Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I was wondering if anyone else prefers any of the older 40k model kits over the newer ones. I am not talking about the materials, but how they look. I first got into 40k back in the 2nd edition and I really prefer the look of the 2nd edition Razorback to the current one, I like the manned turret as opposed to the remote one. If they wanted to change the model I think they should have just given it an enclosed turret instead of what they did. To me the remote turret just doesn't look right. I also prefer the look of the 2nd edition landspeeder to the current model, I think it looks a little sleeker.

Yes, especially for Chaos.

The old Noise Marines were better, period. More chaosy.

Raptors were better with the jet intakes. I know this is a matter of preference, but I liked the fact they were a little smaller than other CSM models - it made sense.

Plague Marines were better - at least the old metal ones, not the snap together plastic ones. My best models are green.

Khorne CSMs were better - the metal ones, which sometimes had bolters, flamers and chainglaives. They were a little smaller than the plastic ones, but they looked more serious and up to the task.

The old metal Daemon Price was better. While I appreciate the flexibility of the new plastic kit, I dislike the cartoonishness of it.

The old metal monopose chaos lords had very dramatic poses. I have done so many things with them over the years, and it's hard to tell side-by-side they are the same model.

With Daemons - the old Horrors were better, the facial expressions were appropriately comedic. The old seekers were better, they looked more unnatural than some of the recent ones. I liked the old bloodletters more than the current ones, mostly for the same reason.

My favorite model ever was the original metal Bloodthirster, the one with arms spread wide and look of pure fury on his face. Definitely not better than the newer versions, but it's what originally convinced me to play Chaos. It went very week with the original Juggernaut models, where the facial expressions matched.

I prefer the gnarly aesthetic of Rogue Trader Chaos Marines. All the mutations and tentacles are needing to a make a return - they're a solid reminder that when you pledge your soul to Chaos, you get more than a few spikes whether you like it or not.

Without, Chaos loses its anarchic vibe. Which is fine for recent renegades, but for me not fine for Veterans of the Long War.

I'll agree 100% with techsoldaten on the old plague marines and bloodletters being incrementally better models.

I miss the old metal Cadian command squad. Especially the officer from it. And I also miss the old storm troopers with their puffy suits. That's about it though.

I retrofitted old metal vindicator bits to newer Rhino hulls as I preferred the look of them.

I've still got some spare bits (glacis plates, top plates with extractors and cupolas, even a waving crewman) because I stopped after building 4 of them.

Not surprisingly I vastly prefer a lot of the older designs from an aesthetics point (there's no arguing that the quality of modern plastic kits is tremendous by comparison).

I prefer the look of the older Space Marine vehicles almost without exception. The biggest offender is probably the flying brick (the older Land Speeder).

This is a good example (painted by our buddy Agis) showing the old model in a fresh new paint job. I appreciate the design, the look, and most importantly the attention to detail (the Space Marine aviator helmets/tubes etc. are awesome looking)


By comparison the new plastic speeder is ugly as hell and a terrible plastic kit to boot.


I like the older Rhino, Razorback and Predator better as well (even the Land Raider has a certain charm to it).

As I age I'm more and more put off by the "take it to 11! (occasionally 13)" styling. It seems more and more childish. In some things it's fine and suitably ornate (the new Lord of Change is hugely detailed but fitting). Things like the god awful techmarine is just terrible...but this makes sense since I visited the GW page with my 9-year old nephew and he loved everything I disliked - GW is aiming in the right direction I guess?

I've never cared for the Chaos aesthetic that GW pursues. It seems childish to me. I don't need a wall of skulls and spikes head-to-toe to tell me someone is a bad guy. I've always preferred the more subtle approach some people take to their Chaos armies. I used to chuckle when GW sold Chaos versions of the old Rhino and Land Raider - the only difference was a sprue of chains and spikes.

I like the old Deff Dreads. Dunno why though.

I miss the old Leman Russ. I don't know why, but the new one just seems almost like it's trying to hard to be 'cool' while the old one just looked like a derpy, lovable tank that kicked the gak out of everyone else's through sheer unadulterated badassery.

A big fan of the 2nd edition Las-Plas gun for razorbacks, I agree that having a gunner is just cooler.

The classic speeder is beautiful and there is a reason why people collect oop designs but I do think some things got tremendously better for example the old ig sentinels vs the new. No competition there or the new orks vs the old. That's not to say a lot of good things weren't left behind. I would hate to see new sisters looking as goofy as some of the new space wolves. My 2c

The old metal speeder is a great design, I've got three of the little gits and often run them as a squad for the hell of it. I love the old razorback too. I agree with the OP about the manned turret it just looks so cool.

I'm a fan of all the old vehicle models to be honest. I would love a LR proteus and a Deimos predator from FW.

I miss the 6th edition [I think that's it] FB Empire kits. You got dozens of options in those kits, far more than the 8th edition kits AND you got twice as many troops. Not a monkey face among them

@Elbows

You should do a 30k army. FW updated a lot of the older designs that you seem to like. Including the old land speeder.

About my armies i can say that Orks, dark eldar and space wolves are way better than old kits. Wolves were just regular space marines, and i never liked dark eldar before the new models came out. Honestly i prefer the previous stormboyz, i don't like the current poses. But the new kit has a lot of bitz and amazing heads. I guess that the old bodies (but in plastic) with the current heads and arms would have been the perfect mix.

 techsoldaten wrote:
Yes, especially for Chaos.

The old Noise Marines were better, period. More chaosy.

Raptors were better with the jet intakes. I know this is a matter of preference, but I liked the fact they were a little smaller than other CSM models - it made sense.

