Tbf MESBG has always been the best value gamewise. Minimum extra pieces and having a single infantry box that's cheaper than all the 40k and AOS troops functioning as large portion your army. Hell Smaug is a ridiculously expensive model, but it's your entire army too. Literally not a single other purchase required. MESBG is perfect and deserves love
I dunno i think forgeworld is goin down the tube. Look at there site. Its so empty. I think titanicus is the only one they are going to continue too make. That and hopefully the 40k scale titans too but i dont know. No listings for them last time i looked
@@BTTFF Well, the Ballistarius is. The dragoon variant got nerfed hard recently. Agree that the model is TERRIBLE value for money in terms of points on the table, but I think it's worth it in terms of the quality of model itself. A better Admech candidate for this list are the Serberys raiders/ sulphurhounds. They're £35/$55 for a box of three, and are worth next to nothing on the table. If I recall they're about $1.10 for every point on the table which is even worse than the Ironstrider.
So, The only one I disagree with here is Ephreal Stern and Kyganil, as they’re both imperium models, not Harlequin, and can be run together without breaking army rules as long as it’s imperium
Exactly, my man doesn't know his sisters lore or rules. They can't be run in an Eldar list, they are a Sisters of Battle HQ choice that must be run together or as an Agent of the Imperium.
He’s a fluff focused guy, and he’s right I’m an Eldar player and I really wanted the kit to kitbash Kyganil, it’s really annoying that the only named harlequin can’t even be run in an Eldar army I ended up getting him on eBay but it was still way too expensive for the tiny little model I got
As an engineer, with a lot of studies in production behind me - I felt like I had to make a comment. The pricing is not random, far from it. The price for materials to produce a set is basically nothing. As well, one is able to produce so many, so fast - that the hourly wage of production workers can be largely ignored as well. The thing that costs, is the design and the payment for the forms. That is why the cost seems so random. Production itself doesn't cost that much, but introducing a new model is extremely EXPENSIVE. This is a one time price, however, and has to be spread out over multiple boxes. Boxes they expect to sell a lot of, therefore have the price spread out over more (and becomes cheaper) - while boxes they expect to sell less of, will have inflated prices as they have to pay back the initial payment over less boxes. Concerning the Start collecting and Starter sets, the same happens. As well, GW is willing to accept a possible loss on these, as they believe they'll gain more from the sales of other boxes - because of them. I'm not saying the prices are fair, or that GW doesn't take a premium to make a tonne of profit. I just felt like I wanted to explain the "randomness", as one the understand the workings of production.
Interesting points but I see a problem in their theory. By putting the price high to make more money to counter the fact they would sell less, they’re are making the models even less appealing so likely to sale even less as result. If they sold cheaper they might sell more (but less profit per model) so sometimes I think they would be better trying more reasonable prices. E.g. if they charged 40€ for a model and made 35€ profit per model but only sold 100 models, they could try charge 35€ and might sell 150 models. I know thats very simple maths and obviously yourself and GW would have better idea than me but I just think through retail perspective, they could try be more consumer friendly
@@dublinrambler2727 Good catch ! You're not wrong. That is, however, the case with everything you produce and sell. You want MR=MC, marginal revenue to be equal marginal cost - as then you maximise profits. As it is the case for everything, I thought it implicit and didn't want to further prolong my already long RU-vid comment by including it in my earlier explanation. At MR=MC you find the sweet spot, where lowering the price (and therefore selling more) would not yield more profit because of the costs of producing more. This is therefore dependent of the production price, which includes the initial investment, spread out over the expected amount of sold boxes. As the pr. box. production price is so low - this 2nd order polynomium (depicting MR & MC) would be basically only made up of the initial cost, the forms and design for the models. It's a lot of explanation cramped into little space - but I hope it makes sense.
I came here to comment, that size alone doesn't justify pricing, but you put it in words much better than I would have. People don't realize, how much work and how many people are involved in creating a product. You've got designers, sculptors, marketing, distribution and so on. They don't work for free and are doing actual work. It's not easy to just have an idea and produce it. You have to know how - that's what you're paying for (among other things).
Yeah you put it better (and with more actual experience and authority) than I could. You can really see the design work that went into some of the "bad value" models, although Primaris Lieutenant still makes the cut.
@@sebastianmartiny2452 To be honest brutha you should make a video about this exact thing. Tons of people want to know the actual value and decision making behind GW products and I learned a bunch just from these comments. Something to consider!
