RTB01: The First Plastic Space Marines - Codex Compliant 

My existence is made infinitely better by knowing that GW made a marine that hijacked a Dalek casing and made it his ride. I shall dub him ‘Brother Pepperpot’.

Wib's Lamentors are Lamentor-cursed with having to be mid-squat for eternity. Truly a horrifying fate.

The squat pose of the RTB01 marines always makes me think of 80s metal bands playing their guitars in that wide-legged stance. Beaky marines are just rock-n-rollers!

0:33 - fun fact: in the Ciaphas Cain novels there’s a chapter of Space Marines whose colour scheme is pretty much that of a womble, and who have members that have names that are slightly altered womble names (eg there’s a Techmarine Tobiemore).

These guys were still being sold in hobby stores in New Zealand as late as 1993, when I bought them as my first Citadel figures. They played their first several games under the RT rules and then doughtily saw me through the 2nd-ed era as the backbone of an army that lost by a series of tragicomic margins. The "jet pack" misnomer noted here caused some friction in the game club as I was convinced it meant my lads carried jump packs as standard issue. I was one of the over-enthusiastic teens mentioned in this video and made such a hash of painting them as my own plum-purple homebrew chapter that other players didn't just smile when I did deployment; they laughed to the extent that one bloke actually fell to his knees clutching his belly. As someone still fairly new to modelling I found the capacity for multi-posing really exciting, though also very fraught; every glue job was a nerve-wracking experiment using very expensive material with very little scope for correcting mistakes. That was until the arms came off in transit to the game club, which was a pretty regular problem as many colleagues agreed that the disparate sizes of the ball and socket constituted a significant design flaw in the kit. As I was using Tamiya plastic cement rather than superglue, surgery was a weekend-long set-piece as shoulders were carefully reattached and then left for "at least 24 hours" on the advice of a father who, with the best will in the world, didn't know what he was doing. A colleague did once explain to me how to stuff the sockets with milliput, but I was too diffident to try this at the time. Like all the best things from one's youth, therefore, the RTB01 marines were a very precise mix of brilliance and silliness, and remain perhaps the best NZ$50 (c. twenty pounds) I ever spent. They made enough of an impression on me that the beige plastic they were made of seems normal to me and the uniform grey material Citadel has been using for years now still seems oddly novel. I still have my old purple beakies in storage and would hate to strip/restore them, but if GW ever had the magnanimity to re-release the kit the way they reprinted the Realm of Chaos books, I'd love to take another crack at it.

I loved that kit so much. It was so flexible for the time. I was gutted and horrified when they moved away from the RTB01 design for the missile launcher. It’s such a fun design.

11:30 Stop Jimp! That Marine on the right is riding a GW Judge Dredd RPG Lawmaster 😮

Both Snipe and Wib's hair looking particularly good in this video! Lovely to see more shots of Wib's Lamentors.

i feel like this video was one big showcase of Wib's lamenters, love it.

Mentioning dropping the hand reminds me of the time I dropped a Resin Sammael Ravensword and it disapearing until FIVE YEARS LATER when I sold that house and moved and was cleaning out the space fully... Funny thing was I did deep cleaning and vacuuming in that room of the house quite often during that 5 years time. I was like HOLY CRAP It's the Sword.

God that last tilted shot of the closeup marines took me back to a Saturday morning as a kid watching How It’s made. If the good research, great editing and amazing jokes weren’t enough to make this video amazing that one shot is more than enough to make it so.

Oh man, I didn't even know both Steve Jacksons were involved in Fighting Fantasy. That'd be a fun video for sure, love those things.

good to see doing ammeter surgery on your first ever space marines is a tradition dating back to the first ever ones made and my dark vengeance marines with the shoulder details scraped off with a craft knife are part of a grand lineage

10:45 Maybe Commander Head is actually his name. Certainly sounds like something GW would do back then. Which would mean every other marine in the box is named Marine Helmet. This is now canon.

Praised be the Emperor, what a lovely day.

New codex compliant we eatin good tonight

I got in WH40K during the last 18 months of Rogue Trader and I remember getting my mum to order me that kit from the back of White Dwarf. Happy days!

During the Heresy the Blood Angels legion comprised of 300(?) chapters, not all of them known by name and certainly not listed in the lore. Who's to say there wasn't a 'Host of the Lamenters' or an 'Order of the Lamented Heart' clad in golden yellow? Current day GW has often retroactively introduced HH armour variants based on the heraldry of successor chapters.

My second best eBay purchase was a set of RBT01 painted by what I Presume was a skilled railway enthusiast. My fave was buying a box called ‘badly painted marines and tank’ which I got at $1 a marine. The ‘and tank’ was two rbt01 era land raiders in shrink wrap :)

You should deffo do Fighting Fantasy. Dead of Night best book.

