Warhammer YouTuber is swapping his way to a Warlord Titan

Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar YouTuber Squidmar Miniatures plans to auction off a Warlord Titan he’s gained through a series of miniature swaps

Warhammer 40k Warlord Titan swap - photo of Emil

How does a tiny Warhammer goblin mini turn into a mighty Warlord Titan? The answer – months of planning and some clever swaps. Since February 23, Swedish YouTuber Emil Nyström (AKA Squidmar Miniatures) has been trading miniatures with willing members of the Warhammer community. He hopes to eventually swap his increasingly valuable collection for a Warlord Titan that can be auctioned off for charity.  He’s not managed to get his hands on a Warlord Titan just yet, but as of September 28, Nyström has traded his way into owning a Warhammer 40k Adeptus Custodes army.

If you’ve ever seen The Office, you may already be familiar with the art of the swap. The swapper starts with a relatively inexpensive item, and they trade it for something of higher value (then rinse and repeat). Nyström tells Wargamer the idea for the video series came from another, real-life source. “There’s a Canadian called Kyle McDonald that traded a red paperclip for a house over a decade ago”, he says.

“For a long time, we’ve wanted to do something for a charitable cause”, Nyström adds, “so we just mashed our niche with the charity aspect and the red paperclip project.” According to the latest Squidmar YouTube video (which you can see below), the channel is in talks with the Nova Open Charitable Foundation to find a way to auction off the Warlord Titan once it’s been found.

Through the power of the swap, Nyström has had his hands on models from across Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Age of Sigmar – including Eldar, Tyranids, Death Guard, Idoneth Deepkin, Necrons, and Nighthaunt armies. The Adeptus Custodes army is the latest trade, and Nyström plans to combine it with a newly acquired Custodes Assault Dropship when making the next trade. The most recent video shows he is also expecting a Warbringer Titan, but it seems this model has yet to arrive.

“The response has been overwhelming”, Nyström tells Wargamer. “The first video had quite a slow start, but come video three and four, they are at 400k and almost 700k views as we speak.” “It’s been a huge success”, he adds.

This success hasn’t come without its troubles, though. “It’s been really challenging over the last few months as trades got bigger”, Nyström says. “We had one week where we had set up four different trades that all fell through that we had worked on for so long – at that time, I really felt like giving up.”

Warhammer 40k Warlord Titan swap - Games workshop photo of a Warlord Titan model

“But then out of the blue we got one really good trade, and it gave enough energy to help us power through”, he says. “A lot of people think these are videos we can make happen easily, but we spend probably up to 100 hours on each one with all the communication, recording, editing, and shipping.”

Nyström feels confident the Warlord Titan isn’t far away. “We aren’t quite there yet, but I have high hopes we’ll be there in a month or two”, he tells Wargamer. However, the channel seems to have taken on an additional swapping side quest. According to the latest video, Nyström is hoping that celebrity Warhammer darling Henry Cavill will be the one to trade a Warlord Titan for a fully-painted Custodes army.

For more 40k, check out our Imperium factions guide. We also have plenty of Age of Sigmar info in our armies guide.