THIS JUST IN: Plastic Hordes!

Well, not exactly this just in, since it’s been a day since the announcement, but it’s definitely more timely that my post on PP’s Templecon announcements (more on that soon!) Still, it’s really exciting to see a major release for Hordes, and with plastic Warbeasts and battleboxes, it’s now even easier to start an army (or your second, or third).

I think that almost all of the new plastic warpacks look great; Skorne and Everblight especially. The Titans and Carnivean really benefit from having armor plating along their points of articulation: a shoulder plate of armor or carapace really enables them to hide the plastic join and modular arms really well. Another plus for the skorne is that with plastic flags I might actually start putting them onto Skorne models.

Circle also got a warpack upgrade: I think the new warpwolf is definitely heads and shoulders above the old design, and the argus look pretty beefy.

The only peeve I have is with my own trollblood warpack: I was a really big fan of Felix Panigua’s work, with the trolls being well proportioned and treading that fine line of bestial but barely civilized look. I wish we could have kept that sculpt. The new trolls are a step back, following more in line with newer troll design aesthetics, with hunched necks and (over) burly forearms. I guess though that it’s less due to plastic and more due to the new design style. Sadly, it’s not my thing and I’ll probably stick to my small metal trollblood army. Maybe pick up a blitzer.

Even then though, the plastic trolls will be a godsend to anyone looking forward to starting Hordes, as will the rest of the plastic battleboxes. And this means that we’ll soon be seeing plastic Cyclopes, Argii and (definitely) medium based trolls.

Speaking of plastics, the new Warmachine plastics look pretty awesome too. The minuteman is all sorts of jump-pack ass-kickery, and Cryx’s Crabjacks are amazing. Even though they said that it’s a different sculpt, I swear I can’t tell the difference between the plastic and metal Leviathans and Harrowers. And hell, even if they DID look different, the ease in assembling, basing, and probably not needing to pin the plastic version (compared to the assembling hell of the metal version)… that’s more than worth some plastic crabjacks. I can barely wait to see the plastic version of all the secondary chassis heavies… I WANT MY PLASTIC DEVASTATOR.