I think the cursed monkey paw just curled a finger, because a beloved Warhammer 40K model – the Space Marine Thunderhawk – has returned in plastic… but not as you might expect.
I'd say that the community is very 'broken up' about this, but it's really the Warhammer 40K ship that's in pieces. Literally: the Thunderhawk is back with a brand-new plastic model, but it's a ruined pile of slag. The "Thunderhawk Impact Site" is a terrain kit that splits the Space Marine transport into multiple ruined pieces you can scatter across the battlefield. Considering how the post showing this off is tantalizingly titled "Revealed: The plastic Thunderhawk gunship," I have to applaud Warhammer's bravado. That's some mighty fine trolling.
The community seems to agree. It's putting its hands together for this thoroughly silly bait and switch, with one of the most upvoted comments on a reddit thread discussing the reveal from ThatAdamGuy summing the whole situation up nicely: "Some top tier shitposting, and I love it."
They're not wrong. Fans have been waiting decades to get their hands on a plastic Thunderhawk, because this venerable troop transport has only ever been featured in small-scale games like Legions Imperialis or as an enormous, unwieldy beast made from metal or resin for Warhammer 40K/Horus Heresy. These latter models were also prohibitively expensive, so the community has been patient in its hope for a cheaper alternative. I guess we'll just have to keep dreaming for now.
We may not be getting any Thunderhawk air support any time soon, and the new Space Marine range is still a ways off... but you can pick up a host of new Marine models via the Armageddon box set, which is like Christmas for fans. It's currently $248.95 at Amazon instead of almost $300, while UK fans can find it for a slightly reduced £178 at Amazon (down from the RRP of £185).
It's unclear when this Thunderhawk scenery kit will arrive, and Warhammer claims it's "still a way off in the future." However, it should make an appearance in photos from the upcoming Space Marine Codex, so I guess it can't be too far away.
As many have rightly pointed out, there also seems to be a knowing wink to this announcement – which makes me think an actual plastic Thunderhawk model is coming to Warhammer 40K in the not-so-distant future. We'll just have to wait and see, but I guess it couldn't hurt to keep our fingers crossed.
The latest edition is well under way, and the new Warhammer 40K Ork models are good enough to make me want to declare WAAAGH on all other factions.
- See the latest Warhammer 40K offers at Amazon
