Horus Heresy Legion Melee Weapons Upgrade Set

[Petitioner's City]

Also (sorry this cheeky, but) aren't we still waiting on myrmidon weapon packs, nine years later?

[jimbo1701]

Really looking forward to picking up a set of these and also seeing how long they are out of stock for after day 1 of release. 

[TheArtilleryman]

 

This arrival of the melee weapon sprue has been so well received that anything trying to rival it would need to be nothing short of the second coming of the Emperor.

Haha I’m not sure that would be well-received at all …

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

To be fair I would love the Emperor to return. 

 

@jimbo1701 That is my concern too. Hopefully we get decent supply. 

[Urauloth]

One slight silver lining to not having any hobby time recently is that my assault legionaries are still unbuilt, so if I keep them that way a little while longer I get to make them with these fantastic new swords.

 

Pretty excited to see how much of this stuff can be ported over to the 40k Chaos kit, too. The slung boltgun and the lance would both look good in an Alpha Legion Kill Team.

[HeadlessCross]

 

It’s a bit of a shame there is such a firm response to those who don’t like the kit. People can have an opinion, and objectively if you look at this it is definitely reasonable to be picky about the contents of the box when you are potentially going to pay upwards of 30 quid for a box of tiny plastic swords that anyone outside of the Warhammer community would say is totally ridiculous. Sometimes we can have a very different concept of value when it comes to this hobby than we would for anything else.
 

It’s cool what’s in this box but it’s definitely not perfect. If they gave you 2 more chainswords and 2 more bolt pistols, plus another 6 pairs of arms (only need 6 cos you get some on the tactical sprue), it would be considerably better because this would give you the ability to make 2 full assault squads, plus some kind of veteran unit. This would be in line with the heavy weapon boxes that give you 3 x 10 heavy weapons to be able to equip 3 squads of marines. I don’t think that is an unreasonable wish when at the end of the day you are paying the price of a full squad of models, and not actually getting any models.

You'd have a point if some of the complaints weren't unreasonable. Some guy here is mad there's no Terminator weapons in it, for example. 

Edited October 4 by HeadlessCross

[roryokane]

It's a shame they didn't throw in a chain axe or two for variety, along with the fact that all the guns are on one side and melee weapons on the other (along with the pointing hands/slung bolters bit that people have made) but honestly... this is still an absolutely SOLID kit. Like a 9/10. Works for 30 & 40k. Don't need the heads, but the rest is great (and giving people a few extra heads to muck around with is a nice bonus!). I like they included an auspex and meltabomb hand apiece, very cool nice little extras (shame there's no grenade hand, but those are still around in 40k and very few people are going to look THAT closely if you make a literal hand swap).

Mk VI arms work fine as Mk VII arms (no one's gonna look THAT close), and you can add the vambraces to make them Mk III. Mk V is a mish-mash almost by definition, so these'll work. The only irksome bit is Mk IV (best mark, there's a reason it's called Maximus!) but that's okay, and even then the weapon hands are still perfectly useable - especially those delightful Tigrus-pattern bolt pistols! In fact, my favourite thing is the variety of bolt pistols. But there's a part of me that sees the old-style hand flamers that used to marvel at the old style melee sprues from 2nd ed that I JUST missed out on by joining the hobby literally immediately before 3rd ed dropped when I was about 8 so didn't really appreciate what was available at the time (and i certainly didn't have the money to buy more stuff! :P) . I always thought those were great, so seeing those now in plastic (again) makes my inner child very happy.
Also, have you seen the variety!? I know i mentioned chain axes above, but look at it! There's all sorts of cool stuff there. I think they probably could have scaled the power swords back a bit given you get them in the Sergeant weapons sprue in all the new boxes PLUS the command squad is teeming with them, which might have made space for a chain axe or two. And I know, you get powerfists in that sprue (plus two in the assault squad box - one for each hand), but these are a different pose (and sculted with the fingers closed), so it's not quite the same. Power-fists are great. Marneus Calgar has two, they're so good! :P
Overall? 9/10. Need to buy like... four of them. My bits box hungers more than Hive Fleet Leviathan.

[Interrogator Stobz]

The arms are definitely missing the best marks,  Mk2 and 3 are obviously the choice of champions, so a downgrade to 8/10 for this kit.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

 

Really looking forward to picking up a set of these and also seeing how long they are out of stock for after day 1 of release. 

I suspect a HH 2.0 shoulder pad and dedicated helmet situation. The Iron Hands versions made me wait 3-4 months until they were back in stock.

