Many, many female Marine conversions are out there and it is a popular, if divisive topic to this day. Certainly thirty years on, the customer base is different and the appetite for female Marines is there. If GW wanted to, it would be child’s play to retcon female Space Marines into the game. One of Warhammer’s strength’s is the vastness of its scope and how the galaxy has room for just about anything. The 1980s were a long time ago, and the hobby was even more niche and male-dominated than it is today. This was never about lore – it was driven by sales and retailers / customers. The two models in question were designed as female Space Marines by the designer, although they use some common iconography that was shared between both Marines and Sororitas down the road. The early female Marine models became a forgotten apocryphal footnote to the game.Īll the male-only fluff and lore was tacked on after the fact. Thus, they consolidated the line into the look we have to this day and moved forward. As the game evolved and things like the RTB01 boxed set exploded in popularity, GW simply couldn’t justify making a parallel line of female Marines that were slow sellers. It wasn’t that GW didn’t want female Space Marines, it was the male-centric customerbase in the 1980s who didn’t. Nottingham happily produced and pushed Female models into the market, but got pushback from the retailers that they were unpopular and requested that they be removed from restock lists. He left the company several years ago, but chimed in on Facebook as to what was really going on with the issue:īy subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. He was there from almost the very beginning and spent many years as the Head of GW’s Intellectual Property. Enter Alan MerrettĪlan Merrett is an oldtimer GW alumni. All the other Adventurers all have very different looks than the Space Marines. Over on the upper left corner and leftmost second row from the bottom are “Female Warrior Jayne” and “Female Warrior Gabs” Are they female Space Marines? They certainly have the same design of Power Armor as the Space Marines of the era, if a little more form fitting. Take a look at the page of Adventurers from the White Dwarf 99, in March of 1988. Finally, they are always male.įirst of all, there WERE female Space Marines, way, way back in the earliest incarnation of Warhammer 40,000. They are armed with the best armor and weapons the Imperium can provide and of course, They Know No Fear. They are the Emperor’s super soldiers, genetically modified, and aside from violence, immortal. The arguments are endless.Įveryone knows the story of Space Marines. “it goes against the lore”, “it’s not canon”, “if you don’t like it, play a different game”, or the classic “just play Sisters”. A GW oldtimer talked about what really went down in Nottingham.Īnytime hobbyists bring up Female Space Marines, a tidal wave of arguments ensues. Yarrick is Ghaz's grod (rival) according to the relativley recent Ghazkull novel. I know Yarrick is an old man, but I still maintain that he's got Orky magic about him. I will say this until the end of time, should have been Yarrick. Few things get Warhammer 40K players going like the topic of female Space Marines. A character he has had no interactions with at all.

Mandrake 40k