New Necrons Theory: Plastic or Finecast?

Source: iAMiAN_'s photostream

Hey everybody, Chaosheade here.  Unless you've been living under a rock or been without internet connection since yesterday you have probably heard about all the pictures of the new Necron units leaked by Beasts of War yesterday.  I usually don't go for all the attention-grabbing rumors and news stuff, but after seeing Wayland Games' Necron Pre-Order Page I came up with a theory on which new (and returning) units will be plastic and which will be finecast that I thought would be worth sharing.  Ponderings after the jump.

Update 11:47 CST: The pre-order page has been changed since I posted this article.  The HQs are listed as finecast as expected.  The Command/Annihilation Barge is listed as a plastic kit but the Doomsday/Ghost Barge does not yet have a material listed.  All of the infantry kits are listed as having 5 models per box and the Immortals, Praetorians, and Flayed Ones are now listed as plastic.  The Deathmarks and Lychguard do not have a material listed but are also lacking the Finecast "this is a product for experienced modellers only" disclaimer that is shown on the Finecast HQ entries which may indicate plastic kits but could still end up being finecast.  It's impossible to know for sure at this point.  So good news for finecast haters, but the models are still selling at the finecast price even though they are plastic kits.

Update 12:25 CST: Total Wargamer now also has necrons available for pre-order and has all the new infantry including the Deathmarks and Lychguard listed as plastic.  No update on the Doomsday/Ghost Barge but I think it's safe to say that the vehicle kits will be plastic.  Hurray for plastic!  It's not often that I'm this glad that I'm wrong about something lol.

I will go over the prices listed and my analysis of the likely results in some detail but if you want to jump straight to the conclusion then just skim the article and read the parts in green or jump to the summary at the end of the post.

So far we have a lot of pictures that look like scans from the upcoming issue of White Dwarf magazine.  These have been plastered all over the blogosphere, forums, and probably every corner of the internet so I don't see any point of posting them all again.  What we do not yet know in any type of even semi-official way is which materials that these shiny new models will be made of.  I don't know if I am the first to point this out (though it would be cool if I was) but I think I can make some pretty good guesses on which units will be plastic and which will be finecast by the prices on the pre-order screen.  The page is copied below as it exists as of the time of this posting.  I will use some other recent releases as a baseline for price comparison.  Dark Eldar are the most recent line of new releases and also the only recent new xenos models so they are ideal candidates.  Eldar can also be good for comparison.  None of the other xenos races have many models in finecast except single figures right now and the power armored models are priced very differently so it is unlikely that these armies will provide much relevant information.

Status	Image	Name	Price
		Imotekh the Stormlord A legend among the stars, Imotekh has faced a thousand foes and survived - each time … PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$16.31 $13.86
		Trazyn, the Infinite Deemed - by his enemies, as impossible to kill... and described his his peers as Immortal,… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$16.31 $13.87
		Necron Overlord The Necron Overlord is the soulless overseer of the relentless and unstoppable Necron adva… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$16.31 $13.87
		Necron Doomsday/Ghost Barge Used to transport the mighty Necron Warriors into battle, theGhost Barge packs a migh… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$48.15 $38.52
		Necron Flayed Ones Necron Flayed ones are a horrifying unit- with claws so sharp they could rip a Space Mari… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$31.84 $25.47
		Necron Immortals Necron Immortals are the Heavy Infantry of the Necron army. Armed with more powerful Gaus… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$31.84 $25.47
		Necron Triarch Praetorians Elite, Ancient skeletal warriors, Triarch Praetorians are practically unstoppabl… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$31.84 $25.47
		Necron Deathmarks Armed with superior guns, Necron Deathmasks are the sharp-shooters of the mysterious … PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$31.84 $25.47
		Necron Lychguard The Lychguard are elite, ancient Necron Warriors - Armed with superior weaponry to th… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$31.84 $25.47
		Necron Catacomb Command/Annihilation Barge The Necron Catacomb Command Barge - a floating Throne from which your Overlord can gi… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$31.84 $25.47

First we have the new special characters and HQ units Imotekh, Trazyn, and the Overlord with a retail price of about $16 each.  These prices are very similar to the DE HQ units which are finecast and mostly $15.25 or $18.25 with a few exceptions.  I am 99.99999% certain the new HQs will be be single figure Finecast blister packs, but that's no real surprise.

Next I'll look at the new vehicles.  The Doomsday/Ghost Barge is priced a little under $50 and the Catacomb Command/Annihilation Barge is around $32.  Doomsday is roughly the same as the DE Ravager at $49.50 and the Command Barge is close to the Venom ($30) but even closer to the Raider ($33).  Another pretty obvious conclusion, the vehicles will almost definitely be plastic kits.  There is also some pretty convincing evidence that they will be like the Talos/Cronos kit that allows you to build either of the two options with one kit.  Again, pretty obvious.

The real mystery is the material of the new infantry models.  These are all listed at about $32.  The necron line used to be mostly metal with only a few plastic kits so these prices are good news for necron players as they almost guarantees that these will not be single model finecast blisters.  Right now there are no single infantry finecast models above $25 with exceptions for larger creatures like Pyrovores and some of the Fantasy creatures and LoTR dual figure sets, so it looks like the days of paying $14-15 at current prices for each blister pack are over.  We're not out of the woods yet though, as there are quite a few finecast infantry boxes at the $33 mark and a few at $35.50 with 4-6 models per box.   These kits are Eldar and Dark Eldar units including the Farseer+Warlocks, Mandrakes, Wracks, Rangers, Incubi, Dark Reapers, and Striking Scorpions.  Power armor finecast boxes are mostly $45 with 5 models per box.  Plastic DE infantry are priced at $29 per box of 10 warriors or wytches and more specialized infantry like the scourges and hellions (which are technically not infantry) are priced at $25 per 5 models.  If you don't like finecast, this will probably be bad news for you if you wanted any of the new figures.  The data indicates that the Flayed Ones, Immortals, Triarch Praetorians, Deathmarks, and Lychguard will most likely be finecast boxes with around 5 models per box at about $33 per box.

Summary
Looking at the pre-order prices compared to existing kits, it looks like the new HQ units will be single figure finecast blisters, the new vehicles will be plastic kits, and the new infantry units will be finecast boxes with an estimated ~5 models per box.  Seems pretty obvious looking back at it but at least there is now some evidence to back up these guesses.  Lots of new finecast models can be good or bad depending on whether you like Finecast or hate Failcast/Finecost/Failcost/whatever.  It's not as good as plastic boxes that give you more figures for your money but at least you don't have to buy dozens of metal figure blister packs at ~$15 each to get all the models you want.  Could be better, but it's not as bad as it used to be.

This is, of course, just the first wave and there are many existing models not listed for pre-order including the current HQ units, warriors, pariahs, destroyers, wraiths, tomb spiders, and others that I may have missed.  These will likely stay the same (warriors), be released in future waves as finecast boxes (most of the unlisted units), or be discontinued (rumors of pariahs being replaced by praetorians or lychguard???)  This is all just guesswork of course and not official in any way, but I think we can make some good informed guesses by looking at the pre-order page compared with existing kits.  We will find out if I am right around Halloween when GW gives us the official details.  Drop a comment and let us know what you think!  Catch you on the flip side.