Price changes are incoming…

Ronnie here! It’s good to see that the world is almost returning back to some normality after a very crazy year (in fact, slightly longer). We’ve seen plenty of pictures of people meeting up to game, people heading to their FLGS and even some tournaments taking place around the world (where it’s safe to do so). We’ve had a few people visiting the new and improved store here at HQ too… and we’re excited about inviting you all back for some gaming, tournaments and Open Days soon.

Unfortunately, it’s not all good news though. I was hoping to head out to the US Masters for Kings of War later this week – but, despite trying to find absolutely every loophole, even claiming it was for diplomatic reasons – it’s just not possible. Fingers crossed I’ll get over to the US this year for GenCon to say hello and give everyone a socially distanced high five. That said, it is fantastic to see the Kings of War community starting to attend big tournaments again, and Mantic is pushing on with its ‘Get Back Gaming’ support wherever we are able.

The other problem we’ve run into is more serious. Over the last year we’ve seen prices on materials continue to rise – sometimes exponentially. To clarify, we’ve seen increases on:

• Cardboard (used to pack the products and ship the products)
• Plastic raw material (the majority of our models are made of plastic)
• Resin (used to make ships for Armada and many Kings of War units)
• Metal (there are still plenty of models in our catalogue that use metal)
• Shipping (don’t get me started on shipping. In some cases it’s up by 500%!!!)

So, as you can see, pretty much every part of the manufacturing and delivery process has seen a rise. It’s got to the point where there simply seems to be no end in sight for the increases in materials and shipping, which means we’re going to have to pass that through to the prices on some of the Mantic products. In fairness, this isn’t just a Mantic problem, and this can be seen across the tabletop industry, with many companies already updating their prices, and others about to do so.

Of course, this is the absolute last thing I want to do but, the truth is, if you want Mantic to continue producing great games and increasingly amazing miniatures (I mean, just look at those awesome new salamanders… they almost make me want to stop being a dwarf player (Ed – really??)) we’ve got to make sure our releases are actually making us enough, so we can keep making them and have funds to invest in future releases!

In some cases, the price is only going up by 1p to round it up from £19.99 to £20 – this is just to make it easier when putting the catalogue together. Others are going up by £2.50 and there are a few that will increase more – this is generally where there are number of factors putting pressure on the end price. However, in every case we’ve tried to keep the increases sensible and still offer great value products.

For as long as possible – even with the operations team screaming at me to up the prices – I’ve tried to weather the storm, however we just can’t take it on the chin for any longer. But look, I don’t want to surprise you with the increases, and we have taken the pain for this long – so I’m giving you plenty of notice so you can sneak in before the rise.

We’ll be implementing the price rises on our website and to our retail partners from August 1^st – so you’ve got a whole month to fill your boots before they creep up. This is a great opportunity to get some extra units for your Kings of War army, ready for the global campaign in August, or even get a new board game, like Hellboy. Perhaps you could even get stuck in with the Firefight playtest!

As always, thank you for supporting Mantic and being the best fans in the world. I really hope I get to meet lots of you soon… at tournaments, events and at the HQ store. Until then – make sure you ‘Get Back Gaming!’

Keep well, stay safe

Ronnie