My grudges
against Forge World, specifically their quality control, are neither
unique nor something I've ever been quiet about but this past week
something happened to throw it all into sharp relief.
Yesterday, I
received a package in the post. It was some Death Guard Grave Warden
Terminators I'd ordered from a seller on eBay. I bought them from a
seller of second hand wargames miniatures called Recycled-Marine.
Now, here's
the thing about the models I received: they were de-flashed; built;
primed; they had no mismoulds (or if there were any, they were filled
in prior to priming); I saved £19 on the RRP; and, there was even a
slip included in the packaging with contact details if I had any
problems with my purchase quite.
It struck me
as pretty bad, practically indefensible, that a random eBay store had
better quality control than the original makers. That's not how
capitalism is meant to work. Forge World should be incentivising
purchasing from them directly but they simply don't offer anywhere
near the assured quality of being able to see a photograph of the
models on eBay.
Think about
it: effectively, because of packaging, any model I buy is sight
unseen. I have a box of Custodes on my desk right now that I haven't
opened because I'm saving building them for when I get a big audio
box set later in the month. The thing is, I can feel pretty much
assured that the sprues inside are properly moulded and if they
aren't I can easily get a refund or replacement by wandering down
town to the local GW store.
Forge World
has none of that. Being an internet business their returns policy is
a bugger and their resin is terrily fragile and prone to distortion
with no way for me to inspect them before purchase.
There are a
lot of things I like about Forge World. Since they get to budget for
a niche audience within the hobby they can greenlight projects that
Citadel Miniatures can't guaratee a return on. There's a Lost And The
Damned range of miniatures because of this, there are Legion-specific
units because of this, there are Chaos Dwarfs because of this.
I just wish
I could buy more of it without worrying it'll come to me in a
completely unuseable condition.
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