The Steadfast Pewter Sororitas
One fine day on /tg/, a thread was speculating about a leaked list of future releases, with such promises as the Tau Mako, the Space Marine Land Avenger, and the holy grail, plastic Sisters of Battle. Then, a Warehouse Manager Dude explained what that would mean for the pewter Sisters waiting in storage:
[Games Workshop] have a ton of metal stock they want to try and sell first. I promise you this is how it is going down.
> We have 20,000 units of Sisters! They aren't selling in $45+ boxes sir.
> Okay break it to blisters. People want to add odd and ends. Anyone who wants a sister metal army will already have it. So we will get rid of what stock we can to those who want odds and ends... release a new codex via WD to keep them playable(ish)
> What about plastic?
> Hold off on that until X year or Y asset movements. If it does not sell by X year, melt it and sell the metal off. What-ever can't be replaced by resin or plastic, add it to the 'collector's range.'
Yes, that means our metal sisters, unbought. Forever alone in the darkness of the warehouses...will one day be opened to face the furnace. Unsold. No enemy ever purged for the emperor.
Where do you think the metal grey knights went? Sold for a marginal profit in this metal economy.
I have no sources to say this is, for fact, what GW does. However I have 24 years experience in warehouse management for similar products (metal parts for various businesses. Engines, fixings, etc.) What we can't sell sits in the warehouse for X years. After X years is up, we usually sell it for scrap / send it off to be melted down for other uses.
The Steadfast Tin Sororitas
Deep within the bowls of near eternal darkness, the ten sisters of battle sat within plastic containment. The two stuck together in one pocket of plastic had been good friends for well over a decade now.
"Sister Maria-kun...when will we get to serve the Emperor?" she would ask at least once a week. Ready to hear the comfort from her superior.
"Nisa-chan...soon. Soon we will show them the Emperor's fury." Maria would always reply in a confident tone.
This dance of emotional support spun on for years... one day, though. One day everything shifted. Jostled from sleep, Sister Nisa exclaimed, "Maria! Maria! We're moving! We're going to get to serve the Emperor!"
"Yes Sister Nisa!" replied Maria with excitement.
Soon, light filled their world. The dim blue gray of overhanging light-tubes. The plastic was opened, and the sisters were dumped with their squad into a massive bucket filled with other sisters.
"Maria! Where are you?!" Nisa yelled "Here here, over here!" Maria jostled her way over the other sisters to Nisa, "Surely this will be the largest holy war the Sororitas has ever seen or will see!"
Thousands of Sisters of battle yelled praises to the Emperor as they were dumped into a lead bowl. "A transport?" questioned Maria, as the cold metal touched her. The world moved again, and orange light filled the air and their bucket was placed into an enclosure.
"Its hot Sister Maria-kun! (Maria's a dude?) Its hot!" exclaimed Nisa in panic.
"Don't worry Sister Nisa-chan. We will serve the Emperor. We are protected!" she said as pewter droplets began to form on the surface of her armor and roll off into the container. "The Emperor protects!"
That was the last word from the sister as her face boiled away and pooled into the bottom of the container... in a matter of minutes the super heated oven had turned all the Sisters into a pewter bar. Ready to be melted into other forms or separated for its various metals.
External Links
- The original story.