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Is Games Workshop Secretly Willy Wonka?

By Rob Baer | August 25th, 2016 | Categories: 40k News & Articles, Editorials, Games Workshop

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Is Games Workshop Secretly Willy Wonka? Everything seems to be changing around Nottingham lately, perhaps even how they do their advertising.

Depending on who you ask, Games Workshop has been secretly “leaking” low res blurry pictures and giving information to select internet sites and forums for years right?

horus heresy battle for calth exclusive spikey bits

Or we suppose a lot of folks may just need to update their flip phones over to 2016. Either way it’s all good, because let’s face it; we all love rumors!

Fast forward to  last year and we’re stating to see totally unrelated products found inside other box sets in what could be some sort of Wonka-esque guerrilla marketing campaign?

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First we saw a plastic  “Chaos Dwarf” that turned out to be a Fyreslayer inside a Tau box in December 2015, and then this new Chaos Sorcerer inside of the Deathwatch Starter in what may just be GW’s first steps on the road to guerrilla marketing.

Do assembly line robots really mess up this bad, or do they only package what is put in their hoppers to use for their product run?

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, the father of Guerrilla Marketing Jay Conrad Levinson (whose 1984 book on the topic is now required reading for MBAs) defines it as:

 ..the soul and essence of guerrilla marketing which remain as always — achieving conventional goals, such as profits and joy, with unconventional methods, such as investing energy instead of money.

Remember they were super quick with a follow up video to the Sorcerer in which they acknowledged it being shown on the internets, and then even upped the ante and dropped a new Kharn on us!

new kharn the betrayer

I mean it may all  just be too convenient to be a coincidence at the end of the day, OR perhaps Games Workshop is really keeping it’s finger on the pulse of the hobby more than we think.

Finding one of these models in a totally related box set is almost like going down to the Car dealership, buying out a new Ford Fusion, and getting home only to notice that the interior is all branded for a Lincoln version of the same car.

Do assembly line robots really mess up this bad, or do they only package what is put in their hoppers to use for their product run?

Either it makes for some very exciting times, and that may just be what it is all about as Jay Conrad Levinson explained above. Plus now I can’t wait to open my new Deathwatch box sets this week to look for my “golden ticket”!

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New Chaos Model Roundup

Where there are Thousand Sons, the Wolves are sure to be not far behind… Stay tuned for more on this amazing story!

About the Author: Rob Baer

Virginia Restless, Miniature Painter & Cat Dad. I blame LEGOs. There was something about those little-colored blocks that started it all... Twitter @catdaddymbg