Horus Heresy [30k] Legion Contemptor Upgrades - DA, WS, IF, EC, IW, SoH

[Slips]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/02/09/heresy-thursday-armour-up-with-contemptor-dreadnought-legion-upgrades/

 

 

Buy those resin Legion Contemptors now before theyre gone. Especially since these dont seem to come with the shoulders or legs of the full resin kits.

Edited February 9, 2023 by Slips

[Brother Captain Arkley]

Seems such a downgrade...

 

Might serve the FOMO stampede thou.

[WrathOfTheLion]

It makes things easier, in that it combines well with the plastic kit and the new arms. But I think I plan on grabbing a couple of the existing ones before they go.

[Joe]

I imagine this is somewhat similar to the torsos situation; trying to cut back on wasted shelf space on products that don't sell particularly well, particularly now a fully plastic kit is in production. It may be that further down the line we see plastic Contemptor and Leviathan upgrades if they believe it's worth it, ala the shift of Necromunda upgrades from resin to plastic.

[m0nolith]

So I’ve been buying FW for a long time.

I think first thing I ever bought was a Adeptus Mechanicus icon in like 98-99 that was made in tan coloured resin. The reason I say this is to emphasize that I have a lot of experience with FW resin over the years. 

Now, hate is a very strong word…and that’s why I’m using it.
 

I hate FW resin.

 

With very few exceptions plastic is superior in almost every way. I absolutely understand why they would create something in resin and not plastic from the markets point of view, but I still hate to use it. Also given Necromunda is my main game right now, I deal with a lot of resin.

 

So given that, IMO whatever lets me keep at least some of the excellent aesthetics of FW while minimizing resin, I’m usually for it.

 

This is one of the rare few exceptions though. It’s almost literally the same product we’ve had before, bust just less of it. Ok, so it’s modified to fit the new plastics which is great, but I would have loved it if they kept at least the lower torso and shoulders as well. 
 

I do understand why they did it though. They save on a ton of shelf space which lets FW put out brand new stuff and have space for it. 
 

I would have loved it if these were released in full plastic instead, but there again I understand why they’re going down this direction with the Legion specific upgrades being in resin. Maybe one day we’ll get full plastic upgrades, but we’re still many years away from that. 

Edited February 9, 2023 by m0nolith

[Matcap86]

Yeah this one annoyed me. Moved up a few purchases I would've liked to do at a later date. But due to the abysmal communication on FW last chance to buys, I just got the stuff I planned to a bit earlier.

[StrangerOrders]

This feels like a very bad downgrade... I am not averse to switching to upgrade kits but just the torsos... really? That feels like such a poor cousin to the custom dreads and is really disappointing. Especially with how flexible the new plastic kit is, they could have included shoulders and kneepads at least.

 

And why do I get the feeling that these won't be as cheap as the proportion they are compared to the originals would imply? I'd bet my money on something like 50% the cost for like 30% the mass/detail.

 

I'm going to have to bulk buy a few of the current ones for the Legions I plan to have in the future soon. Which frankly isn't the worst idea given the upcoming price bump anyway I guess.

 

All that being said, while it pains me to know that the other Legions won't be getting anything like the magnificent custom Leviathans the lucky few legions got, at least they will get an upgrade of some kind.

[Noserenda]

Yeah this is just pure downside for some of the Legions who had some really nice detail on their shoulders and legs, at least they gave us a heads up? 

 

I wouldnt even expect them to be cheaper after they bundle in the plastic contemptor at full RRP for "convenience", well, that and the annual price rise.

Tell a lie, at least on FB it was handy for showing up people who are desperate to uncritically praise GW/FW at every opportunity :P  :D  (For reference noone here has been that bad so far)

[Lord La sadies]

As a longtime fan of horus heresy, it's devastating to see Games Workshop, the company responsible for creating the world I love, make such a disappointing decision. The removal of the legs and shoulders from the Legion Dreadnoughts and selling the torso and head separate pieces is nothing short of a scam.

 

This is not a "new upgrade," it's a cash grab, plain and simple.

This move makes no sense from a creative or artistic standpoint, and it's clear that it's driven solely by the desire to increase profits.

 

The removal of the legs and shoulders from the Legion Dreadnoughts is a disheartening development.

 

There is absolutely nothing positive about this decision !

 

[Daylight]

Sad to lose the legion specific dreads, but on a positive note the Iron Warriors designs is pretty cool. The piping and the look of bolted on additional armor/repairs is very flavorful in my opinion.

