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Thursday, October 03, 2013

New 40K rules... and a new source of 'Cheap' GW figures?

40K !



I 'bit the bullet', ordered the rules from the UK, and they arrived yesterday...

I managed to read through the main rules up to the Morale section last night. Looking forward to giving them a whirl with my young son, (who's mad keen), with my old figures, and those I got in the 'BlackReach' set.... trying to squeeze in the odd 40K marine and terminator in among the EotD stuff and FoW stuff on my workbench... to keep him happy...

I have always bemoaned the pricing and quality ('Failcast/Finecost') of GW figures in recent years, but something has occurred and been brought to my attention, that has me rather intrigued, amused and dare I even say even excited...

As has been the case for what seems like decades now, those fine little folk in the Orient have been taking ideas from the west, and invariably copying them, often making them far cheaper and perhaps in some cases even better?

Well that now appears to be the case with GW figures...

Various Chinese based suppliers are offering what amount to be copies of GW figures, made from a plastic/resin(?) material that seems as good if not better than than GW current Failcast...

They don't come pretty - no box, no instructions, just a plastic ziplock bag full of the bits you need...

As yet I have not ordered any, but am watching blog details of others who have..., so can't comment from personal experience...

If they turn out to be 'legit' and good quality, I'll be in with both feet...

To put things in perspective... if I were to buy the current Ghazkull (sp?) model for my son, prices:
From GW (NZ);     NZ$73
From UK source; ~NZ$40 delivered
From China;         ~NZ$25 delivered...

Its a no brainer really who's going to get my money... the traders have feedback ratings like on Ebay so you can 'buy' with confidence...

Watch these spaces...

Those wishing to check out more, go to

www.aliexpress.com , and search on Warhammer, 40k, etc... not the easiest site to navigate but you get there eventually...

It does of course leave you wondering what GW will do, or indeed can do about this, if anything?
Dropping local prices would be a start!

If any of you out there have experience in purchases from 'aliexpress', I'd be grateful for your feedback, comments below please...

29 comments:

  1. Looks like we read the same blogs! I also headed over to Alibaba's cave to have a look. It appears some of the traders have no idea what the difference between a single simple rank and file figure and a hero figure is, and you have to trawl through quite a lot of junk. I notice the latest Dark Elf figures are already up for sale! They have not even been released in the rest of the world! Makes you wonder if these are black market figures or copies. I have also spoken to some players who have bought some of these figures, and the quality varies wildly.

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    1. Yeah thanks Herman - I guess it could be a bit of a minefield buying from these sources, but you never know.., as time goes by they will no doubt learn the subject matter, and improve their skills and output...

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    2. What site has the Dark elf models? Whats this alibabas cave?

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  2. its all about doing research and finding the sellers you trust through feedback. The other eldar player at the club has spent a fair bit of money there (ill have an article about it on the dice odyssey blog tonight) Ill find out the sellers we all used as well so you guys know where to look first. Id hate for people to get some bad models because of my post so ill try hard to have some sort of master list of good sellers on the site.

    http://thediceodyssey.blogspot.co.nz/

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    1. Thanks Jayden, very responsible of you.
      Cheers
      Scott

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  3. GW has been casting it's plastics in China for years. I've been told that like the Chinese sneaker manufactures that additional run offs have been made to be sold by Chinese merchants. GW will not lower their prices no matter how hard we wish they would. :(

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  4. I'm currently living in Ukraine, and my only source of models is friends/ connections coming over from the UK/USA and a ukraine website selling these chinese version models.
    I recently bought some MK2 armour kits and heresy era termies. The terminators were in great condition. If you told me they were real forgeworld I would believe you. My friend bought the same terminators legit from FW. He prefered the quality of mine!

    The MK2 armour kits were good, but not as good. Cast in a harder plastic, with some minor damage/mis-casting. Especially so on the jump pack units.

    For forgeworld on the cheap, they are pretty good. You do lose a little quality I think, but not that much (and as I said, some models were amazing)
    I will be purchasing from this company again. I have my eye on a cheap land raider protius

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  5. http://thediceodyssey.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/the-post-youve-all-been-waiting-for.html

    here are some photos of Ali Models. Unfortunately most of them are painted so its harder to show detail but thankfully my friend will have his Space marines (pre heresy) well documented from start to finish so ill let you guys know.

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    1. OK, I have bitten the bullet once again and ordered the ghazkull, from Miranda irene store... will let you know what its like if and when it arrives!

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    2. awesome i look forward to seeing it.

