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https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/02/11/range-rotation-is-coming-to-warhammer-40000-this-is-what-it-means-for-you/

Interesting idea. I wonder how much this will grow over time.

Hmmm, don't quite know what to make of this.

I can totally understand rotating ranges in bricks and mortar stores, but removing them even from the online store seems strange.

Especially given they have opened a huge new distribution hub and warehouse space.

But, it's not a huge amount of models, and the only one that surprised me is watch captain Artemis, but I guess they don't sell that many.

I wouldn't have minded more than 2 weeks notice but I suppose at least they are telling us.

I'm only interested if they bring things out of sleep for us to buy..

And all First Born Marines as well...

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
And all First Born Marines as well...

I foresee this receiving mixed reactions.

As for these specific ones, I don't know about the others, but it seems odd to remove Sister-Captain Artemis. Deathwatch doesn't have a huge range but GW wants them to be seen as a standalone army. Yet here they happily decrease the already limited options you have while the model is out of rotation.

Maybe they need warehouse space/manufacturing capacity and Marine special characters are not selling well enough if they start with them, while still having a huge Marine range players can fall back on. So, perhaps a little gain for GW with the least possible backlash from the fans.

What occurs to me:

1 - most of them are Finecast. Gossip has hinted that they're keen on binning finecast, so getting rid of it make sense, doubly so if they can bring them back in metal at a later date whilst saving face PR.
2 - the cynic in me is says this is another opportunity to exploit FOMO. Annoucement that they're pseudo-retiring them (to drive sales) and then, later on, bring them back for a Limited Time™ only!

Well, the less Marines the better.

Corvus Belli has been doing this due to space and production constraints. I'd bet that GW is now feeling that too and went with some stuff with low sales.

Or it could be some sort of conspiracy to get you to buy something you don't need and you don't have to do and are a willing participant in.

 zedmeister wrote:
What occurs to me:


2 - the cynic in me is says this is another opportunity to exploit FOMO. Annoucement that they're pseudo-retiring them (to drive sales) and then, later on, bring them back for a Limited Time™ only!

This is definitely one of the reasons. It is also true that the rate of releases has increased massively in the last few years. A lack of warehouse space is definitely a contributing factor to the existence of fomo boxes. If rotating models out of the range allows them to produce the box sets in slightly larger quantities it could be a bit of good thing.

Are any of these plastic ?

Chikout wrote:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/02/11/range-rotation-is-coming-to-warhammer-40000-this-is-what-it-means-for-you/

Interesting idea. I wonder how much this will grow over time.

The Warhammer 40,000 range is huge, like really huge, just as you might expect from a game with such a grand setting. In fact, it’s so big that we just can’t keep everything in stock all the time – which means that certain units will become part of a rotating range.

Every single model going into "rotation" is a Space Marine and the vast majority are HQ models

Apparently it's a huge range if you play Space Marines as they're the only line with so many HQ options that 12 named characters can be put into "rotation" without that meaning that your entire HQ selection, of all subfactions for your army, was just obliterated.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
And all First Born Marines as well...

Just wait to see if some of these begin to cross the Rubicon...or get killed off in stories. This might not be the Order 66 of the First Born, but we are up to Order 65.7 at least

And extra overhead having to switch moulds in production.

Only so much warehouse space, and can only manufacture so many different kits. None of the things going on rotation I'd imagine are huge sellers, so makes sense to me.

I'm sure some folks will be outraged, but that happens with every announcement gw makes.

I do wonder how this will work moving forward, and what kits will be included. Doesn't fuss me so much that it's all one off classic characters and resin kits. Lots of stuff you can kit-bash with plastics.

I don't think this is the sign of the end for firstborn in the game. Just happens that firstborn marines have a lot of random old kits.

As the article has said, it's been happening with the Middle-Earth range for a while now. Doesn't really affect much as it typically targets secondary characters and pieces like that. Which is what's happening with all these named marine characters and specialist bits.

 Wha-Mu-077 wrote:
Well, the less Marines the better.

You know it's going to go as follows, right?

- Start with Marines to avoid PR disaster from Chaos/Xenos players.
- With a nod towards equality, rotate out Chaos and Xenos models in similar numbers.
- Chaos and Xenos have fewer kits to begin with and are affected to a greater degree than Marines with their vast range.
- Wailing and gnashing of teeth will commence, while Marine fans point to how GW treats everyone fairly and equally.
- Marines still have more options and a broader range than anyone and nothing is gained.

Your assertion is very optimistic. At best nothing changes. At worst GW manages to antagonize its varying customer groups even further.

"These miniatures will be rotated out on the 27th of February, so you have until then to grab any that you might have missed. We guarantee that anyone who orders one of these kits before then will get one.

So if you want to complete your collection, head to Games-Workshop.com and pick them up now."


GUYS HURRY UP!!!! BUY! Its rotating!

From Twitter:

WarhammerCommunity wrote:They'll just be leaving the range for a while, but they'll return in the future, most likely alongside a relevant release such as a new Codex or Campaign Book. It is of course possible some of these heroes could return as updated models in future too.

It makes a lot more sense if they are finecrap... Because finecrap needs to die. Makes perfect sense GW wants to get rid of old products.