[infyrana]

Ah, now I can finally go ahead and build my plastic Contemptor kits... without these upgrades.  Given the DG version won't likely be available until after the price increase, and that this seems to be resin (right?) with only half the 'look' of the original (no legs / shoulders), it's a no go from me.

 

It's nice that they're giving the option for those that want them I guess.

[Cleon]

As with many others, I find this a disappointing downgrade - I'd hoped they were going to tweak them all to add in lower shoulder blocks that fit better with the plastic weapon sprues. Hopefully the Incandus is going to stay at least.

[bushman101]

The only thing more disappointing than this is that we will have to burn another Heresy Thursday for the other Legions 'upgrade'

[Slips]

12 minutes ago, Daylight said:

Sad to lose the legion specific dreads, but on a positive note the Iron Warriors designs is pretty cool. The piping and the look of bolted on additional armor/repairs is very flavorful in my opinion.

These are all 1:1 reproductions of the Resin ones currently being sold by FW.

Edited February 9, 2023 by Slips

[m_r_parker]

I really don't understand this move, and I certainly don't like it.

 

I just don't see the motivation behind it. They've been "re-tooled to work with the new plastic contemptor", well ok but did you need to remove 65% of it whilst you were doing it? And from what I can tell, the torsos and head are the same as the existing Legion dreads, so how exactly have they been "re-tooled"?

 

The bonkers part is that you'll still need to buy a plastic Contemptor in order to use this upgrade anyway, so I doubt you're saving any money on that £42 Legion Contemptor when you're having to buy the £36 plastic one as a base plus an upgrade. Now you'll just lose out on all the extra details on the pads and legs that a lot of these dreadnoughts have, and those details made it feel like a complete piece following a single aesthetic not just a regular chassis with a different front panel.

 

But if they really wanted to make it compatible withe the new plastic dreadnought, and let's face it that just means making it so that the weapons fit, all that was needed were to include the weapon mounting points for the shoulders that came with the resin weapon packs into the main Legion Contemptor kits and ensure you can use the plastic weapons with them. It's hardly rocket science!

 

I've already been asking serious questions around what exactly is the point of FW these days, now that a lot of the big revenue kits have transitioned into plastic with others logically following suit in the future. Primarch models with high detail levels that can't be replicated in plastic at the moment, sure. I always figured that the Legion specific dreads (Contemptor and Leviathan) would remain within their remit to carry on with, but it would seem that even this is being trimmed down to the bare bones. And if they're doing this to the Legion-specific Contemptors, then there's no reason for them not to do it with the Leviathans too.

 

Time to try and get some kits before they're gone I suppose...

[Lord La sadies]

9 minutes ago, Daylight said:

Sad to lose the legion specific dreads, but on a positive note the Iron Warriors designs is pretty cool. The piping and the look of bolted on additional armor/repairs is very flavorful in my opinion.

 Its the same design they made years ago , but now you wont get the cool legs and sholders for it

 

[m0nolith]

 What really sucks is that Leviathans will probably go this way as well. 

Edited February 9, 2023 by m0nolith

[Flaherty]

I don't understand why they don't just move these to plastic*. 

 

They're cutting new molds for the free models that they give away at stores every month. I have to believe that there are more customers for a Dark Angels upgrade kit than most of the Underworlds teams or the dozens of Warcry warbands. If they're going to charge ~$25 for parts that size the least they could do it with a higher-quality material.

 

*I've designed injection molded parts, have products on shelves at ~60K retail shops in the US, and understand the economics of injection molding.

 

 

[Legionary Pallas]

Incredible, Forge World are pioneering the hobby's very first downgrade kits. And on the same day as a price increase no less! What a momentous occasion this is! 

 

Sarcasm aside, while I can see some Legions won't mind so much losing their shoulder/leg details - Iron Hands and Death Guard look fairly bare - others like Alpha Legion, Blood Angels, Raven Guard, Word Bearers, and the Space Wolves, are gonna especially miss all that extra detail and patterning that's on the arms and legs.

 

Edit: Bringing up the fact that the original dreads are going, and the cool extra details that they have are going with them inside this article feels like a very deliberate attempt to generate FOMO sales, a practice that disturbs me as a customer.

Edited February 9, 2023 by Legionary Pallas

[skylerboodie]

They could at least have designed new ones, rather than reuse the old design.

[No Foes Remain]

This has to be one of the most stupidest decisions made by GW. The new plastic dread is pretty much 1:1 with the resin ones, the only thing you don't get with the resin dread is weapons which are avalible seperate from GW (or a 3rd party who can get direct GW stuff), there is no damn reason to get rid of these!

