my hands now that hasn't been hacked up.
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| Stout Youngblood |
Grrr. |
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| Thadrin |
Look at the Privateer models "Lady Aiyanna and Master Holt". I dare anyone to show me a recent Grandma Wendy mini that comes close.
I have plenty of problems with PP these days - arrogant staff members and ridiculous scale problems mainly - but some of their minis, especially those by Werner Klocke (who also sculpts for Reaper IIRC), are sheer genius. They knock pretty much all the Grandma Wendy stuff I've seen out of the park. |
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| Darkson |
Link please (I can never seem to find anything via the Privateer website ).
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| GalakStarscraper |
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