Games Workshop Reopens Online With Catachan Freebie
April 29, 2020 by brennon
Games Workshop has announced that they are going to be reopening their webstore as of 1st May. So, if you're looking to get your hands on some new Warhammer 40,000 or Warhammer: Age Of Sigmar models then you'll be in luck. Also, Independent Stockists (like us...again, soon!) will get their hands on this ace Catachan Colonel.
Shop Games Workshop @ Store.OnTableTop (soon!)
This fellow is another great looking character to drop into the mix for your alternative Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum armies. Some might already have guessed that he's modelled after a certain character who was used to dealing with predators in the jungle.
Admittedly, this doesn't do much to change the opinion of a lot of Catachan players that they have been devoid of good new models for a long time. Maybe this will spur them on to actually go back and work on updating that element of the Astra Militarum.
All of the details concerning this latest update from Games Workshop are available HERE. Make sure to give it a look and consider supporting your local retailers if they are still able to open up!
What do you make of this Catachan?
"Make sure to give it a look and consider supporting your local retailers if they are still able to open up!"
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Always great to see a new imperial guard mini, does this point to further imperial releases? Maybe some new Catachan sculpts to replace the dated ones….
sorry … if it’s not chaos or spacemarine you’re not getting an update for any of the things that are in desperate need of replacing/updating …
😉
But I get elves, whoops sorry Aelves – elves with added A and cow bells…..I think your right I’m more likely to see another primaris lieutenant before a new Catachan squad, silly GW
someone obviously thought that more cow bells were needed …
too bad they thought that was literal
There is a lot of room for more guard releases, though. With the ‘mini ‘dex’ format that GW is using now, they really could do Mordian, Praetorian, Vallhalla and Tallarn stuff.
Shame that they decided that Cow-Aelves were more important.
I’d rather have a “make your own imperial guard” style codex instead of an official variant mini ‘dex’. Like Orks these guys should not look too organized and neat (compared to a spacemarine army).
The Make Your Own Guard rules were pretty cool last time they did them (though a lot of stuff was way overpriced, so all the guard you got to see on the table looked pretty much the same).
Also, last time they did that, they didn’t make any sculpts different guard regiments or even some variation sprues for the plastic Cadians.
We do have ‘make your own spacemarine chapter’ … so it kind of is weird we didn’t get something for either Guard or Orks yet at this stage.
Unless by “weird” you mean “out of the ordinary.”
Because Space Marines getting stuff that no one else gets seems kind of standard GW practice to me.
It’s starting to look that way. I wish you luck in seeing some new sculpts.
The problem with the Catachan sculpts isn’t really that they’re dated. They didn’t look good when they first came out. They’ve needed to be replaced for the whole of their existence.
Heh – true enough. I was looking at the Catachan metals the other day – they’re still pretty good!
Is this going to be a stand-up fight or a bug hunt Sarg.
A fabulous looking figure.
I was originally thinking Apone as well, but now I am leaning toward Dillon.
Helps if I read the whole article. ?
This model looks god, but sounds like the start of another pr disaster for gw and a toxic gift horse for the independent stockists.
What?
Yeah, I don’t really see how this is going to be either a disaster for any of them.
It’s a nice gesture and all but they’re not doing anyone any favours with this… My local store is getting 2 of these. That’s not gonna help them financially, there’s not gonna be nearly enough for the dozen+ guard players and interested collectors, it’s gonna generate frustrated customers, bad PR for yet another artificially rare exclusive miniature that’ll only be available in terrible quality resin at absurd prices from chinese scalpers… Honestly if they just wanted to make a nice gesture toward 3rd party stores, they should’ve just done something like 2-5% off for stores for the 1st month after… Read more »
Artificially rare? I think you should consider how this model came to be.
Do we think that GW made this model specifically for the purpose of giving to FLGS to help them out after the lockdown?
