By now, if you follow the hobby, you know that January's release is an expansion to the Hive Mind. (those tuned to the warp have felt the rumbling for months)
Despite the site having a serious Tau bent the last few months, I'm a Tyranid player to the core. The Tyranid aesthetic was what got me into the hobby in the first place. One look at that Trygon and I was hooked!
Very, very excited about this. Any Tyranid player will tell you this was a long time coming. The current codex was written two rule sets ago, and is direly outdated. There are whole units not worth taking because of the way they work under 6th ed. I am a little cautious, however, as rumors state that certain units like the mycetic spore, and Doom of Malatai are being removed entirely! (glad I didn't spend any more time sculpting that custom spore pod!)
This is the model I was most excited about -- and I hate it. The proportions are all wrong. It looks like a spikey potato with stubby little wings. Looks like they took the tervigon, popped the legs off and put some wings on it. I'm praying that when I see it in person it'll look different.
Oh, man! This thing looks like a Lovecraftian nightmare come to life! Cannot wait to paint this thing. Early rumors indicate that it will have a grapnel attack that draws infantry and small vehicles into its mouth! You KNOW I'm gonna magnetize that tongue to I can put a hapless space marine on it, like my Trygon base.
I think the Exocrine looks great too. I just feel that it should have been the proper model for the Tyrannofex, as opposed to the goofy rifle carrying build variant we got in the Tervigon kit. Maybe I'll get an additional one to run as a Tfex.
Hey, look! It's new Tyranid warriors! And they look exactly like... the old tyranid warriors. Uh... While it's cool that the kit now includes lash whips and bone swords, as well as parts to build a tyranid prime, you could get a decent tyranid prime out of the old kit extras. I love the design of the warriors, and I'm glad they didn't change it, but I'd rather they spent the effort creating kits for units that don't have a model, or are available only in finecast, like the venomthrope or the lictor.
Two carnifexes in the same box, at a discounted rate from the single purchase? Yes, please! I don't have any fexes yet, so I'm pretty stoked about this one. Rumors about the codex indicate that the extra tail bits and other custom biomorphs included in the sprue will actually be back in the rules!
While it's great that these are now available in plastic instead of finecast, and that they're slightly reduced in retail price from their resin predecessors, the kit is still insanely over-priced. As a professional who works in the toy industry, I can tell you exactly how much tooling and plastic goes into this kit, and the price is even more criminal than what GW charges for most of their models.
You only need to look at the Haruspex / Exocrine kit to see that the guard have half the plastic of that kit, yet are as expensive. Hell, look at the twin carnifex kit above, it has probably four times the plastic of the guard kit, and is only $20 more expensive. (yes, yes, I know the tools for the carnifexes have amortized over time, but still!)
It's a shame, because I'd really like to add these to my hive. I'll probably troll the secondary market and try to get some at a retailer discount.
Well, those are my thoughts on the new releases. I'm excited about several of them, and Saturday can't come soon enough! (I've just about had my fill of painting white armor!)
-trip
Hot damn, that haruspex is about enough to get me to buy a Nid army. I can't wait to go up against that thing. Got chills just thinking about it.
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