So, ive finally gotten over the flashback i recieved when opening the Space Hulk box and that amazing GW box fresh smell hit me. I didnt go back to when i first recieved Space Hulk, that particular memory is hazy at best, i actually was taken back to when i first got Heroquest... which was the defining moment for me as far as GW is concerned.
Where my friend Vyper and mi grew up, there wasnt a GW store and getting our hands on miniatures and games was hard, the closest thing we had to gaming mini's came from a store called "Beaties", older UK or Scottish gamers will remember it was an arts and crafts store but also sold games, military models, airfix.... and Grenadier Miniatures. Sadly Greandier were not and never have been anywhere near as good as Citadel in their art, but it was all we could get.
Anyway, although Heroquest wasnt the first GW product i had, That being a blister of 3 Choas Renegade Marines i bought in a small independent stockist in Morecombe, Heroquest was the first full game i had that we didnt need to improv any of the peices.
Right back to Space Hulk and its contents.
A lot has been said about the amazing contents of the Space Hulk box, and most of the attention has been aimed at the Blood Angel Terminator models, everyone unique and brilliant but again with all GW board games, it is the bad guys that really bring the style to the party. The above mentioned Heroquest had some brilliant models for the time, made from plastic and well designed, the 4 hero's, Barbarian with 2 handed sword, Wizard with staff, Elf with his ... with his... i cant remember what the Elf had as i converted him and gave him the rocket pod from an Apache Gunship as a weapon... and then the "White Dwarf", all were good models but the bad guys were so far above them, ok the orks were basic but good, the skeletons better and so on, till we come to the Warriors of Chaos and the Balrog... brilliant minis.
This is reflected in Space Crusade,
the marines were poor but usable, the bad guys however were of equal or better... never worse and they got the center peice of a Chaos Dreadnought... what the hell is a Dreadnought doing in this tight cramped space ship.. still an excellent model though.... Also on a side note..
The first ever appearance of what would become The Necrons....
A Chaos Android :::
and we can continue.... Advanced Space Crusade ... scout marines = ok.. Tyranids = brilliant...
Advanced Heroquest just started were the first one finished in terms of minis and again the bad guys were so much better.... and lets not even discuss the original Space Hulk, ok so they were the first ever plastic termies, but man were they ugly, whilst the Stealer models were amazing. I never could work out why the Termies were just lumps of uninspired plastic, while the genestealers were multipeice models with free hanging arms and good detail...
Now for the controversy!!! im just gonna blurt this out... feel free to flame me on here if you wish...
The Genestealer models in the new Space Hulk are again the better models. Ok one or 2 of them are just mirror image moulds but they are amazing..
Im a Marine player for 40K and the BA Termies are amazing, but when i built the models i can only think about painting up the Genestealers, im actually excited about what i can come up with, whilst the only Termie model im really looking forward to painting is the dead one on the throne... lol
The real star of the show is the amazing Genestealer Broodlord!... wow i love that model, im going to try out a couple of ideas on normal Stealers first before painting him up but im looking forward to it.
Think ill use him as my counter peice the next time i play Monopoly too.
lol just my opinions, and the Termie Models are amazing, but i honestly am more excited by the other parts of the box...
Now.. i think its about time for a Heroquest re-release!!!
Cheers.
