New Years Special: The 10th Edition Astra Militarum Codex Review

OK, last year, I did a tactics article on the assorted units of my Astra Militarum army. This year, I’m zooming out a bit, to talk about how the army feels now. I’ve got a good few games in, less so recently, but I keep my eye on the discourse. Its been a bumpy year for the Imperial Guard.  We got a new codex, and it was immediately patched. And then patched again.  They took away the basic Infantry Squad. They added a bunch of Kriegers, concepts making the jump from Forgeworld resin to plastic. Tournament win-rates fell, if that’s your thing. So, here’s my big picture thoughts on Codex Astra Militarum. What worked? What didn’t? Was it Kodex Krieg? How did the Balance Dataslates treat the book? For the answers to these and similar questions, read on. This will be a ramble, as I touch on topics as I pass them, and a new detachment was published only weeks ago, so its a bit unfocused.

OK, I’m not gonna beat about the bush. I’m gonna come straight to my key opinion, touch on detachments, especially the new one, before talking about Krieg, and then tanks. With the 10th ed codex, Astra Militarum infantry looks less like one force and more like four in a trench-coat, as dictated by the model range. Something like the four chaos marine factions compiled into one, but omitting the concept of Chaos Undivided. We have Cadian, Catachan, Krieg, and Tempestus forces. Each has its own grunt unit, at least one HQ, and at least one specialist infantry type, Cadians being the Ultramarines of the army. Catachan are currently the least supported, followed by Tempestus, but even then, it's entirely possible run a theme army using the vehicle pool to smooth any rough edges. You know, like marine factions all use Rhinos and that? This is broadly speaking a good thing. Guard players end up with a lot of choices, although I continue the dislike the loss of generic infantry options. The four regiments are very much reactions to the classic Infantry Squad, and now that's gone, so we are obliged to pick the closest regiment that fits. If we had a few more options I'd mind it less, or if one hit the same notes, but right now it feels like a vibes issue, only highlighted by what little background material there is the codex, which still mentions other regiments. From a more mechanical perspective though, these 4 regiments present a lot of redundancy. Guard in general tends to have a lot of good-enough, B Tier units, with those less desirable units mostly being niche vehicles or using unpopular weapons like missile launchers. There's not many bad choices if you know what you are doing. But, because key roles are covered multiple times, two phenomena tend to happen. The first is that people just gravitate towards whichever variant is "best", creating what might be called a mixed regiment or less charitably a Frankenstein's Monster. I find myself doing this a lot, especially in larger battles. The differences between the Battleline units for example are slight but very meaningful in this army, and as there is no generic option, I end up taking a combo-platter of Catachans/Krieg with some Cadians as a side. If I'm taking Heavy Weapons squads though, I'm likely taking Catachans though, as that's the best one for lascannons most of the time and Scout is always handy. Catachans in general are something of a sleeper hit TBH. Similarly, while I don’t field these myself, Kasrkin are the go-to infantry for so many tournament lists that its not even funny. While you can theme your force around a specific regiment as described above, you likely won’t, due to internal balance being what it is.

 

The second phenomena is that while 10th ed has rather loose army composition as it is, with this redundancy, the Astra Militarum can easily overpower such limitations. If you want a more elite army you can have upwards of 120 special forces dudes without even using the Bridgehead Assault detachment. That was a thing for a hot minute, wasn’t it? Funny they forgot Deep Strike for Scions too, bloody hell. And I'm sorry to make the space marine comparison again, it's gets a bit weird when special forces get outnumbered 3 to 1 by other, but lesser, special forces, ya know? If you just want to Zap Branigan the enemy with endless men, you can have 180 just in the battleline units for 1200ish points. Plus 27 heavy weapon teams for 600ish. Move things around a bit, add Officers, round it up to 2K, and you put them all in the Recon Element detachment for a cover save. Because 200 odd guys is something that's hard to see, OK. Maybe I'm mixing up thematic complaints with mechanical ones here, but I feel that GW's just-what's-inna-box philosophy is generating a few issues, and we might be better off reverting to something like the old doctrine system or what the Militia uses in Horus Heresy.  Would it not make more sense to just to treat basic Cadian, Catachan, and Krieg squads as minor variants of the same unit? That bit about Recon Element there ties into a wider complaint with the detachments in the codex; its not that they are necessarily bad, they are very much specialist things, with maybe one good trick or skew build, but these struggle to match Combined Arms in day-to-day play. Lethal Hits is just that good for an army based on shooting. The exception is the new Grizzled Regiment, which increases the availability of Orders and adds a lot of rerolls, plus also a Lethal Hits stratagem for good measure. Grizzled Regiment is probably the best detachment, full stop. This has properly borked the internal balance between detachments, to the point where I suspect nerfs are likely, and I'll be referring to that more later on. Right now? I wonder if its some form of apology, and/or over-correction.


