Raptors vs. pre Heresy Jump Packs

[Quixus]

After the heresy most of the traiter legions fled into the Eye of Terror AFAik. So all the gear they may have is either Heresy era or older, right?

 

Now why do the present era Raptors look a lot different from the jump packs that most people use for their Heresy Era Assault Squads?

 

http://chapterhousestudios.com/webshop/components/com_virtuemart/shop_image/product/Five__5__Heresy__4bb1700bbcf4b.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v246/Pacific81/ass1.jpg

vs.

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1241189_99060102115_CSMRaptor3main_445x319.jpg

 

Has there been a lot of "warping"?

[Brother Nihm]

It's a different design entirely plus there's been some warping.

 

Raptor IA:

 

Unlike the bulky, awkward jump packs worn by current Astartes forces Raptor Jump Packs are marvels of Dark Age Technology, superior in every way to the Loyalist equivalent. Light and powerful, Raptor Jump Pack allows limited flight thanks to their more efficient engines and greater thrust to weight ratios.

 

How or why is unclear but such Raptor warbands soon evinced peculiar and particular changes in appearance and form. Their armour grew to resemble the birds of prey they had been named for, feet becoming talons, helmets morphing into fierce beaked visages and jump packs becoming integral to the lost Marine's armour, no longer a separate unit

[Rain]

It has to do with GW's weird almost 4th wall breaking definition of what is and isn't pre-heresy. As far as I can tell, back when those raptors were released (~2002) their jump packs were indeed meant to be PH, and a picture in that Chaos codex of a heresy battle had a marine with such a jump pack. Eventually though, they seemed to decide that PH was just going to look like actual old versions of models, and as the first incarnation of jump packs looked like barrels, that's what you get in the PH artbook. Likewise all of the Rhinos and Land Raiders in that book look like the old models, which in the case of the RT Raiders look plain ridiculous, but Forgeworld has much better PH raiders for anyone with $100 to blow.

 

Edit: That's not exactly right Nihm, it says "current Astartes forces" meaning contemporary Space Marines, not their heresy era brethren. It's a common trope in 40k that older is better so a lot of heresy era tech was better as the Imperium is forgetting a lot.

[Quixus]

I think the IA refers to the Raptor's packs being better than the jump packs of the 41st millenium. It does not say anything why the loyalists of the 31st millenium didn't have those packs.

[Leonaides]

Presumably the chaos ones were a newly discovered STC design and happened to get rolled out to the rebellious legions (in thesame way that most of them happened to get the newest armour marks) just before the Heresy... Leaving the loyalists with the older PH versions, and then not the tech to make the Raptor packs after the war on Mars.

[Whit]

Another reason for the superficial appearance change are the corrupting powers of the warp, and the wearer's own personal modifications, which are cited in the CSM codex as being the reason for the changes in their armor and equipment. I can't see why the same wouldn't be true for Jump packs.