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

[WrathOfTheLion]

They've done it in the past and may even be how they do it this time, but I'd really like it to be policy for when these kits go to Last Chance to Buy to be a Made to Order deal. That way, anyone has a chance to pick up what they want and that's the last set of manufacturing they do.

[OttoVonAwesome]

Yeah this is pathetic I at least expected new designs not 1 3rd of a kit. They could have added the shoulders and knees and leg plate. This is just sad and lazy and another reason I'm glad I got into 3-d printing.

[Kastor Krieg]

Increase prices by several percent. 
Reduce the ability of FLGS to give discounts by reducing trade price distance from MSRP by several percent.

Then on the same day increase prices again by several percent. 
Downgrade Legion Dreads to 35% of the original content.

 

I fully expect them charge at the very least 60-70% of the original prices for just the identical torso.

[darkhorse0607]

Most of what my thoughts were have already been said so I won't repeat it. Is it disappointing? Yes. Is the sky falling? No, but it's still disappointing as I don't really mind FW resin all that much, even with having built some of their more complicated kits like the Storm Eagle and Mastodon.

 

That being said, I think the part that's getting me is the reduction in flavor over the last few years. One of the big draws for me as someone that just paints and reads the lore was really being able to build marines/dreads/characters that felt like part of the legion. We had torsos, heads, shoulder pads, legion-specific weapons etc.

 

Now the heads are still around but the torsos are mainly gone, with the exception of the made-to-order rotation. The pads are there off and on (depending on the MK of armor), but many of the upgrades that they've done recently have been locked to MKVI (weapon packs for example). You still had the dreads that all had a lot of flavor, but now those are going away and while we will still have the torsos, it won't feel as unique as they used to unless you sculpt, 3D print, etc.

 

I get that GW wants to move things to plastic and streamline the manufacturing process. From a business perspective, it makes complete sense. I just hope that down the road we don't lose more individual legion flavor (like if they were to get rid of legion-specific weapons in favor of a generic power weapons pack) to get there.

 

oh well. Off to the FW website to buy some dreads I suppose.

 

*edit, I also do wonder as to the future for the legion specifc dreads like the Osirus, Incandus etc. Do we know if these are included in the LCTB/discontinuation?

Edited February 10, 2023 by darkhorse0607

[Skywrath]

I'm sad to see the Dark Angel contemptor go.. that was a sculpt I was willing to pay money for, in a rare exception to my boycott GW rule. I might have to break that rule again just got get one last one... The upgrade kit for the DA one looks absolutely terrible compared to the full model. Hopefully there are guys over at the 3d printing section that will design an identical looking DA contemptor for me to print out.

 

Next it will be the DA Leviathan to go next I presume. Not sure how it will look like with all the ornery removed from it and slapped on a generic leviathan frame.

Edited February 10, 2023 by Skywrath

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Are these compatible with the plastic kit ?

[WrathOfTheLion]

1 hour ago, BLACK BLΠFLY said:

Are these compatible with the plastic kit ?

Yes, basically it's a torso upgrade for the plastic kit.

 

I do like how crisp the resculpts of them are, the Sons of Horus and Emperors' Children ones are the most noticeable there.

 

However, I personally would rather a couple that are fully ornate and a couple that are real bare bones, so I don't think these kits are for me.

[INKS]

This along with the price hike just doesn't sit well. Poor time to make the announcement. Should have done it on a different day. You hike prices. (I know, I know) And now you announce chest pieces where you lose the shoulder and leg details. While we don't know the price of this yet, you know it's not going to be cheaper. So assuming close to the same price this is like the dice but worse. Instead of losing 5 dice for the same price you now lose shoulders and legs. C'mon GW, who is running your media over there. Don't announce anything else the day of a price hike. It's just not going to go over well. The optics of it are just terrible.

[Noserenda]

Arguably getting all your unpopular news out at once is fairly effective at burying the less offensive stuff, in theory everyone is annoyed at price rises and forgets the contemptors getting screwed over.

[INKS]

Never forget

[Uprising]

Okay this is the last straw.  Terrible descion all round. 

[LemanPuss]

I really like the space wolves resin contemptor dreadnought. Sad to see it go.

 

With these, they don't seem good value. You kind of have to buy two dreadnoughts to build only one that is specific to your legion of choice. 

[Marshal Loss]

Was excited until I saw it was resin. Disappointing. At least they're not staggering this out between 18 weeks

[Harleqvin]

On 2/9/2023 at 5:31 PM, Flaherty said:

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.

 

 

Seems weird to me (but the Guardsman is it's own single sprue...,) when it seems easier to just have the stores open up product and have them put the stuff together instead of paying to make molds for the free mini (which who knows how long they will even do.)

 

On 2/9/2023 at 5:58 PM, No Foes Remain said:

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!