With all that having been said, let's pivot to the main selling point of the codex: the Krieg units and the related Siege Regiment detachment. The amount of patching, release drama and anti-hype around this stuff is a big part of the reason I held off on deep analysis of the codex so long.  This was also something I'll admit to being very invested in, to the point of doing a long term project to make these new units. As the big new thing, you'd expect them to push it. You might expect this be the Kodex Krieg in all but name. Did it work out like that? No, not really. But if it had? I probably would not have mourned the loss of the old Infantry Squad as much. Krieg has a very distinctive look, are peak Imperial cannon fodder, and if the mechanics had backed that up I could have lived with it. My gut feeling is that is that Krieg is here and mostly good enough, and doesn’t overshadow existing units. But that’s not the same thing as saying their units are exciting, or that the other regiments are exciting.  Once you compensate for retired units… I don’t think anyone’s infantry tactics will have changed that much. Except maybe to put everything in Grizzled Regiment now, but even then old faves like Bullgrin and Rough Riders seem to be back in fashion. Because, with but a single Order, you can make them 2+ to hit with a reroll. Are we sure this was playtested? 

Siege Regiment, the de-facto Krieg detachment: I was gonna say this one was OK by the standards of the codex, but then the new Grizzled Regiment dropped and kinda broke the scale. Siege Regiment sets a trend here in that it was patched, probably should have been more properly playtested before hand, and now just gets overlooked. The Creeping Barrage thing was very characterful and desirable at first, but it was modified so much that you'd rarely take it. A penalty to enemy movement is nice, but it only triggers on a 5+, and the number of affected units is capped. An unreliable effect with a small payoff is not great. This relegated the detachment ability to effectively being either ignore cover for three targets or stealth for three units of your choice. That ain't nothing, and it helps with the artillery whom need the buff these days, but it ain't great. The stratagems are a lot more appealing, especially if you like infantry, but perhaps not good enough to replace Lethal Hits. At time of writing, in addition to its own unique strengths like Order economy and rerolls, Grizzled Regiment can do a lot of what Siege Regiment can, its buffs currently affecting artillery, and is the only real alternative to Combined Arms. So Siege Regiment is a thematic pick, but not necessarily a pragmatic one. 

Death Riders and Lord Marshall Dreir: I'm not gonna mince my words here, reactive moves are awesome. In an IgoUgo turn sequence this is immensely useful for high level play. The problem is, of course, the inevitable comparison to Attilan Rough Riders. Death Riders move two inches slower and lack the melta lance option, making them far less versatile as a counter charge unit. Rough Riders might plausibly take out a marine unit or damage a vehicle; Death Riders are gonna have a much harder time doing that. The gasmask cavalry do however have decent melee AP via power sabers and their nightmarish mares, so it's not all bad, but definitely a unit that needs finesse to use. The Lord Marshall can further compensate on the charge as he grants Devastating Wounds, and he's not bad in a scrum either. I do wonder why exactly he has three orders though. Mounted units are tricky to position as it is, due to their base size plus movement rules, and he's only got a 6 inch order range, with no way to improve that like the Lord Solar can. The points cost is pretty high too. Overall, unless you really want reactive movement or were working to a Charge of the Light Brigade theme, I don't see why you'd take these. An obvious miss, why hasn't this been addressed in a dataslate?

Krieg Command Squad: You will and should be noticing a pattern of comparison to other, per-existing units or concepts. These guys suffer from that too, and are disliked as they replace a Forgeworld HQ that gave their unit Feel No Pain 5+. Having FNP is far less common in this codex however, and in context the Krieg Command is pretty decent. Basic Krieg squads are about slugging matches on objectives and attrition, and the Command helps that in several ways. They aren't especially adaptable, and the “medic” is forgettable, but they make Krieg blobs a high OC anvil with a lot of power and plasma weaponry. Which then hits and wounds at +1, plus whatever Orders and Stratagems because battleshock is not a factor for them and casualties only make them angrier. The main criticism I would make however is one of omission. Krieg currently lack a second Officer option, and while the Servo Scribe helps with that, Krieg Commands don't have as good an Order economy as Cadians. Which, oddly, makes Cadian Officers better at babysitting artillery and heavy weapons, something you'd expect Krieg to have a talent for. See also: Grizzled Company, where that limitation suddenly vanishes, and you're looking at a critical mass of +1s and rerolls, but that's more a reflection of the detachment than this unit shining.