Or do we think GW made this as some kind of event only miniature that they now won’t be attending and so rather than rolling it forwards they decided to use the premade stocks and make gesture with it?
it was intended for something else (as we got a rumour engine pic of the hand holding the binoculars before Covid was really a thing)
i’m hoping they decide to do a later made to order round via FLGS (paid this time not free) with this ‘in stock’ lot just serving as a taster
No of course they made it for something else. And maybe that something else wasn’t an “exclusive” release. I kinda doubt it seeing how it’s such a random 1 off release but it’s possible. I do think this probably was gonna be this year’s CON mini or warhammer world exclusive or some such. The other Catachan hero is store openings, maybe this was store birthdays, who knows.
I think it was likely an exclusive release, though.
There are plenty of possibilities, though. For example, GW have lots of stuff sculpted that never sees the light of day (much of that becomes fodder for exclusive releases).
I don’t really see any good reason to be hurt by this. If he had been released at Gencon instead, you’d have just as much difficulty getting a hold of one.
There are thousands of stores that will get sent these, for free. It will bring in customers to these stores in a very delicate phase. Fuck everyone who bitches about it.
Do you have the details on how the distribution of this model is going to work mate?
We haven’t been able to find any info on how stores will get access to it or under what terms etc.
You may have had more luck in finding out 🙂
In the email I got they said they would just send it out. My guess would be next week when they are running again? I don’t know what kind of emails you get on your business account. I’ll go look a bit in German forums.
Not a word about it here in the UK channels I believe.
My guess is,they will send it out first to those countries where shops are allowed to open.
German forums (Brückenkopf) some already seem to have it. Mini was supposed to be for store birthdays, at least that’s what it says on the package.
Would make sense seeing how the other Catachan mini was meant for store openings. Getting hard to keep track of all the exclusives.
I mean ok, angry boi. I think criticism is always valid, especially where empty gestures are concerned but your mileage may of course vary. I don’t think 2 of these (Even at the standard 30€ for a character in full, that doesn’t pay for an employee for a day) will get more people through the door after the lockdown than the sheer lack of ANY GW products already will. Have you tried buying Agrax/Contrast or just their figures lately? 😛 There will be plenty of custom at this delicate time. As I said, what would help stores a lot more… Read more »
It is silly to think that criticism is always valid. This is a philosophy you should reconsider. A lot of criticism in this world is not at all valid.
In this instance, GW is doing something that is not really douchey, because some folks have decided that they should do something else that’s completely unprecedented “instead.”
What does it say about the GW fanbase when even a goodwill gesture like this is met with lots of moaning and complaining? I’m starting to think this says more about the fans than the company… At least the mini looks good. From what I’ve been hearing through the rumor mill, the plan is to re-release this guy as a con exclusive or some other special promo further down the line, as was more than likely intended before this virus nonsense blew up. So chances are we’ll see this guy again at a later time, but it may not be… Read more »
I agree about the moaning and complaining – though i am not sure it is just the GW fanbase. Moaning about GW seems to be a hobby in itself!
From memory Sly Marbo was a excusive mini for a while and people moaned about that and now it is generally avaliable. I am sure this will be the same.
LOL You’ve got that right…Just try mentioning AoS in any hobby forum, and you get people who don’t even play the game throwing six fits. And you’re right – Marbo was a limited-edition model for his initial re-release, but demand for him was high enough that he became a regular item. The same goes for a lot of other limited edition models, like the con-exclusive Primaris Lieutenant we got two weeks back. Given how popular Catachans are, I could see them doing the same and introducing this guy as a regular release later on. This could also be a taster… Read more »
While I’d never play down the GW Fanbase’s ability to get super butthurt over the smallest thing, I don’t think it’s right to tar everyone with the same brush on this. For example, eldritch247’s “nice gesture but…” seems a pretty well-reasoned summary of why this is a mis-step by GW (I assume there are various Reddit threads where the response is rather more volatile…) I’ve got no bones in this – much as I appreciate the 80s film reference and nice sculpt, it just reminds me how I’d never start a Catachan army with those ancient plastics, and how much… Read more »
I realize I’m making a blanket statement here, but honestly the proportion of negative to positive comments towards anything GW-related has made it hard for me to see otherwise. Only a few comments on this post are actually about how they like the mini, and how it’s nice to see something new for the otherwise dated Catachans, and even how GW is trying to give indies a leg up in this crazy time. The rest (as of the time of this writing) are comments about how the model looks stupid (Are you blind?!), how GW’s PR sucks, how they should… Read more »
Very Understandable 🙂 I’m only going to pick up on this bit “and even how GW is trying to give indies a leg up in this crazy time” Just a note on this… GW communicated this promotion to its fan base and has provided no information yet to retailers as far as I’m aware. Retailers still have no date on when they will get stock and will be able to fulfil orders for their customers. In fact, we hear GW notified the community it was shutting down before it notified its retail partners. However, we believe the GW webstore will… Read more »
The cynic in me wants to say they reached out to the community first cause generating consumer good will is what they care about.
