With so many Easy to Build kits released over the past couple of years, we have a decent idea of what Games Workshop actually values their ETB minis for.
The plastic isn’t the issue here, as GW seems to have a formula for how much they charge for each multi-part kit. They seem to base it on how many miniatures you’ll need for the current set of game rules. Characters will be more than Dread-sized and Terminator-sized models, on down to your regular-sized guys.
GW’s multi-part kits are much harder to guess pricing on, but it does seem to follow the same sort of pattern. However, in this article, we’ll just be focusing on the easy-to-build kits.
The pricing has been relatively consistent across most releases, excluding starter sets like Indomitus, Dark Imperium, or Leviathan, as starter boxes generally are just insane value for what you actually get.
However, once they start releasing the sprues separately from those starter box sets, only then does what Games Workshop actually value those models start to become apparent.
What Games Workshop Actually Values Their ETB Minis for
This isn’t always going to be perfect, but the pricing has been fairly consistent across the board, and this is a good chart to check out for what’s coming next.
- Troop Type Models: $3
- Terminator Sized: $7-7.50
- Characters: $20
- Bloat-drone Size: $25
- Dreadnought Sized: $40
While this seems pretty spot on, let’s take a look at some actual examples of the pricing after Indomitus (2020) and Dark Imperium (2017) were released, and Games Workshop eventually put out most of the sprues from them alone for interesting price points.
Characters & Troops
The Heroes of the Chapter from the Dark Imperium box was priced at $75 and is an excellent example of Games Workshop’s easy-to-build pricing schema because it has both character models and troops.
The five Intercessors would have a value of $15, and the characters make up the rest. Since you need fewer characters overall, Games Workshop seems to put a higher value on them even though they use the same amount of plastic, especially when it comes to Primaris ones.
This set is another perfect example of the $20 per character shceme. In this Chosen of Mortarion offering, you get three guys for $60, all in the ETB style. This generally makes the ETB kits excellent value because you get fewer bits, but you won’t break the bank nearly as bad.
From just these two examples, you can see how GW actually values these starter set miniatures as just two of the eight spures from the Dark Imperium box (that sold for $160 in 2017) were sold separately again years later for $60 and $75 each!
Lastly, for the minis in Felthius’ Court (priced at $40 in 2017), the character was valued at $20, and the three Terminator models came in at around $7 apiece. Looking at these kits, most multi-part kits have been about double the price for these types of boxes.
Bigger Sized Minis
Well, there aren’t a ton of ETB Dreads, but this one ran for $40 back in 2017. It makes sense for these to be about twice the cost of a character, not only in terms of plastic but also in how many you need. While you can run a ton of these, most armies only have a few.
The multi-part kit for the Foetid Blight Drone went for $50 at release, but when this has been in ETB sets, its value seems to have been around $25. This is the same price that the push-fit Blight-Hauler came in as well at release, so whenever you see something this size, expect the price tag to be about $25-$30 in ETB.
So overall, GW seems to value line troops at $3 each, characters around $20, and so on when they come in an ETB format, which is shockingly lower than the normal prices of $35-$45 for a character, or even $6 a model for a Squad of Primaris Space Marines now.
Do you think this is pretty close to what Games Workshop values their ETB easy-to-build kits at?
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