Krieg Battleline: OK, these aren’t new, but I’m mentioning them anyway. They are still good, see above, but that unit entry was a crime against the English language. And speaking of questionable quality control...

Krieg Combat Engineers: I would dearly love to know what happened with this unit's price. Was this a simple typo, one among a disconcerting number of gaffes? Or did someone honestly think 35 points was reasonable for something that could peak at 12 mortal wounds worth of output? These have been up and down in price since, with the Remote Mine rule nerfed, and honestly I think they are in weird place. They look like they should be the Krieg answer to Kasrkin or Scions, but the most direct comparison is actually the Catachan Jungle Fighters. Think disposable skirmishers. Combat Engineers are currently inexpensive, agile, and potentially very destructive to objective-sitters or careless vehicles, and have a melee option. Jungle Fighters are also those things, just with more bodies, and much more OC. They are much less good with respects to Mortal Wounds, but they have access to the Grenades Stratagem too, and a Vox Unit to potentially refund it. Combat Engineers do have use cases, and if you going full Krieg you will have a good time, but be aware of diminishing returns due to how their Grenadiers rule works.

Krieg Heavy Weapon Squads: These are basically a gimmick. A deeply fun gimmick, especially with the flamer option, but still a gimmick. Most of the discourse around these is about how to ensure those flamers get to fire, possibly via Taurox. That feels a bit more gamey than trench warfare, but OK. Meanwhile, the lascannon option is the undercut by the alternatives, and unless 11th edition mixes things up, there's no pressing need for heavy stubbers. Which is a damn shame.

Artillery Teams: By far the most unique of the Krieg units, Artillery Teams have a rather different footprint and execution than their obvious rival, the Field Ordnance Battery. These present as one model on a single huge 130mm base, as opposed to two on two fairly-huge 100mm bases, which has implications for both positioning and their attacks. Off the bat, the FOB can target two different units and benefit from Blast twice, while Artillery Teams are but one model, but are more durable and actually easier to conceal. The FOB has the best special rule, but Artillery are not as dependent on Orders. Both have some undesirable weapon options, but the FOB has the fewest and the lightest to choose from, while the AT is all indirect and/or heavier. With the Artillery Team currently cheapest of the two, I feel that choosing between is much more like a choice than a foregone conclusion. Which is good. Just pick the one that slides into your army most easily. Either the Heavy Mortar or the Bombast Field Gun, depending on points. Other weapon choices for these units remain a frequent trap however.

So, were the new Krieg units a success? Kinda; nothing leaps out as a must-have, most have a use case, but only the horses seem naff.  I just don’t love them. On balance, these are functional, and the internal balance of the faction seems steady. But the amount of rules patching and price changes it took to get here doesn't reflect well in the product as a whole. That said: these are probably more accessible than the Forgeworld versions, at least.


OK, enough about the meat; let’s talk metal. Perhaps paradoxically, the vehicle pool received far less attention for this ruleset, and ended up with a net positive for the treadheads. There is now a tank -centric detachment, Combined Arms loves tanks too, and there is now an Officer version of the Rogal Dorn. That last one now brings the possible number of Dorns in a list to six, which probably would be another balance issue if you could actually fit that on a standard table and terrain layout. There's also an APC detachment, which seems fine, although it's hop-on-hop-off approach isn't my cup of tea. I don't have Kasrkin or any Tauroxes. With the exception of that command tank, the actual datasheets are mostly unchanged, so almost all the work was done at the Detachment level. That new Grizzled Regiment detachment also works great with tanks. Imagine boosted AP and/or ignore cover on every gun a tank has, plus reroll ones, plus an Order. You can do that on a Baneblade too, so I’m totally sure all of that that won’t get nerfed.  Anyway, those mostly unchanged datasheets of tanks. This means that what was good before (usually) still is, guard armour always being a strength. Its not like they did something dumb like retire the Infantry Squad. 