I acknowledge that this list was for 40k, but the AoS Fyreslayers Start Collecting box is literally the same price as one of the models in the box along with 12 more for free
@@adog6495 I'm thinking of taking some AoS medusae and converting them into Sslyths who joined the Greater Good someday. But maybe GW gives a better proposition before that happens!
Was surprised that horrendous Contemptor Dread didn’t make the cut. Could have been a real fan favourite if more than two minutes had been put into the design for the single model release
Actually. I think that GW contemptor dreadnought was originally in the 30k Betrayal at Calth box set. And selling it separately was just a lazy afterthought.
6th bad: the deathscythe Terminators from Deathguard, the gw version is 3 for 45 euro but the forgeworld version is 6 for 60 euro!! The first time forgeworld is cheaper
@EonsOfBattle you cant play Stern without Kyganil, they also can only be played in an Imperium army, and not Harlequins army for some reason. They arrive as one unit but afterwards act as two seperate units.
Which is odd as I'm pretty sure Stern is excommunicated from the ecclesiarchy, at least in Daemonifuge the Inquisition was sending assassins after her. It would have made more sense to me to make the two of them Aeldari faction units, at least they aren't trying to kill Stern... they even invited her to the Black Library, I think she is the only human who wasn't an inquisitor to be allowed in.
@@ColCaffran Agreed, I think they wanted to make them some sort of deus ex machina for the imperial armies, atleast thats what i think it is, they see trouble, help the imperials, then dissapear, something like the legion of the damned?
@@ColCaffran This is really interesting i'm not up together on the lore at all for any 40k just the rules for her as my girlfriend happily ripped my Tau apart using those two haha
The particularly painful thing about this is, that Kyganil is in fact the only named Harlequin character model available and you cannot use him with Harlequins. Of course I found that out after having bought them... Thankfully I have sisters too but it just ruined it for me. No ambition to paint them ...
@@trzynasty909 yep. The chassis of the Trukk can be cut to give 3 x axles. Add on miscellaneous armour panels and use the extra guns from the standard Mek Gun..... And you can build all 4 options from just 2 kits.
The box itself has a ton of value if you can kitbash. I combined Kairic Acolyte bodies (I used the box for Tzeentch bits for 40k) and the Acolyte box. So far I have like 5 acolytes, 7 metamorphs, and a keletmorph made with spinefist bits
I'm pleased to see the Tzeentch box getting some recognition. It's not only a great value, but everything is usable for multiple armies which drives the value up. You can play them as a daemons or Thousand Sons army in 40k, or a Tzeentch, Chaos, or Slaves to Darkness army in AoS.
Yeah, I got the Assassination Squad game back when it came out because I love the assassins. That game was $150.00 and it came with: 4 Assassins, 15 Cultists, 3 Chaos Marines, 1 Chaos Sorcerer Lord and the rest of a FREAKING BOARD GAME! (Which is actually pretty fun to play on its own as a nice bonus). How they sell just the four assassins for $140.00 boggles my mind.
Thank you for this info. Every time I see GW prices I feel emboldened in my quest to never give greedy corporations my money. Thanks again. Love your work!
My father is a part owner and head of R&D for a company that makes injection molded plastic parts like the ones made by Games Workshop. His company is highly profitable and he knows a great deal about injection molded plastics, associated costs and profitability. I once went to him with a box of Cadian troops and asked him how much he would sell something like that for retail considering all overhead costs and still make a good profit. He responded with "After paying the product designer, artist, 3d modeler, buying the mould, marketing, shipping and other associated costs, I could charge $20-$25 a box and still be making 50% profit if the volume sold was under 1K units a year. The profit goes way up if I can sell more than 1K a year. It goes up substantially if I don't have to remove the plastic parts from the sprue, clean and assemble them." When I told him that GW charges $45 a box it staggered him. He said "I wish we could sell our parts for $45 a box while doing nothing but pulling them out of the injector and slapping them in the box still on the sprue... gamers are insane".
Skaven Skryre Acolyte wins worst value, it's not even fucking close. 15 bucks per metal model and you play them in blobs of 20 or more. Skaven heroes probably some of the best value as they're 15-25 bucks each though they're all metal or finecast but their sculpts really stand the test of time.
@@corbingovers7559 Tell that to 2 new dwarf armies. 3-4 SC boxes and you have reasonably strong, almost full size armies for next to nothing compared to 40k (not counting second hand stuff). Those start collecting boxes are god send for AoS.
