It's true. There's a new Space Wolf codex out for 40K, the fourth since the codex cycling began, and all three original characters - Ragnar, Ulrik and power armoured Njal - are still available, over 21 years after they first appeared in White Dwarf.
Off the top of my head they're not just the oldest official representatives of the named character models - with the original Ghazghkull and Yarrick long gone - but the oldest of everything usually thought of as old: the full sisters of battle range, the various metal guard regiments, and the 28mm leman russ and chimera, the DA and BA characters from Angels of Death, the infamous Ork warbuggy kit, the wartrakk, even the Eldar phoenix lords and jetbike, and presumably all of the warlocks currently available. Is there anything older still getting pride of place? Ulrik's on the first page of the webstore today.
After the discussion last week it may seem looking closely little has changed in all this time, but the change can be seen more clearly in the case of Ragnar in this conversion.
In the age of Oldhammer elevating forgotten, abandoned and superseded classics, and with the release schedule for 40K more packed than for decades, if not ever, and maybe a certain level of mainstream snobbery towards older sculpts, isn't this a little unusual?
What's protecting them? Is it GW at such a delicate point in its history that it prefers to focus on releasing new products - elaborating and recodifying - rather than going back and spending time on updating the old? Or is there something less obvious going on..?
While it may be too late for 'old' Oldhammer to benefit, with so much now so long out of production, it does suggest players who are fond of the intermediate and later years may have an easier time with a 'new' Oldhammer, which could then be labelled 'Midhammer'.
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