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[GZG] 25mm a dead scale? (For GZG and others?)

From: "Tom B" <kaladorn@g...>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:52:22 -0400
Subject: [GZG] 25mm a dead scale? (For GZG and others?)

_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu
http://vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu:1337/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lFor
those who know me (I can already sense the flinching...), you may know
I've been at this GZG thing for a year or ten now. For those who've seen
some of the games at ECC, they may recall I have a fair collection of
GZG
25mm stuff. I think my current count runs somewhere in excess of 1200
25mm
figures, most of whom are GZG. I think (given the boxes of unassembled
resins I just found), I likely have 50 GZG 25mm vehicles. Then on top of
that we can throw in some TAU vehicles, toys from Walmart, DLD vehicles
around a dozen in number, Ainsty/Denizen Ventaurians and mid-tech
Marines,
Ral Partha Battletroops, WEG Star Wars, new Star Wars plastics, some GW
space marines, and so on... and one can imagine I'm pretty heavily
invested
into 25mm. By dint of the work of my superior painter pal, most now have
paint on them. The total investment is probably well over $10K in 25mm
stuff
at today's prices, if you count my seriously discounted painting fees.
It
was accumulated over the last twenty years.

So that's my preamble. One can understand why I might not want to just
unload all of this on E-bay.

And now, I see GZG is shifting off into 15mm. I haven't seen much of
anything new in 25mm lines from Jon for some time. No new vehicles, no
new
figures or figure lines to speak of - last I recall was probably the
Phalons
or a few individual figures in the street level ranges. Lots of new
stuff in
15mm and nothing to speak of in 25mm.

Old Crow has produced some nice 25mm and DLD did/does, but I'm not sure
they're not in hiatus (which is too bad, because David does excellent
work).
But not much from GZG - still selling existing stuff, but I own pretty
much
all of it in profusion.

I've been a good customer of Jon, of KR, and of other people stocking
Jon's
wares over the years. I'd like to continue to be a good customer for
GZG.
But I'm pretty much stuck into 25mm and opening out a new 15mm range
makes
marginal sense. And yet, that's where the market is. Brigade and GZG and
others are making 15mm galore.

Don't get me wrong, I see the advantages: Cheaper figures, cheaper
shipping,
more bang for your buck, closer to WYSIWYG in stargrunt, let's you play
in
CM if you want, easier to paint to a decent standard, lots of toys in
the
same scale, etc.

But that doesn't change the fact I'm like a Dinosaur at La Brea. I've
got
both feet planted firmly in the 25mm Tar Pit and no signs of getting out
anytime soon. The fact I too would buy 15mm if starting anew today is
utterly irrelevant.

So, to my questions:

1) Is there anyone else who is still a 25mm player? Are there many of us
left? Is anyone choosing to buy 25mm over 15mm nowadays when buying new
stuff?

2) Are most 25mm players biting the bullet and migrating to 15mm? Or
resisting that transition?

3) For Jon T/GZG: Is there any practical likelihood of more 25mm models
coming out? Does it make any sort of business sense? Would a number of
25mm
players coming out of the woodwork and asking for some new 25mm sculpts
affect that decision?

I'm just curious if there are a bunch of potential 25mm consumers
sitting
quietly out there or if I'm literally the last of a dying breed. If
there
are a bunch of people in 25mm collections that intend to stay there,
perhaps
there might be enough market incentive to convince Jon to do some more
25mm
stuff. I don't necessarily suspect this is the case, but I thought I'd
put
the questions out there and see. I'd rather send Jon my money than a lot
of
manufacturers for a variety of reasons, but if there isn't new product
I'm
interested in buying coming out in a scale I use, that is a bit
problematic.

I certainly understand the move to 15mm in the hobby, but I'm like a
steam
train in the age of the electric locomotive....

Thomas B.

-- 
"Now, I go to spread happiness to the rest of the station. It is a
terrible
responsibility but I have learned to live with it."
   Londo, A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I

"To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like
administering medicine to the dead."  --  Thomas Paine

   Thomas Paine


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