I’ve just been reading quite an interesting post on Bell of Lost Souls. It would appear that there is a fairly solid rumour abound that Games Workshop are revamping a large portion of their Space Marine plastic miniatures. This includes brand new Tactical and Assault squads. These are seriously overdue in fairness as the quality of the plastics has deteriorated over time as the mold has worn out and the tactical missile launcher has always had serious molding issues with the shoulder pad.
Tactical Squad Rumour
- Higher portion of MKVIII armour (MK8)
- Heavy flamer
- Missile launcher with devastator style backpack & flakk missile
- All standing legs (but with more movement)
- Lots of ‘extras’ in the style of the named chapter boxes, so straps on bolters, power weapons and similar
Assault Squad Rumour
- New jump packs that eliminates the mold line present on the current plastic ones
- More weapon options including Lightening Claws and Thunder Hammers
Also
Plastic Librarian
- 2 force weapon variants (sword, staff)
- 2 head variants
- Librarian comes on 2 plastic sprues, most likely in a clam pack
Plastic Techmarine
- Similar in design to the current metal/finecast Techmarine
- A few weapon options for servo harness (including conversion beamer)
- As with Librarian, comes on 2 plastic sprues
Scout Squad
- This will combine all weapon options into a single boxed set
- Will have some new scout only weapons
- Heads are less large
New Flyer
- Similar in size to Storm Raven
- Interceptor/bomber variants in one box so no transport or hover capability
- Heavy assault cannon & FF missiles / bombs & servo drones
New Scout Transport
- Open topped
- Has a twin linked heavy bolter on the back
Overall, a really nice collection of rumoured plastic box sets. What is even nicer is that I was thinking that a box of ten tactical marines would allow me to bulk out my remaining Space Wolves to have another couple squads of Grey Hunters. Using a completely different boxed set would add even more variety to the mix which I feel Space Wolves really benefit from. If the assault marines are significantly different, I might also be tempted to grab a box and do another large squad of Blood Claws.
Also I’m hoping the flyer is retconned to be usable by Space Wolves 😉