What was the reaction to space marines like when they first came out?

>>95969491 (OP)
Judging by how 40k instantly outsold Fantasy Battle, incredibly good.
And the RTBO1 plastics? You could get them at the mall shrink wrapped together with Rogue Trader. It was revolutionary.
Remember Malls?

>>95969491 (OP)
Probably "OP is a fag" scribbled on a piece of papyrus or something, idgaf

>>95969491 (OP)
Fuck knows, that was pre-internet, just a bunch of hairy blokes thinking "huh, this looks neat" probably.

>>95969491 (OP)
Old Grog who played 1st through to 5th ed here. The reaction for many was amazement, wonder, etc at such a complete system and setting in a single (Rogue Trader) book. It was almost an RPG with the amount of story and settings ideas. Most of the ideas where stoloen ffrom other media (2000ad, Micheal Morcock, LOTR, Battletech, Starship Troopers, etc), but this just made it seem more familiar and cooler. Everyone knew what elves, dwarves and knights were, so sci fi versions seemed easy to accept for a tongue in cheek wargame.

You have to compare the release to other sci fi figures/games of the time, most were pretty crap in comparison and either consisted of solely rule publishers with no figures, or a few figure makers with no attached games. Those few that did make figures and rules had VERY small ranges, or a setting that only had a couple of models of a single race fighting another limited group.

40k dumped a much larger range of models and races onto the market in one go, as well as encouraging players to make up new things themselves, use models from other producers, scratchbuild stuff and proxy, allowing players to easily make up any sort of narrative based army or battle they could think of and that appealed to them. I built Ork stompas and battlefortresses out of plastic card, played space marines against Skaven and undead whfb armies, or fought Tyranids against battletech mechs or Dr Who Daleks. The early editions had rules for making stats for whatever you had lying around and we made the most of them.

It all started to change around 3rd edition, when the "you must only use stuff we sell in our games!" and shop and tournament gameplay/product advertising became the norm. Imaginative players are very difficult to find nowadays, with most just playing cookie cutter games and formats and some actually get indignant if you suggest they make up fun stuff themselves. Oh well, different generation, different strokes, I suppose.

>>95969491 (OP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujQ-nMc0WGE

>>95970755
Do you think there's still a point in getting into 40k today? With all the negativity on this board and the way GW has been acting in recent years and the sheer scope of the lore and how much of that lore is actually seen as degrading to the franchise, I'm not sure anymore. I could build one army and play it with some people and that'd be nice but it's not... it's not this. It's not experience, it's not how it used to be. Can't be replicated I suppose. I'm also in my mid-20s so I feel like I started too late regardless. Is there any point?

>>95971595
>Is there any point?
Not with that attitude. Of course 4chan will always be full of people that complain and whine about everything. In the end it's just a game if you have someone to play it with it can be fun. I haven't played 40K but I recently got into wargames because a friend needed someone to play the new Old World warhammer with and we have fun with it.

>>95970755
>
Not that anon but as a counter-example:

Stargrunt2 from Ground Zero Games came out around the same time. It's an excellent game and had an unusually large range of minis. What it liked was any real world building - a few pages on the settting (which was shared with Full Thrust and Dirtside also from GZG) is all you got.

Getting all three of rules, minis and lore was exceedingly rare.

>>95971786
*lacked

>>95969491 (OP)
When I was a kid, the FLGS I frequented was moving and dumping a bunch of its merch, so I picked up Rogue Trader for kind of cheap. I thought the art was pretty cool and was kind of mixed about the way the minis looked. Gave me a lot of 2,000 AD and Simon Bisley vibes but I enjoyed more realistically proportioned sculpts like the stuff from Ral Partha and occasionally Grenadier. Citadel Miniatures used to have more realistic proportions too, until they went full Warhammer/40k. I remember a time when White Dwarf used to be a more general gaming magazine and GW/Citadel imported games from other places. Different company now, but also Rogue Trader hits a little different from 40k

Pic: One of my favorite marine designs didn't make the cut. I preferred it over the beakies, which I thought looked a little bit weird

>>95970600
The internet was in its infancy but was around a little before Rogue Trader. All that was just a little ahead of www though.

