Warhammer 40K: Three Decades of Ork Buggies

Gather round Meks and BigMeks alike and see what the Orks Buggies have been up to for the past thirty years.

The 3rd Generation Buggies

In 2018 the Ork buggies multiplied into a series of five crazy Mad-Max contraptions varying from food trucks to dragsters. Every one really gives that sense of speed and danger. Just the thing for a Kult of Speed Warboss. Can you believe it’s been three years since “Orktober 2018”!?  In three short years these new biggies have gone from meh to AWESOME, to FAQed and merely above average. Quite a bit of ups and downs for the five new kits. And who could forget the rollout video?

Crashed Dakkajet – no problem, just add tires.

SQUIGS! GET YOUR TASTY SQUIGS!

There is no ork word for too fast.

More DAKKA!

All fire all the time.

2nd Generation Ork Buggy

But before this guy came, one of the longest-living kits in the 40K range. Of course I’m talking about the decades old Warbuggy most of you knew and loved (that also gets smashed in the GW video up there):

The image below is from the 1997 Citadel catalog when the mini, the first plastic Ork buggy, first came out. Yup, this classic is now legal to drink at 26 years old!

We of course, will take a quick aside to 1998’s Gorkamorka, which gave us the Rokkit Buggy, one year after the original was released:

This kit added a handful of metal bits for the rokkit, “safety cage”, front armor, spike, and the gunner.

1st Generation Ork Buggies

Now we’re going waaaaaaay back to Rogue Trader for the original Ork buggies. This guy came out in 1988 and was one of the earliest Ork minis in 40K.

Here it is in the 1991 Citadel catalog, with a closeup of the bits.

And here it is in the 1989 catalog with the other small attack vehicles:

Finally what you’ve been waiting for – here are its original Rogue Trader stats, and the closeup of its rare stablemate, the “small buggy” variant. Look at its teensy front tires!

~We’ve come a long way in 36 years. Anyone still have some of the old metal ones still roaring across the tabletop?

Author: Larry Vela

Dad, Gamer, Publisher, Pilot, Texan. All games all the time since junior-high. I started BoLS Interactive in 2006. I’m a lifelong tabletop & RPG gaming enthusiast, and internet publisher working to entertain and inform my readers every day. I've been playing RPGs and Tabletop Games since the 1970s. I'm been playing and covering Warhammer and Warhammer 40K for over 35 years.