Warhammer 40K: That Time Space Marines Used GI-Joe Tanks
Back in the 1980s, the Space Marines would use ANYTHING to defeat their enemies – even a little help from the Greatest American Hero…
It was Rogue Trader and an early and growing Games Workshop was growing their newest hit – Warhammer 40,000. Each month was full of new minis and the universe was expanding before the player’s eyes.
Back in February 1989, White Dwarf 110 came out with more homebrew creations from the studio.
The design studio back in the day was fond of throwing together vehicles and dioramas out of whatever they had available from styrofoam to scale models to toys. Some of these like the prototype Land Raider and Spartan would evolve into classics that are still with us to this day, while others were lost to the mists of time. Today we will take at this Space Marine hover tank, one of the very first seen, on the back cover of the White Dwarf:
You want to focus on the middle of the three images, and the leftmost hover-tank.
OH YEAH – love that retro homebrew goodness! I would like to take this moment to congratulate the Orks and their 1980s Mekboy converter for throwing an X-Wing laser cannon on a German Sturmtiger and calling it a day, Inspired work! Clearly the Harlequins are impressed.
You want “Middle Photo” section that goes with our tank.
OK, back to the middle image and the amazing world of 3.5 inch GI-Joes. Confession – I was playing with a LOT of GI-Joe toys during the 1980s, so this image always struck a familiar chord with me. I could never quite put my finger on it. So imagine my surprise after a bit of digging, to discover our “hover tank” on the left is no other than the 1985 vintage GI-Joe tank – “The Armadillo”. Check out its details via awesome toy resource YOJOE
And enjoy this awesome piece of my childhood television… starring the Armadillo (aka the “mini-tank”)
This Armadillo was lost to Rogue Trader and the 1980s, and unfortunately disappeared down the memory hole, never to exactly make it into the grimdark. But then again… maybe it did? I’ll let you tell me if any of the below 40K vehicles have a little bit of Armadillo in them?
~And knowing is half the battle!