I feel it's a stupid reason, but this is now forcing people(who want to stick with GW stuff presumably,) to have to buy additional plastic Contemptors instead of buying one of them and then resin contemptors to use the extra weapons with.

 

On 2/9/2023 at 6:10 PM, Astartes Consul said:

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.

 

I'm not. I honestly am a bit salty about this as we are losing out on more character on the specific legion contemptors with them losing out on shoulder and knee ornamentation.

 

On 2/9/2023 at 9:00 PM, Skywrath said:

I'm sad to see the Dark Angel contemptor go.. that was a sculpt I was willing to pay money for, in a rare exception to my boycott GW rule. I might have to break that rule again just got get one last one... The upgrade kit for the DA one looks absolutely terrible compared to the full model. Hopefully there are guys over at the 3d printing section that will design an identical looking DA contemptor for me to print out.

 

Next it will be the DA Leviathan to go next I presume. Not sure how it will look like with all the ornery removed from it and slapped on a generic leviathan frame.

I feel ya on this. I wish I had the money by time this happens, but I likely won't as I don't do much work during November till beginning of march...


Honestly, I feel GW just keeps doing things that'll push a number of players to buy form recasters...

[Mandragola]

Whatever the reason they’ve done this, I think we can all agree this is a bit rubbish. This week’s announcement is “we’re making an existing product worse”. That’s a real let down, especially if future weeks are wasted on these. 

[Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla]

9 hours ago, Flaherty said:

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.

 

 

 

I would say it's because Contemptor was designed for resin molds. The shape of the torso makes it difficult to keep the acceptable level of detail without slide-molding/3D-printing/well thought and extensive partition. All three are not good for those sweet, sweet 70% profits and it isn't certain that they would be able to charge enough to quickly get back the expenses for mere upgrade kits.

 

[Cyrox]

I suppose I get why they are doing it, to make them compatible with the plastic kits, but its extremely disappointing that we are going to lose all that iconography and legion specific detail from the waist down, and on the upper arms.

 

Some of those FW dreads are temporarily out of stock already!

 

Done a quick video on this if anyone is interested, with FW dread images in there for reference.

 

 

[Nephaston]

Seems to be one of those logistics decisions. Now I have to decide how badly I want the Word Bearers one before it's downgraded.

 

Also now the question remains if we'll ever see the remaining leviathans, if they ever even got that far.

[Doobles57]

Would have much preferred if they'd just tweaked the FW arm join to work with the new plastic weapon sprues. Easy fix and you don't lose the lovely legs and shoulders from the originals. No need to buy the plastic contemptor kit then to make this work (though clearly this is why they've done it this why). Very disappointing.

I know people complain about FW casting and build (often rightly so), but having built a few of the FW contemptors, they're amongst the easiest and most pleasant FW models to build. 

[Halandaar]

Re-purposing them as upgrade kits feels like a sensible move in isolation, but man it's so badly executed. At least include the shoulder pads and leg armour that you've already designed in the package.

 

 

[m_r_parker]

48 minutes ago, Halandaar said:

Re-purposing them as upgrade kits feels like a sensible move in isolation, but man it's so badly executed. At least include the shoulder pads and leg armour that you've already designed in the package.

 

 

for some of the Legions, it’s more than that. Some of them have extra design / filigree on what must be the hips (?) and groin - by then, you’re not actively replacing much with plastic; the feet, maybe the rear vents, part of the upper leg, that’s about it.

[Matcap86]

Oh for :cuss:, the DA contemptor is already out of stock on the FW website. Expect those to pop up at 300$ a piece in a bit on ebay...

[Harleqvin]

On 2/10/2023 at 5:24 AM, matcap86 said:

Oh for :cuss:, the DA contemptor is already out of stock on the FW website. Expect those to pop up at 300$ a piece in a bit on ebay...

yep....

I will likely have to hit a ReForge World for it, as I won't have the money when a restock from FW "might" happen, nor will I have the money for a resold FW one off eBay. I'm already REALLY not able to buy the stupid No Respite expansion for Blackstone Fortress... for talks about stuff no longer being made over the cost it goes for now compared to retail...

[Sky Potato]

The EC one was out of stock last night by the time I got home from work.

 

I was on the fence about getting it - hopefully they get restocked before they disappear forever.

[Casual Heresy]

Looks like I'm getting two UM contemptors now then: One to build fully and one to divy up between multiple plastic kits to spread the bling. 

 

I would have rather they kept the full contemptors around longer before replacing with some sort of plastic legion bling sprue, which included dreadnought bling. I can understand the reasoning behind it so resin legion specific contemptors are compatiable with the plastic kits, but not the way I would have done it.

 

I'll echo what most others have said, the appeal of the resin contemptors is all the bling beyond just the torsos.