Kill team kits - will they ever release them under 40K?

[jimbo1701]

 

Hi all. As a predominantly 40K collector I have to say that the releases which have impressed me the most in recent years haven’t been from mainstream 40K, but rather from its spin-off skirmish variant kill team. This game has allowed regular releases of miniatures and scenery portable into 40K that otherwise would likely never have seen the light of day. 

 

With all the re-released kill team sets of late for the new edition, I got to thinking of some of these kits would stay ‘locked’ to kill team forever, or make the jump to be 40K range items. The release pattern has varied over time where once upon a time it was fairly predictable that each season would contain a starter with 2 new kits then 3 subsequent releases with 1 new and 1 upgraded kit along with some scenery. 

 

 When looking at this I found it useful to categorise the types of kits into types 1 and 2, each of which has a popular A variant and a less popular B variant. I will be not be looking at kill team releases from the previous edition of the game onwards and not counting those such as parish nexus. I’ve also not included the new starter as this includes models previously released in blind box format. 

 

Type 1 releases are those which have an ‘upgrade’ sprue, that is there are core sprues and then an additional, often smaller single sprue that adds extra options. Most of these I would categorise as type 1A, as they are existing kits in the main 40K range that received an upgrade sprue via kill team to add elements to the kits to allow them to become more suitable for kill team. Examples would be that of nemesis claw, adding a single night lords themed upgrade sprue to the standard chaos marine kit. 

 

The 1Bs  appear to follow a similar format, including an apparently separate upgrade sprue to the core kit that adds options for kill team but it would appear that should this sprue have not been included, the core sprues would still allow the kits to be built for use in 40K. Indeed, the kill team sprue options often aren’t even usable in 40K. It is speculation on my part that they could be used separately as we have never seen them sold as 40K range products or without the upgrade sprue included. I’ll come back to these later. 

 

Then we move onto the type 2 releases, which are distinct from type 1 as their sprues are fully integrated and don’t have upgrade sprues as add ons. These appear to be the most numerous type of kits overall and the recent kill team launch box included 2 such kits. I’ve distinguished type 2A as those which are a squad built from unique sprues and type 2B being those few kits built from repeat sprues (as many primaris marine releases tend to be these days), such as the striking scorpions, scouts and mandrakes. 

 

The reason I find these kits so interesting is that the 1A kits you can only obtain the upgrades through kill team and the 1B there is no option to not have the upgrades and it looks increasingly unlikely (though the dkok release in the next few months will be key) that the 1B kits will ever be released sans upgrade sprues as part of the main 40K line. Similarly, the 2A kits are becoming Increasingly mainstream for 40K but have to be bought under the kill team label outside of certain combat patrols and splash releases. The 2B sets similarly, though one could argue that if they were released as 40K sets they would be 5 per box and ultimately cost more. 
 

1a = upgrade sprue, based on existing 

1b = upgrade sprue, KT exclusive

2a = self contained kit

2b = self contained, duplicate sprues. 

 

1a 

Phobos team 

Legionaries

Night lords 

Genecult

Votann 

Tau pathfinders 

Drukhari 

Necrons 

 

1b

Sisters novitiates

Traitor guard

Beastmen 

Dkok 

Voidsmen

 

2a

Inquisitorial henchmen 

Yeagers

Kroot farstalkers

Vespids 

Kommandos 

Arbites

Eldar corsairs

Aquillons 

Kasrkin

Ratlings 

Wrecka krew

 

2b

Striking scorpions 

Marine scouts 

Mandrakes

 

[Redcomet]

No. They sell the KT for a premium. 

[Captain Pi]

We’ll probably see how this is managed as teams phase out of Kill Team seasons, I would expect that if the core kit can be repurposed for 40K that it will be done. Maybe any upgrade sprue sold separately or as part of a larger upgrades box. 

[jimbo1701]

58 minutes ago, Captain Pi said:

We’ll probably see how this is managed as teams phase out of Kill Team seasons, I would expect that if the core kit can be repurposed for 40K that it will be done. Maybe any upgrade sprue sold separately or as part of a larger upgrades box. 

Are they going to start phasing them out? I gather no time soon as they have just reboxed all the teams from the past 3 years. Certainly they will need to rebox all the type 2 models for 40K at that point, possibly the 1a upgrade sprues will disappear (though with nemesis claw having been voted model of the year that would be a shame) and at that point we should also see the 1b reboxed for 40K plus or minus the upgrade content. 

[TheMawr]

I think they said this summer when the new season comes the first year will be phased out, and next season the second year. Not sure if the phasing out is the summer or end of the year.

Interestingly thats phasing out the most kill teamy units as newer offerings are more repurposed 40k releases without the wilder range of operatives, and leaving incomplete kill teams in the roster.

 

While I  understand the need for some phasing out, I dont think it should be based on releasedate, but rather on coverage.

 

@jimbo1701

Wrecka crew and Inquisitional henchman both feel more 2b to me, despite not being doubled up.

Wrecka crew because it's obviously a held back regular release, and inquisition henchmen while fitting a bit more as a killteam, you can only play them by doubling up or adding another kit. They are incomplete from the box.

 

Though that doesn't quite follow your 2b description.

 

Cultists kill team is also a weird semi official one, it's introduced with the inquisition henchmen, but consists of existing kits with no upgrade sprue and dont have a boxset.

 

 

[The Yncarne]

I expect Blades of Khaine to go to 40k, but not sure about the corsairs or Hand of the Archon. The former can build 40k units, but I have no idea what GW will do with Corsairs. Hand of the Archon is just an upgrade sprue AFAIK.

 

I do expect any reboxes for 40k to be another opportunity to increase the price.

[jimbo1701]

2 hours ago, The Yncarne said:

I expect Blades of Khaine to go to 40k, but not sure about the corsairs or Hand of the Archon. The former can build 40k units, but I have no idea what GW will do with Corsairs. Hand of the Archon is just an upgrade sprue AFAIK.

 

I do expect any reboxes for 40k to be another opportunity to increase the price.

hopefully corsairs will be expanded later this year if valrak rumours are true. 

[INKS]

when they are phased out - for example striking scorpions, and they are still used in 40k as a main stay, I think you'll see them reboxed and repriced again at that time

if they aren't used in 40k then it's unlikely you'll see them again unless it's made to order, for example - Gellerpox infected which you've not been able to buy despite it having 1 year left.