I remember my mate having the vindicar assassin 20 odd years ago, awesome model. Also the primaris lieutenant is the best primaris unit for kitbashing a primaris sized emperors champion.
Ephrael Stern and Kyganil are supposed to go in the same army. The rules say you have to take them together, so the whole 'Oh one of these models will always be useless' is just... incorrect.
A unified price point would solve SO MANY issues trying to get people into the hobby. Having to buy large, expensive box sets to get figures at a good price is enough to get a lot of people to think twice about starting to collect Warhammer.
They will always refuse to define their exact pricing model because they would have to admit they overpriced their HQs and at most they would be half the price they ask now.
To give you some historical context to Citadel/GW pricing I had to cost how much it was for GW do to produce a pot of paint, this was 1987 when a pot cost approx 95p or $1.00. To buy the paint in bulk, cost of pot, label and a staff member to fill pot and box for transport to the shop it cost 1p or about 0.5 cents. figures cost maybe $1.00 at the time and it cost about 5 cents to GW for production etc.
Speaking of value, the Grey Knights Combat Patrol looks quite appealing. A Terminator Squad, a Strike Squad (can be made into Purifiers, Purgators or Interceptors), a Librarian and a Nemesis Dreadknight (I know how you feel about that model, Jay, but the Greatsword got buffed and I’m sharing a Hexfire box with a friend, so I get two of these chonkers to bash the crap out of Chaos.) I already know that it costs £85 as every other Combat Patrol in the UK does but getting a superheavy unit along with respectable troops choices and a HQ for that price sounds good to me. Also, it seems GW bases the pricing on how many of those units they THINK you’ll want to field e.g. Militarum Tempestus Scions and Sternguard Veterans come in the same quantity per box, which is 5, but it seems that GW thinks you’ll field more Scions in your Guard army than you would field Sternguard in your Marine army.
I want to point out, as an Ork player, I found the Start Collecting Orks kit is worth it's price considering the contents of the box. The only downside to the box is the lack of an HQ option, what you get instead is about 10 Boyz 5 Nobz w/ Ammo Runt, a Painboy, and a Deff Dread. A lot of places also these days will sell the box for 75-90 dollars, which is an INSANE deal on the models included. However, I think they stopped making the Start Collecting Orks box, so any Ork players wanting more troops for a deal, or starting with the Orks, grab it fast. If you can shell out the price for Start Collecting Ironjawz (fantasy Warhammer Orks), you'll get 10 Orruk 'Ardboyz, 3 Gore Gruntas, and an Orruk War Chanter Why get the Ironjaws? with the extra bits from the Ork Boyz you can have a squad of 10 shoota boyz, 10 slugga boyz, if you don't use the big shootas from the deff dread/boyz, you can give these to the 3 Gore Gruntas and have 3 counts as warbikers, and as for the War Chanter, with some creativity you can make yourself a Warboss out of him. I gathered up extra bits from all my ork kits, and made him into what I jokingly call the "Musclemancer" as I made him into a very buff Weirdboy. Currently I am trying to make a 10 ork MegaNobz squad from my extra parts, and some leftover Ork Nob bodies/parts, because I refuse to spend 65 bucks on 3 models. (the actual MegaNobz kit, bought one mostly to have the Big Mek and some actual MegaNobz) I also was able to make the 3 MegaNob models into 4, because I took the leftover parts from the kit, and leftover extra legs from the Necromunda Ambot kits (2 models but you get the parts to make 4 complete sets of legs) and slapped an Ork Nob body on the legs, to make the Ork look like a Cybork (very fitting for a Big Mek anyways). Tbh, this is the biggest advantage an Ork player will always have, long as you make it clear what the model is, and it fit the profile/size of the unit/model. That and the extra parts allow for some insane conversions.
On the note of 16, when I got into the game Eldar Guardians were sold in sets of 16, without a heavy weapon platform (which was a metal addon). Now they give you 2 less sprues but with the heavy weapon thrown in. I think it was a 3rd ed. thing.
Holy shit I've been out of this hobby for years and the price on those assassins is insane! The old ones didn't look a lot different and they were like £4 each or something when they came out.
