Games Workshop has announced that classic Warhammer 40k kits for Space Marine Sternguard Veterans, Terminators, and the Dreadnought, will drop from production. A Warhammer Community article published on Thursday reveals that the models have moved to “last chance to buy” on the Games Workshop webstore, alongside a veritable army of Forge World products from nearly every Warhammer 40k faction.
The article emphasises that “the humble Tactical Squads (as well as many other classic kits) are not being retired”, and adds that “specialist flavours of Dreadnought – such as the [Blood Angels] Librarian Dreadnought, the [Space Wolves] Wulfen Dreadnought, or the Venerable Dreadnought kit” will remain in production. Looks like Firstborn Space Marines get a stay of execution for a little longer.
35 Forge World kits have moved to Last Chance to buy as well. I’m kicking myself for not picking up the Salamanders Venerable Dreadnought when I had the chance, as it has sold out between WarCom publishing their article and me starting to write this one. Assuming there’s any stock left, this is your last chance to grab iconic kits like the Exalted Greater Daemon of Nurgle, Tyranid Malanthrope, or Necron Pylons.
This is almost a clean sweep of Warhammer 40k kits leaving production. It comes after a similar reduction in Age of Sigmar models at Forge World. Games Workshop states “there will still be Forge World units for Warhammer 40,000, but the focus for them will be on the really big stuff – like Titans, and other kits that we can’t reasonably produce at that scale (yet!)”.
The WarCom article adds that Warhammer 40k 10th edition will support discontinued units “with comprehensive Legends rules, which will be available to download free online around the game’s release”. Legends rules come with points values but aren’t updated with new points values or other patches in balance dataslates, so GW recommends they “would not be suitable for competitive events”. There will be Legends rules for some other 40k models that have already vanished from production.
Disappointed that you’re going to miss out on a model you always fancied? Take some inspiration from the kitbashing community – like this eager Warhammer the Old World fan who made his own Bretonnian Paladin rather than waiting for its eventual release.