Ice Golem

[Nazull]

Will the Ice Golem be out to buy on its ?

I only ask I am looking for 2 more of them of the new shape ones as there not rare unless they have change that.

[ehren37]

From the unboxing, it appears his two sprues only contain his parts, so its possible he might see an individual release. Nothing concrete is known at this time though.

[Nazull]

that's what I thought. had a look on the net for any info but could not find it

thanks anyway

[Bazin]

Yea, it would be nice to have another in the new style without having to buy the whole box again, BUT, with Wave 2 on the way, I'm feeling more and more that I'm going to see a game situation where I'm going to have multiple Ice Golems, unless I'm playing a something way over 50 points.

I think with SnowStorm, Blessed, and Joss - I've got a wide variety of alternatives that would really add the same level of damage output while adding their own trouble to the board.

Course, YMMV.

[zFiend]

Hm. I remember wanting the new Mortimer off box and somehow got the image that this time around, they wouldn't be selling separate models off the box that much?

[HalcyonSeraph]

Hm. I remember wanting the new Mortimer off box and somehow got the image that this time around, they wouldn't be selling separate models off the box that much?

They've been deliberately cagey about it, giving the sense the decision hasn't fully been made. They did, however, switch to putting each model on its own mini-sprue instead of jumbling them all together, so they have the OPTION of selling individuals. And minion-types like gamin and belles are being sold off-box so I'm holding out hope.

[zFiend]

They've been deliberately cagey about it, giving the sense the decision hasn't fully been made. They did, however, switch to putting each model on its own mini-sprue instead of jumbling them all together, so they have the OPTION of selling individuals. And minion-types like gamin and belles are being sold off-box so I'm holding out hope.

That sounds great! I hope they will do that. But I think minion types were going to be sold separately all along?

[HalcyonSeraph]

That sounds great! I hope they will do that. But I think minion types were going to be sold separately all along?

Yeah, but at several points designers were asked if starter box models would be available off-box and the answer was always basically "We'd like to but we don't know and have no timetable for it if so".

But then they said the same thing about a mini-rulebook and that came out sooner than later so who knows.

[decker_cky]

They've been deliberately cagey about it, giving the sense the decision hasn't fully been made. They did, however, switch to putting each model on its own mini-sprue instead of jumbling them all together, so they have the OPTION of selling individuals. And minion-types like gamin and belles are being sold off-box so I'm holding out hope.

Strangely, this wasn't done on the Marcus starter. While the mini sprues are all individual models, they're linked together, meaning they aren't cast separately. Yet the models are available separately.

[graeme27uk]

Why would they not offer this option? It's another revenue option.

[HalcyonSeraph]

Why would they not offer this option? It's another revenue option.

Well, it costs money to produce box art and packaging for them separately on top of in the box set, and shelf space in stores and such, and if it turns out that only, say 10% of players buy an off-box Golem, it may not be worth it to offer that option.

For the longest time, GW swore it simply was not cost effective to offer single-model plastics at all, ever. They've backed off that and do it now for some models after other companies proved them wrong.

[graeme27uk]

But its not as if the stock has a sell-by date... it doesn't go off. So they would eventually sell...

[edonil]

The thing is, GW already has that shelf space. In fact, they require it! If you want to sell GW, there's a minimum amount you have to stock. Wyrd, on the other hand, needs to compete for it with other smaller companies, so it comes down to an efficiency of space thing. If you've only got a 3x3 foot set of shelves to stock things, by putting out fewer boxes, retailers will be able to carry more of it, which means it's more likely to sell a few things here and there rather than have dozens of individual blisters sitting on shelves.

---------- Post added at 02:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:21 PM ----------

But its not as if the stock has a sell-by date... it doesn't go off. So they would eventually sell...

Nope. There's stuff on local shelves, not just Wyrd, that's been there since I moved to this town. That's 8 years now. Being on the shelf is not a guarantee of sale, even for GW.

[Fenton Crack]

Store owners also prefer a smaller number of SKUs, as it is easier to keep track of inventory and place reorders. The problem with individual blisters is trying to stock them all, and then keeping track of stock, even if they take up a small amount of space, they are hanging in front of oneanother, order doubles by mistake, etc.

[Gorbad]

Also physical space is to a certain extend money. Someone needs to pay for the storage space to keep boxes around if they don't sell. So there needs to be a certain level of demand before there is a commercial reason to bring out those boxes.

[Morgan Vening]

Store owners also prefer a smaller number of SKUs, as it is easier to keep track of inventory and place reorders. The problem with individual blisters is trying to stock them all, and then keeping track of stock, even if they take up a small amount of space, they are hanging in front of oneanother, order doubles by mistake, etc.

There's also the issue of product knowledge. While it'd be nice if all stockists were experts at every game they sold, it's not often the case. Coupled with the limited shelf space, there's the issue of what to get. The original poster wants extra Ice Golem. And that'd be understandable because he's a non-rare model that can easily fit into a Raspy/Ramos/Mei Feng list. But purchasing multiple copies of say, Nothing Beast, that is Rare 1, and looks like it only fits into Tara, makes it a much harder. Even more complicated if you start looking at gameplay potential (If a model isn't balanced correctly, it'll impact sales).

It's hard enough when you've got 21 different core boxes, and a similar number of smaller boxes, getting ratios right at the retail level can be difficult. Splitting the core boxes down into component pieces just adds to that.

[Wence]

I think at least initially too, it's a good business plan to keep many of the "new" models as crew box exclusives. Many of the players from 1/1.5 I know were hoping to avoid buying Lilith's box, but wanted Barbaros enough that they did anyway.

[Kaled]

I've wondered if it would be worthwhile Wyrd selling individual sprues through their webstore - they could just have them in plain or generic boxes (so no extra artwork would be needed), and by only selling them direct it would mean people would have a reason to buy direct if they wanted just part of a box, but there wouldn't be a whole load more SKUs and stores would still be the place to buy boxed sets.

[edonil]

That still will require warehouse room. All it does is change the physical presence from the FLGS to Wyrd's expense. Actually, it would probably be more expensive in the long run for them to do that. Having to get extra ones, set them aside, keep them on inventory, but not to ship out elsewhere, then there's the cost that those will generate in taxes at the end of the year...plus, how many do you keep on hand for that purpose?

[thebarbalag]

The Rattler and the Cerberus in Marcus's box are in the same sprue, but separated half and half, so, I suspect (haven't opened my extra Rattler and Cerberus boxes yet) that the sprues are just cut apart before packaging.