I think it's worth mentioning with the recruit and elite edition boxes, that that is the only way to get a Primaris Lieutenant or captain, and that's important if you're playing say, Iron Hands or Space Wolves, because the Primaris Lieutenant is the ONLY Primaris model capable of taking an axe weapon, chain or power. So if you're starting out and can't find any Firstborn, but wanna take those chapter relics, then that's the box for you. I'm building an Iron Hands army, and only just learned that recently. I think the Primaris Captain from those boxes is the only captain Primaris model capable of taking shields, but that may be wrong.
As a Sororitas player, I love having Kyganil. He and Stern don’t break up any rules or battle forged armies. They’re just a beastly melee hero but in two bodies
You are underselling the Tzeentch box! The Burning Chariot can be assembled as a Herald on Chariot and an Exalted Flamer on foot. But that's not all; With a bit of converting, you can also build 1 Exalted Flamer, 1 Herald on Disk and 2 more Screamers for your squad of 3.
Flayed ones should be an honorable mention, 55$ MSRP for 5 tiny guys where every bit gets used, it’s like 1 sprue and I believe the most expensive $/in game point in 40k
The pricing structure is based on how many they sell. The cost to design in CAD is fixed. The cost to do box art, make assembly instructions is fixed. The cost to tool the factory with injection sprue blanks and CNC router mill the metal sprue is fixed. No matter how many they sell, GW pay this as a fixed flat fee. And it's a lot. But once a line is tooled up, boxing, plastic, and instructions prints are all they need to make and these are at a cost per unit. If they run that factory injection machine for 1 hour (before they retool the line to another mini), gw then charge more per model to justify the run, but if they can tool it up and run 4 lines for 600 hours it's far cheaper in the stores. EG: starter sets. It's THAT simple.
The Space Wolves Blood Claws box is a bomb value. You get it for $2 more than the Space Wolves Pack box, and get 5 more models. You can also use them as Grey Hunters, Wolf Guard, and kitbash some decent characters if you wanted to. (Also, you could tack on the Jump Pack box ($15) and have Skyclaws and Jump Pack Wolf Guard). You'd also have tons of bits left over to make other minis look like Space Wolves.
Most of the expense is from: 1. the multi million dollar metal molds the sprues are cast in that degrade over X number of prints and need to be replaced. 2. the number of sprues in a kit. More sprues = more molds. 3. the likelyhood that the model will be sold multiple times. A named character, or a massive expensive centrepiece will only ever be sold once to the people that collect that army, a generic character slightly more or if they play larger games or want bitz. Going down the line until you reach troops which you will need many duplicates of such as Ork Boyz, Tactical Space Marines, Guardsmen, Termagaunts etc. An exception can be made for 5 model kits which are usually elite choices with more weapon options (sprues) So like Veteran Sterguard will have the same quantity of spues as a tactical 10 man marine box but ine will be dedicated to wargear options. (Also factor in GW sells less duplicates of elites than they do troops) Or Ork Stormboyz are only 5 but a sprue is dedicated to the massive jetpacks. Dire Avengers for Eldar however is a perfect example of a troops choice thats only 5 models with not an overabundance of wargear options and seems like a bit of a rip off in that regard. To have a disparity of literally $1 is a bit of a head scratcher honestly.
Guilliman’s probably $60 ( or £46.50 in my case ) because of the absolutely huge amount of detail on him and his base and the amount of time to make even one would mean a lot of effort and effort costs money
regarding the assasins sexism: Callidus assasins are lore wise neither male nor female, they are both or nothing. They are androgynous and they also kind of forget what their original gender was since they are shaping their form and muscles to another person based on the need. So it is to assume the the female looking assasin can just as likely be male but took the looks of a female person. I took that from the horus heresy book (nemesis? i think is what its called)
Regarding the Kroot: Nothing is sold in 16s *anymore*. But back when Age of Sigmar was Warhammer Fantasy Battles there were a lot of things coming in 16s. Like Elven Spearmen or Archers. A Box auf Gaunts got you 8 Terma- and 8 Hormagaunts. Eldar Guardians came in 16s too. While we are at Eldar, back then a box of Dire Avengers was a box of 10. For the same price of a box of 5 now.
The best value kit GW sells is the Adeptus Titanicus starter kit. It costs £90 to purchase the starter set. It contains two reaver titans (£35 each), two warhounds (£40 for 2), two cerastus knights (£20), and a rules and accessories set (£35), for a total value of £165 , saving you £75. Monetarily, that's pretty good, but it's not actually all of the value that you get. In fact, the biggest piece of value is that you're now playing Adeptus Titanicus, which is the best game GW currently produces.
