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View Full Version : Product Review: Plastic Devastator Kits


Ten Tigers
4th Jun 07, 1:05 PM
OK, I know they have been out for a while now but I don't think anybody did a review on them here. As I have been forced to rebuild my army from scratch it provided me the opportunity to purchase some new kits.

The first thing that really made me happy was being provided with eight heavy weapons. That is twice what the previous pewter kit offered. Even though the kit only comes with five bodies, you can easily use the remaining weapons to revamp your existing models. You have two choices here. Choice one: Give an existing model a simple green bath and redo your entire paintjob after retooling your mini. Choice Two: You can try to simply snap or cut the arms and back pieces off the model without stripping the paint and replace them with new, freshly painted parts. The second choice may be more difficult depending on your paintjob. Unless you pinned or superglued your model, removing the arms and backpacks should be as simple as snapping them off with your fingers. I did this with one of my old missile launcher troops and while it did not want to give at first, they eventually gave in with no damage to the main body. If this is not an option then I would suggest you obtain a jeweler's saw or an equally thin blade to do the surgery.

The second thing that brought joy to my heart was simply that the heavy weapons were plastic. Assembly was easy; the parts weigh almost nothing. I also feel that plastic mold lines are far easier to file away than metal ones. If you want to do some conversion work or customization then you are in for a treat, as you will find the plastic medium SOOOO much easier to cut to shape than a metal piece. Because of the all-plastic assembly, the finished product is a miniature that is totally table friendly. No more top-heavy, gangly monstrosities that tend to topple over themselves on the slightest incline.

Finally, the kit is aesthetically breathtaking. It is nothing short of a work of art in a box. Everything from the new heads, to the weapons themselves is rife with detail. I had to tear apart one of my old missile troopers JUST to take advantage of the new parts. The backpack is now STUFFED with missiles and has a built in servo-arm-auto-loader-thingy. They also took the time to redo the missile launcher itself and the arm it is held by. The weapon no longer melds into the shoulder plate; they are two distinct parts and that will really help when it comes time to paint. It was SO awesome that they actually took the time and effort to remodel that rather than just rehash the old part. Bravo GW, brav-O.

And the bits, the sweet, sweet bits...

I love that the kit comes with a plethora of goodies ranging from highly detailed servo-skulls to extra ammo cases. Even the auspex was remolded to where it is already held in a hand. It just makes it look more natural as the fingers and thumb wrap around the device.

In closing I was HIGHLY pleased with this new kit and it is nice to see that all the recent price hikes went to something other than shipping, handling, and a corporate bottom line.

W0lf
4th Jun 07, 1:26 PM
It is indeed a very very good kit.

The best sm plastic kit available imo.

Warboss Antoni
4th Jun 07, 2:24 PM
I extremely like it. I wanted to build it even though at the time it came out I didn't play SM's ( I offered to build a freinds ). It's just so fun to build, with all the parts, and very detailed. This is one of the best sets out so far.

I'm also happy how GW was nice and didn't jack up the price like they did with tac sqauds, and instead lowered it ( i know it was a metal set but still )

Dark Angel N00b
4th Jun 07, 3:01 PM
Agreed, for my army i had to assemble 2 metal and 2 plastic plasma cannons, and after doing the metal ones first i could have WORSHIPPED that plastic kit.

Bravo GW seconded :)

Ghost_Maker
4th Jun 07, 3:14 PM
A nice kit with lots of great detail. And what a great chainsword arm!

My only criticism is that I found it a tad hard to assemble the lascannon so that the supporting left arm meets the hand on the stock of the gun. But then that could just be me and my not-so-great modeling skills! But at least I'm making chaos marines, so a mutated tentacle arm can reach it nicely.

But overall, a good, customisable kit. GW has blown me away!... blown me away... get it...

Exetus
4th Jun 07, 5:32 PM
It seems awfully rare in the wake of such monstrosities of the Dark Eldar line or the Venerable Dreadnought, but this is truly one of those instances where GW makes it worth one of their kits. I got the plastic devs with my DA Army box and the minute I opened them, I was a fan. Great work on this boxed set.