When these hit the store we were blown away. We knew wonder how they got the tooling for plastic molding down to the point that they could make them affordable. This set was so cheap we kitbashed the hell out of them. But there were no one for them to fight against.

as a nerd of both minis and history, I just love these videos. I treasure my old, "covered-in-polystyrene-cement-bubble" RTB01s. Every time I see your Lamenters I want to strip a few and see what they would look like if I painted the same scheme 30+ years later. The salvage portion of this video is very encouraging

I found a bunch of retweet boys in a retro comic shop a few years ago. They where in very rough shape so I cleaned them up and painted them as lamenters after seeing Wibs.

14:56 - That is a Gi Joe (Action Force) Armadillo Mini Tank painted as a warhammer vehicle.

Omg I must have painted AT LEAST 60 of these, & I never noticed the arse flap variation before! Peak content

As always, excellent video, I love learning about the WACK history of GW and modeling. I've bought a lot of the bookstore chain/non-GW affiliated box sets and they all come with colored plastic, so it was great seeing those piles of sprues. Wib, I feel your pain, as a yellow marine painter. I'm actually about to try some Dorn Yellow on my character models based on your Lamenters yellow recipe. Anywho, cheers lads!

It's weird seeing the old Rhino there. I built one of those before around 1999. I had no idea it went right back to the start of 40k.

always a joy to see another video from yourselves. Absolutely love the job you've done on the old models, really makes them look amazing

Shout-out to the greatest design of Missile Launcher in GW (and probably wargaming miniatures) history

Greetings and Salutations! A fitting tribute to the RTB01s. They still serve in my Space Marine forces; A full tactical sqd with the UMs, A full Devastator sqd and a 5man assault sqd with my BAs and a 5 man assault sqd with the DAs as well as a few conversions; a Chaplain, a Medic and a Techmarine. Additionally 10 (renegade) Mantis Warriors. I also had both The Space Orks and the Imperial Guards. The bulk of my Marines are of the 2nd Ed Mk VII variety. thanks and all the best to you. Billi.

So happy to see you two still doing this, just love every single one of your videos. Love the humor, facts and true feelings you produce. Just wish I could do more than just like. Recently divorced, lost my one true love who did the hobby with me. Seeing the two of you tells me that love still holds on when you share something. Wish I was as lucky.

14:56 Are you'll going to talk about that GI Joe vehicle that got painted into a warhammer 40k vehicle?

RTB01 are my favourite minis ever. Congratulations for the yellow paintjob and for the videp 🙏🏻

The bo1s and g4ls, making this are awesome. Happy to see you passed health issues and doing this duo videos again. Wish you best.

Bought my first box of plastic marines in a hobby store in Edinburgh, Scotland in the 1992 and started a life long love/hate relationship with GW. I miss the mania of 1st and 2nd Edition, outright theft from other media, and willingness to take risks. Since 4th and 5th edition, I have retreated to the comfort of Neceomunda and Mordheim. That being said, the emergence of the interest in the Hours Heresy has been quite refreshing.

I have one left. He has no name beyond 'Stealer-killer'. He was a member of a Dark Angel Tactical squad. During a battle against the Genestealer menace, his unit were charged by a unit of Genestealers. After three turns (maybe four? Time is hard), of brutal hand-to-claw melee, he was one on one with the last Genestealer... As my land speeder whizzed up the right flank charged the task of getting into the enemy rear, with the aim of multi-melting the patriarch.. he stood tall. After the patriarch had been turned into a puddle of smoking goo, and his army disintegrated, (they did that then), my opponent and I decided to go one more round.. He still wears the head on his belt as a trophy.

the sentiment that plastic minis are “toys” is still alive and well in many of the old world groups

Yeah, the absolute sense memoload evoked by that box, those beaks! Man alive. The glue - CA/plastic-welding glue, I think, in a pot with a brush in the lid. Trying to get that commander head into the neck and the torso into the pelvic bowl. Pinching the arms onto the torso and waiting for the glue to take. The bits and greeblies - that fishbone missile launcher! Brushing on the white paint primer - rattle cans were a luxury few could afford. The huge blank spaces, ripe for decoration. 40K converged with the art of Kev O'Neill for me. All those brutalist slogans. The Legion Of The Damned Marines, yowza. I loved all those "drama student skeleton" paint jobs. I remember feeling like the skullmarine design was a smidge too po-faced, especially without the studded pauldron, but there's lots of room for freehand designs. Lordy, I think I still draw armour, maybe robots as well, with this assembly in mind. Definitely the elbow guard. Now that's design that lasts a time!

14:58 This would make for a KILLER Black Shields army. Lots of fun rules to tinker with too.

