It's just coming to the realisation that the GW hobby is getting more and more expensive and that the quality of their Finecast products are in question. Those are major differences now that some of us here believe that will effect the GW Hobby in a few years and not for the greater good.
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It's important to note that GW is not a hobby in itself...no matter how many fanboys tell you it is, or how much its staff or management make it out to be.
Kind of obvious people, but no-one is making us buy the miniatures. if you feel compelled to do it then maybe its the beginnings of addiction which is a serious problem. Like others have said, stick to eBay, even if it's "pro painted"
you can still get around that with Simple green or Methylated spirit, whatever.
As you can see there's a trade system on here, I'm sure that people will be quite willing to pick up a certain blister or set they see at an independent or other shop provided you have something they particularly want. If I am wrong about this feel free to correct me...
And if GW stops producing Lotr, so what? Look how far we've come with GW since the movies came out, especially since GW kept inventing their own fluff, and some people ate it up...plus we still have their rule system. It may even give another company the chance to expand further into the tolkien universe, e.g. Silmarillion, 1st age elves, men and dwarves anybody??? (btw I was looking at Mithril's site a few days ago, granted it was a different scale but beautiful minis nonetheless).
If GW fails as a business (quite likely by the looks of things in a couple years) then its still no big deal, most hobbyists will do fine with their collections some will be set up for quite a while for painting etc. (you know who you are
) It just means that the next wave of twelve year olds wont be able to start on their 7,000 point space marine army (if this applies to you, I apologise).
Bottom line is, it's a hobby, no one is forcing you to do anything...YOU are doing it YOUR way to ENJOY it. If anyone does, then there is an issue here.