I always find games workshop prices so ridiculous, us historic armour modellers can get entire heavy tanks for the same as single figure miniatures, you can buy a whole Tamiya aircraft carrier (that is over a metre long) for the same as those assassins
GW's pricing structure is indeed incomprehensible, but I don't doubt for a minute they had a couple of very clever guys working out how to maximize profits. Business is business.
I also have noticed a lot of people didn't know about the board game that came with all 4 assasins. You not only saved money but also got an entire game out of it. Not to mention the game is actually really fun.
if you can find em: they got “mystery packs” with Terminator heroes in them. $6-8 apoece for a terminator. saving big money when you can buy 5 random terminators for a max of 40 instead of a full priced terminator squad.
To be fair Ephrael Stern and Kyganil don't work in either a Sisters of Battle or Eldar army separately, they are a team and must be taken together and usually work better in a Space Marines army.
Ephrael stern is an interesting one. First, on the table top they have to come together. You can't just bring stern. Second, lore wise, they're supposed to be inseparable as they walk the same path or some other dumb eldar shit. Lastly, you can't actually use kyganil in an eldar army. He is tied to Ephrael Stern and she is tie to the Imperium (she fills the same role as an assassin or inquisitor where she won't stop an army from getting its special rules). Honestly, I just think its kinda funny that harlequins didn't really get anything during Psychical Awakening but the imperium got a harlequin model.
@@EonsOfBattle aye, that's not an awful idea, but he's just so small and he really doesn't come with a lot of bits so using him for kitbashing really isn't a good idea, even if he was alone and cost $35. Plus, most of the parts that I could see you wanting to kitbash you could easily find on other harlequin models or from 3rd party. The only piece of him thats really special is the diamonds he's walking on and I feel like that could easily be remade with some card stock and a small amount of green stuff. That actually might be a cool video idea.
the price of GW models is the cost of designing the model, rule designing, lore writing, advertising added together, divided by the projected amount of models they plan on selling. Kits where they project that people will buy less of, they put the prices higher. It's got nothing to do with how many points they are ingame or how much plastic they use to make.
Gotta say, after a while away from Games Workshop, buying 3D printed D&D models from Etsy or painting stuff from other mini-heavy games ... going back onto the GW website to look at some character model prices is HILARIOUS. I do not know why we continue to let them get away with the insane markups on some of those.
At the end of the day, a product’s value comes from how much the customers are willing to pay for it. Until one day the community, in unison, boycotts GW, we still have to pay exorbitant prices for their plastics.
old Assault marine kit is pricey but with 5 more legs you can make another 5 units of veterans with any load out and still have a lot of arms left over for other kitbashing :) Custodes Terminators, buy 2 boxes and you have, 2x banner bearers (elites), 3x terminators (elite) and a Terminator captain (HQ) so a full elite detachment My worst value kit, the Hobbit dwarves in a barrel kit, massively overpriced and INCREDIBLY LIMITED gameplay possibilities
"Space Ork Boyz" used to come in a box of 16 back in the 90's (for $30! And their shootas came separate from the arms with hand grips and triggers) which is about the same time the Kroot first appeared.
Oh Ephreal Stern gets worse: In the rules you have to take her xenos boyfriend with her and as of the latest Dex they're a Squad. In the books they are only working together for 25% of the story. She spends more time working alongside a sceptical Inquisitor with a humongous Power Fist named Silas Hand (yes its from THAT era of the lore) and at least half that time employed by Astrobel Vect (yes the reclining captured Sister with the dagger behind her back is supposed to be her.)
As a T'au player one of the things i am most pissed of about is the price of kroot compared to vespid. for 36 $ you get 16 minis with a boat load of plastic bits that you could use ina a genestealer or chaos cultist army (hell they could even work for orks) meanwhile for 45$ you get 5 finecast one part vespid the worst thing is that Vespid are one of the only infantry units with decent ap
Just got Indomitus Recruit box thanks to this video and I couldn't have been happier. Spent a whole night sniffing that sweet sweet illustrated guide. Don't judge me.
I believe a (dis)honorable mention for the Riever Lieutenant is appropriate as he gives up his Power Sword when changing from Tacticus armor into Phobos. The Riever Lt. has a cool pose but cannot take standard Riever grav chute or grapnel launcher and thus cannot keep up with the unit he is designed to lead. Oh, he is also another Primaris Lt. The model looks good but is about as useful as a third testicle.
