Hey guys ! Kind of a silly question but, out of sheer curiosity, what happens to the stock of minis whom received a resculpt ? I assume resellers keep selling what they got, possibly for a discount but what about CB's store stock ? Can they recycle the minis' metal and the bases' plastic back into production ? Do they reuse the thick cardboard, foam and plastic bags ? Is it more cost-effective to dump everything ? Or do they wait to have sold every unit they got before starting the production of new sculpts ?
Unsold metal mini stock at CB can just get melted down and reused - like any metal mini, really. Plastics *can* be reused, but it's as "filler" in a new batch for styrene - ABS has a different ratio for filler/fresh material (LEGO is made from ABS and they recycle all of their offcuts, for example but LEGO, being LEGO, have the infrastructure in place to do this in their factories.)
Since the raw material isn't exactly expensive I highly doubt it's efficient to melt OOP stuff down. Depending on remaining stock, CB keeps some for spare parts for late mispacks etc. Since CB will provide even small tournaments with prize support, that's also a good way for them to do something with their surplus of soon to be OOP models (they should know a good bit beforehand). Although we've been mostly getting the newest releases instead.
two years ago, at interplanetario, we went to the factory. In there after the big explanation, we could buy some products and there was a box full of OOP blisters. I managed to get an old MSR moderator and a kazak doctor. I remember that even there was a yujing kodali and a few exrahs. I doubt they will melt them again.
Basically, what happens is that old stock is exported to Nevada and buried somewhere in the desert next to old Atari copies of E.T.
So, can be recycled but are rather sold discounted/gifted/saved for spares/buried next to the worst game of all times. Thanks for the answers guys, I'm getting wargames savvier everyday !
