Is Games Workshop profiting off their own blunder?????

Thank you to BrookM at dakkadakka.com for the information, and picture.

Let me start off by saying I really hate making this post. My intent when starting my blog was to stay positive, but gosh darn it GW quit making this so easy. While I haven’t seen the new White Dwarf yet, it would appear some people have their copies early. On the new items page are the following items. (prices are converted from Euros so not exact)
- Citadel cleanup kit: Contains a flash brush with right rigid bristles for removing flash from resin and a mouldline scraping tool, ideal for metal, resin and plastic. $14.99

- Citadel Emery boards: Pack contains three emery boards that are great for smoothing resin surfaces. Contains two fine-grade and one super-duper-extra-fine-grade board. $5.99

- Citadel liquid green stuff: paint bottle of liquid green stuff. Water soluble, designed for gap filling and removing air bubbles. $ 4.99

- Revamped Citadel tool kit: Contains all previous tools along with the new clean up kit.
The post on these items immediately caused controversy. The liquid green stuff in particular. When GW released their new fine cast models a few months ago, it was marred with issues. They had every possible issue they could. Shipping made some release date models late, The models weren’t packed with all their parts or the wrong ones (I recently saw a black Ork with the body of Lysander instead in the package). But the largest problem has been mold issues. The molding issues include bubbles, mold lines from hell, and even entire body parts missing such as hands and feet.
Games Workshop openly stated this was release day gen 1 issues. A very valid excuse in my opinion. Nothing ever works as planned when a product is first released, an a lot of times there are the exact issue’s they’ve been having. Here in also lies the problem, after months of saying we’ll fix the issue’s we’ll fix the issues. Games workshop has now stated to it customer base “not our problem you fix our issue’s”. Have they came out a blatantly said that no, but their actions tell us just that.
Lets look at these products in detail
- Citadel cleanup kit: Contains a flash brush with right rigid bristles for removing flash from resin and a mouldline scraping tool, ideal for metal, resin and plastic. $14.99
depending on how rigid the brush is this product could be useful, I do worry about this item on fine cast, and plastic models that are thin or have swords. People tend to brush to hard and will probably break models. Other than that I will probably purchase this product.
- Citadel Emery boards: Pack contains three emery boards that are great for smoothing resin surfaces. Contains two fine-grade and one super-duper-extra-fine-grade board. $5.99
this is silly, the veteran hobby people have used emery boards for years, we know they are cheap and easy to come by, and does a fantastic job of smoothing surfaces. Why in heck would someone pay that much for emery boards? This is just a blatant money making scheme. While I see it as such I also must say games Workshop has a good plan with this. A fool and his money are easily parted; I say shame on the consumer for this one because they will buy it.
- Citadel liquid green stuff: paint bottle of liquid green stuff. Water soluble, designed for gap filling and removing air bubbles. $ 4.99
I have to laugh every time I read this, if I don’t laugh id probably cry. The exact words in the White Dwarf state perfect for gaps and air bubbles. So instead of fixing their problem Games Workshop is now going to charge us more money???????? I really want to rant about this but I won’t. I think just pointing out what I have is enough for most people. While I really want to try this product because I am a person who enjoys modifying his figures, I think this product is a blatant way for Games Workshop to profit off their own mistakes.
In Short, I really want to love Games Workshop, I always have. I have defended them in the past, but not this time. Something big needs to change with their company; they aren’t the only choice out there anymore. Two of my local hobby stores are full of players from other games now. Games Workshop you might be the 800 pound gorilla, but remember what happened to King Kong once he got cocky.