 

Wait.

Sorry, I mean the Leman Russ. But there’s a butt-load of stuff left to wither on the vine. GW seems to want to wind back a lot of the more "Apocalypse scale" vehicles game wide, and in the Guard this manifests by superheavies frequently being discouraged in some rules-exclusion-sorta-way, and self-propelled guns still suffering the Indirect Fire nerfs we’ve had since 2024. There's at least a dozen vehicles currently languishing in mediocrity. I don't think many of these were super popular in of themselves, except when fashionably unbalanced, Indirect was nerfed for good reason, so perhaps no harm done. But it was a missed opportunity. I mean, they attempted to make the Leman Russ Eradicator relevant again. They failed, but an effort was there. They didn't fix the Vanquisher though. Or the Punisher. And they broke the demolisher cannon. <sigh>  They could have done some point tweaks in December, but they didn't. Instead, Grizzled Company happened, which has the effect of making superheavies and self-propelled guns threatening again, as well as making everything that was already good even better. 



Conclusion 
As the general tone of this article might imply, I’ve been a bit back and forth on this codex and the current state of the Astra Militarum as a faction. One thread is obvious lack of quality control evident by the amount of rules patching. I’m not gonna begrudge them for fixing mistakes, because once the fix is made, that’s OK. Something is only late until the point it arrives, then it is here. But with the Grizzled Company, I fear such mistakes are being repeated. Remember what happened with Bridgehead Assault? The initial tournament popularity, then nerfs, and subsequent price hikes? If GW does any noteworthy rules patches before 11th edition, I suspect that this detachment will be a focus. Its not Ork Dakka detachment bad, but its early days. (EDIT circa February: Told ya, didn't I? Its not a total nerf, but it lost reroll 1s to wound.) Another thread is one of vibes. There is a functional army here, but the connective tissue is kinda absent. Its a bunch of combos and key units, rather than something that looks like a regiment. And given the appeal of guard is military-space-soldier-WWII-fantasy, that’s a bit of a problem. Related to that is how anti-climatic the Krieg units proved to be, although I did set myself up for a fall on that one. Overall though? A good enough codex?  A conservative codex. A codex that, like so many in 10th ed, drops a lot of units. Perhaps a codex better for tanks than infantry or artillery, compromised in places, but still very playable. I’m just bitter about the Infantry Squad, I think.

Transformers: Age of the Primes Micronus Prime

We are a few waves into Age of the Primes now, and it very much seems to have been business as usual. Aside from the Primes themselves, we've been getting a lot of G1 characters, Menasor style combiners, a splattering of other continuities, and a few more repaints than you might like. Yeah, it's basically Legacy again, but not that glorious first wave of Legacy United. The Primes themselves are doing alright, but they were definitely playing things safe. I mean, it's hard to look interesting or cool when you are in the same line as The Fallen, but being an alien carformer with an understated colour scheme wasn't, ahem, gonna set the world alight. Not when The Fallen did that just by standing still too long. Guess which two toys I might be referring to. Anyway. With Onyx Prime that started to change, he's a centaur BTW, and with today's subject we have possibly the most interesting deluxe of recent times. Unfortunately, Micronus gave me a wee case of Buyer’s Remorse, because he simply does not live up to that potential.

Now, Micronus Prime is the god of little guys, and a little guy himself, approximately core class in dimensions and complexity. As the name suggests, his domain is Mini-Cons and any small transformer that partners with another larger one. He's actually the third supernatural entity to have ties to Mini-Cons as a creator, the original being Unicron, although he's the one that's stuck. Micronus appeared in the 2015 Robots in Disguise series, which is now old enough to count as nostalgia, and this toy is very close to that depiction. He's got that very distinctive Prime-era face design, lacking a nose, and his translucent build evoking his look on the show. As a toy, he's somewhat basic, turning into what resembles an Armada style Mini-Con Storage Panel, an Arc Reactor, or less romantically, a hockey puck. The fact the the god of little guys and murder pets transforms into an abstract shape isn’t a shocker. RID2015's Mini-Cons often transformed as such so they could be launched from larger toys, see also cassetteformers, and especially those data disks from Fall of Cybertron. What brings it down is a design/production flaw on my copy that prevents his legs from lining up exactly right in disk mode, but there’s enough give in the plastic to make you think can get there. I would discover during the photoshoot that my attempts to do this seems to have caused stress marks in the knees; I should have known better. Then again, maybe it wasn't me, I've seen a report since that a toy came with that damage.

