Outstanding Customer Service (gasp!) and a Liebster nomination

Not too long ago, my son Mr. Frodo received a copy of GW's Azog mounted & on foot. He was quite pleased, and dove into working on his minis right away. Well, he somehow managed to break off the tip of mounted Azog's mace, and to make matters worse, lose it! Double crap.

I spent close to an hour scouring my desk and the surrounding floor in a fruitless search. My best guess is that it ended up on the floor and got sucked by the soulless automaton that is our vacuum cleaner.

So I fired off an email to GW customer service to see if they could send me or sell me a replacement. I was very pleased to get a reply email within an hour, asking me to call them. I called back and after providing the GW rep with the necessary info, was told a replacement was going to be sent out the next day. Sure enough, a couple of days later a small packet from GW shows up in the mail. But they didn't simply send me a replacement bit in the mail, they sent me a complete kit! I did not see that one coming.

A lot of people love to talk shit about GW. I'm not saying they are the best miniatures company in the world, but this excellent bit of customer service goes a long ways towards proving to me that the folks behind the scenes (namely the CS reps) do what they can to make customers happy.

I'm happy, Mr. Frodo is happy, and soon mounted Azog will be happy to have his mace back.

Well played, Games Workshop!

David over at Dear Tony Blair was kind enough to nominate me for a Liebster award. I'm flattered, but after thinking about it for a bit, I'm going to pass for now. I'm feeling less than motivated at the moment, and honestly, I'd rather spend the time slapping some paint on my pile of neglected lead. Curse you, apathy!!!

The Future of Games Workshop, As Told Not By Me

If you head on over to masterminis.net, you can read Part 1 of a very long and detailed series of articles that go so far beyond the usual "GW suxxors!" and "GW is dead!" type of posts usually tied to titles like the one I use above.

The author clearly is passionate about all things GW, and has spent many hours writing and responding to each post. Normally, I'm not big on things that involve financial reports and words like sales, profits, and margins...but this was compelling enough to get me to sit down and read almost the entire series from start to finish in one long marathon orgy of post reading.

Highly recommended if you are at all interesting in the empire that is Games Workshop, and/or the miniature gaming business in general.

Codex: Rogue Trader (For Retail Rogues)

Before my stint at WoTC, I managed a brick & mortar gaming store in Bellevue, WA - the now-defunct Games & Gizmos. I should note that Games & Gizmos still lives on down the road in Redmond, but I think the owners are not associated with the previous incarnations of G&G. In any event, it was a fun job with a neat little store and a good crew. It was also my introduction to Games Workshop and their products, as well as their approach to the hobby and the business.

One of the items that I still have from those days is the black folder pictured above - Codex Rogue Trader, otherwise known as "Games Workshop's Consummate Guide For Independent Retailers." It's a very slick, well-made binder with 23 double-sided pages (4 of which are glossy divider pages) packed with info on how to help your store sell GW product. There are also two laminated sheets that are for running quick and easy demo games of WHFB and 40K.


Immune to both Mt. Dew and Cheetos dust.

The binder is divided up into four sections: the Business Section, the Hobby Section, the How-To Section, and the RT Resources Section. Overall, it's an interesting look at how GW encouraged retailers to attract new players, keep existing ones, and yes, sell GW product. I won't go into a section-by-section breakdown of the binder, but I will say they put a lot of importance on the quality of store staffers. That, and store owners should (if practical) engage customers to help run events like Painting & Terrain Classes.

I have no idea if a current version of Codex Rogue Trader exists or not, but it would be interesting to compare the current version with mine and see how much or how little things have changed in the past decade plus since my binder was published. GW seems to be one of those love 'em or hate 'em companies, yet they have managed to endure for over 35 years now, so they must be doing something right.

Chaos Dwarf Juggernaut!

OK, so you really have to hand it to the Games Workshop folks. In addition to all the mainstream armies for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, they decide to add Chaos Dwarfs to the mix, but they don't release a Chaos Dwarf codex (army rulebook for those not steeped in GW-speak). Instead, rules for Chaos Dwarf armies get tucked into other rulebooks like Ravening Hordes and Tamurkhan: the Throne of Chaos. You can find this info and a whole lot more over on the Chaos Dwarf Wiki.

To further complicate the lives of Chaos Dwarf players, they release models and decide against providing any rules or fluff (background info). Say what? In this case, I am talking about the Chaos Dwarf Juggernaut. It is a wheeled siege tower or weapons platform that is pushed into battle by a Boar Centaur. The model was sold with two levels that stack on top of the main body, but additional levels were available directly through GW at the time, so you could pretty much stack as many levels as you wished. Remember, there were no rules for it! This is what I speak of:


Orc/goblin archer included for scale reference.

At first I was surprised at how small this model is. I suppose I was expecting something big and bulky - but then again, we ARE talking about Dwarfs here. It is 3 inches long from cannon tip to rear spikes, 1.5 inches wide at the upper platforms, and 4 inches tall. It weighs in at 9 ounces, so still a hefty little chunk of metal. For the rest of the world, that would be about 8cm long, 4cm wide, 10cm high, and 250grams.


Something Juggernaut this way comes!


And this is what the poor Boar Centaur stares at all day.

One thing that struck me upon closer inspection was the fine detail. You get a better idea in the following pictures, but a lot of fine sculpting work went into this machine. There are two pegs for shields on each side of each upper level, and those are ornate little gargoyles/effigies instead of a simple plain peg. On the lower level, where the spikes come through, there are nasty-looking faces. And on the beams that support the upper levels you will find tiny chaos symbols and more Gothic-looking faces and bodies that add to the overall creepiness and chaos look of the Juggernaut.


Say hello to my leetle friend!


The devil is in the details...or something like that.

So there you have it. One of the true rares in both the Warhammer Fantasy and the miniatures world. Part of me wants to keep it, just because it is rare and kinda cool. But the reality is I will end up selling it, and use the proceeds to continue to fund my lead habit. If anyone has any additional Juggernaut information, lore, or stories they wish to share, please do so. Happy gaming!

Golden Demon 2011 winners (North America)

Games Workshop posted the winners of the 2011 North American Golden Demon awards. Check it out to see some really fantastic Warhammer, WH40K, and LoTR minis.

I'm blown away by all the work shown, but in particular the Gold and Bronze dioramas are stunning, and the Gold 40K squad is just plain freaking sick!!!

The Lead Market Report - Special February Games Workshop Edition

Last month, a collector in Israel sold off a ton of unreleased and super-rare Games Workshop minis, mainly Chaos Dwarfs. I don't know what this person paid to amass this particular collection, but the end prices were downright spectacular!

Let's cut to the chase, shall we? This Chaos Dwarf Juggernaut went for almost $1,045.00 USD!!! Look, I know collectors are insane (takes one to know one), but GW collectors are a breed apart.

I'll just list the rest, noting that I'm only listing those auctions that ended in the $100+ range. There were quite a few other lots in the $50+ range, but I didn't bother listing those. Here we go:

Chaos Dwarf Siege Cannon $490 (Ass Cannon? LOL!)
Chaos Dwarf on Pony $202
40K Squat Exo Armour $289
40K Squat Champion A $167
40K Squat Champion B $167
40K Squat Cyberslayer $167
40K Squat $130
Dark Elf Malekith on foot $128
Dark Elf Witch $104
Vampire Counts Lahmian Vampire $103

That adds up to a cool $2,992.00 USD, plus whatever else he earned on all the sub-$100 listings. Truly a sweet, sweet chunk of change. I hope the cash makes up for any seller's remorse he may be experiencing at this point in time.