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I started in 3e, when the BRB had Guard as an entry at the back of the book. Then, there was the 3e Imperial Guard Codex, followed by Codex: Catachans. Around that time, we got Armageddon, which had Steel Legion in it. Some time later, we got "4e" Imperial Guard and "4e" Codex Catachans just before 4e itself came out.

And that's about it. No other regiments got an expansion book that I can think of. 4e kind of tried with their Doctrine system, which was interesting but not well thought out (surprise).

Somewhere in 3e, we got both Plastic Catachans and Plastic Cadians (though I don't think the Catachans got as much attention as the Cadians did for quite some time, and the early sculpts weren't great). There had already been a long series of metals - Cadians, Steel Legion, Vostroyans, etc. Some special units like Tanith First and Only. But basically none of these got any more attention after the plastic Cadians came out, and I seem to have been under the impression that the metal ones were limited-to-no production, so weren't super viable to make an army out of. Closest we came to were the Forgeworld casts for Krieg and (later) Elyssians. The Cadians were pretty spiffy, but that ended up being kind of the End of the Line for Guard plastics at the time. Indeed, picking it back up for the first time in four editions, my first surprise was that we were...still using like a decade old plastic kit series. Even kits that were new to me - plastic command squad - were already quite a few editions old (I left when it was only metal command squad boxes). I was surprised there were still the likes of Steel Legion and suchlike even listed, and at first thought they'd gotten plastics, finally. Nope!

So what the heck happened to the idea of having unique Regiments the way Space Marines or other armies get their uniques? I get Marines are the Faceboys of 40k, but as far as Imperium is concerned AM is right behind them - and has even more potential for variation. Instead, we don't have anything at all, and the Catachan plastics kind of don't make too much sense with the current rules (5+ save t-shirts...k...). Even the Catachan and Steel Legion spin-offs didn't survive, and it looks like 4e was the end for them, too. Any long-timers have insight as to why what's easily the most variable Imperial force has such a limited plastics and rules range? The best we have now are those Regimental Doctrines, and those are even more limited than the janky Doctrines of old.

I mean, the real reason is money, but you know.

GW beancounters have calculated that they would not get a good return on new IG figures. More accurately they would not get as good a return as various marine flavours.

Thus, no new IG figures.

You have more now in 8th than you've had in 10-15 years, take it and run with it. I could start a similar thread about Eldar Craftworlds (which also had some special rules back in 3rd) - but the days of that kind of stuff is likely gone and done.

If you're not a big name Marine chapter you're not getting anything special.

The writers mushed everything together into one big book, made the keywords and rules ambiguous enough so that they can be exploited cross-chapters, and took one of the less selling tanks into a must take once they've sold enough bane-variants (the trend went from leman russ, basilisk, deathstrike/valkyries, baneblades, bane variants, now they need to sell chimera bases). They saw that IG infantries weren't getting sold at all, so they made conscripts who can be taken in blobs of 50, made them absolutely dirty as hell to play with, then made enough sales and decided to take a big dump on their chests.

Realistically that's about all we need outside of really odd regiments like Krieg and Elysians. The problem is Space Marines should be treated the same way but it's far too late to wrangle them all back into a few codexes since they've become so flanderized. Playing with the guard codex the regiments all feel different and have definite themes to them, with certain unit drastically changing how they play based on the regiment. However, they're all still guard, and they all feel like guard. It's cool and lends a nice feel to the book, and I like that it's caused many players to pick a regiment and identify with it, so instead of just saying "I'm a tank player" now you're a "cadian tank player" or other things of that nature.

As for why we don't have more plastic, to be honest GW probably doesn't see a point. The IG 3rd party market is one of the biggest out there, arguably even bigger than Space Marines. Anything GW could make for regiments like Valhallans or Vostroyans would need to compete with a dozen competitors out there based on price, quality, customization, and many other factors. And when companies like Victoria Lamb, Mad Robot, Max Mini, Kromlech, Anvil Industries, and many more exist, that's a pretty daunting challenge. I still think they'd sell decently enough to make their money back, but they eat up a lot of shelf space and wouldn't sell as well as things like a new flavor of space Marines. In addition, many lines, including IG itself, desperately need to be updated, so if anything Cadians and Catachans need new plastic kits to replace their dated infantry and heavy weapons boxes before we even think of adding yet more regiments in plastic. It sucks, and I hate admitting it, but I highly doubtful we'll see new plastic infantry that we actually want anytime soon. GW is far more likely to come up with a brand new unit for us to buy (taurox, scions, bullgryn) than actually give us kits we ask for (proper vets kit, additional regiments, updates to the incredibly old plastic bixes, Stormtroopers in kasrkin/old school stormtrooper gear, artillery like the Medusa, conqueror/Medusa/griffon, rough riders etc.) This is because if they make something new, they know for a fact no one has it and more people will potentially buy it. If they made a kit for something we already have but want a better kit for, such as vets, it wouldn't sell as well because old time guard players already have vets, so they're less likely to buy more. Same for other regiments. GW reckons that most people who want Valhallans for example either already have an army of metal or have converted a 3rd party option, so their potential return on plastic Valhallans is less than something new elsewhere.