Second Edition Plastic Space Marines

The first miniatures I ever owned were the plastics that came with the Warhammer 40,000 second edition box set.  The thing that is hard to imagine nowadays is that in the early days, plastic was really there just as a cheap substitute for the metal miniatures.  The issue was that those early Games Workshop plastics, the miniatures only had a single pose and were at most built from two or three pieces. So the most exciting thing about those second edition plastic marines was that there was a sergeant, missle launcher, and flamer that were slightly different than the run-of-the-mill bolter marines.  If you wanted diversity, you had to go for the metal miniatures.  The problem was they are expensive and in December of 1994 - when I picked up the boxset - I was a broke college student. 

Warhammer 40,000 Second Edition

As I mentioned in my previous post (which you likely haven't read since you are probably reading these in reverse order), I was introduced to Warhammer 40,000 during its Rogue Trader days.  However, I didn't get wrapped up in the hobby till second edition.  This is really the edition where Games Workshop codified W40K as we more or less know it today.

In the beginning. . .

Among my most prized possessions are my copies of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, the Compendium, and Compilation.  I stumbled upon these sometime in 1991 or 1992 in my early days of gaming.  The first draw was that they had Bolt Thrower art on the cover!  Obviously, I now know that I have that reversed, Bolt Thrower had Warhammer 40,000 art on the cover of their album.

Bolt Thrower and Games Workshop

Many old school Warhammer 40k players are at least cursorily familiar with the band Bolt Thrower and their album Realm of Chaos.  The cover of the album is the very same as that of the original Rogue Trader: Warhammer 40,000, the first edition rule book and the songs are straight from 40k lore:

1990-1991

1990-1991 - those were good years for gaming, music, and to be a freshman in high school.  In that span of time I discovered Dungeons and Dragons, my gateway to the vast world of gaming.  More on that in a later post.  After a troubled bout of musical confusion in junior high (Tone Loc anyone?), a re-discovered my earlier childhood favorite - metal, especially Iron Maiden.  That opened me up to heavier bands - Megadeth, Slayer, Kreator, etc. 

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog!  If you are reading this it is likely because I have actually managed to keep this blog going, filling it with content, and you are working your way back from an earlier post.  You certainly didn't find this on the day I posted!