Anyways, Micronus is otherwise nicely articulated for his size, nicely presented, and has this little Chimera Stone artefact in lieu of a weapon. It plugs in via a 5mm peg, and I honestly kinda forget about it. He’s a lot like that Eject toy from a few years ago, and in isolation, you might wonder where the money is going if he just turns into a shape. The answer is, an exosuit.

 

If Micronus himself looks like a hockey puck, the exosuit he is packaged within looks like the goalie. This seems to have been created from whole cloth to justify the pricepoint, and my initial thought that this was a new take on the Apex Armour from Transformers: Prime, and while that is a stated influence by the designer, it's not actually named as such. There's apparently a bit of Pretender in there too, but I am reminded of a Prime-era exosuit playset in the chest. Visually, it makes for an interesting contrast between it and Micronus, or indeed Transformers in general. It's got a faintly anonymous head, gun fingers, and perhaps more a piloted mech look than Cybertronians in general. It's got a similar build to Micronus, so it's short for a deluxe, but it's stocky. It's also a lot more functional than Micronus is, because this is not only a deluxe-ish robot mode, it's also a bike for him to ride, and a weaponizer mode for use with other toys. It's the meat of the set. What I did notice though as I came to write this post, is that each mode has a  disappointing near-miss quality to it. The robot lacks a waist joint, which I'm inclined to forgive under the circumstances, but the back kibble I'm less fond of. In a stroke of absolute genius, the legs compress into a single big wheel, but the resulting monobike lacks a kickstand and absolutely does not balance by itself. You have to bend the arms down at the elbow for balance, and that's about as involved as the arms get in the transformation. So, while having Micronus ride this is rather adorable, it's flawed. The weaponizer mode meanwhile is simply four chunks, which goes completely unmentioned on the box, and I'm not surprised. I can't be arsed to photograph it. And I can't be arsed to take better photos.

I want to like Micronus Prime more than I do. He's tied to one of my favourite Transformers concepts, and after dozens of routinely competent deluxes, he's actually interesting in concept. He is not, however, that great. Or good at anything in particular. Or interesting in execution. He's passable in lot of things, some of those things being notably unusual, but he doesn't excel at any of them. And its not even failing in any interesting way; I've written about some uneven toys in the past, but at least they sucked in memorable ways or charmed me beyond that. Micronus Prime falls instead into the pit of apathy. There is not some fundamental misunderstanding, a glaring fault, or a lack of creativity. Its a matter of mediocre execution, being neither good enough or bad enough to hold my attention. Mostly alright overall, but wait for a sale, and be careful of the translucent plastic.

Plamo: The Astra Militarum Hydra

 

While I now have a non-trivial number of armydudesmen, I don't have that much experience with the official vehicle models. Aside from the occasional indulgence or bargain, everything I have like that, is some form of kitbash/salvage job. While I have  previously dabbled with the Chimera type vehicles, today's subject is my first new build example, a Hydra.

As a unit, a Hydra sits in a awkward place. Its an anti-air flak tank, designed to inexpensively defend against aircraft. 10th ed, as you may observe, has not been kind to aircraft. They were always an odd fit for 40k anyway, something best saved for the biggest possible games or Epic, so it's perhaps not a shocker that GW is seemingly phasing planes out. It's 28mm scale after all. Perhaps they should take the Knights too, but I digress. So why might you want a Hydra then? Well, in addition to being a relatively cheap tank-shaped object for doing tank things, it gets bonuses against Fly keyword targets. That list includes a great many nuisances that deep strike into your lines and any number of advanced xenos vehicles that think floating is cool. Under ideal circumstances, those autocannons reroll to hit, possibly with Lethal Hits, and then wound on a 2+, with a reroll. Said autocannons do not get as many shots as it looks like they should, which is sad. But these do have a 72 inch range, so it can cover an entire board. I've been thinking of acquiring one for a while, and then I saw one cheap at Brum Toyfair, and here we are.