Plague Marines were better - at least the old metal ones, not the snap together plastic ones. My best models are green.

Khorne CSMs were better - the metal ones, which sometimes had bolters, flamers and chainglaives. They were a little smaller than the plastic ones, but they looked more serious and up to the task.

The old metal Daemon Price was better. While I appreciate the flexibility of the new plastic kit, I dislike the cartoonishness of it.

The old metal monopose chaos lords had very dramatic poses. I have done so many things with them over the years, and it's hard to tell side-by-side they are the same model.

With Daemons - the old Horrors were better, the facial expressions were appropriately comedic. The old seekers were better, they looked more unnatural than some of the recent ones. I liked the old bloodletters more than the current ones, mostly for the same reason.

My favorite model ever was the original metal Bloodthirster, the one with arms spread wide and look of pure fury on his face. Definitely not better than the newer versions, but it's what originally convinced me to play Chaos. It went very week with the original Juggernaut models, where the facial expressions matched.

I have to say I agree with all of these!
The one about the lords is particularly true. The new lord models, even though they are plastic and therefore flexible, just don't have the same feel as those monopose lords. They were spectacular. Here is one of mine:

 TheCustomLime wrote:
@Elbows

You should do a 30k army. FW updated a lot of the older designs that you seem to like. Including the old land speeder.

I don't really do Space Marines (and I don't do resin or FW prices). My Eldar army is 90% 2nd ed. metals, though.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I prefer the gnarly aesthetic of Rogue Trader Chaos Marines. All the mutations and tentacles are needing to a make a return - they're a solid reminder that when you pledge your soul to Chaos, you get more than a few spikes whether you like it or not.

Without, Chaos loses its anarchic vibe. Which is fine for recent renegades, but for me not fine for Veterans of the Long War.

Me too. I've got a bunch of the RT models and they just have a lot of character to them that shines through the ancient sculpt and slightly battered condition . The two new greater daemons being a fusion of their RT-era and previous models in style along with all the older marks of power armour we're getting for the Heresy stuff hopefully means that whenever the next round of plastic CSM comes around they'll be more interesting than spiky and slightly gnarly marines. The people demands fully gnarly marines! Particularly ones with their heads coming out of the middle of their chest.

Not 40k, but the old metal Dragon Ogre Shaggoth is infinitely better than the stumpy-legged Dragon Ogre plastic kit...

Yup.

I did experiment making Chosen by mashing up the CSM box with the now sadly defunct Forsaken kit from Warhammer.

Some good results, some not-so-good. But it was fun, and certainly produced clearly chaotic models

 Elbows wrote:

By comparison the new plastic speeder is ugly as hell and a terrible plastic kit to boot.

Including that kit in the 3rd ed. Starter Box was a cruel joke.

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
Not 40k, but the old metal Dragon Ogre Shaggoth is infinitely better than the stumpy-legged Dragon Ogre plastic kit...

Not surprised. Anything that dwells in the Dreamlands is generally better than things designed by mere mortals.

 Asmodai wrote:

 Elbows wrote:

By comparison the new plastic speeder is ugly as hell and a terrible plastic kit to boot.

Including that kit in the 3rd ed. Starter Box was a cruel joke.

Just do be pedantic, the kit was recut after 3rd edition. The one in the 3rd ed box was by all reports a more irritating kit to build then the one currently for sale. I’d not know, as I’ve only built old ones. But the old kit only had the HB/MM for the primary gun, and no other options.

I miss a lot of the old monopose minis. While I love the new multipart plastics, there are restrictions to what you can do with them. When the whole mini is sculpted together, it flows a lot better and you have more options for how they are posed. When everything has to be an interchangeable bit, you loose a lot of character. Of course, you also get armies composed of more then the same 4 guys, so it has some major perks.

5th ed Dark Eldar models are universally better than their 3rd ed originals which are largely just horrible in comparison, and I much prefer the current Tyranid style to the 2nd or 3rd ed style they had. Harlequin models are much better now as well, same goes for those Craftoworld models that have been updated, though half their range is pretty old these days.

So no, for the armies I play the current models are much better than the older ones.

Sure do miss the old Storm Troopers. The pre-Kasrkin ones, don't know why everyone raves about the Kasrkin so much to be honest.

 R.D.MacNiven wrote:
Sure do miss the old Storm Troopers. The pre-Kasrkin ones, don't know why everyone raves about the Kasrkin so much to be honest.

To be fair, the Kasrkin are some nice minis. I’m also partial to the older ones myself. Even the old-old ones, with the berets were not bad.

When minis have gone through 3-4 revisions, sometimes you need to be specific which “old” version you are talking about.

I miss the original stealth suits. They just looked so much cooler.

 chalkobob wrote:
I miss the original stealth suits. They just looked so much cooler.

Agreed 100%.

 Imateria wrote:
5th ed Dark Eldar models are universally better than their 3rd ed originals which are largely just horrible in comparison, and I much prefer the current Tyranid style to the 2nd or 3rd ed style they had. Harlequin models are much better now as well, same goes for those Craftoworld models that have been updated, though half their range is pretty old these days.

So no, for the armies I play the current models are much better than the older ones.

I'll definitely agree with that actually. The latest Dark Eldar models are things of pure beauty, and I much prefer the more recent Craftworld offerings (although the OOP ones are far from bad).

I'm fond of the original Land Raider and the old Whirlwind (with the exposed missile rack) has a certain charm.

And I'm probably the only one, but I did like the original Tyranid Warriors from Advanced Space Crusade. Especially since their internal organs were actually modeled and visible through the rib cage.