The assassins were "ok" with their game box, you get all of them + a board game + chaos terminator lord + 3 csm + 15 cultists. Discounted it was 100 euros, still a lot but now they are even more for only the 4 assassins. I think they suffered from the "for a period they were op" syndrome. If they would cost less they would sell a lot cause they are lovely miniatures to have and paint, they totally spice up any game.
Ephrael Stern and Kyganil are sold together because they have to be taken together. Selling them separately wouldn't make sense since you're required to field both.
Overlooked value: Ork Airplane kits. No matter which of the 4 variants you end up building, there are always a bunch of cool bits left over. Any proper Ork player will love the conversion opportunities this presents!
another kit with amazing value is the the death guard combat patrol you get 30 pox walker zombies $35 per box of 10, 7 plague marines at $55 per box of 7, typhus an HQ that costs $42, and a biologus putrifier an elite that costs $32, so for $150 you’re getting $234 worth of models
As a Tyranid player, the variant boxsets bother me. 50% of the set won't be used because they all share one common part that doesn't allow you to build the other unit. Haruspex won't get built because what lunatic is going to build that instead of an Exocrine? Zoanthropes are the worst - 3 in a box plus 3 unusable venomthropes. If you want 6 to max their psychic ability, that's another box with another 3 wasted venomthrope parts. And then if you want a Neurothrope, guess what? That's a Zoanthrope with extra bits so you need to buy *another* 6 model boxset to make one model. It's so expensive and such a waste. I'm well aware you can kitbash, ebay and use other means to make those models but the point is for the money you pay, you shouldn't have to. Just give the units their own boxes, drop the price by a tenner and they'll have my money.
Necron warriors I imagine were an honourable mention as the worst value given how little the difference is between them and the recruit edition vs how much more you get cor the recruit box
So, since you think Robert Gorillaman is a bad value, do you also think that Abaddon is also a bad value? Same price, same size, came out around the same time. The only difference is that one is a hero of the people who fights for righteousness- a truly masterful sculpt modelled with great detail that all the cool kids want to paint and all the haters are just jealous of .... and the other is just another lame Ultrasmurf.
The Start Collecting Saurus Box has the ability to have 21 or 22 models, but 23 if you are crafty for 90 bucks. What about just the $38 Skink set for 24 models, that's fucking good for quantity!
I agree with most of these but not with Ephrael Stern and Kyganil. You can use him in a SoB army as Ephrael's bodyguard and the two of them make a really good team in-game. He's not useless to us Sisters players.
Well you can and should field Ephrael Stern and Kyganil together. One of the worst values as a sisters-player are the retributors. They are not bad value in general but they only include 2 multi-meltas but can have 4. So a squad of 4 multi-meltas will cost double. Also if you decide to give a multi-melta to your standard sisters squad or celestians, you can only get that from the retributors-kit aswell...
That's the problem though. It's not 269$ of product for 99$. It's 99$ of product for 99$. It's the individual stuff that's way overpriced. It's like when a big box store says something is on sale, but the regular price is more than it should be.
In my opinion, the start collecting boxes in general are a hood investment(for aos at least I don't really know about 40k) You just save so much money buying those instead of the models separately
I don't think there is anything more insulting than Forge World selling you a titan's BODY for 900 pounds and advertising the fact that it has no head or guns as a selling point because it's "customisable". You know what else is customisable? Skitarii. But their bits all come in the fucking box.
My favorite WTF pricing is Eldar Dire Avengers. At one point the box set was $37.50 for 10. Then they cut the box in half, and dropped the price. To $35. For a mold they sure as shit got their money back on. That was ridiculous.
16 once was once a fairly common unit size particulary for WHFB, giving you the minimum requirement for the full rank bonus in the 6th edition. With some smaller models like Skaven and Goblins having 20 models, and larger models like Chaoswarriors having only 12. The weirdest outlier were the WHFB Imperial Infantry, having 19 models, which comes due to the fact that the models were the 4x4 (so 16) sprues designed for the 5th edition, but instead of having metal bits for the command unit, included a character model/ command unit sprue, having 3 models.
The old tyranid SC box was a good deal, came with a winged hive tyrant, hormagaunts, gargoyles and I think something else. The newer sc box is only good if you need genestealers.
Games workshop pricing is so outrageous to make a larger model (Primaris Space Marines, Stormcast Eternals), the lowest price per model is around 1,2 EUR / 1 GBP / 1,5 USD in 2020.
