1 minute ago, Darth Sanguis said:

Implying this isn't 100% enough to consider it a paywall.

Considering your game play is not even remotely altered by it, yes I’d flat out say it’s not enough to call a cosmetic element a paywall.

Star Trek Attack Wing has legitimate paywalls: event exclusive minis and cards that ARE differently stat costed and thus unfairly assisting those with the real $ because it’s not a primary market.

Xwing has alternate paint ships now (3 of them, 2 were con exclusives and one was an OP element). Not a paywall because you can get the same mechanics in available expansions.

Legion has alternate sculpts. I had zero chance to get Vader or Obi. Zero. Still not upset bu that fact, because I’m an adult and I recognize that something good happening for someone else doesn’t make my own life worse.

Just now, Darth Sanguis said:

They don't have to make money directly off it to improve the IMAGE of their company and make money passively. You think investors don't see that a $3 hunk of plastic and paper is selling for $300 on reseller markets? Or that product sells out day 1? You think the people who front the money for this whole venture don't LOVE seeing the product have such a high demand?

Literally nobody considering in investing in Asmodee is looking at eBay listings for limited edition Legion promos and thinking, “oooh FFG has a good thing going here.” This makes absolutely no sense at all.

4 minutes ago, ScummyRebel said:

Legion has alternate sculpts. I had zero chance to get Vader or Obi. Zero. Still not upset bu that fact , because I’m an adult and I recognize that something good happening for someone else doesn’t make my own life worse.

That's nice for you, but if all you can say to someone who wants a product but can't afford scalper or reseller prices is, "be happy someone else can" then I would say you're part of the problem.

I’m betting this was the Star Wars Celebration exclusive for this year. It was supposed to be heavily focused on the 40th anniversary of ESB and what better figure than Luke in a flight suit on Hoth.

IIRC, FFG was going to be in attendance. And while I have no insider knowledge, I’m betting companies who have the SW license are probably heavily influenced to have an exclusive available at the show.

Celebration gets cancelled and FFG has the exclusive already in production since the show was scheduled for 8/27-30 and the cancelation did not occur until June 15th. So want to do with them?

Retailer incentive is a good idea especially since Q4 of 2020 is very light on SW product. Get retailers to order more stock in November, likely by having customers interested in this product ordering stuff to ensure the store qualifies. Heck, I’m about to order another ISF and Iden so I can paint them up in AT-AT pilot colors if it helps my local store qualify.

18 minutes ago, KalEl814 said:

Literally nobody considering in investing in Asmodee is looking at eBay listings for limited edition Legion promos and thinking, “oooh FFG has a good thing going here.” This makes absolutely no sense at all.

****, you're right. lol I get caught up in the rant sometimes.

Still, it seems pretty messed up to me that FFG's distribution always seems to screw people over.


Sorry all

@ScummyRebel , @KalEl814 Especially...

The reason behind all this salt, and why I'm so quick to anger over it, is I just did a podcast with at a game store with the Warhammer players, and they ALL said they were really interested in Legion but hated FFG's reprint and distribution polices based on X-Wing, Armada and Legion's failures. We had a good discussion about it and we're trying to recruit new players, but at the end of the day I know so many people refusing to buy in because they're afraid of getting screwed.

Event exclusives don't help that, and there's no reason FFG couldn't make it a full run. Exclusives, especially when not controlled in distribution, are just scalped, and it's a bad look.

21 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

That's nice for you, but if all you can say to someone who wants a product but can't afford scalper or reseller prices is, "be happy someone else can" then I would say you're part of the problem.

Edit: you addressed it above.

I find your later post kind of amusing, given that Warhammer has also been having a lot of distribution issues for the last while from what I've seen.
Box exclusive minis coming out years later, and boxes going out of print and very slow to restock for 40k as well, even before COVID.

9 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

Sorry all

@ScummyRebel , @KalEl814 Especially...

Don’t sweat it; water under the bridge. 🙂

I totally get the frustration with FFG’s stocking and restocking issues with their SKUs. I’m waiting to see P2 clones or Vital Assets someday, and it looks like ISF vanished before my local store could nab them. I agree that supply chain is a downside for our game, and it sucks a lot. I remain critical of ffg that the number one thing holding Legion back is the inability to keep their existing skus stocked and to consistently get at least one (if not more) new releases missed so it’s a mad dash to be in before they go out. Fomo is real in this game, and I absolutely agree with you that they’re really bad about that.

