Do miniatures lead afterlives? It’s an odd question to ask, but with the catalogue of models produced for Warhammer now breaching 30 years, hundreds of sculpts have come and gone. For some honored dead, their aesthetic lives on to inspire entirely new ranges of minis, while for others their legacy is one of petty protectionism and the inescapability of nostalgia within the setting. That one’s about Chapterhouse, but more on that later. Yes, for as much as we love looking at how the models representing this setting have evolved, unlike ranges like Dungeons & Dragons or Gundam, a substantial portion of the Warhammer community understands these kits as game pieces more than collectables. The hobby is important, and balancing between building, painting, & playing has been a goal for basically every person getting into the game; notice how I said ‘game’, though, because decoupling Warhammer’s rules from its models isn’t the easiest thing. So, when a model passes into the afterlife, and ceases production, how should we regard it? Is it Games Workshop’s responsibility to provide immaterial support like rules & lore for models no longer produced physically? These are questions inspired by the new Codex: Space Marines, set to come out this October.
Via mcmattilaminis
We talked about the history of models being removed from their role as game pieces last week, with an overview of ‘squatting’, and how it’s affected community trust when it comes to Warhammer’s longevity. In short, so long as something vaguely analogous is coming along to replace the old, excitement for the new outstrips potential grumbling. We’re seeing this currently, with the Khazalid Holds range revealed, likely on a path to replace or otherwise fold-in the Dispossessed side of Cities of Sigmar, and Fyreslayers. Since the release of The Old World, basically all lingering kits in Age of Sigmar which originated back from the world-that-was were doomed; ‘fated’ might be a better word, as so many players would reasonably argue the new AoS forms of things like Daughters of Khaine & the Freeguild lines are better than the previous version, but the inevitability of their cycling as products was never in question. If it was from Fantasy, to Fantasy it shall return. This brings up one of the afterlives available to miniatures: Motion. Forces like the Beasts of Chaos may have lapsed in legality for AoS, but they’re a fully-supported army in The Old World. In much the same way, the Predator, Vindicator, Razorback, & Whirlwind now look to Horus Heresy for a new home, with their sunsetting in 40k. There’s a cruelty to this continued existence, however, and speaking as a former Beasts of Chaos player I’d have preferred they be entirely removed than shifted to an inferior game. Selfish? Perhaps, but it’s the difference between your car crashing, or being repossessed. One stings a bit more.
The second afterlife is one of Patience, because especially in recent years Games Workshop is all too happy to pull upon the lore of decades’ past for new ideas. This is almost unilaterally a good thing, but can be agonizing for those awaiting the second coming of a given kit. As an example, Kastelan Robots originated in the 1989 Imperial Robots supplement, and only received their modern plastic iteration in 2015; that kit is a decade old now, but still looks fantastically current within the range. Eldar Exodites first appeared in-lore prior to the reunification of East & West Germany, and the idea of Aeldari ‘Dragon Knights’ has only just come to plastic this year, following a few small Exodite releases via Forge World in the 2010s, since deprecated. I would bet with reasonable surety that anything cool which has existed in-lore for a decade or two will be eventually touched upon once more, the moment there’s room in the release calendar. Since the boardroom shakeup in 2016-2018, Games Workshop is spearheaded now by those who grew up on those metal kits of the 80s and 90s, and you can bet nostalgia is a powerful force within their design department.
Counts-as, via Garden Ninja Studios
This isn’t all perfect, though, because some returns are a hair more bittersweet, for those who were around to see the original death. Take for example The Parasite of Mortrex, an absolutely gorgeous new plastic model, with roots in the 5th edition Tyranid codex. It was a unique bioform that players were expected to fashion for themselves, as no model was produced to that point. This was also true of things like, at the time, Mycetic Spores & the Tervigon, for whom a small garage studio of sculptors intervened to make upgrade kits—this was Chapterhouse Studios, who became legally embattled with GW in 2010 over the right to make models for rules which otherwise lacked them. Their only real misstep was in naming these kits with the official 40k trademarks, as they won the judgement as far as models went, but lost a number of smaller trademark infringement cases. This is the leading cause of Patience, for characters like the Parasite & Wazdakka Gutsmek would no longer receive rules without models, and many of those figures have taken 5-10 years to return to the game of 40k. Those not in this bucket simply aged out of the aesthetic, such as The Red Terror, who survived the Chapterhouse situation by having a dopey-but-official model from 3rd-8th edition.
Via Chapterhouse (permalink)
Then there is the new afterlife, formed from nervous preparation for backlash that was sure to arrive, in the form of Legendary Proxies. That term, ‘proxy’, is one you’ll hear a lot in Warhammer—it refers to a counts-as, a model that is intended to play using the official rules of another, but which differs aesthetically. To some proxy is a dirty word, referring to recast or printed miniatures, but as Games Workshop announced Codex: Space Marines for 11th edition they clarified that certain units, like Tactical Marines, Devastators, etc wouldn’t merely be shuffled off to Legends, but be legal as ‘Legendary Proxies’ for the duration of the book. What is that, then? From what we can gather, it’s the acknowledgement and endorsement that the firstborn equivalents to modern Primaris can and may be used with permission from event organizers. This is in contrast to actual Legends units, which can never be used at official competitive events, such as the now-banished Centurions…which will likely be proxied regardless as Obliterators/Mutilators, to be fair. The thing about Legendary Proxies is that they’re the first time GW has delineated between actual Legends and ‘check with your TO’, because many of the firstborn kits sold better than the literal whole of Fantasy. You can look it up, the Tactical Squad in its many repackagings outsold a system.
Via Reddit
Now that Games Workshop has developed the ‘technology’ (loose term, there) of Legendary Proxies, I fully expect them to hasten the removal of the last of the Firstborn-scale marines as soon as there’s reasonable equivalents. Grey Knights are entirely Firstborn, so they need a refresh this edition or something tragic’s likely to happen. Something similar is likely to happen to Deathwatch, as Games Workshop has been trying to remove unique rules support for the faction for over a year now, so tossing them into the Legendary Proxy bucket makes sense.
As someone who talks quite a bit with TOs, given I primarily field a fully-converted army, I can hazard a guess that this rule is going to go over quite well, so long as the models are on the right bases. Tournament Organizers are sympathetic to those who engage with Warhammer as a hobby first, meaning a player yearning to continue using their Tactical Squads as Intercessors will find acceptance from most venues. The bigger question is whether we see this also apply to events like Supermajors, where the stakes are a good bit higher.
Via Total Wargames
So long as you’re popular enough, and Games Workshop wants to update your aesthetic without giving a unit a new model, the final afterlife for a miniature is, paradoxically, Immortality. Nobody is going to come take away your physical models, which you’ve poured hundreds of hours into and enjoyed for that long, or longer. The rules may change, but there’s a clear sympathy from Games Workshop that I feel has arisen since the recognition that some kits are…getting old. You’re allowed to use Heresy’s Land Raider Proteus at competitive events, in place of a standard Land Raider. You’re now allowed to proxy tac squads as Intercessors. The grumbling generated from the most recent swath of removals from AoS, like Beasts of Chaos and soon-to-be Fyreslayers unfortunately paves the way for more popular, financially successful factions to receive a gentler touch. That plastic isn’t going away, nor are the memories, and via Legendary Proxies it’s possible the rules are maintained (to some extent) in a counts-as form.
Do you plan on using Legendary Proxies? Did you play a faction that was removed from the game, or have favorite models lapse from playability? Is there an afterlife for minis that I missed? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
