I had not planned to do a GW article this weekend to be honest. I had intended to do an unboxing blog for my new anime figure and none of the pre-orders/new releases this weekend interested me. I like the new Farsight model but not enough to want a box of Tau (I still have my imperium ones) and the necron one doesn’t tempt me as with the exception of the destroyers I have the rest already.
Still, out of curiosity I logged onto the GW site around 11am GMT and found the below.
The Tau book was there but no models so a quick ebay search later saw that we were in familiar terrirtory.
From what I can tell the Tau box sold out in less than a minute, the common figure seems to be 37 seconds. I checked a few of the online stores I have used before which are a little more obscure and sure enough they were all out as well. One did have the necron boarding patrol but only the one still in stock. Deja vu all over again.
I wrote last week how the scars of indomitus made me cautious of any new GW release because they simply do not seem able to adequately support them. I said then that unless they had altered things then I saw a repeat happening and within days we see it again. Now, I don’t like attacking GW because to be honest it is like beating a child on a PC game. It is too easy. I used to think that it was simply a case that they still believed that they were the little company they used to be and are stocking accordingly but after so many repeats of this (going right back to the Aurelian release many many moons ago) I have changed my view.
I think GW simply do not care.
They know that they can do a small initial run, sell them all in seconds and say there is little they can do about scalpers. The subsequent restock means guaranteed sales and if people moan in the meantime well they always do this and they keep coming back.
Maybe I am doing GW a severe dis-service and they simply cannot manufacture enough stock in time but I struggle to see this. Certainly though it is promoting an increasing number of attacks on painting influencers who get the freebies. Personally I have no truck with that view but with the 10th edition release likely coming in the summer I can see things turning ugly; especially if there are a lot of new sculpts in the box. Personally I just want the rule book so I should be fine but I can see a lot of unhappy people in the near future.
GW can stop all this happening with made to order, larger stock build up and not playing FOMO games. If however you put a gun to my head and forced me to make a view though i will say now that nothing will change and we will be in the exact same position in around three or four months time.
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