Warhammer 40K: The Fate Of Classic Marines
What’s going to happen to the Classic Marines and their model range in the future? Let’s have a quick chat.
For a Space Marine, “only in death does duty end.” And even sometime they come back as a Dreadnought. Most recently the most wounded of them just get the Primaris Treatment and “get better” in that regard. All joking aside, it’s that last one I want to talk about. What’s going to happen to the Classic Marines and their model range? The way I see it GW has a few options.
Option One: Just Keep Making Them
Hey, why not! There’s a huge chunk of kits in the range and GW already has the technology, hardware, and know-how to keep making those Classic kits until the end of time. Is that feasible? Sure. From a business perspective they’ve already paid for those things so every time they crank out more kits they “get cheaper” to make (it’s a volume thing). On the other hand, they have to store those kits. Plus it doesn’t do any good to print more of them if no one is buying them.
“What about the Horus Heresy?” Yeah – but even those kits aren’t the older, classic kits (ironically). Those are newer kits with newer parts. They are also bigger than their Classic Marine counter-parts. Not by much…but enough to make them different.
There’s also all those Vehicles which may or may not stick around. I can’t see a day when GW stop production on the Land Raider…but it could happen.
Option Two: Just Stop Making Them
On the other end of the spectrum, GW could simply stop making the Classic Marine kits. I mean, there’s a bunch of them going Made-To-Order this weekend. It might just be GW clearing out some of the old metal/resin options but it’s still a handful of Classic Marine options getting “retired” or at least shelved for a while. Either way, it’s GW clearing out some options from the inventory/model range.
There’s a LOT of Space Marine models in the range at this point. It’s basically 3-4 armies worth of models in one army. But think about that from a store or business perspective. That’s a LOT of kits to keep on hand. Thinning the herd might not be a bad thing. So yes, I could see GW just stop making them…eventually.
Option 3: Spin Them Off Into Their Own Thing
I mean, we already have the Horus Heresy so…they are doing that. But as mentioned, the new Horus Heresy model kits are slightly different than the Classic Range. Not to mention the Horus Heresy range is kind of its own thing now, too.
Why get a Classic Land Raider when you can get a Spartan? Why get an Classic Predator when you can get a Horus Heresy Era version?
Can you see what GW is doing here? This is a way for them to update those old Classic Marine kits without replacing them entirely. They could slowly fade them out and just have the Heresy Era kits, too.
There is also the case that GW could spin off Classic Marines into their own book. Although you could make the case that they did that already. Plus, it’s not like those models stopped being Space Marines. They still work in 40k and can still hold their own vs their Primaris brothers.
What’s GW Going To Do With Them?
Ultimately, it’s just going to be a business decision at some point for them. Do they slowly faze them out or do they keep them around on life support/move them to print on demand? Again, Classic Space Marines still work and as long as GW keeps making rules for them they will stick around. Maybe that’s what GW will do — stop printing new rules for them. Eventually.
Primaris Marines are the way forward for Space Marines as a model range. I say that as someone who’s collected a handful of different Space Marine armies over the years. I can see the writing on the wall for them. At some point in the future it’s not going to be sustainable for GW to keep Classic Marines around. Will it be next edition? The one after? Or maybe even the one after that? I don’t know when the ultimate fate of the Classic Marines will happen. But for a Space Marine, only in death does duty end.
What do you think GW is going to do with the Classic Marine range? Cut them off, keep making them, or some combination of both?
