Monday, 23 December 2013

The Tim Pollard collection: unreleased multi-part Space Marine metal kit

Back in the Rogue Trader era Games Workshop produced the RTB01 Space Marines, a boxed set of multipart Space Marines in plastic. They were and still are today a very popular kit. Multipart kits of Space Marines following the RTB01 model with multiple options of heads, bodies, arms, guns, knives, backpacks etc were only produced in plastic, right? Well it seems not. At least one multipart Space Marine set was produced entirely in metal, but was never released. Fortunately it was discovered in Tim Pollard's collection:




Here's a close-up of the two head options:



Unfortunately Tim doesn't remember much about the history of this set except that it was given to him at the time he was working there, and he was told it was rare! So, what do you think? What can you Space Marine experts tell us about the various components and minutiae of this kit? What weapon options do you see? What mark of Space Marine, if any, do you think this is? Please share your thoughts.

Have a good Christmas, and I'll be back later in the week to share another unreleased and unseen Space Marine with you.


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12 comments:

  1. Orlygg23 December 2013 at 09:50

    Wow! What a fantastic find! What I can see here really reminds me of the WD93 releases and the components you have found in Tim's collection are clearly influenced by the metal models from the range.

    http://www.solegends.com/citrt/rt01spacemarines.htm

    I can see what I assume to be a proto-bolter and proto-power glove there. Seeing these makes me wonder if these predated the plastics. I wonder if Bryan or Bob may remember more than Tim?

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  2. Ninja-for-Hire23 December 2013 at 10:22

    That's awesome! I had no idea they'd made such a kit! It's a shame that production versions will never really be part of anyone collection, given that it was obviously never sold. :(

    Looking at it, I think it appears to be a multipart kit of this guy, the LE2 Imperial Space Marine:
    http://www.solegends.com/citle1990/numbered/le02spacemarine/index.htm
    The backpack, helmet and large gun in particular have a close resemblance to the LE2 marine. I'm certain both of these would have predated the RTB plastic marines. At this point in RT history, the design and concepts of the Space Marines were still in flux, which is why these metal ones have somewhat medieval style arm and leg armor, whereas the plastic marines have quite smooth armour plates.

    Bob Naismith sculpted the LE2 marine (so says the solegends website), so it's likely he sculpted this kit as well.

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    1. Steve Casey23 December 2013 at 10:24

      Good call!

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    2. Hungry Ghosts23 December 2013 at 11:28

      I agree, and if you look at the LE2 marine, you can see the pistol on his left side, and what looks like a knife on the rear right.

      The level of detail on these early pieces is a bit maniacal. There's no way that they could have made something like this in plastic in the late 1980s. The RTB01 Marines are great, and still look great today, but it's because they are an example of sleek simple elegance, as well as extreme poseability compared to anything else from the time. And nothing else in plastic really came anywhere close to that design for a decade (the 3rd ed Space Marines).

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  3. axiom23 December 2013 at 11:44

    I immediately pegged this as a probable Bob Naismith sculpt because of the similarities to those early marines. Its charming & a treat to see it!

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  4. Tony23 December 2013 at 14:07

    A great find. Thank you for sharing.

    Tony

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  5. Mr Papafakis23 December 2013 at 15:11

    Here's a few if's that spring to mind;

    1/ Citadel didn't produce it?
    2/ There's no part no# cast in the tab?
    3/ They don't claim it to be their's now?

    Then could it not be cast up and sold?

    I suppose I'm just dreaming, but it would be great to see this bad boy in production!

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  6. Suber25 December 2013 at 10:36

    Wow, had no idea of that! What a discovery!

    Merry Xmas!

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  7. Unknown12 May 2014 at 18:19

    It's definitely Mk VI "Corvus Armour". In First Edition, Space Marines could have all sorts of weapons; like orlygg said, that looks like a bolter and power fist, plus maybe an autogun, laspistol, and combat blade. I suspect the unusual style owes a lot to Ian Miller's illustrations, like the kind featured in Rogue Trader (see pages 20, 61, 109, 125, 128, 182, and 229 in particular) and later, Realms of Chaos. Either that, or Miller had taken the style that was already prevalent and expanded on it artistcally.

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  8. Unknown8 December 2014 at 03:06

    Oh look, this miniature just appeared on eBay, being sold by none other then brigend_steve. I call recast, and I bet more of this very same miniature will be popping up in the future being sold by brigend_steve, even though there was just this one in Pollards collection.

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    Replies
    1. Steve Casey8 December 2014 at 12:39

      There is actually more than one set of this figure in existence. Tim himself had several, and a set appeared on ebay a few weeks ago: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warhammer-40K-Metal-ROGUE-TRADER-ERA-UNRELEASED-MULTI-PART-SPACE-MARINE-W192-/301389459265?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item462c362f41

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