RE: Metal minis vs. Plastic

> Yes, the cost of plastics is mostly in the mould making and set-up
costs -
> as mentioned above, several tens of thousands of pounds/dollars for
just a
> single kit mould. To make this practical, you have to have a
guaranteed
> market for many thousands of a single sprue of figures/parts; GW can
do
> this thanks to their market share, and ICE, FASA etc. have tried on a
small
> scale (eg: the sprues of Silent Death ships, RL Centurion tanks,
> Battlemechs etc.). Small companies like us at GZG couldn't even start
to
> think about this sort of investment in a single product.

Jon, what about the new wonder plastic mentioned in the last 
Ragnarok?  The one where you can use existing white metal moulds to 
produce plastic figures.  According to that little article its 
cheaper than existing plastics models.	Ral Partha bought the rights 
but I've heard nothing more about these plastics.  Did you ever 
consider it or is it a case of the volumes just not being right for 
that kind of investment?
 
> As to the original question about Matchbox cars and other toys,
remember
> that most of these are produced in the Far East (at virtual slave
labour
> rates), and made in hundreds of thousands, or even millions. We
produce at
> most a few thousand of any one model over the life-span of a certain
item,
> and each one is produced by a highly trained and (fairly!) well-paid
> caster. The economics differ by several orders of magnitude. Think of
a
> bog-stock Ford against a hand-built sportscar....

Buy a whip..That'd do the trick.  No more uppity casters.
_______________________________
Niall Gilsenan,
Dublin Institute of Technology,
Cathal Brugha.St,
Dublin 1,
Ireland.