Also... There's more characters here then some armies have units

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
And all First Born Marines as well...

"They're not being squated, they're being rotated out, it's completely different you salty doomsayers!!!"

 Argive wrote:
Are any of these plastic ?

The Blood Angels Captain and Watch Captain Artemis.

Oh and the Flesh Tearers shoulderpads I think?

Makes sense in a way. No model there is exactly high in the sales charts for GW Id bet.

Give it a year or two and they will be back as Made to Order for a nice sales boost for items that are currently gathering dust and taking up space in the warehouse.

Personally nothing on that list to panic buy (Im currently building a Crimson Fist army and not too worried about missing out on Kantor).

Terrain already rotates a lot doesn't it? Like they release then its sold out then vanishes then comes back on another box set, then sold out... vanishes.... another...

I tell you this, the harder they make me to buy the things I want, WHEN I want the less they get my business.

Good luck for the guy that plays these games and needs a mini that is rotating when he builds his new army.

 Arbitrator wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
And all First Born Marines as well...

"They're not being squated, they're being rotated out, it's completely different you salty doomsayers!!!"

Sure if you say something repeatedly for years it should eventually happen.

I fully expect one day as the asteroid looms overhead someone will rush to Dakka Dakka and triumphantly post "I was right! GW stopped selling the old marines!"

 xttz wrote:

 Arbitrator wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
And all First Born Marines as well...

"They're not being squated, they're being rotated out, it's completely different you salty doomsayers!!!"

Sure if you say something repeatedly for years it should eventually happen.

I fully expect one day as the asteroid looms overhead someone will rush to Dakka Dakka and triumphantly post "I was right! GW stopped selling the old marines!"

Spoiler:

of course these are explicitly returning at some point later, so no dice today

I see the narrative's shifting just as expected. Now we're going from, "GW would NEVER squat Firstborn!" and into the "Um it was obviously going to happen eventually, it's YOUR fault for not seeing it coming!" mode eh?

StraightSilver wrote:Hmmm, don't quite know what to make of this.

I can totally understand rotating ranges in bricks and mortar stores, but removing them even from the online store seems strange.

Especially given they have opened a huge new distribution hub and warehouse space.

But, it's not a huge amount of models, and the only one that surprised me is watch captain Artemis, but I guess they don't sell that many.

I wouldn't have minded more than 2 weeks notice but I suppose at least they are telling us.

It's almost certainly to reduce the number of SKUs (separate catalog items) they have to maintain. Even with an in house distribution hub and warehouse, logistics and warehousing is an enormous expenditure for any company which has resulted in most large modern companies to transition into holding the lowest maintainable levels of stock for all of their products.

The problem with having too many SKUs is that it takes up more physical warehousing space (you need to keep different products separated to prevent/reduce errors by warehouse workers), increases shipping expenses (because less popular SKUs likely won't be maintained by smaller local distribution hubs but can be ordered at any time by customers), and strains production (because they have to balance trying to produce upcoming and popular products against those that are less popular and rarely ordered). And if you can't maintain that dance then it's a bad look to customers because they'll see numerous products constantly out of stock or not be able to receive their orders as quickly if you don't expedite shipping on non-locally stored products.

Plus this isn't just about 40k, it also has to do with AoS, Hobbit, and all Boxed Games. Right now GW is expanding their offerings beyond their standard mainline games which means there's also a fan expectation for those other games to keep growing as well. So GW have to make a choice to either start reducing the expansion of other games in order to keep all legacy mainline game options or cut the fat off of 40k in order for Boxed games, Old World, (possibly plastic) Horus Heresy to have space to grow.

AoS is likely resistant to this as GW rotated out a lot of old Fantasy kits at the birth of AoS, but things like Chaos Marauders could get removed and have a Warcry warband promoted in their place.

Argive wrote:Are any of these plastic ?

The Blood Angels Terminator and Captain Artemis.

Edit: Oops, the Company Master is resin...

 Arbitrator wrote:

I see the narrative's shifting just as expected. Now we're going from, "GW would NEVER squat Firstborn!" and into the "Um it was obviously going to happen eventually, it's YOUR fault for not seeing it coming!" mode eh?

Unfortunately the "narrative" exists entirely within your head here. I've yet to see anyone claim that firstborn marines would be sold indefinitely, only disagree that they would be binned immediately as some have been claiming since 2017.

I have however seen many people claim that Firstborn would be dropped in the 8.5 marine codex, then the 9E codex, and so on...

So GW is binning off a bunch of low sales items to simplify inventory. I’ll believe the rotation nonsense when any of these come back. I’d bet heavily that the fine cast stuff on this list is gone for good.

Is Corbulo or the Rune Priest the oldest one?

 Tamereth wrote:
So GW is binning off a bunch of low sales items to simplify inventory. I’ll believe the rotation nonsense when any of these come back. I’d bet heavily that the fine cast stuff on this list is gone for good.

Aye, only problem is when rulebooks for that specific army have that finecast model entry. They did not update the mini to plastic, they just put it on the rotating box and hide it for when they see it fit.
Its like selling a chess game but you cant buy all the pieces you need to play.

2022 price rise, rotating minis... lets see the next one...