As I have been pondering Space Hulk, I continue to return to the price that GW paid to have the sprue molds cast for the terminators and gene stealers in the base game. With a price tag of 10's of thousands of dollars for a plastic mold, you have to wonder what GW was thinking when they had the Blood Angels and Tyranid sprue cast for a one time game that they guarantee will not be reprinted. Well I have a theory....
Do you remember the space wolf model with lightning claws that preceded the wolves codex by about a year? It was released right about the time of the Vanilla marines codex. It was an odd timing and I think GW is trying out some new marketing 'fishing' methods. They drop a cool looking mini or series of them about a year in advance, and people start thinking..... 'Man if they revamp that army later down the line I will have to pick up the rest of them'. Just subconsciously GW has got you making an investment down the road. This is the same thing that At&t does with its cheap phones, and this is what xbox does when they take a loss on xbox and etc. They plan on making money in other ways ala services, add ons or etc.
Well now we have a sprue of bad arse looking gene stealers and blood angels terminators. What could GW possibly have to gain by making such an investment in the game? What is the next codex out? Nids! And guess what? You have a bunch of cool models lying around already! And my money says, what marine codex should you expect next? Blood Angels! And that goes right along with my theory that every other army will be a SM army to continue to milk them for ongoing profits. I would all but guarantee you will see those sprues again. The cardboard and game itself? No way, but the plastics will be back probably in the grey we know and love.
What do you guys think?
Jester