Buuuut realistically it may just be that making a post on warhammer community is way easier than reaching out to all your business partners across the world and reorganising a figure for a different purpose than it was originally intended.
I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Perhaps 🙂 However, I think if I were going to do something as a gesture to help folk, I’d like to think I’d be reaching out to them directly (the trade newsletter would probably suffice as it’s still going out) to inform them and give a bit of detail, rather than a grand public gesture that just adds work for FLGS who have to field the requests for a miniature they have no detail on. While its understandable they are now going up on eBay etc, I’m very concerned about the optics of all this and the disconnect with the… Read more »
GW does have a history of slightly cack handed tactics and yes people moan vocally about it but it doesnt mean they are wrong
That the Catachans are shite isn’t really in doubt though. Most people on this site have experience of GW and therefore have opinions on their stuff. Literally every other company has a smaller fan base and so people don’t have an opinion. If I see something from say Blood and Plunder or Bushido I’m much less likely to comment positively or negatively than GW. It’s the same for most on this site.
tl;dr everyone has opinions about GW and the regular Catachans really are crap
@kronosthetraveler And for everyone one person you have described, there is one person just like you… more then willing to complain about the complainers. Complaining about complaining in my opinion and in my experience amounts to even less then what you stated about the original complainers. But continue complaining as you wish… A comments section is after all, the proper place for one to place comments. As for goodwill, don’t be remotely naive. Sure its a very nice “gesture”, but its also 95 percent pure PR. That’s how all business works. So yeah, while I can show some appreciation to… Read more »
I’m not being naive and treating it like goodwill, I understand that this is in fact a business move. GW got hit hard by the draconian policies over in the UK, so they need some way to start making money again in order to keep their heads above water. It’s also a good way for them to keep the indies stocking their products as, largely, independent stockists tend to steer away from GW products because while they sell well, they have a huge range and indies cannot afford to keep all of that backstock. It makes sense that GW would… Read more »
Just to give a little more clarification GW were not under any obligation to shut down their distribution or ecommerce sales. 🙂
The rules were not just as draconian as that 🙂
Any company who could make online sales a distribution work in a safe way were actively encouraged by the government to do so.
Which is, I believe, what GW have done. They shut down operations until they could figure out a safe way to do resume. My own employer has done the same on a much grander scale. But people were sent home and weren’t allowed back into offices, workshops or factories until the business had put adequate measures in place to facilitate the social distancing. A bigger PR disaster for GW would be an outbreak of Coronavirus at their warehouse or factory as a result of not doing so.
Most likely as the rules are the same today as they were back then. 🙂
How does it feel to want… GW got hit hard? Really? You think GW got hit hard? OMG, are you kidding me. Lol, GW may have lost big sales… but they hardly got hit “hard”. Or at all. Profits will be down this year by X%, but profits will still be profits. Besides, they can always push profits back up by upping product releases. So, yeah… No one is crying for GW, nor should they be. GW is fine. You know who got hit hard, local small business hobby stores. I did give a small amount of appreciation to GW… Read more »
So… Much… Cynicism…
Nobody said it was going to save any stores, nor is saving other businesses necessarily GW’s problem.
I think it’s a nice gesture. It might help generate a few extra sales and even if the actual profit from the item itself is a drop in the ocean every little helps. GW get some PR out of it. It’s what’s called a win win scenario, one of the 7 traits of highly effective people.
What does that make the people who complain about people complaining about the complainers? Where does this madness end?
At the end of the day this was a small piece of nice news in what has been a pretty crappy year that has been met with a wave of hostility because isn’t some miricle offer to give every hobbiest everything they ever wanted.
