"ES" might be an abbreviation for something like "Extravaganza: Solaris!" We do know that they had what has been called the "Solaris Campaign" APs in the production queue. What if they combined them together, into one package? That'd be what, about 12 'mechs? Add in a few cards, a map, and some other stuff and you could arguably justify a $60 price tag. Fits in with the notion of clearing out the warehouse...

Hmmm, maybe some mechwarrior on the horizon after all.

its a little weird about the stock thing though.

Occurred to me that "ES" might mean "Extra Stock" (as in overstock). Perhaps it's just a thing for Diamond/Alliance to clear out their backlog of MW stuff -- try to get venues buy leftover lots of unspecified MW stuff (in which case "ES" might also be translated as "Exceptionally Stupid")?

Based on your own description from the first page of the thread as well as the description of their P500 program on GMT's website, they would have significant work done already ("nearing completion" being the operative phrase) before adding a new product to the program.

I'm not sure how exactly that would translate into sculpts and whatnot but at the very least I'd expect them to have done some initial statting of new units and one or two rounds of playtesting. Certainly more than a mere concept idea.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda... Remember that it's WK we're talking about here, and they'd definitely be venturing into uncharted territory with trying out a P500 for miniatures... I can recall when GMT first implemented their P500 program, some of the titles took a LOT longer than expected to get completed. Doubt it'll be any different in this case.

The nice thing about a P500 program is that WK could put out new ones almost every week. They would really have to think about much at all other than general title, general content, and cost. The problem will be hitting moving targets on the cost. I have a feeling that any attempt at this will have time limits put on the offerings to avoid drastically increased production and transportation costs overriding there sell price.

Example: they determine that they could make a faction set for $XX that would contain 2 mechs, 3 vehicles, and 6 infantry. They do not need to determine at this point in time when the exact contents will be. They can then start releaseing the P500 ideas into the system for each faction, combinations of two factions, factionless, something new. etc. and see what sticks. Once they start getting enough of any one items, they can then start working on the stats for the sets and selecting sculpts. But it would have to be for a limited time. Let's face it, if the Davion set takes a year to get enough orders, WK will probably not produce it since the little margin they did have for the product is now probably gone due to increased manufacturing or shipping costs. They could turn around and reenter the item with a higher price but that may turn people off.

not on aregular basis, I was actually trying to see if there was any CBT minis down the pipe that Catalyst had not announced yet (hence how I learned of the Hellstar mini two weeks before the recent rehash of the WIM site) so it was more of a whim

as with the first post

it seems unlikely that a small store will put the risk out without charging the wanting buyer a fee to put the wk product on hold .

i would do it myself if i knew exactly what i was geting

and what would the min order be ?

i bought atleast 2 cases of mwda aod when they were in preorder stages
but would now prefer to buy by the faction i want
my wife will kill me if i were to go back to blind boosters buys.

i feel better with what i can see cw br hd wd sw wh ss merc/gs cnc rd


maybe IWM could give them some pointers on how to sell the mini's

sell as blanks individuals or redo's of the pre-aod uniques and nons mechs ,atleast a certain amount . then do the unreliable blind boosters, then the bf packs .


cbt mini's i would buy again
talon games has rogue legions mini's that look good low amount right now
cav good mini's

these all sell as individuals why not wk mini's

Actually, I believe that I have a very good idea on what the MW: ES pack is.

Although nothing has been said to me personally about it.

This might be a modified Champions pack of some sort(maybe stable rules + champions and other mechs?). (Yes we champions are still trying to get the set we were promised made) Justin mentioned to me something was in the works, but still hasn't mentioned what exactly it was.

Just my .02

This is excellent news. Hope it works out.

As a GMT p500 subscriber, I can say that it is a great system. I'm just not sure how useful it is for MW for a number of reasons:
1)P500 is direct sale to customer; it bypasses stores entirely. This may not suit WK/Topps. I can only think that adding stores into the chain will make the system more complex and potentially unwieldly.
2)GMT produces a number of game lines/systems with fan bases. Card Driven Games (CDGs) being among the most popular. GMT has a reputation with these and GMT customers are able to "subscribe" for particular game lines/systems they like. I do for CDGs. GMT, in the past has been challenged inthe past when it has tried to introduce new unaffiliated games. This system also gives GMT an additional head's up interest level about future products. Point here is that the closest thing that MW has to this would be a factional subscription list. This might work or it might not; but if implemented it would certainly have a dramatic effect on the MW universe as new sets would be governed by popularity.
3)The P500 list is based on hard purchase commitments from credit card wielding adults. When GMT begins charging, there is very little second guessing and in fact it seems that there is sometimes an influx as the set gets closer to release. I am unfamiliar with WK:MW demographics but a couple questions come to mind. What is the age of MW players? Do they have credit cards to secure purchase committments. Are they willing to make commitments and stick to them. I can see Joe Wolf getting his buddies to all sign up to pump up demand for a particular set only to have it evaporate once the set is released. I think there may be a maturity question here.
4) GMT has a very strong customer base based upon excellent communication and customer service. Check out comments about them on boardgamegeek. The P500 system works in part because of this trust between vendor and consumer. What steps can WK take to establish and build a similar relationship with its customers?
5)Boardgames are all that GMT does and they live and die by the p500. Is WK thinking of adopting this system across its product lines or limiting it to specific lines. Considering my previous comments, I can easily see an HC petition for a similar system to produce fan popular sets. Is WK prepared for this contingency?
6)Another facet of the p500 system is that the games are not just announced. GMT does a thourough job of playtesting, running pre-production events at cons to introduce new games to customers, providing copious online support including realtime customer service chat, and providing enhancement materials to customers such as permitting and pointing to PBEM modules on its website. Is WK interested in making this kind of investment?
7)Finally, boardgames are not modular in the way that a MW set is. You need one complete game to play. Period. I am unclear about how to effectively implement the p500 for a modular CMG. One idea might be to release faction specific packs with mechs,inf, and veh, basing the distribution across factions on a p500 type list. I just thought of this so I am unsure of the details.

A MW p500 would be an interesting experiment for WK. I think WK needs to think long and hard about how it might potentially adopt the system for its own uses to support its product line(s).

a P500 like system similar but different to the current system would work as follows. Store's with a customer base interested in the potential product would place orders based on their customer's and/or previous/existing sales of similar product. Wizkids would then produce product when minimum order requirements are met, garunteeing stores on the initial list product first and producing more to cover errors and potential general distribution sales.

They are already doing something similar with the next buy it by the brike promotional figures for Heroclix, in that they have an initial run and will produce additional runs according to demand. The turn around time sucks but if it works for the books and the customers can handle waiting months then it could work for everyone.

Dogan
Monkeys fly out of my *