This weekend I had my first finecast nightmare - it was truly awful. My previous experiences with the GW resin had been pretty positive, but all that was to change when the temptation of the new Mangler Squigs became too great to resist.
I picked up a pack on Saturday for the princely sum of £36. That's a lot of cash for a rare choice slot that has totally ridiculous rules and only costs 65 points to field. But the model looked great on the GW website and I reasoned that it would make a wonderfully characterful final addition to my Night Goblin army.
On opening the box it was immediately obvious that something was seriously wrong with the model components. There was the much commented on 'bubbling' and in several places the definition on the chains and ropes was fuzzy at best, absent at worst. One of the goblins that is a non-optional part of the model (it's pinned by the claws of the top squig to the back of the bottom one) was so badly deformed I was actually astonished.
Today I returned the box to my local GW and showed them the problem. I have to say that all the staff I spoke to were great - they were concerned and very apologetic. The manager asked that all the packs that they had in stock be opened to see if they could find me a better model. This is where the nightmare became even worse. All SIX packs had exactly the same kinds of flaws on the models.
According to the manager these will now be sent back to GW with the warning that there may be a problem with the batch. However, before you think the problem was limited to casting... there's more. I should've taken a photo to illustrate this, but it's only really dawning on me now how strange this is: the models in the packs were different to the one illustrated in all the GW promo material. The top squig has a goblin in it's mouth, and this was clearly in a different position on the model when compared with the photos - how odd is that?!
Fear not though, dear reader, as there is a happy end to this sorry tale. I exchanged this travesty in resin for the new plastic Ghorgon kit, which is fantastic. Although... having said that... as I type this I'm left with the nagging feeling that I might never trust finecast ever again...
Pity to hear about your bad experiences. I too was tempted by the mangler, but I may be wary now.
ReplyDeleteI have yet to take the plunge and buy a finecast model, and I find I'm less inclined to with each horror story I hear.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand how they can get it so very wrong. It's as if they have absolutely no product control whatsoever. It really is such a shame because the mangler should be a fantastic model.
ReplyDeleteAlso I worry that a younger and less confident customer might have just accepted all the flaws. Given that GW push very hard to kids and teens - the shops are always full of them, of course - this lack of quality control is completely unacceptable (even if the point of sale service was excellent).