If you've been living the the warp for the bast few weeks (or half hour, depending on your local time distortion levels), this weekend marked 30 years of the Space Marine; Warhammer 40,000's most iconic hero (and a few years later, villains). To celebrate, they released a remaster of their very first Space Marine, the LE-2 Imperial Marine



The model seemed to be an instant hit, selling out at my local GW in only 5 minutes. I only managed to get a copy because there were two window copies that had been forgotten about, and even then the second one was sold in seconds.


For your £18, the price of your average Space Marine character, you get an up-scaled and greater detailed version of that very first marine, armed with a combi-disintegrator (a strength 5 ap2 instant death gun that can be used more than once), combat knife and Disintegration Pistol. You also get some rules to use it in your games of 40k, as a free upgrade for any Space Marine (this guy will become an auto-upgrade for sure). All of this is packaged in a retro-looking box reminiscent to those earlier kits. I wouldn't quite call it a presentation box like GW did, but it's a nice box as far as boxes go. 


Interestingly you do get a few options, in the form of alternative shoulder pads. The rest of the model is fairly straightforward; multi-part, yet mono-posed. 

Whilst everyone else will paint it up for their force (or stuck it on ebay with a 3000% mark-up) I thought I'd go down a different path...


And ta-da! A new Chaos Lord of Tzeentch on a Disc. My fluff-concept for this guys is that he was a marine of a forgotten chapter (or legion), lost in the warp, but rather than be consumed he was moulded by it and became a champion of Tzeentch. Keeping his colours, he chose to be a warning to those who would forget him so easily. The main additions besides the disc were some Raptor shoulder pads, a Dark Vengeance Lord's backpack (Which is reminiscent of retro CSM power packs so it suits the model) and a Tzeentch knife. These were simple additions which greatly change the look of this model, and is something just a little different.


I plan to paint it just like this original model I did for a painting contest, but heavily beaten and worn. It will be a fun addition to the force, and may become part of a Tzeentch aligned chaos force to go with the Thousand Sons.  

All-in-all, a fun little model that was quickly snapped up by fans across the globe. For those who have one, you have a piece of history. Keep it, enjoy it, and if possible, find an original copy to go with it. It started the Space Marines as we know them, and it stands out as one of the greats.