While at face value the new GW Free Miniature promotion at their own stores seems dope, however, looks like there is more to this…
Warhammer Community announced two new promotions for Warhammer Stores, for what looks to be an effort to get more foot traffic in the stores as one would imagine even they are not immune from slower retail sales in the COVID-19 era.
Here are the details for the promotion, and what we were able to find out from our investigation yesterday.
Free Miniatures & Paint From Games Workshop
Free! Every month, you’ll be able to pick up a new model at no cost, themed around one of the month’s releases.
With the epic new Broken Realms narrative arc for Warhammer Age of Sigmar kicking off this month, November’s models are Witch Aelves! Morathi would be proud.
Matching Collectable Coins
Along with a new model each month there will be a collectible coin to match! With this month’s major release being Broken Realms: Morathi, both Warhammer Store Exclusive releases are also matching that theme of Morathi and the Daughters of Khaine.
You cant buy the coins directly however if you spend $100 you’ll get them as an added bonus.
Once you have collected six of the collectible coins, you will be eligible to get a coin booklet you display your growing collection!
Pick And Choose Paint Bundle – Get A Free Pot!
As you can see in the image above, if you pick up 10 paint pots, the 10th will be free!
Choose any ten pots from the Citadel Colour range, and you’ll get the most expensive one free! Whether you’re looking for loads of Contrast to get your new models Battle Ready, want some Layer and Shade paints to take them to the next level, or are after Technical paints for those finishing touches, you’ll be able to select exactly the colours you need.
While this ultimately won’t save an insane amount of money, if you do this on the same trip as the free model and collectible coin, the entire trip could be seen as a pretty good value one.
The Truth Behind GW New Free Miniature Promotion…
We have received multiple reports about Games Workshop FREE miniature giveaway over the weekend and it’s strange because we get a lot of emails and a lot of messages from people on Facebook, but rarely do they all nearly 100% match up. So I thought it’s important seeing as how this whole GW store versus local game store topic is heating up, especially in the time when retail isn’t doing so hot, that we take a look at this.
Get Your Demon Prince Miniature Now!
Starting early Saturday morning I received a bunch of emails from overseas countries. They all pretty much started out the same; they went to the local game store to get the new Witch Elf miniature and either came too late (by 20 to 30 minutes from open) or in some cases, the miniatures weren’t even there, and the store manager had to take which of boxes off the shelf and cut out miniatures to give away for free.
Fast forward to later in the day, Eastern time, we started getting more similar reports from hobbyists here in the states of the same exact thing happening.
Again thank you to everybody for emailing us and if you ever have any sort of issue or news to report you can always email us at news@ spikeybits.com we read everything we might not reply to you, but we always do our best to.
Anyways so I decided to investigate myself being in a unique position that I was no more than two hours away from four Games Workshop stores. So I personally called all four stores and explained that I was interested in getting one of the Witch Elf models and that I lived whatever distance, and time away. I called them all about 20-30 minutes after they opened (around noon Eastern), and asked if they thought that they would have any of the free minis left by the time I got there- either by driving 1 to 2 hours to the store.
One store replied to me that they were already out of miniatures another store said that they didn’t receive their miniature shipment and that they would be pulling minis off the shelf and the other two stores said that they would probably not last by the time I got there in 1 to 2 hours later.
Getting your free model is easy – just stop by your local Warhammer store and ask! Many stores will also be running painting competitions around the month’s free model – even more reason to try your hand at painting something a little different. Best to get to your store early each month – they will only have so many free models to give out.
Now while Games Workshop did say to get there early they would only be so many free minis to give out- from every report I got that number of free models was exactly 10.
Full disclosure- I didn’t try to extract that detail of information from any of the stores I called, one of them volunteered that number to me, and it was the same number indicated by some hobbyists who wrote into us as well.
Inadvertently, perhaps the true intent of this whole promotion may have also revealed, as every single one of the GW stores I called very quickly reminded me that they had plenty of the coins to go around and I could still get a coin if I came in. I very quickly asked if the coin was free too, even though I knew it was not, and every manager replied no you have to spend $100 to get it.
So in conclusion it seems like each store either only got 10 miniatures to give away for free or had to cut down some Witch Elf box sets (from the shelf if they had them), but they had a much larger supply of coins to give out if you spent $100 in their store.
What Could it all Mean?
I’m sure by now that you read the site regularly that you are aware of the extreme allocations Games Workshop has forced on their partner retailers lately- (read the article here). And as a backdrop, the same week but they cut supply to the lowest levels we have currently seen to Local Game Stores, they rolled out this promotion to get people into their own stores with free miniatures and rewards for spending money in their stores.
We’ve talked a lot in the past about how if you spend money directly with Games Workshop they keep the lion share of it, which in normal economic times isn’t a big deal- there’s enough product and revenue to go around for everybody. However, in these leaner times, Local game Stores are struggling and they need your dollars more now than ever.
So please consider spending whatever you can at your local game store to help them sustain higher fixed costs and other challenges in this era.
I get it not everybody has a local game store they like, is near them, or that none of this really even matters to you of course- but at the end of the day it’s important to know how Game Workshop is behaving towards their partner detailers who in my opinion have made this hobby exist at the levels it does.
I think we can all agree that not everybody has the luxury of a gaming table with terrain in their house or even a club a.k.a. something like a gamer bar either. Here in America where we rely heavily on our local game stores to provide tables and an atmosphere for us to play our games with our hobby friends.
Unfortunately, if there’s a decline in game stores there will be a decline in a hobby. It is our opinion that not as many people are going to be playing the game, which seems to be the appeal to the most amount of hobbyists in general.
Red arrow indicates COVID-19 Closure
So there is the potential that while Games Workshop stock and growth is at an all-time high- that will not be the case if game stores disappear, or suffer so much of a decline that it affects the growth of a hobby because of closures. It’s our hope that GW starts to realize that they need their partner retailers as it’s impossible to have this level of support, playing area, and atmosphere from a Games Workshop store that only sells one product has one to two tables here in the states.
Plus its ultimate success is irrelevant as it’s subsidized 100% by games workshop themselves (many stores in America actually lose more money than they make).
One Game Store to Rule Them All?
So what does it all mean to you? I think that the choices every single one of us makes (myself included) may have serious repercussions on our own hobby down the road- simply by where we spend our hobby dollars in these trying times.
Thank you for reading this I hope everybody has a good weekend of hobbying. Please leave some comments y’all about what you have seen and how you feel about your local store, GW, or otherwise.
About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X
About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.
Rob also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of Lost Souls.
Every year, along with his co-hosts, he helps host the Long War 40k Doubles Tournament at Adepticon and the Long War 40k Doubles at Las Vegas Open, which attracts over 350 players from around the world.
Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including multiple first-place finishes in Warhammer 40k Grand Tournaments over the years and even winning 1st place at the Adepticon 40k Team Tournament.
With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), he advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1980s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.
