@redscope I do see what you are saying and, for what it’s worth, I actually think within the context of Games Workshop products £180 for the HH box is actually good value.  I think you get a lot of stuff, you get two decent sized armies, all the rules and of course you get a tank and a dreadnought. It’s also worth noting that you are not obliged to paint those miniatures as two opposing forces if you don’t want because as far as I can see there’s no chapter specific markings on anything.  You can make one big army out of the box if you like so it also has some flexibility with it as well.  So I think on balance that is a good starter box.  The price is a little daunting and perhaps makes it a little inaccessible but it’s otherwise a good box – I earn a decent income but I would think twice about dropping nearly £200 on a box of Miniatures.  Not saying I wouldn’t, only that it would need some serious consideration.  But like I said, I do think it’s a good box and certainly WAY better than the current crop of 40k starters

How does it compare to Firefight?  Well, for the big £150 box, Firefight gives you 70 miniatures compared to 40 and two vehicles. Again we see two decent sized armies to play with however the two Armies are separate and distinct so you can’t just build one big army out of the starter box.  That said, each side is, I think, around 800 points, which is a significant chunk of the largest recommended game size of 1000-1500 points (above 1500 and  you need a bigger play area than the recommende 4′).

Both boxes are comparable in terms of content and they each have a bit of an advantage over the other in one area.  So which is better value?  I guess it depends on what your values are

@twinstripeuk The Firefight box is currently £125 on Mantic’s website, however that is basically listed as a reduction.  The full RRP is £150.  I think it’s more fair to compare the full price because there’s no guarantee how long it will be discounted for.  However the fact that Mantic HAVE discounted it at all is a point scored (IMO) on GW who basically never have sales or offer discounts (not in the traditional sense).

I don’t know why you are upset about the question of “quality” though, quality is objective – that’s how we have quality standards.  There are some aspects of the miniatures we choose to buy that are absolutely subjective.  I like how some models look, but not others, that’s subjective and is not a measure of quality.  But there are some objective measures that can be applied to products to measure and determine quality.  In terms of models, things like how complex is the structure and how easy is it to assemble?  How much cleanup work does the model need? How easy is the material to work with?  I am sure we could all add more to that list.  Whilst I believe, and nothing said her so far has convinced me otherwise, that Games Workshop games are the most expensive sub-hobbies within Wargaming, it is also objectively true to say their plastic Miniatures are the best plastic Miniatures on the market bar none.  I limit this statement to plastic because honestly I don’t rate their resin or metals as highly, they are comparable or worse to other manufacturers (their resin is particularly bad).  But their plastic Miniatures produce some amazingly complex and dynamic shapes and poses and generally hide the joins between the parts incredibly well. The plastic is very easy to work with, easy to clean and prep, the instructions are fairly simple.  The details on the plastic are good, especially as they have slowly increased their scale to help overcome some if the limitations of HIPS. You also quite often get options to make variants of the same model. Objectively, the plastic models are extremely high quality, even though I don’t personally like most of the sculpts I can still admit that.