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  6. One of the dudes here has got some stuff from these guys. Said he had no problems and is happy with what he got!!

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  7. I wonder how long before the mighty GW jump on this?

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    1. Indeed that was my thoughts but I wonder what powers GW have that could affect goings on in China?

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    2. GW is likely to go after the buyer and not the seller. ;-) I don't think GW can do a darn thing to the Chinese or they already would have.

      Christopher

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  8. While true they are cheaper then direct from GW for sure they still are a expensive or at least from my comparisons.

    Christopher

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    1. Very true, but this is a quantum reduction for GW stuff, especially for us Antipodeans, who seems to get shafted the most when it comes to global GW pricing policies...

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    2. That's true, but the world is catching up as they are hiking up the prices. It seems instead of lowering the prices in Aussie they have instead decided to raise prices for everyone in the world to equal what you pay. Perhaps their asking prices didn't suffer all that much down under and so decided they can charge the rest of the world just as much.
      Oh, it seems you cannot buy everything on those Chinese sites. Most of it is Forge World or fine cast. I didn't see much of the plastic or did I miss something?

      Christopher

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    3. Hmm not too good to hear.. though I frequently have heard that in many global issues, NZ is used as a testing ground before ideas get rolled out to the wider world , in all many of commercial matters, mainly due to its westernised society yet relatively small population...
      I'm not sure Chris, sorry I am still not too up on the whole 40K range to know what is forgeworld, finecast or otherwise, as yet...

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  9. I also wanted to get some stuff (Forge World "copies) from Ali Express, but they don't ship to Washington State - something about money exchange rules, etc. with the US side. I could have them shipped to my mom's address in Hawaii and have her then mail it to me...but hopefully they'll change the rules for my state. I have, however, recently won an ebay bid for a Contemptor Dreadnought from a Russian seller - hasn't arrived yet, but the seller has good ratings and has communicated with me very well. Best, Dean

    P.S. I'm keen to see more of your 40K games and figures!

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    1. Sorry to hear that Dean, I must admit I do run \ into various annoying shipping issues being in NZ, mostly using Amazon...
      I hope things work out for you.
      Just had a quick blast with the new rules to get the hang of them; squad of ork boys vs a squad of squats (yes they are mentioned in the new rule book, though sadly only a fleeting one liner if the fluff at back of book...); Orks got shot up on way in to squats but still engaged the squats in cover... interesting to see Furious charge doesnt give orks a Int bonus anymore... so tied Int of 2, simultaneous scrap... works wiped out but squats reduce to half.. Preferred enemy interesting too now for Squats vs Orks... Looking forward to more

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  10. Saw you changed the picture to take out GW references. Is that due to the Beasts of War recent experience. Wouldn't mind taking on GW on fair use in NZ if they tried to flex their muscles here. So if you want to push the copyright issues with GW, let me know and I'll help fight your corner.

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    1. I must admit I never know where you really stand when you use images from the internet, as just about everything seems to have some implied copyright?
      The Beasts of War experience just reminded me of past issues I have had with GW in this regard - they once had my ebay page shut down when I was selling homemade terrain that I described as being "suitable for use with Warhammer" ... seemed a way over the top response to me, (I got it back in the end but it took some effort!)... and if they can do that... I wouldn't want them somehow pressuring blogger to shut down my blog! I am not really sure what "fair use" really allows...?
      Interesting all the same, and thanks for your offer...
      And besides its a little more fun this way, as since I have altered the overall image the end product image is now copyrighted to me(?) - and gives me a fun little dig at them too! ;-)

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    2. Though they can sue you for breach of "moral rights" if you alter an existing artwork that's not your own (I think). They need someone to really take them on over this sort of bullying, though the stress time and cost means that no one would be keen. Easy to just remove the pictures etc and they know that. But at some stage I hope someone draws a line in the sand.

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    3. OK, now I am confused... if I take their image from website and use it, its "Fair use" and OK, but if I take the image, and alter it I breach "Moral Rights" and that's not OK?

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    4. Man, the BoW-incident has me hopping mad! I have decided on a couple of things: 1- not to visit a GW store, 2- buy nothing directly from them and 3- fart loudly in GW's general direction.

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    5. Good on ya Ronnie, just keep a supply of baked beans on hand, you never know when you'll need them! ;-)

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  11. Wow, this seems too much like work to me but those GW prices you quoted are f*cking INSANE! Your son is a very lucky young lad to have a dad who'll go though this in order to spend some quality time together. Again, good on you Scott!

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