Last week GW announced the first items in their new Hobbit range to accompany the film (Out on 13 December, yay!). I was thinking that the starter set would be a good way to pick up some Dwarf heroes, but was a bit taken aback (if not entirely surprised) by the £75 price tag.
But this isn't a moan about that, rather it acted as a trigger to me thinking about the 'cost vs use' of my figures, particularly my Lord of the Rings collection. Thanks to eBay, this has been growing at a considerable rate. I mean, when I can get a handful of figures for almost nothing, why not?!
On the other hand, this has left me with a substantial quantity of unpainted figures bought on a whim. Which got me thinking, sure I have managed to collect them at a fraction of the price, but if they are not being painted and used, it is not just money spent for no reason?
This thought led me to a rather scary place, which was: Would I actually have been better off buying direct from GW? The premium prices would make me feel a need to 'justify' each purchase instead of just buying randomly because things were a bargain. As a result I would feel a sense of obligation to paint the figures and actually use them, instead of just adding them to the pile.
Of course, I may have just ended up with a more costly pile of unpainted figures, but I would probably have considered each purchase more. I don't think this rambling is actually leading me to a profound conclusion, but may be interesting to bear in mind for the future...
Anyway, I am hoping to have some more interesting posts for you all in the near(ish) future. Thanks for hanging around during my period of silence!
Aren't there less expensive ways to motivate you to paint, such as adopting a goal/reward system, or something like that?
ReplyDeleteFear not, I am not leaping out and buying lots of full price GW figures just yet! Really I was wondering if cheap figures on eBay leads to a lot of buying and not a lot of painting (for me at least).
DeletePerhaps I should put 50p in a reward pot for every figure I complete! That might be motivating!
Mr Chris - long time no hear. Commiserations on the redundancy and congratulations on the new appointment!
ReplyDeleteI like your suggested method of painting motivation. You could go further - you could use your heating, if you like. Start at 22 degrees, and each day you don't paint a figure, you need to turn the heating down by 1. You can increase the temperature (if you want) every time you complete a figure.
If you let it slide - you'll be too cold to paint and would have to wait until summer to recover. Assuming you survive the wrath of your wife, that is...
Hi Gaj! I'll have to swing by your blog and catch up with your 3rd Edition antics! I've been a bit out of the loop for the last few weeks.
DeleteI like the idea but I have a very high tolerance for low temperatures, so there might be ice on my brush cleaning water before it stops me!