This used to be a community that revelled in being positive about all generes and parts of the hobby, it certainly doesn’t feel like it at the moment.
it becomes a never ending journey into madness lol 🙂
For the record I love this mini as it’s the spit of Dillon from Predator 🙂
THANK YOU voice of reason!
I can’t believe how cynical some of the responses to this have been.
I am not entirely convinced it’s GW’s fan base who is angry. I think it’s a mixture of entitled GW fans and GW haters. Funny isn’t it, how often the supposed opposite ends of spectrums actually align.
Bring back the Bretonnians… I’m waiting… I’m waiting… Still waiting… Still waiting… oh, I give up!
and the Squats … gotto have them too.
Can’t GW make anything that isn’t a caricature these days?
Yeah, it’s Called the Middle Wath Strategy Battle Game.
Yes this is a great model.
My brother’s birthday is soon so I hope a can get any hands on this model for him. He would love it.
When can we order with you again???
When I looked at him, I was thinking of Srg. Johnson from Halo.
I could see him shouting “I would have been your daddy…”
How many of these would a store have to get, to actually make a meaningful impact?
60 or 70? 100?
When bills are pilling up, and the rent is due that’s the kinds of numbers I image.
I don’t think GW are trying to save the industry mate, they had a small pile of event models sitting around and there won’t be an event for months. So they’ve chucked it out for free. It’s a small gesture and a way for some people to get a cool looking model.
That is a truly awesome model, so many pop culture references.
Despite the potentially limited stocks of this it’s a touching gesture from GW and something that they didn’t have to do. It’s a shame that I might not be able to get one but I can’t fault them for this and who knows, maybe they will do an extra production run when things start getting back to whatever normal is in the future
Once, long ago, I said that in the event of Games workshop giving every one of its customers, completely free of charge, an army of their choice cast in solid gold, people would complain about the weight.
This is as true today as ever.
I’d love to get him, but as the stores that have had info seem to be saying they’ll only get 1-3 i think it’s unlikely i’ll be lucky
fingers crossed they expand things to a made to order release via FLGS too
He looks awesome!
It’s another glorious day in the Guard. A day in the Guard is like a day on the farm: Every meal is a banquet, every paycheck a fortune, every formation’s a parade! I love the Guard!
Nice model however it will not be cheap to buy I see some stores are selling the model on eBay for a high amount of money. Even the one a few miles from me is selling it for £150 on eBay.
Difficult one that for any store owner who’s trying to pay rent this month 🙁
I’m sure most would have been more comfortable meeting demand if possible rather than auctions.
But in these times I ain’t going to point fingers at anyone as God knows what their circumstances are “(
Love the mini and I hope my brother manages to chase one down for his Guard.
I knew when I saw 50+ comments on this article it was going to be a battlefield. Only on a GW piece will you see people write a four paragraph tirade.
And we have a ways to go yet. Next up is:
“Oh of course his rules are shite!”
Before we get to the end of the saga with:
“They’re releasing more? So an exclusive model isn’t really an exclusive. Typical GW!”
It’s going to be a long quarantine guys, keep entertaining.
Despite your username, there’s nothing irredemable about this opinion. You’re definitely right, we’re all going at it like cats and dogs here…hopefully this quarantine ends soon before we go even more berserk.
Hmm.. something from the Long Long Ago reminds me of a certain GI JOE modeled after an American football player that you got for a few proofs of purchase and the cost of shipping.
It is a great mini and a nice gesture. All issues will come from the limited edition/scalper thing, which won’t go away all the time there are limited minis and people who will pay scalper prices. Stores will handle it with varying degrees of success and hopefully it won’t create too much hassle for ones handling it well. I’d love the mini but if I don’t get it with all going on in the world it’s not something to stress about, not as if I I am short on plastic. Hopefully people bear this in mind when dealing with store… Read more »
? When i last logged in there was 2 comments and 1 of them was me now it’s Blood on Christmas, quick put up some of Bens burrows and badgers to take the edge off things ?
This mini looks sick. Getting a Carl Weathers Predator feel.
Let’s see how expensive this model becomes since it’s so limited.