This is why I have been buying other models to use and convert to new gameable models.

Four ships every six months is not enough for me.

• that sucks, I was really looking forward to this one too....

Maybe they heard our complaints that the RGI didn't have the winglets and are deciding to add them.

I want to be you, you obviously live in a wonderful world with fairies and cupcakes and unicorns that fart rainbows. Where all dreams can come true..... In my world it's quite dingy, has constantly running sewer water, and I believe that a delay is just a delay... I like your world better.

Oh well that's no fun! My suggestion to you is to get a brita filter to clean that water up, and then a flashlight to shine through it and make a rainbow! As for the fairies and cupcakes, the little green fairy is fat, ugly, smells, and swears like a son of a *****. He's really not that much fun to be around. Cupcakes are good. They are always good.

The cake is a lie.

That would explain why there were no Aces packs available at Worlds like I was hoping for. And also maybe why the was no Wave 4 announcement either.

I wonder how a buisness becomes consitently late with such things. You'd think they have done it enough times now to at least announce more cautious dates or just hold off altogether. I think that's the most annoying part, just don't say anything until you are *sure*. Especially now that it's a pattern. Still, I know nothing of the buisness. Were the Wings of War planes well painted? Maybe it's because they're hand painted? I'm all for fast releases but I'd admittedly not want them coming from some sweatshop in China just to shave some time off availability.

I wonder how a buisness becomes consitently late with such things. You'd think they have done it enough times now to at least announce more cautious dates or just hold off altogether. I think that's the most annoying part, just don't say anything until you are *sure*. Especially now that it's a pattern. Still, I know nothing of the buisness. Were the Wings of War planes well painted? Maybe it's because they're hand painted? I'm all for fast releases but I'd admittedly not want them coming from some sweatshop in China just to shave some time off availability.

I'm pretty sure they already come from a sweatshop in china. Painters who actually get payed what they are worth charge at least $15 and hour if not something more like $30 or $40 and I'm pretty sure we aren't even paying $15 an hour in painting cost for these.

I wonder how a buisness becomes consitently late with such things. You'd think they have done it enough times now to at least announce more cautious dates or just hold off altogether. I think that's the most annoying part, just don't say anything until you are *sure*. Especially now that it's a pattern. Still, I know nothing of the buisness. Were the Wings of War planes well painted? Maybe it's because they're hand painted? I'm all for fast releases but I'd admittedly not want them coming from some sweatshop in China just to shave some time off availability.

probably because it's better for buisiness.

I agree the delays are irritating for the customer, but they probably loose less money by producing to few items (loosing a few customers because of the delays) than overproducing and loosing on the profit margin, in particular if some sets might go into revision in a young game which might shelve additional overproduced items.

I wonder how a buisness becomes consitently late with such things. You'd think they have done it enough times now to at least announce more cautious dates or just hold off altogether. I think that's the most annoying part, just don't say anything until you are *sure*. Especially now that it's a pattern. Still, I know nothing of the buisness. Were the Wings of War planes well painted? Maybe it's because they're hand painted? I'm all for fast releases but I'd admittedly not want them coming from some sweatshop in China just to shave some time off availability.

I'm pretty sure they already come from a sweatshop in china. Painters who actually get payed what they are worth charge at least $15 and hour if not something more like $30 or $40 and I'm pretty sure we aren't even paying $15 an hour in painting cost for these.

Well, if you look at them, there really isn't that much "painting" going on. Take an X wing. It has two stripes, 4 wing squadron indicators, and a two tone cockpit. And then a rather blah wash. For mass production, I would expect them to have a nose cone template that lines the stripes so they're consistant thickness and straight. I would expect the same thing for the squadron markers. Which if that's the case, those two tasks should be completed in just a few minutes. I don't know how they would mass produce the cockpit. It would make sense to me to paint it all black and then paint the blue, but I don't think the blue would cover that black very well, so maybe they actually have skilled painters doing that? And the wash they put on shouldn't take long at all. Excluding the cockpit and the drying time, I doubt that there's more than 2 minutes of painting on an X wing.

But even if there's an hour of it - we're talking China sweat shops that don't pay jack for a day's worth. The labor cost is not the most expensive part. Figure that FFG has less than 6-8 dollars invested in each ship. I get that number from the fact that MM sells them for $10 (often with free shipping if you buy enough) and turns a profit on each ship. They have overhead cost for their facilities and servers, so they would have to net 2-3 each I would think. From there, you have them being shipped across the sea, which costs millions, but figure there are millions on the boat (of course shared with other of their stuff / shipping supplier's stuff) so probably a dollar there. And then there's the fact that they need to be making at least as much money as folks that sell it, so figure a 4 dollar profit (averaging in the MM and FLGS). That brings their production costs to 2-3 dollars. There really isn't much material in these, though I don't know what the scrap % would be - I would expect rather high as they should be injection molded on a sprue. The machine time should be negigable - a 70ton press should be ~$120/hr to operate, but the number of parts they get from it should be in the thousands (figure 60 second cycle time gives you 60 cycles. And I would expect at least 50 parts on each mold, yielding 30,000 parts / hr. But then there's the fact that you need multiple wings and lasers per ship... And multiple molds per ship, which depending on how many machines they have could drastically increase down time for switching out the molds) But then they're assembled glued and painted by chinese workers. And then there's the R+D and overhead, which is likely to be another 2-3 dollars, which is all we have remaining. So it would seem that the plastic ship we're buying doesn't actually cost anything by itself. Just all the other stuff around it to get it to us that costs $$.

