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Deep Thought: GW Jumps the Shark with Skulls

3 Minute Read
Nov 30 2015
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skull-wallpaper

GW decades-long infatuation with skulls is no secret – but they’ve gone too far.  Come see.

Remember back in the day when Khorne was new and his followers liked loping off heads now and then.  The early days of Khorne and the other Chaos Renegades looked like this way back in 1988:

chaos-renegades-1988

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Fast forward another decade and the basic Chaos plastic kits that have been with 40K and Warhammer Fantasy have looked like this for a while:

99120102005_KhorneBerzerkers02 99120201006_WarriorsofChaosNEW02

Sure – skull motifs, but not literal skulls themselves. Then slowly but surely, Age of Sigmar has kicked it all up a notch.  Because now if you love Chaos, you will START GROWING SKULLS FROM INSIDE!

It all started with this dude, the Khorgorath:

khorgorath

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OK, that makes sense, he’s a daemonic construct – essentially a REALLY PISSED OFF Khornate Santa-sack of skulls – and he knows EVERYONE has been naughty!  I’ll give him a pass as that is basically his theme…

Then I started to look more closely at other Age of Sigmar minis.

Like Korghos Kul:

AoS-korghas

Yes, those sure look like he has skull intestines.  Or maybe he just accidentally swallowed some skulls and hasn’t passed them yet.  That would certainly explain his temper.

Then this week we get Archaon and his brand new awesome mini.  But wait, what do I see there…

99120201045_ArchaonEverchosen04

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Yup, more skulls, pushing thier way out from within.

I understand you – GW CAD guys.  You discovered a neat new trick – you can have skulls coming from within models now.  Heck you probably have a 3D macro for it so you can just cut and paste them all over the surface of anything you wish – like a skulltastic Land Raider!.

But please – don’t.

GW has already WAY overdone it in the skulls department in pretty much all it’s systems. It’s generally unwise to keep pushing cliches- else they move into farce territory. So why don’t you instead take some of your skull expertise and put it to good use – like say some new skeletons to replace these dudes who for some reason are still being sold!

99120217002_SkeletonWarriorsNEW02

 

I mean if any faction REALLY should have the best skulls out there it’s Undead – not Khorne…

~ What’s your take on the skulls in GW’s models – too many too few, or just right?

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Author: Larry Vela
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