(I don’t know if this is just my locality or representative of other places, but X-Wing stocks seem to be well better in my area under 2.0 than 1.0 ever was or than legion).

7 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:

Edit: you addressed it above.

I find your later post kind of amusing, given that Warhammer has also been having a lot of distribution issues for the last while from what I've seen.
Box exclusive minis coming out years later, and boxes going out of print and very slow to restock for 40k as well, even before COVID.

I mean, everyone sees their favorite tabletop through rose glasses, we discussed that too in the podcast, but the consensus with them was regular product was never out of stock for as long as FFG's stuff. The example was Phase IIs and B2s... were released in February, STILL not back in stock? Why?

7 minutes ago, ScummyRebel said:

Don’t sweat it; water under the bridge. 🙂

I totally get the frustration with FFG’s stocking and restocking issues with their SKUs. I’m waiting to see P2 clones or Vital Assets someday, and it looks like ISF vanished before my local store could nab them. I agree that supply chain is a downside for our game, and it sucks a lot. I remain critical of ffg that the number one thing holding Legion back is the inability to keep their existing skus stocked and to consistently get at least one (if not more) new releases missed so it’s a mad dash to be in before they go out. Fomo is real in this game, and I absolutely agree with you that they’re really bad about that.

(I don’t know if this is just my locality or representative of other places, but X-Wing stocks seem to be well better in my area under 2.0 than 1.0 ever was or than legion).

It's frustrating for sure. Like we were talking on the show about because Legion is really the only other mainstream tabletop IP out there with 30+ years of lore it could be a real contender for Warhammer. That Warhammer could even use the competition to breed new innovation (their perspective on it anyways). There's so much content FFG could make REAL money. Exclusives come up all the time locally and it's pretty well agreed that the practice of excluding people when the game is trying to grow is bad and it looks bad.

1 hour ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I mean, everyone sees their favorite tabletop through rose glasses, we discussed that too in the podcast, but the consensus with them was regular product was never out of stock for as long as FFG's stuff. The example was Phase IIs and B2s... were released in February, STILL not back in stock? Why?

I'll point to the Battle Sisters Squad which I have not seen available anywhere other than eBay for exorbitant prices since their release in (I want to say) October.
Part of the difference is that for 40k, the number of factions is much greater, so if only one or two of the newer factions are affected by manufacturing issues, it is less likely to affect a large portion of their player base, so might pass unnoticed by many. Legion is much narrower, so it feels like it is more obvious to players when there is an issue.

So, this is an awesome model and I would love to have one. Unfortunately, that likely won't be possible for me. My store is getting 3, but I volunteered to run an event using them as prize support to help drive the game and support the store. As TO, I'm not getting one unless I got to another store and enter a raffle or something. It's a little disappointing, but I'm not mad at FFG. If anything, giving stores a reason to bring players in , is great and something they should definitely do. Even if this is a repurposed celebration exclusive, that's a great use for the product other than making it some kind of weird online exclusive or something. I'm happy with the way they've handled it even if my position with my FLGS makes it unlikely I'll get one.

No matter what they did with this obviously repurposed mini, they were going to draw ire. Even before at con exclusives people were salty they had no chance of getting a "limited edition". the clue is in the name here..... it's limited, however its not like we don't already have two versions of Luke to choose from. What annoys me about any limited edition are those that buy with the intent to sell. This happens with even celebrity signed stuff , people get it signed, not to own a rare item and covet it, but to resell it for a quick buck. Greed will always be a factor.

I want this figure, and I’ll never be able to get it. Guess I’ll have to look at third party figures.

I personally couldn't care less about the statistics and play options. I just want the figure because ive wanted them to do rebel pilots since day one and being in Australia i have seemingly zero chance of getting one

23 hours ago, Darth Sanguis said:

See

I don't have a problem getting the minis. I can afford it. I can also replicate to almost complete accuracy because I know how to resin cast. There are those who can't and FFG is willingly participating in the activity of making and distributing things that many players cannot access because they cannot afford unreasonable reseller markup . Not because these people didn't want the item, or have enough for the regular price point of the item. Not because of a lack of FFG production capability. Because FFG want their products to look more valuable.