>>95970755
in fairness, Priestly was working on that system since like 1980 or something

>>95971595
Meh. I mean, it's basically MtG in its collectable, buy the newest thing attitude, and it's priced for people in a higher income bracket than (you). If you've never played a miniatures game before, it's a pretty bad place to start, given it's high model count. I personally prefer Malifaux these days, given that painting busty babes and monsters is infinitely more fun than painting Original Space Marine Chapter donut steel's pants for the 80 billionth time. If you do, pick the army that most interests you, and viciously sodomize anyone who tells you to "just play Astartes, bro, they're easy to play."

>>95975201
Forgot to mention, but the demented faggots you see online don't actually show up to game stores, so ignore them.

>>95971630
TOW was designed to be fun in the classic sense, it's a greatest-hits compilation of old Fantasy mechanics. Modern 40k is some sort of frankenstein between MTG and DOTA2 where the goal is to activate your gotcha combo at the right time, not outthink and outmaneuver your opponent.

>>95969491 (OP)
it was the 80s.....it was the most awesome thing that ever existed.....30 plastic marines for $20. 10 metal terminators for $20.

>>95971595
Stop taking 4chan's opinions on anything seriously.
This is the place people go to be assholes for it's own sake, not to have a well reasoned point or argument.

>>95970755
>Most of the ideas where stolen
I think you mean all of them. WH40K are most intellectually and creatively bankrupt game company ever, so naturally they're the most successful.
AI didn't create the slop, the slop was always with us, feeding on faggots like this.

>>95978063
>AI didn't create the slop
Of course it didn't, AI can't create anything you fucking retard, but congrats on "getting" it, I guess.

>>95976632
>30 Marines for $20
Accounting for inflation would be around $60. That's a single fucking Smurf Tactical Squad now.

>>95981162
60 bucks for 20 models is still pretty standard for troops in GW games outside 40k, and outside gw you can easily do 20 for 30-40

>>95978063
midwit post

>>95981181
This doesn't make me feel better.

>>95971595
Go to where people are playing 40k. Look around. Take note of how many aren't visibly near to/middle age. Take note of how many are unkempt or trying to larp as teenagers. Take note of the price of 40k products.

If you do so you'll notice it's an aged game for an aged crowd. If you think it's worth spending thousands of dollars on pennies worth of plastics and paints to go hang out with the very last hold outs of 1990s/2000s nerds, the guys who never figured out their lives even at the last moment, all to play a sloppily made 40+ year old game whose owners are now more interested in wringing out as much money from their rapidly aging and declining playerbase as possible, yeah, nows a great time to get into the game. If you're just reading about how things used to be before 2015 and getting FOMO wishing you were part of the scene when it was vibrant and at its peak, don't, you'll just be disappointed.

>>95982167
Warhammer nostalgia actually icks me the fuck out. There are several alternatives available at considerably lower prices today, in a variety of scales and materials, and multiple rules systems that are all basically decent to get a challenging bash between fantasy warbands done in under two hours.

People cannot for some reason just take the lessons of that era - the bright colour schemes and amusing fluff and the randomness and apply it to something new for some weird reason.

In the end they end up chasing this thing that was always a derivative framework for you to be creative in, even if just a small way like using your own colour scheme. Now, in an age of so many kits where you can basically invent models from two or three sprues, they are chasing stuff that has to be soaked and scrubbed and slavishly redone a certain way.

Well, good luck to them I guess, they are having creative fun, and some are much more talented than I will ever be but GW coasts on this nostalgia 100% and it generates a lot of goodwill that whitewashes what a paranoid, cunty company they really are

>>95974289
based

People were fascinated by and loved them, Starship Troopers really is a groundbreaking piece of science fiction

>>95990598
I like how the big one looks like he has big round white eyes poking out from a hood.

>>95976371
>Modern 40k is some sort of frankenstein between MTG and DOTA2 where the goal is to activate your gotcha combo at the right time
You're making it sound based

>>95978063
>WH40K are most intellectually and creatively bankrupt game company ever,
Can't be, because Blizzard got even more successful by stealing from GW. By the way the game company isn't called WH40K lmao