[roryokane]

 

The arms are definitely missing the best marks,  Mk2 and 3 are obviously the choice of champions, so a downgrade to 8/10 for this kit.

I think that's a tadge unfair, given that they're designed to work with the vambraces you get in the Mk III kit, much like the heavy weapons set.
And there aren't really any Mk II plastics (tank crew notwithstanding?) so it's a little unreasonable to expect Mk II arms in plastic from this set.

[arnesh88]

One critique I do have with this kit, and something I worried about before the reveal: there doesn't seem to be enough arms for all of the options? the random hands/meltabomb/augury is fine to not have arms, but there's not enough for all of the actual melee weapons. Did I count wrong?

Edited October 4 by arnesh88

[Schrödingers Primarch]

 

One critique I do have with this kit, and something I worried about before the reveal: there doesn't seem to be enough arms for all of the options? the random hands/meltabomb/augury is fine to not have arms, but there's not enough for all of the actual melee weapons. Did I count wrong?

There is a lack of arms for every option. I'm assuming for the power weapons specifically. That is consistent with the other upgrade kits, you don't have enough arms to upgrade tactical marines with all heavy or special weapons. 

[Corswain]

I think the assumption is that you already have some arms in whatever kit you are attaching this to.

[Interrogator Stobz]

 

I think that's a tadge unfair, given that they're designed to work with the vambraces you get in the Mk III kit, much like the heavy weapons set.
And there aren't really any Mk II plastics (tank crew notwithstanding?) so it's a little unreasonable to expect Mk II arms in plastic from this set.

Ah, I only have resin Mk 3 dudes; it sounds like the plastic ones more suited to this kit?

[brother_b]

I’ve got two release boxes and have built a handful of Marines.

 

Besides the obvious use, melee weapons/pistols, what am I using these for?

 

I’m super 30k interested I just have 0 experience.

 

Am I using these for leaders, or am I outfitting specific types of units?

Edited October 4 by brother_b

[SvenIronhand]

 

I’ve got two release boxes and have built a handful of Marines.

 

Besides the obvious use, melee weapons/pistols, what am I using these for?

 

I’m super 30k interested I just have 0 experience.

 

Am I using these for leaders, or am I outfitting specific types of units?

Both. Characters, specific sorts of units, et cetera.

[Lord Marshal]

 

I’ve got two release boxes and have built a handful of Marines.

 

Besides the obvious use, melee weapons/pistols, what am I using these for?

 

I’m super 30k interested I just have 0 experience.

 

Am I using these for leaders, or am I outfitting specific types of units?

 

HQs and most Sergeants can take a variety of different melee and ranged options. 

 

In terms of units, you have some like Veterans and Command Squads where they can take a varied mix from a pretty long list of options.

 

Some more basic squads, most notably Despoilers and Assault Marines, can also have 1-in-5 grunts taking various extra options like a Power Weapon.

 

Then of course you have the Chainswords for outfitting Despoilers, who you'd make using this box (for the Chainswords) and one of the Tactical Marine boxes.

 

Edited October 5 by Lord Marshal

[Jukkiz]

they getting cheeky

[Xirix]

Is that second weapon a laspistol? Could Marines take those in Rogue Trader/2nd Edition?

Edited October 5 by Xirix

[DuskRaider]

 

I'm not too familiar with Rogue Trader wargear options for marines, is that second weapon a laspistol?

Yep. They are (from L to R): Plasma, Las, Melta, Auto and Bolt. 

[Waaagh?]

 

Ah, I only have resin Mk 3 dudes; it sounds like the plastic ones more suited to this kit?

 

No they will work fine on your resin MK3 dudes. Though I would advise going on eBay or a bits site and getting some of the separate vambraces from the new mk3 kit that are designed to make these arms look MK3.

 

Should be able to get them for very little cost.

[skylerboodie]

 

Yep. They are (from L to R): Plasma, Las, Melta, Auto and Bolt. 

hand flamer, not melta

[TheArtilleryman]

 

hand flamer, not melta

Yeah, melta/inferno pistols are actually a relatively recent thing.

[ISBEAR]

When do we suspect this to go on preorder?

[LameBeard]

 

Is that second weapon a laspistol? Could Marines take those in Rogue Trader/2nd Edition?

If you were playing Rogue Trader properly your Marine characters were rolling on random tables for wargear. Your Grey Knights captain could have been rocking a needle gun and a hover board. But this sprue came out pretty much for second edition where marines didn’t have las pistol or auto pistol choices, but this sprue was often used to boost Necromunda first edition, genestealer hybrids, all kinds of goodness. I think I have the auto pistol in my bitsbox - a sliver of a 30-year old relic ..