I wonder how a buisness becomes consitently late with such things. You'd think they have done it enough times now to at least announce more cautious dates or just hold off altogether. I think that's the most annoying part, just don't say anything until you are *sure*. Especially now that it's a pattern. Still, I know nothing of the buisness. Were the Wings of War planes well painted? Maybe it's because they're hand painted? I'm all for fast releases but I'd admittedly not want them coming from some sweatshop in China just to shave some time off availability.

Yeah, I always find this weird. Back when I played really heavily, Blizzard would consistently be off on their server maintenance estimates. They'd change the date about six times throughout the day before finally finishing. And they'd do this every... single... time they had a patch.

People would defend them by complaining to the complainers that it's a lot of work and all that, but that wasn't the problem. The problem wasn't that we didn't think it was a lot of work, the problem was that they always underestimated how much work it was going to be.

Star Trek actually had a really funny exchange about this:

" I told the Captain I would have this diagnostic done in an hour. "

" And how long will it really take you? "

" An hour! "

" Oh, you didn't tell him how long it would really take, did you? "

" Of course I did. "

" Oh, laddie, you have a lot to learn if you want people to think of you as a miracle worker. "

I don't see why these companies just don't ridiculously overestimate how long it will take them. Then they'd look like heroes when they get it out on time or even late, because it will be "early" to everyone else.

I just wish this company wasn't so good at being tight-lipped. XP

I'm not big on spoilers, but I'm honestly losing interest in this game because I don't have a lot of opportunities to play it right now, and I don't have anything to look forward to or speculate about.

One last thing, just to be clear. I'm not complaining here or saying they're going to kill the game or anything, I love the game, I'm just discussing my personal opinion of Fantasy Flight's particular method of communication.

Fantasy Flight IS surprisingly tight lipped about product, which is a stark contrast with how the last company that had the overall Star Wars License acted, practically giving out hints for everything. FFG doesn't even give us a community liason to talk to on occasion, other companies have a staff member who posts every once in a while to kind of "shore up" the fans. Not to be a bugbear, just seems that they would given the level of high quality product they deliver.

I've been really impressed with the quality of their products, and them sending me a replacement model when a B-wing was screwed up, so not griping. I'm sure I'll enjoy it when it comes out, and honestly, at least for me, I'm kind of glad for the time to just get more into the too-many ships I've already got. But it is odd how just after them saying they were figuring out their supply-chain problems. Is it too much to hope that once these products are out the door they'll explain what went on in one of their press conferences, an interview, or something? I'd really like to know what goes into making this stuff, and am willing to bet a lot of us would be surprised at how much work goes into it.

I think it really only needs one word Penguin...

"China".... having dealt with them on occasion they seem to work on their own time..

I think it really only needs one word Penguin...

"China".... having dealt with them on occasion they seem to work on their own time..

This.

Now if they have consistent problems with a particular vendor they could certainly give another manufacturer the contract but its still going to be another Chinese company because FFG isn't going to start paying higher manufacturing costs and taking a smaller profit. They have a fantastic product and we will sell out any source that gets them in, lol.

XWM gamer: What the bleep is going on with the Wave 1 reprints that were supposed to be here!?!

FFG rep: [waves hand] Check out these new ships/cards/paint schemes we are releasing.

XWM gamer: OMG look at these new ships/cards/paint schemes!!!! This is amazing!!! Whats that? They will be here in 6 more months? No problem. I'll preorder. Let me know when they get here.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

:-)

I agree with Rodent.

China is surprisingly difficult to deal with in many ways. I have no experience with them, but when Round 2, a model company, was sending out emails discussing the new 1:350 Enterprise for members of the 1701 Club, they mentioned how hard it can be, for instance, to get them to understand that a change in the mold or paint scheme should be *exactly* what is specified, no more or less. Instead, when they received a modified part in the mail, it would often be significantly wrong in the other direction, like a panel line that is now so faint that paint would fill it in when before it was about a half millimeter too big. The problem was that in their culture, if you change something for someone like that, you have to go beyond the call as much as you can. Noble as this is, it can be a huge pain in the neck when you're dealing with a product that must be out the door soon.