[Astartes Consul]

Honestly, I've been taken aback by how many people I've seen online who seem to be genuinely upset by this. I don't mean that to be snarky, but I didn't think it would be that big of a deal.

 

The FW Legion dreadnoughts are nice kits - but these new versions keep the best parts of most of them while taking advantage of the amazing new Contemptor plastic kit(s). Some Legions are losing out more than others in terms of loss of details - Salamanders spring to mind, with those great sculpted leg details, which is a real shame. Although there are other FW Legion kits - like Imperial Fists - that have negligible extra details on the arms & legs IMO.

 

I guess from my POV, this is just the price of doing business in terms of having Heresy treated more like a mainstream game system. GW is going to streamline things for its own convenience and while the FW Dreadnoughts have been big sellers for years, I would imagine they have been supplanted by the plastic Contemptor kits. Even if they were still selling well, does anyone really expect GW to produce two versions of a kit as big as the Contemptor indefinitely? 

 

Maybe it is just me, but I've also been annoyed to see some voices - not here tbf - making snide comments about how this is all just to impress people who are new to Heresy and don't realise how good it used to be. Which, as someone who remembers when these kits used to periodically vanish because moulds broke and when there was no guarantee that FW would even manage to produce one for each of the 18 Legions, seems pretty lame.

 

And yes, the irony is not lost on me that I started this post with 'I didn't realise people cared so much' and now I've written three whole paragraphs...

 

36 minutes ago, Legionary Pallas said:

Incredible, Forge World are pioneering the hobby's very first downgrade kits. And on the same day as a price increase no less! What a momentous occasion this is! 

 

Sarcasm aside, while I can see some Legions won't mind so much losing their shoulder/leg details - Iron Hands and Death Guard look fairly bare - others like Alpha Legion, Blood Angels, Raven Guard, Word Bearers, and the Space Wolves, are gonna especially miss all that extra detail and patterning that's on the arms and legs.

 

Edit: Bringing up the fact that the original dreads are going, and the cool extra details that they have are going with them inside this article feels like a very deliberate attempt to generate FOMO sales, a practice that disturbs me as a customer.

 

On the flip side, I still have recurring nightmares about the first LCTB chaos in 2018 (?) when there was absolutely no warning at all until a random Friday morning email in Forge World subscribers inboxes saying 'Hey look, some more things are about to go!'  

 

So, I prefer this. Even with the obvious sales pitch. Will probably pick up one of the Relic Contemptot kits, which is the best of them al anyway!

 

30 minutes ago, skylerboodie said:

They could at least have designed new ones, rather than reuse the old design.

 

I don;'t know, then we might have ended up with a Space Wolves one in the same vein as their new MK VI helemts...!

Edited February 9, 2023 by Astartes Consul

[Orange Knight]

Are these just the existing resin bodies and heads?

 

It's actually a pretty good idea. The plastic contemptor is an excellent kit. I believe the full one has some knee and shoulder pads with additional flair?

 

It's a shame to lose the full resin models but their sales would have been crippled by the new plastic kits, and they were far more expensive and difficult to work with.

 

Edit: ignore my comments about the knees and shoulders. I think I'm getting the kit confused with the old mono-pose plastic kit.

Edited February 9, 2023 by Orange Knight

[The4thHorseman]

At least all the FW Complete Legion Specific Contemptors are preserved out in the wild and backwoods of the interwebs, unlike the Boxnaughts. Sad.

[Legionary Pallas]

47 minutes ago, Astartes Consul said:

On the flip side, I still have recurring nightmares about the first LCTB chaos in 2018 (?) when there was absolutely no warning at all until a random Friday morning email in Forge World subscribers inboxes saying 'Hey look, some more things are about to go!'  

 

So, I prefer this. Even with the obvious sales pitch. Will probably pick up one of the Relic Contemptot kits, which is the best of them al anyway!

I understand this sentiment, it is better that we receive warning of LCTB so that we can plan ahead, but it's about the way the warning was delivered, at least for me.

Not all news in this hobby can be good news, but I feel there's a difference between giving people fair warning about products being removed, and urging them to buy kits that are soon to be replaced - an artificial problem GW created itself - and acknowledging that their replacements are a downgrade in terms of features as they do it too. I see that as an unashamed attempt at stirring FOMO, which is fully deserving of being called out as poor form.

 

I suppose we should be happy to some extent that they are being replaced at all, and not removed outright like other products were before. Silver lining I suppose?