Okay, stole may be a little strong of a word, but GW did take a shockingly high number of resin designs from Forge World and re-made them in plastic.
Games Workshop has come a long way. From the days of metal models to Finecast, resin, and now fully plastic kits, they’ve been updating their old line of miniatures and bringing them to life in a new plastic sculpt.
GW Stole These Kits From Forge World: Resin to Plastic
Forge World is still going strong with their resin kits, but there are quite a few now-plastic kits that were once only available in resin. You could even make the argument that while the details were better, the price may not have been…
Do you remember these vintage Forge World kits?
The Aeldari Wave Serpent
Resin upgrade parts on Wave Serpent with twin bright lance bit from Enslaviour on DakkaDakka
From Our 2007 Forge World Catalog
Current plastic Wave Serpent model
We all know how popular Wave Serpents are in Aeldari lists these days, but they used to be resin upgrade kits for a Falcon chassis.
The Valkyrie
From Our 2007 Forge World Catalog
Current plastic Valkyrie kit
The Valkyrie also used to be a complete (and costly) resin kit till Games Workshop moved it to a plastic kit, which is the current one we’ve got on the shelves today. The Vendetta weapon upgrades are still a Forge World resin kit though.
The Baneblade/Shadowsword
From Our 2007 Forge World Catalog
The Baneblade and all of its variants also used to be resin, if you can believe it. This massive tank switching to plastic was a Godsend as it opened up doors for conversions and getting the most mileage out of the kit by making the Octoblade.
Updated plastic Shadowsword
From the resin mini, you can see that they beefed up the barrel and took away the bipod fixed to the hull.
From Our 2007 Forge World Catalog
Updated plastic Baneblade
The Plastic Baneblade chassis also formed the base for a ton of resin upgrade kits from Forge World as well. Models like the Fellblade, Glaive, Stomhammer, and more come to mind for both the Guard and Marines.
Imperial Guard Vulture
Taken from an old 2007 Forge World Catalog
The Vulture made it into a hybrid plastic resin kit with the release of Games Workshop’s Valkrie kit. The wings and tail are plastic while the fuselage and weapons are resin, with the punisher cannons being a separate kit as well.
The Manticore
From Our 2007 Forge World Catalog
Current plastic Manticore
The Manticore got a little model update when it swapped from resin to plastic, looking more like a missile carrier. You can see that the MLRS rack was flattened and the sides of the tank chassis were streamlined. This plastic kit also makes the Deathstrike launcher too.
The Hydra
From Our 2007 Forge World Catalog
Current plastic Hydra
The same can be said for the Hydra as well. The barrels are a bit crisper and the barrel muzzles were rounded off, and just like the Manticore this also makes a variant kit in the Wyvern as well.
Space Marine Drop Pod
From Our 2007 Forge World Catalog
Current plastic Drop Pod kit
It’s not seen all that often these days, however if you had a Space Marine collection from the early 2000’s you may have a few of these.
The drop pod used to not only be a full resin kit but stood almost one inch shorter than the current plastic model. Thankfully, everything was switched over to plastic. Arguably more useful than the regular Drop Pod, the Lucius Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod is still resin, although a plastic one would be hugely popular in 30k and 40k games.
Tyranid Trygon
From Our 2007 Forge World Catalog
The Trygon, as spindly and spikey as it is was actually a resin kit back in the day as well. We’re sure there were many broken hearts out there when one of its pincers would break off in transportation due to resin’s brittleness. A true classic.
Tyranid Hive Tyrant
From Our 2007 Forge World Catalog
Current plastic Hive Tyrant model
The Hive Tyrant got a MASSIVE sculpt buff with it moving to plastic. Although it’s not pictured with wings here, you can still give them that option.
The Vindicator
From Our 2007 Forge World Catalog
Rob’s converted resin Vindicator, (note the bowing resin dozer blade supports).
Current plastic Vindicator kit
This old resin upgrade kit came with all the parts to make a Rhino into a Vindicator, with some small differences.
The resin and plastic kits are pretty similar overall in design. However, Rob’s old resin Vindicator dozer supports are starting to bow because the resin isn’t aging too well. To be fair though, it old enough to have graduated high school already, circa 2002.
Overall, it looks like Vindicators altogether are losing their grip in 40k as GW pulled their Stratagem support. Plus, with Primaris growing more and more popular, these will more than likely fade away into the 40k void.
And there you have it! There have been other kits that have escaped the clutches of resin but these are some of the more prominent ones that improved the quality of life with hobbyists.
What’s been your favorite kit to cross over from resin to plastic? Do you still use some of these old resin kits? Can you think of any other kits that went from Forge World to Plastic?
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