That's why I'm "bent out of shape".

This isn't about FFG wanting to give the community a cool new mini, or they'd do a full release (or timed/ OP support) this is a marketing ploy to make their IP seem more valuable.

The most annoying part of this is the complete lack of distribution control they do with these minis. The majority of the people who snagged one of the Obi minis at Essen Spiel didn't even want it, just wanted to sell it for 10-20x MSRP. (People were reporting as it happened that because of the way the vendors got first access very few people visiting and not vending could even get them!). With this Luke too, a few lucky communities with groups will have them as prize support or something, the rest will go to store owners who have no Legion group to be turned around on Ebay for $200-$300 bucks while many players who want one but cannot afford the resale price get screwed over.

All of this is especially **** when new players start asking "Why can't I find that Obi, or those phase 2s for less than 10x MSRP?"



It's a bad business practice and I'm gonna retain my salt about it. **** FFG.

You can resin cast? We should talk sometime offline.

17 minutes ago, SoonerTed said:

You can resin cast? We should talk sometime offline.

The next few weeks, maybe even the next month or so I may be too busy to get to it (I may be moving out of my current apartment soon, my nights are filled with home improvement projects until the landlady decides what's going on), but I'll make a note to PM you once I'm back up to speed. By then I should have a copy of Luke too.

33 minutes ago, SoonerTed said:

You can resin cast? We should talk sometime offline.

Its all in the molds. How much do you want to spend? I've made some resin casts with stuff from Hobby Lobby (there's way more detailed oriented stuff, but its' expensive and there's a learning curve), I just wasn't satisfied with the process or time commitment/cost. With a lot of items, it's cheaper just to buy duplicates and get extra parts. With something like this that's not really an option.

Having the different head and weapon arms as options would be awesome if they would release it with normal production runs though.

I have said this in a couple of other formats( Facebook groups); but why not reward the players by letting us turn in “X” amount of proof of purchases + S/H? Ya know reward those that buy a bunch of your product. This just feels horrible knowing about the only way to get one is to buy off of a scalper, which really just hurts the product line and morale of the player base.

9 hours ago, kuffdaddy said:

I have said this in a couple of other formats( Facebook groups); but why not reward the players by letting us turn in “X” amount of proof of purchases + S/H? Ya know reward those that buy a bunch of your product. This just feels horrible knowing about the only way to get one is to buy off of a scalper, which really just hurts the product line and morale of the player base.

Honestly I'd prefer this over what they're doing now. It would be a logistical nightmare for FFG who can barely manage to stay above water for basic stuff like making sure a online assembly guide is released the same day as a product, but in a perfect world, not a bad idea.

10 hours ago, kuffdaddy said:

I have said this in a couple of other formats( Facebook groups); but why not reward the players by letting us turn in “X” amount of proof of purchases + S/H? Ya know reward those that buy a bunch of your product. This just feels horrible knowing about the only way to get one is to buy off of a scalper, which really just hurts the product line and morale of the player base.

I used to have a bucket of flag points from all the GiJoe figures/vehicles etc I had bought. There was a time, you could exchange those for exclusive figures or products they included in catalogs if you bought a vehicle.

I still have a problem throwing away the PofP because of how Hasbro trained me back in the early 80s.

Mailing in upc's for stuff is a lost art. Le sigh. Glad I sold my SW:L commission or I'd feel compelled to go after this Luke.

7 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

Mailing in upc's for stuff is a lost art. Le sigh. Glad I sold my SW:L commission or I'd feel compelled to go after this Luke.

@TauntaunScout good to see you're still hanging around ^^

Giving out a limited number of unique figures for a single product just to get people to come to your booth is pretty crappy. You could give out 50% or more off coupons to be used on all products instead. Then the fans of the particular game getting limited freebee doesn't feel screwed over. This and all previous limited edition figures should be available to all as alternates for the game. Variety in the characters is always good.

@John79 Disney requires FFG to make exclusives for cons as part of the license deal, FFG admitted as much when Vader was released.

The point of the con exclusives isn't just to get you to go to the booth, it's to incentivize people to go to the con in order to get all the exclusive items.

I brought this to the attention of my FLGS so maybe there's a bit of hope. We'll see