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I had to limit it to 40k, otherwise it'd be those unarmed civilians in Battlefleet Gothic that were too small for stands.

From an esthetic perspective alone the baby pram Dreadknights from the Grey Knights made me not build that army.

'How about - and stick with me here - we design an artillery tank with a fixed hull weapon?!'
- and that's how Baneswords are born

Dumbest looking or dumbest concept?

Dumbest concept has to be ol' Murderfang complete with Murderclaws. You know, as opposed to all the petting and Rock Paper Scissors that everyone else's claws are used for. Plus his... head is sticking out for some reason? Probably murder-related.



Dumbest looking? I'd go with the Chaos Possessed from the 3.5 edition codex sculpted by Gary Morley.



There's plenty of terrible options, especially from 3rd and 4th edition, but I'm sticking with these.

 The Power Cosmic wrote:
Dumbest looking or dumbest concept?

Dumbest concept has to be ol' Murderfang complete with Murderclaws. You know, as opposed to all the petting and Rock Paper Scissors that everyone else's claws are used for. Plus his... head is sticking out for some reason? Probably murder-related.

The names of the claws withstanding, I don't see how conceptually a wulfen in a dreadnought is dumb? It's no different to a death company dreadnought. The head sticking out is weird, but the older heresy dreads all had the marine's head visible with his helmet on because that's where the marine physically is in the sarophagus. Not having his helmet on is what's really weird - which I assume is because he's too feral and needs to have his senses unencumbered.

In no particular order.

Dreadknight
thunderwolf cavalry
centurions


Very simple solutions that would have made these not so ridiculous:

wolf guard with pet wolf on same base (apparently coming with the next codex)

instead of a marine, both the dreadknight and the centurions would have looked a lot better if they used dreadnought sarcophagi. Centurions would have been the answer to 'what happens when we've saved more veteran marines than we have dreadnoughts for' and the dreadknight is 'what happens when we need more power than a dreadnought for anti daemon shenanigans?'.

No one's mentioning the plastic Marine flyers, apart from the Corvus?

They look like bad toybashes and yet are actual models somehow.

Gotta be Dreadknight/Centurians at least in terms of being a terrible idea visually.

The original Necron Monolith with Living Metal was both a rules nightmare and extremely unbalanced.

 Cap'n Facebeard wrote:
No one's mentioning the plastic Marine flyers, apart from the Corvus?

They look like bad toybashes and yet are actual models somehow.

The first release was the stormraven and it was terrible. they didn't improve after that. They tried to use the thunderhawk design for nostalgia but made it a tonka toy version which was just aweful. The space wolf ones are a little better, but not much.

 Cap'n Facebeard wrote:
No one's mentioning the plastic Marine flyers, apart from the Corvus?

They look like bad toybashes and yet are actual models somehow.

My mum asked me when she saw the corvus blackstar, "is that supposed to be a sea turtle?"

Now I can't unsee it.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Cap'n Facebeard wrote:
No one's mentioning the plastic Marine flyers, apart from the Corvus?

They look like bad toybashes and yet are actual models somehow.

My mum asked me when she saw the corvus blackstar, "is that supposed to be a sea turtle?"

Now I can't unsee it.

Yes now I'm picturing it burying its eggs in the sand.

 Cap'n Facebeard wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Cap'n Facebeard wrote:
No one's mentioning the plastic Marine flyers, apart from the Corvus?

They look like bad toybashes and yet are actual models somehow.

My mum asked me when she saw the corvus blackstar, "is that supposed to be a sea turtle?"

Now I can't unsee it.

Yes now I'm picturing it burying its eggs in the sand.

So that's how little deathwatch marines are born....

i think thunderwolf cavalry are cool, actually. space wolves are at their best when going 110% into the wolf theme

i also really like the dreadknight. the tactical warsuit and the paragon warsuits are also among my favorite walkers in the game, because i'm just a big fan of mechs with exposed pilots. it's impractical, yes, but it's also cool, and that's what really matters. "it's cool" is what 40k is all about

the worst unit is centurions, tho. centurions to me singlehandedly prove the need for primaris

as for something not already mentioned in the thread... tomb blades. awful to build, awful to paint, awful to play with. there's something really promising with the concept, but it needs a second draft badly

Anyone want to remember the green plastic rods of the Necrons?

Don't forget the Monolith crystal too! It looked like something you'd attach to a kid's ring from a gumball machine.

Hard to top the Centurion Fat Suit and the Storm Whatever gunship.

Those were bad enough to make me doubt if GW still has it.

The latest round of Ork buggies with no options and no customization were an example of missing the point of the army, esp compared to the great Dakka Jet model.

Worst of the worst, I would pick the 2nd edition mono pose, poorly detailed orks and Marines. That was most folks first brush with the game and they were measurably worse than the RT plastics.

