Games Workshop Announcements

Well, I've previously expressed my preference towards skirmish wargaming, and it seems that I've jumped ship just in time.

Games Workshop, which is the dominant wargaming franchise here in Australia, has announced that they are switching to a new type of resin to make their miniatures.
These new resin miniatures will come with a price hike (the third price hike in 3 years), and the new resin recipe has the added bonus of being slightly more dangerous to handle. There's an Australian and New Zealand Facebook page, where the frustration of the situation is very evident from the community.

This news comes shortly after Australians (and other countries outside the EU) were given the news from Maelstrom Games (one of the major UK independent online retailers) that GW have forced them to stop their online sales outside the EU.
For Australians, ordering miniatures online from the UK is a much more feasible option than buying directly for Games Workshop stores, or Australian online retailers.
Games Workshop mark-up the prices for Australian online retailers, which then forces Australian online retailers to pass these marked-up prices to the consumer. So ultimately, Australian online retailer's prices are higher when compared to the prices available from UK online retailers. By stopping UK online retailers selling to Australians (and other countries), Games Workshop is forcing Australians to pay this mark-up.

I think it's the opinion shared by myself and many others in the Australian wargaming community, that this behavior is... well... f*cked - and hence the community is in an uproar and won't stand for it.
I don't see why Australian's have to pay so much for Games Workshop products - our dollar hasn't been this high in years, and shipping can't possibly cost that much (which is evident because the UK online retailers can do it really cheap).
While it's something that doesn't directly affect me since I moved to MERCS, my heart goes out to my fellow wargamers in Australia in their plight.

The good news is, maybe this will make Australians realise what kind of company Games Workshop is, and that there are other miniatures companies out there that support their communities - like the MERCS team.

Sync out.