As a kit, the Hydra is a revised, call it second generation, style of Guard vehicle. The base hull and tracks are visually very similar to the plastics we got in the late 90's, but refined and rationalised. There's no faffing with individual track wheels, which is nice. That's all on its own sprue, with the version specific stuff on its own separate sprue, which in this case involves the Wyvern as an alternative build. This does look like a simple thing to magnetise, but I couldn't be arsed. The Wyvern is currently a solution in search of a problem, and while hoards may well come back into fashion soon, I'm not short on blast weapons. While a largely straightforward build, two odd flaws presented themselves. The first was that while the Hydra sprue had numbered parts, the track/hull sprue did not. Odd, if harmless. The second is more involved and takes a moment to explain. The Hydra features crewmen models and an open structure, with the ability rotate the business end as a big turret. Now, the sensible thing to do in such a build is to paint the crew separately, you don't have the space to do otherwise, but here comes the problem. The gunner is holding on to the controls and acting as a linchpin for the rotation. Odd, and annoying to work around. As a kit its fine, inoffensive, but maybe 10% more involved than it needed to be. But then again, I’ve never been a fan of exposed crewmen on vehicles anyway, so maybe I’m being unfair?

I made a dumbass mistake with this one, I assembled the guns in the wrong order, which is why the barrels are a bit shorter than usual. I kitbashed a crude hunter killer missile, but only built one crew model, which received a headswap and green stuff rags. You only really need one for this tank, and the other looks good for use in a command squad or similar.  Painting was then achieved via spraycan, drybrush and wash techniques. I’ve got nothing especially interesting to say here, these methods work well-enough, despite my mistakes. Which unfortunately include the crew controls, as that big screen was a problem.

I’m not especially happy with this model as a project. But I suppose its good enough for the gaming table.

State of the Blog Post Winter 2025

Well, its that time of year again, time for a few words on the blog, my status, and how Chrimbo will affect output.

 

In the grand scheme of things, I am level and self-managing, but somewhat flat and directionless. I’ve been trying to address the whole career/life/social issue, to very limited success. Despite trying Meetup, Facebook, and assorted gaming venues, I’ve yet to find a regular in-person social group. My usual 40K sparring partner has moved onto other things, so I made the point of trying new stuff, and nothing has stuck. My Autism is continually on my mind with respects to this, but also a desire not to punish myself for not connecting with people. I try, and I keep trying, but it remains difficult and imposing. Workwise, I’ve decided to completely rework my approach, and try to find something specific to aim for, rather than merely trawling job listings for ideas. I’ve been seeking advice, and done a personality quiz for neurodivergent people, but this continues to be a problem. And by no means a new one. But maybe I have an idea now, and maybe I can accept it if I don’t. On the plus side, as I have felt better about things, and know myself better, I’ve got more energy to at least address the problem. Also, what social avenues I do have seem to be holding. My RPG group is great, TFN is a plus, I see my niece on occasion, and I’m supposed to be Gamesmastering again soon.

 

Creatively, this year has seen a return to Orks, which had all but vanished with my Guard fixation.  Playing games with the greenies was a shot in the arm, giving motivation to modernise and finish my ancient horde. That way I can play in a GW store. Its relatively cheap to do so too, and while I haven’t lost interest in Guard, I think I’ve taken them as far as I can for now. My interest in Transformers, Gunpla and such remains, but I need to have a clear-out. Also, if I am running an online RPG, I probably need to think about that. With respects to blog posts, these trends and those in the paragraph above lead to me having blog ideas, but less of a buffer than I would usually have. The blog will continue, at least for now, but some change in either content or regularity seems possible.


So, after all that waffle nobody is likely to read, what is the Chrimbo update schedule? 

Regular updates will cease on December 14th.
An Astra Militarum themed special will go up on New Years Day.
Regular posting will resume on January 11th.

Happy Holidays, and Merry Christmas!

My Time at TFN: Mini-Con Reading 2025

 Well, I went to the TFN Reading Mini-con. There I worked on the Toy-Fu stall and attempted to socialise. And, yeah, it was nice time on all fronts.

 

My experience started at about 10am Friday, I started my long journey to Reading. By chance, I ran into an ex-coworker, and took the opportunity to catch up on the bus. Nice to see her. I was running 30 minutes or so ahead of schedule, and the trains were tolerable. I had to use the London Underground once, but that was as bad as it got. My only real difficulty was getting a bit lost on the way to the hotel. Said hotel was old, but decent. I got a fridge and microwave in my room for some reason, with both a quality chipshop and the venue in easy walking distance. The initial plan was to set up the table that afternoon, which would have been a massive relief, but this was not to be. Unfortunately, I didn't find that out until I got to the hall at 3PM. Which was somewhat annoying. Friday was then spent in the pleasantly quiet hotel bar, chatting and talking nerd shit. Such conversations were the highlight of this weekend, although outside of transactions I didn't get to chat much otherwise.

