Over the last year or so I have seen GW make these big kits and or introduce new units into Fantasy and 40k and along the way I have grown increasingly at odds with the designs they are producing.
Does anyone else agree? I don't play the game so am removed from most contact and opinions on the ground of players and collectors.
This is a picture of the Khorne Lord of Skulls from GW. (the above is a prime example). I don't play Chaos but this unit seems so out of sorts with what you would normally think of if someone said Lord of Skulls to you.
Thankfully some clever hobbyist has managed to convert this into something akin to what it should have been.
Seen on the BoL website.
Here is another reasonable attempt.
Here are more examples of utter strangeness from GW.
The basic design is quite good actually but what the hell were they thinking when they designed the nonsense that is on the sides??
This Land Speeder is much worse. I don't even have words to express my thoughts on this design.
I am a Marine man myself and have been tempted with Dark Angels, bought the Dark Vengeance set but not going to pursue it after seeing these things.
Now basically the argument is which direction is Games Workshop going in? it seems to me like they are leaning towards 'toys' and not mature enthusiasts.
The Storm Talon is also so out of whack, especially from this angle, it looks funny as in lol funny.
Let me know what your thoughts are and give some examples of good or bad stuff.
Vitor
i agree. i am ready to bow out
ReplyDeleteI am finishing up my DV set and then moving on to other minis. I don't play any more anyway so I'm kind of a cabinet painter now and there are way prettier minis out there.
ReplyDeleteyes they are horrible. I cannot believe that the same company that gave us the Brass Scorpion could give us The Lord of Skulls! They should sack EVERY SINGLE GW STAFF DESIGNER and replace them with their Forgeworld counterparts.
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine that their market research is carried out on three blind 12 year olds.
yup...although it does come from epic 40k and has been around since 1992 so the design is pretty much 21 years old...
DeleteActually a Lord of Skulls ought to be about 2 to 3 times this size- as tall as a Warhound. This is actually somewhat more like the old Khorne Death Dealer from Epic. The Death Dealer also has the embarrassing Cock-Cannon, missing on the original Lord of Skulls...
DeleteAnyway I don't care how old it is, it looked stupid then and it looked stupid now. When you see the conversions people have done using the torso you can see how GW are the last people who ought to be allowed to design minis for 40K. so many of the old guard have left the newcomers obviuously don't understand how the game is meant to look or feel :-(
Just have a look at WHO is mainly in the hobby stores. Not seasoned gaming veterans but kids who bring their money in.
ReplyDeleteI'm only in Fantasy but there is also a tendency for bigger thingies. Most of the stuff they did for my old armies is pretty cool, but the newer stuff e.g. Highelves with their flying chariot are just ridiculous. They have some awesome sculptors but with their flyers and oversized monsters they don't hit home. I think this is not only GW, just have a look at Warmachine with these huge models which cost over hundred dollars or other manbufacturers.
But as long as it sells it seems the company do something right there...
If GW made cool looking kits then how would Forge World have an customers. I think that some of the lines have design guildlines that generally look really bad if you do not like them. Very love it or hate it stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the feedback, I know GW can produce fantastic stuff otherwise we wouldn't be in the hobby at all.
ReplyDeleteGW reminds me of the auto industry long ago when the USA had dominance but they increasingly produced rubbish cars and their competitors overtook them.
Nice post! I couldn't agree more. Some of the new models look ridiculous. But to be fair, they do have some really cool ones too. I guess they are using a scatter gun approach where they hope to net all kinds of customers with different tastes in what makes a miniature look good.
ReplyDeleteThis post (plus comments) sums up everything I have been feeling about GW lately. Both 40k and fantasy are moving towards just armies of 1 big machine/monster backed up by a couple of units.
ReplyDeleteI get the feeling they don't know what they are aiming for. They have moved away from the old bright high fantasy style painting towards a more realistic grimness, but then are changing their sculpting towards more high fantasy flying chariots and chaos vortex beasts.
I'm just glad mantic have come along....
Yeah, I'm with ya.
ReplyDeleteAll that stuff is incredibly fugly.
:P
I'm also becoming entirely spoiled by the elegance displayed by Corvus Belli and their models for Infinity.