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As I look at a majority of the new codexs and some of the past codexs Im amazed by the missed modeling opportunities (and profit) that GW has caused by not producing models for the very powerful and/or unique/popular units

Such examples are (Most of the older books have all units represented mostly due to lack of creativity on the designers part)
Warlock Jetbikers
Nob Bikers
Thunderwolf cavalry
Drop pod (Took them ages to produce a model)
Psyker Battle squad (sanctioned psykers DO NOT COUNT as they are all the same pose)

The age of the nob biker may have passed but they are still insanely good units that only newer codexs have a real answer to. I cant think of many decent eldar lists without jetlocks and thunderwolf cavalry are all the rage right now. The last two examples are units that a lot of people use but may not be "super competitive" yet are fun none the less

I dont know GWs true rationale but I have thought of two possible theories behind their actions

1. The person who writes the codex nor the people who play test the codex have any idea what is actually extremely good in a game of 40k. Thus they figure barely anyone will use such models and its not worth the effort to make them. This concedes all possible sales to 3rd party developers who make custom sculpts

2. GW knows how AMAZING the units are and they want to include super elite units in each codex but want to limit their usage. To fulfill this they deny models to such units which forces the general player population to never use them unless they make their own

My issue with theory 1 is that how could they not think people would use MARINES ON WOLVES?! or Drop pods? Marines on wolves are fricken cool and pods are well.. the epitome of space marine deployment. Perhaps its simply bureaucratic BS that clogs things up?

Theory 2s major issue is that it assumes GW understands how 40k works and why things are overpowered or underpowered.. However, it does make for a fun conspiracy theory.

Either way I dont understand why GW would concede sales to 3rd parties

Thoughts? New theories?

Because if they dont make a model for them , that'll force you to convert additional kits to produce them.

And it also give FW plenty of opportunities to fill the missing units.

I mean , why sell 1 box of thunder wolves , when they can charge you more for purchasing some chaos Juggernauts.
you might also be sucked into starting a chaos army after seeing how cool they are.

Simply put:

They didn't have the capability to produce the drop pod in plastic, originally. It took ages for them to actually invest in the tech to move the resin model into plastic. We've seen the end result of investing in that tech with newer and more complicated kits.

But as for the Nob Bikers and Thunderwolf Cavalry? Nob Bikers are produced by Forge World. Thunderwolf Cavalry, a new Space Wolf Dread, and more are in the cards from Forge World also.

Some things just cannot be justified as plastic kits, in GW's actual line, Thunderwolves go into that area.
But we'll actually use Psyker Battle Squads for this example.
You say "sanctioned psykers are all one pose"?
Because I see three distinctly different models(clutching head, hand extended and dishing out psyker blasts, hand extended with lasgun aimed). But really...there's other ranges to dip into. There's the Inquisitor henchmen from the Daemonhunters ranges, there's the Flagellants that people have used, etc.

In the end:
Do you REALLY think enough people are going to actually want enough Psyker Battle Squads to justify a plastic kit(or even a metal boxed set)?

Its not unreasonable, you'd always want to get the demand in place before you invest the resources for the product.

Especially for odd models that might not take off (Marines on Wolves! is a concept that does not have universal appeal). In the meantime they toss of a few conversion articles in WD or online(which costs them nothing compared to making a model) to appease the customers if necessary.

Jack

GW also made the decision not to make metal-plastic hybrid kits. We all know the economics, metal for rare units, plastic for common ones. A plastic Warlock does not make sense economically and for some reason GW does not want to mix metal and plastic, so there's no real way to make one.

Thunderwolves are too big to be practical in metal and too rare for plastic.

It's poor practice for GW but there you go.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:GW also made the decision not to make metal-plastic hybrid kits.

Necron Heavy Destroyer is a combo kit... sure there's a couple of others too.

Back on topic however, things are considerably better than they were in the RT days. If you get a copy of the blue Citadel Miniatures catalogue you'll see page after page of models that NEVER had rules written for them and if you take a flick through the RT manual you'll find tons of units that were never modelled. Back then though the idea was to encourgage kit bashes and scratch builds (or at least that's what they claimed)...

They've made none since 3rd edition. I think the SoD missile launching pipe organ was the last.

Hmm, to wander ever so slightly off-topic but it is something pertinent and something I have wondered for a while - what (if anything) is wrong with using regular Ork biker models but counting as nob bikers? Is it just because it looks 'wrong' or is there something more fundamental behind it?

To be honest... I wonder if they even have the money to make new models...

Why? It easier to create rules for stuff (ink on paper) than to make models (sculpting & molds).

filbert wrote:Hmm, to wander ever so slightly off-topic but it is something pertinent and something I have wondered for a while - what (if anything) is wrong with using regular Ork biker models but counting as nob bikers? Is it just because it looks 'wrong' or is there something more fundamental behind it?

Regular boys are fine to serve as nob bikers, albeit that boys are smaller than nobs. The real issue here is that a good nob squad requires diversified weapons and wargear, so you have to do some converting no matter what.