The Hobbit - An EXpected Shafting!

Well after the sneak peaks of the pictures of the new hobbit releases that hit the internet the other day, I went down to the local GW to buy the mag (WhiteDwarf). I haven't bought one of these in many years, as the majority of what it offers doesn't interest me (WFB or 40k)... but I wanted to see the new Hobbit releases.

I have to say I was initially underwhelmed... the dwarfs are nice, and the orcs are OK. I didn't much care for the look of the new goblins but presumably this is how they look in the new movie (though why they changed them from how the Moria goblins look is anyone's guess  - I thought they were excellent!), and they'll be tied to the movie imagery when it comes to sculpting and releasing the figures...

I can only hope that with seeing the movie I will become more enamored of them?

But what horrified me are some of the prices! Especially for us poor saps in 'MiddleEarth' AKA New Zealand,... jeez you'd think they'd cut us a break or something, for goodness sake the darn movie was made here after all!!!

The new Ltd Ed boxed set is £75 in the UK, so at present conversion rates that's about $150NZ, but guess what the price is here???... $240NZ !!!!!!!!!!!! What have we done to deserve this! I don't for one minute believe it costs this much extra to ship it here for sale... especially when in the past, online resellers were able to supply at discounted UK retail price and with free shipping!

So we, especially here in NZ are getting royally shafted by GW's pricing policy. But hey no surprises there, its being going on a while it just hasn't impacted me as I haven't been one to buy many of their products recently...

The other issue is relative costs between makers of similar products - many other manufacturers are turning out high quality figures for their games and systems, typically for half the equivalent cost of the GW products... but GW have the IP on their Warhammer universe, fantasy and sci-fi, and the issue that affects me... the License for the Tolkien world of things... The former doesn't impact me, I gave up on those game systems many years ago...but the later does and I feel well and truly grabbed by the short and curlies...

So, time to reflect and consider...

At the end of the day I am going to want the figures and play the game, that's a given...

So I have to rationalize this somehow... at the end of the day, my hobby purchases are a luxury expenditure. I could do other things in my leisure / hobby time... I could play computer games which cost about a $100NZ per new one, and give about a weeks worth of entertainment before you've finished it... I could be into doing up cars and need the latest set of sport profile tyres, or racing shocks at $100s of a throw... I could be into horse riding and need a paddock, horse feed, stabling, vet bills etc etc... I could be into boats and sailing... I could into flying... I could be into fine wines and dining out...there's 101 other hobby things to do which all would cost me more than my current hobby does...

So I have to just accept I'll be part of this 'gold standard' of hobby gamers playing the Hobbit SBG... ;-). I say gold standard as it seems to me GWs target audience must be some kind of hobbyist elite in society who have endless money to throw at their hobby! Sadly not me, I will have to save up for and rationalize my purchases over time...

I'll bet there will not be so many sets bought for kids to play with at Xmas and smash up over the next few weeks, unless the parents have more money than sense, which could well be the case when it comes to Xmas presents for some kids... I wonder if in years to come Ebay will be full of smashed 'The Hobbit' models for sale, as it is now with LOTR ones???

So there I am, and here I stay, I wont jump ship just yet, as that's just cutting my nose off to spite my face... Thankfully I already have the White Council done from their previous set, and to be honest I prefer the older figures and poses. I can get the starting boxed set, that gives me all the named dwarfs, Bilbo, and the Goblins and King... I'll only need one Bolg, and maybe a goblin captain, the hunter orcs are close enough to the orcs I already have... The troll set would be nice to have, but I can see them featuring in one scenario once, so are they worth buying? Their only value will be as a 'collectable'...

I am going to take my time with this, enjoy the starter set and make use of the existing figures I have that I can use.

My only caveat - I'll be damned if I am going to pay prices here! If I can source abroad by fair means or foul, I will! I'll consider that a win, and a poke in the eye from me to GW!

So I am going to try and get hold of the Ltd Ed Starter set, and Rulebook to start with...

Whilst at the store I also picked up a Finecast 'Groblog' goblin. I decided I want to see what this new material was like myself... I'll report my findings in another post...

As a parting thought - at least I have no need to fill my games table with as many LandRaiders and Leman Russ's as I can, at $140NZ each...! ;-)