I am going to give a vote to the Sydonian Skatros and all three of the Archaeopter models.

Every time I look at the Sydonian all I can see is Inspector Gadget and for the Archaeopter and wings are goofy enough but I just can get past the chicken legs they have in the back.

Also I know that Ork models are suppose to be silly as part of the comedy but I have always found the Kill/Hunta Rig to be just a little too over the top for me.

Primaris with Nerfgunmissiles.

How could I forget Inquisitor Karamazov and his "Please headshot me" walking throne.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
Primaris with Nerfgunmissiles.

Oh yes, especially since they already had some really nice heavy weapon dudes. The Nerfgunners look like a bad 90s comic, like not even Cable or Youngblood level, but like a poor imitation of Youngblood.

Mutilators

 Gitdakka wrote:
Mutilators

Actually yeah mutilators might win, they were a dumb idea, a dumb unit, and they looked dumb

Mutilators are a cool concept but god awful execution. Again, I like the Squig-chariot concept for the Kill Rig, but hate the way it looks.

The Ork Weirdboy is another I'd lump into this category of being a cool idea but looking terrible.

I actually quite like the Centurions in concept and in design. The melee ones I think look goofy as hell, but the ranged ones look pretty good to me.

I agree with the sentiments regarding the goofy inspector gadget look a lot of the Ad Mech units have.

Not a bad unit, but a terrible model, the 2010s plastic commissar!

Options included a plasma pistol OR a bolt pistol!

Another vote for Centurions here. Really bad design, stupid concept, and absurdly pricey.

I don't like any of the Primaris vehicles either. Floating Bawkses.

At least Centurians are kind of a theme for marines - big blocky designs with lots of guns and weapons and stuff.

This thing though


I just can't quite work out what its design concept is other than "go cart". Like I get the brief; light armour scout style attack vehicle likely intended to be a more modern adaptation of bike+sidecar replacement.

And yet it just looks so - - unmilitary like. It doesn't feel like a big beefy heavy armoured war machine of the Space Marine army.

I was going to say plastic tyranid gargoyles. Plastic made them affordable to me, they came in units of 10-30, were cheap in points and the sculpts were awesome. Sadly they had such a large footprint on the table that I found them parctically unusable. They'd tip over and/or get their broad and spiky wings stuck on other models/eachother all the time, adding to the already considerable frustration of the "oops I tipped over again" hormagaunts.

But mutilators and nerf gun primaris are worse. Has anybody mentioned the primario kart yet?

shortymcnostrill wrote:
adding to the already considerable frustration of the "oops I tipped over again" hormagaunts.

You don't get to make that claim unless you're playing with original metal hormagaunts

 Overread wrote:

shortymcnostrill wrote:
adding to the already considerable frustration of the "oops I tipped over again" hormagaunts.

You don't get to make that claim unless you're playing with original metal hormagaunts

To be fair, the new ones are also bad. Just not as comically bad as the metal ones.

The original 1980s bloodletters were a bugger for that too. There was one that leant forwards to the point that most of the model was over the edge of the base. I filled the bottom of the base with off-cuts of metal sprues etc but could never get him to stand up.

Edit - ah here we go. https://www.belloflostsouls.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/bloodletters-1986.jpg Body 3 was the main offender, but body 1 could do similar if you didn't pair it carefully with a suitable head & arms bit.

 StudentOfEtherium wrote:
i think thunderwolf cavalry are cool, actually. space wolves are at their best when going 110% into the wolf theme

I have the opposite opinion, Space Wolves are at their worst when they lean heavily into the wolf theme. Wolfy McWolfy Whatnow?

I mean, the concept of Viking Space Marines is awesome (as is some of the artwork), but the miniature line is awful and cartoony. Except for the flyer which is decent.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Not a bad unit, but a terrible model, the 2010s plastic commissar!

The hat is truly terrible, but it makes a good little mini with the right headswap

 Overread wrote:
At least Centurians are kind of a theme for marines - big blocky designs with lots of guns and weapons and stuff.

This thing though


I just can't quite work out what its design concept is other than "go cart". Like I get the brief; light armour scout style attack vehicle likely intended to be a more modern adaptation of bike+sidecar replacement.

And yet it just looks so - - unmilitary like. It doesn't feel like a big beefy heavy armoured war machine of the Space Marine army.

I second this!

What moron let the Mario cart into 40K...

I don't mind the thunderwolf cavalry as such, but Father Grimnar's floating chariot to me just combines the worst possible parts of historic and futuristic combat design aesthetics.

Definitely agree with Centurions. That was a model concept that was really reaching for a purpose to exist. Aggressors did the job so much better (and also happen to look like Starcraft Marauders).

The Corvus is a close replica of the Starcraft Medevac dropship, and hence I am primed to find it satisfying, and none of your aquatic reptile shenanigans will shake this from me