The actual convention followed the next morning, although I was a touch late to set-up. I'd prepaid for breakfast, and that overlapped with the hall opening. I didn't dawdle, but if I pay for brekkie, I'm fucking having it. As it turned out, I wouldn't get a proper lunch anyway. Working on the stall was  a bit of a blur, as it usual, although things weren't that hectic. We shifted a non-trivial amount of plastic, including some stuff I'd donated, with a notable second wind in the afternoon, as we put out some Japanese exclusives. I didn't really get to attend any panels, but as we were all in the same hall, you could hear them. Kinda. Audio issues plagued the events, the Blokees panels being a notable sufferer. I should maybe have brought my ear plugs. Then followed the close, the packing up, and more time in the hotel bar. I called it just before 10, only for some other guests to wake me at 4. I didn't really get back to sleep after that, and obviously no-one else was about, so I opted for an earlier train. That worked out OK, but St Pancras Station was one long queue and a riot-in-waiting. I got back to Nottingham about lunchtime, grabbed a sarnie, some groceries on the way back, and then home.

 

So, the toys. I didn't really get much this time,  actually under budget, although this isn't unusual for me these days, especially so late in the year. I dunno if any of these are blog material, but there are:

Retro Brawn: The only really new thing I got, a fairly nice little mould. I dunno why I keep buying this guy, but it seems to workout for me.

Pathfinder: I never picked up that new Speeedia Cosmos, and there's a history with this repaint. Not bad, but very hollow.  Also a girl, and a Gobot, if either factor is of interest.

A knock-off not-Devastator set: I always want to buy something from Toy-Fu, and this caught my eye. It's an upscaled version of the DX9 Hulkie set. No, making an unauthorised reproduction of an unlicensed Transformer does not produce the real thing.  Nor is it actually that great. But for a tenner I've paid a lot more to get a lot less.

And finally, two mini-figures gifted by a kind friend.


All in all? A good time, what went wrong wasn’t a crisis, and I'm happy with the socialising I did. I still need to interact more though.

Plamo: The 30 Minutes Missions Roundnova I

Righty, it seems that I might back on that 30MM bullshit.

 

Some context first. This was another Brum Toyfair purchase, there always being at least a couple of mecha stalls there. As a project, this was completed in-between drying stages of my Kommandos, the claim of 30 minutes completion time being plausible even if I wasn't rushing. While 30MM kits can get very samey, this one is very recent, and is doing something new: fabric effect parts.

The Roundnova is, shockingly, round. Its got a domed head and rounded body, and might easily be called friend shaped. This, and it's heavy backpack might lead you to think it's small going by the box alone, but no it's a fairly big lad.  In terms of construction, it's nothing revolutionary despite it's looks. There’s a 2019 joint sprue in there, but most of it goes unused, the hips and shoulders being new pieces of the same style, which omit shoulder amour. The hands are an unusual three fingered claw, although you get closed versions to hold weapons. It feels a touch light for it's size, not badly so, but it's a noticeably hollow robot. The Roy Roy is a little charmer, with a translucent piece for it's sensor, and a build that says champion hugger. The missile backpack, like everything else, is modular. And finally, there's a selection of Liefield-style pouches, cast in a beige with a fabric effect.

 

While good as 30MM kits often are, this one does have a few aspects I dislike. The gun for example seems to be screaming for an actual barrel, it's just got an exposed connector, and the shield has more of a sensor dish vibe.  Going by stock photos, the Roundnova II variant combines these two to great effect, but OK. You can swap guns, it's no issue, and half the fun. Unfortunately, the knee joints are cast in the same colour as the fabric, which prompted me to break out the paint. I also picked out the missiles and tarted up the gun. I weathered the robot in my usual way, but I used different washes on the metal and fabric bits. I dunno if it worked that well, but it worked OK.

 

Overall? A good time.