Sir Plasma
4th Jun 07, 5:45 PM
Wha? I didn't know those even existed yet!
/me returns to active forum life.

Exetus
4th Jun 07, 5:46 PM
They were released at the same time (or one month after) the DA boxed army/codex.

Fake Sinatra
4th Jun 07, 8:12 PM
If you have an extra marine Torso, head, and shoulder pads you can actually assemble 6 marines from the Dev box. It includes an extra set of legs (the kneeling legs.)

Not too many people have the extra torso but I did from a bits box I acquired from someone else. Just lucky, I guess.

Ten Tigers
4th Jun 07, 8:59 PM
Not too many people have the extra torso but I did from a bits box I acquired from someone else. Just lucky, I guess.

Hell, I raped the few existing mini's I had just to take advantage of everything.

Alternatively, most hobby shops have bits boxes you can ask to peruse. You would be suprised what lies hidden just behind the counter of your local Rogue Trader.

muribundi
5th Jun 07, 12:17 AM
and the shoulders of all the weapon arms are already hollowed out for magnets so you can swap out weapons , best set ive ever bought i love them.

Cassidy85
5th Jun 07, 5:41 AM
Not too many people have the extra torso but I did from a bits box I acquired from someone else. Just lucky, I guess.
You get 5 (FIVE!) extra torsos from each ASM box, and the command sqd box has an extra one as well IIRC.

Ten Tigers
5th Jun 07, 9:00 AM
and the shoulders of all the weapon arms are already hollowed out for magnets so you can swap out weapons , best set ive ever bought i love them.

Is that why they did that?

Now that's cool, I just thought it was to save on material.

Kross
5th Jun 07, 9:08 AM
Man, I wish I could have read this review earlier. I just passed up on a box at 30% a couple of weeks ago. Oh well I got a good deal on some fantasy stuff instead.

W0lf
5th Jun 07, 9:21 AM
Not too many people have the extra torso but I did from a bits box I acquired from someone else. Just lucky, I guess.



as someone above me said. You get 5 extra torsos in a assault marine box... and i brought 10 asm at the same time as my devs :P

Warboss Antoni
5th Jun 07, 12:40 PM
Too bad my store is against customer support ( long story, off topic ), so I can't get these sweet weapons to put on my existing marines ( alot need arms ), or loot them for orks.

Ten Tigers
5th Jun 07, 12:52 PM
so I can't get these sweet weapons to put on my existing marines

Let me guess...

They still have a shitload of pewter squads to sell, that they conveniently marked up in price, regardless of the fact they bought them before the price hike. :muffy:

Warboss Antoni
5th Jun 07, 1:46 PM
Nah, my store lost customer support completely ( no using paints or glue, no using store copies in the back where the ables are, no more model borrowing, no more bitz trading, no help if you ask for it, ect. ). I don't want the pewter ones, cuz beileve me I don't wanna build one. And before you say they may not have them, I've seen the box they have about 20 devastator sprues in there, and alot of other stuff ( in fact, the most I've ever seen in 2 years, they needed to get a new box ).

nareik123
5th Jun 07, 2:37 PM
Interesting point here, Buy a combat squad and a devie squad and with a bit of jiggery pokery you can make 2 dev squads! Woooo, go the devied plastic kit!

Ktan
5th Jun 07, 2:52 PM
Funnily enough, I assembled the plastic ones before I ever put pewter ones together. I 'won' some of the old pewter ones. I actually had to bend the weapons with pliers to make them fit.

The bend isn't blatantly noticeable, but the Plastics are so much better, and I love mixing their components with the other sets. I used the chainsword and bolter with some ASM legs and pretty much got the Sergeant from the DoW Intro (aside from the smurf colour scheme :P)

Great kit, and I love the gubbins. When I bought them, people were going crazy for the skull probes and I actually made some cash back from people buying bitz off me. :o

Disorderly
5th Jun 07, 3:13 PM
metal PLasma cannons are soooo annoying!

Yeah if you buy the aussault marines you get a heap of torsos. Too bad you dont get extra legs, there so more dynamic on normal SM.