Where the fluff meets the sprue...

o/

So…this is a little bit of a rant the percolated out of the comments that Greg Hess and I exchanged on my previous post regarding the new, plastic Mk III Space Marine sprues. Just give me a minute to practice my crotchety old geezer voice...

After assembling 40k space marines for for years, as well as the more recent Mk IVs from the Betrayal of Calth set, I (apparently wrongly) expected GW would follow the same tried and true route with their new Burning of Prospero Mk III tactical marines. Yeah I know, stupid on my part right? Right.

Complaint #1: Why in the hell are the legs in 2 pieces? 

Wait what?

Seriously, aside from taking longer to assemble, and taking up more room on the sprue, what does that add? The poses aren't more dynamic. Hell, if anything they're more static than the norm! (see Complaint #4 below) Forgeworld could make the legs in one piece, but GW could not…apparently do so in plastic. Also the mold lines are quite hard to remove due to the myriad collection of rivets all over the place. Greggles has subjected himself to correcting that nightmare whereas I have decided that they're not visually bad enough to warrant me doing more damage than good (to the rivets) to bother trying to remove them. 

Complaint #2: Why in the hell are the back packs in 2 pieces?

Um...seriously?

Yes apparently the legs weren't enough, meaning now we have 2-part backpacks. No idea why that was necessary either, its not like they're a really funky design or anything. The design is nothing worse than the CSM backpacks. No, they were just made to take up twice as much space on the sprue for no conceivable reason. Makes me wonder if this was an attempt to make life difficult for ebay bitz resellers that failed or something...

Complaint #3: Why aren't there different heavy weapon options?

Sure the heavy bolter looks cool (I would know, I have a dev squad full of em), but we all know that MLs are much better at killing marines and vehicles. The ML (or something else) was no doubt omitted due to the extra amount of space that was wasted by the legs and backpacks.

Complaint #4: They all have really static poses.

Swivel your helms to the left, then swivel 'em to the right...

Yes, yes, assault marines and Wulfen aside (do the Wulfen really even qualify as marines?), Spess Mahreens aren't known for super dynamic poses. That said, let's give a big and hearty WELCOME BAAAAAACK to the 1980s and its super statically posed Space Marines! I'm not saying I wanted more Karate Kid posed minis (that Wulfen is bad enough to not be repeated), but at least the Mk IVs had some possibility beyond just swiveling the head from one side to another, the Mk IIIs? Well, yeah that's just about all they offer. Hasn't technology evolved since the the days of spin-casted lead minis? Thanks to cutting edge design, we now have CAD, injection molding, and the same static poses as 30 years prior. Woot!

We all know that fluff-wise, the Mk IV armor was an improvement over the older Mk III design, but as a fluff-player I have to say:

 'For fuck's sake GW, did you have to include that little bit of history in the damned sprues?' 

Whilst I like the armor's aesthetic appearance, I'm sure you've figured out by now that I'm less than pleased with these new minis. I like em, but I also don't like em...I dunno, I suppose that any future 30k tactical marine purchases will likely be either more Mk IVs, or else Mk VIs poached out of 40k tac squad box.