 

Transformers: Titans Return Shuffler is Something that Exists

 

 The 1987 Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers Shuffler toy

 

One thing I enjoyed immensely, but has basically vanished from modern Transformers, is the idea of a pocket money toy. Maybe its inflation, maybe its the focus on collectors, maybe its Hasbro treating everything outside of Generations to be shovelware, maybe it's all three. But we don't really get fun for a fiver any more, the closest thing lately being those targetmasters Rise of the Beasts had. The best example of the concept was, perhaps paradoxically, in Generations, as part of of Titans Return, with what are known as the "solo Titanmasters". These started out life as a concession to reality. Titans Return was a modernised spin on the Headmaster concept, where little dudes became the heads of bigger dudes and drove their altmodes. This tends to offer much play value, but you have problems if you loose the head, hence the solo releases. Spare heads on a blister card, basically. The designers however things pushed further by adding an accessory vehicle in the pack, allowing the little guy to be more than just a head, and providing another weapon for larger figures. This was, almost without exception, a joy. Its also the main difference between Hasbro and TakaraTomy on the toyline. TT just didn't sell Titanmasters by themselves, instead splitting up those components for use in other price points. They were trying make the toys better fit their market and their version of Headmasters fiction. Umm, OK, sure, if that's what you have to do. But you did the solo release thing in the 80’s, so why not? The TT versions are undeniably nice. But it gets weird when Hasbro does a Japanese tribute toy and TT doesn't release it. Shuffler is one such example, and honestly the lack of a Japanese release for him seems contrarian. Guys seriously, all you had to change was nuffin.

So who, or possibly whom, is Shuffler anyway? Its not an unreasonable question to ask, and answering it helps with the word count with respects to a rather simple toy.  He has almost no fictional presence, but he and his kin are noted for being the black-market-human-organs sort of expensive to obtain, as a Japanese G1 exclusive. Part of the Autobot Master Warriors, Shuffler is the elephant one, and presumably his titanmaster power is that he never forgets. As a titanmaster, Shuffler now operates a touch differently from the original toy, with the elephantine bits refocused onto the accessory vehicle. 

The actual robot/head bit is typical of its kind. Shuffler’s robot mode features a balljointed neck that becomes the neck joint of his head mode, balljointed shoulders, and conjoined legs that move at the hip and knee. This is upgraded articulation versus the original headmasters, and in a smaller size. Its not spectacular posability, but it is pragmatic possibility; Shuffler is at that sorta size where designers have to think seriously about choking hazards and breakages. Shuffler features two pegholes on the underside of his feet, plus an angled tab/heel-spur, allowing for a rock solid connection onto other toys, so he's disinclined fall off base modes and such. The robot mode has a unique headsculpt, not a given with these, but it and the robot mode in general lacks paint. This is an area where TakaraTomy consistently is better than Hasbro, and the most obvious sign that this is a budget release. Granted, the head is a point of friction, so you don’t want that much paint on it, but something for the eyes or chest would have been nice. 

The head mode is, once again, typical of the Titanmaster. You ball up the robot mode and the head holds together via friction. This scheme is common to all titanmasters, the main variation being the faceplate that personifies the head, which can have a rather different design aesthetic from the rest of the sculpt. As these plates were only screwed in, there was/is a cottage industry in 3rd party faces, which is outside of my remit today, but I just wanted to mention it. Shuffler's head form is proportioned to fit deluxe bodies, and features three different colours of paint app. Its a good noggin.

 

If we bring the accessory vehicle into things we get three more modes, although in two of them Shuffler is an optional extra as he just stows unobtrusively in head mode rather than doing anything structural. The elephant mode, aka the main event, is a simple affair with little useful articulation, but has a neck and trunk joint thanks to the transformation. Its simply but nicely presented too, with paint around the shoulders and painted eyes. Shuffler just kinda goes in the belly, and remains there for the weapon mode. While not so much an elephant gun as a handheld missile pod, its quite convincing and top three for the price point. I just which there was paint picking out those missiles. The tank mode meanwhile ends up with a rotating turret, with Shuffler plugging into the back tracks, so he's slightly more involved there, if still somewhat optional. You have to grade for the price, but there's no bad mode here.

 

Shuffler is both an excellent case study of the solo titanmaster play pattern, and a great toy on his own terms. However, as a late wave release he's hard to obtain, and TakaraTomy just had to be weird about it. All they had to release it as is, maybe with a few more paint apps, and they would have had a winner. But no, they had to break the whole play pattern, an unforced error. Shuffler is not just something that exists, he's a rare, and totally unambiguous, example of Hasbro beating TakaraTomy at their own game.

And Alchemist Prime isn't bad either.