My recollection was that the RTB-01 was still on shelves when 2nd Ed launched, but it was on its way out. Then again, it was so long ago that I don’t know how much I can even trust my own memory - I was a kid who just started my collecting back then.

I for one LIKE seeing your yellow sad boys thank you very much.

I love all the minis being painted yellow, I wish my yellow models were this good.

I built so many beakies in college... loved them... still HAVE a lot of them...

Love these they give me flashbacks to when theses kits were brand new

Another superb video! Love the animation of the marine being built!

Great to see the hair com8ing back Snipe. hope you are feeling much better

It's a rainy and chilly day here in Texoma. Your video made it tolerable.

Oh yeah I remember seeing a lot of those back in the 80s as a kid.i found them great to look at when passing gw

12:00 Rotfl, so much time searching through carpet for dropped parts. The pig tails are looking great!

Here for the Lamenters. Love the paint job!

My 1st box of 40K miniatures were the Jes Goodwin marines in early 1994 (Maybe April/May) The RTB01 set wasn't around in Ireland at that time. I still have that squad in my DIY chapter. (although I did stop painting/collecting/playing 15 years ago) (My assault marines were all Beakies) PS 3rd marine bikers fit perfectly onto a Lego motorbike.

'You'd be surprised how well a scruffy one can scrub up!' So thats what you saw in Wib...

This was hands down my favourite kit ever! The first miniatures I ever bought and the most fun I had constructing. For those of you who want to relive that nostalgia in a small way, I would recommend the Stargrave plastic kits. They have the same modularity and feel with the sculpted not having intricate details and sharing the RTB01s lovely simplicity.

Yeah these are cool nostalgic models. My first box was a Salamanders tactical squad for Armageddon. But I didn't have super glue for the plasma gun or multi melta. I didn't print them green and I glued the shoulder pads on wrong

I am a big fan of the "beaky" look, even though I don't own any. It gave a little levity to what is suppose to be a grim dark setting.

I used to go down to my local hobby store (selling mostly airfix kits and model railway accessories in those days) every other month to spend my hard-earned pocket money on getting a box of these guys to build. Then the Imperial Army box when that came out. £5 - £10 went a lot further in those days...

I so very much enjoyed my RTB01 beakies!!! Sadly, that company of Crimson Fists (because, you know, the box art) went away when I got rid of all my minis in 1992 when I went off to college. Pandemic era me whishes that wasn't the case when I got back into the hobby, and while I have not yet touched the sprues I've found online since then or the other RT era metal minis to replace my old boys, they're going to end up as Crimson Fists in tribute.

These video's make my inner bad model builder happy

The 56 RTB01 marines to my right are furiously sweating as they know this will be the onset of me purchasing even more, and causing an over population crisis. Dave the marine is especially worried since he was voted to "most likely be eaten on a deserted island" in 11th grade.

I so wish i had my box of marines...this was before the internet, so had to order it thru my hobby store...the shop owner was able to get 1 marine box in that cost me $20. I put them all together and spray painted them with flat red automotove paint and put the decals on and painted the weapons black and then after all that i needed orks....my shop couldnt get any orks in, so i ended up buying 30 fantasy orks and arming them with spare bolters from the marine box and scratch built other weapons....i played the hellout of them using the rogue trader book. Lovedit and became fanatic about the lore (As weird as it was in the beginning)....sigh, wish i still had those marines and orks but they are long gone.

I remember the Skeleton Horde box! That was an excellent set.

I love how simple these models look to put together. Modern kits are too much of a puzzle to put together.

Always happy to see a new CC! I love this series and I'm glad to see it succeed. =]

I had all of those plastics, back in the day, from the FF 60mm ones onwards....oh man, I'm old....

I've been out of the hobby a long, long time, but it's a delight to discover someone else calls them Womble Marines.

6:32 To be fair, in WD illustrations of the time and even in the Rogue Trader rulebook, you do see power packs being used as jetpacks. Looks like communication between the artists, miniature designers and rule writers wasn't quite perfect...

So nice. Always a highlight. Great job you two. I already said it once but I’ll say it again: Your Codex Compliant episodes always make me feel warm and cosy. They feel like a warm blanket from Rogue Trader times. Much love to you, you cute little Wombles.❤️

Fighting Fantasy coverage in the future? Yes please! 😀

Always love seeing the yellow feĺlows. Great vid!

I do love the bits of nostalgia your videos give me (as a teenager in the 80's i remember all this).

I don't have many space marines, but the ones I do have are Mark VI and I can't quite imagine buying any other version. Mark VI is just too classic.

Always love the videos, picked up some RTB01s from a second hand shop and they're very charming.

Fantasy Regiments boxed set! I got that for Christmas and that was the door opened.

Great video. I noticed that you didn't mention the left arm of the missile trooper. Looks like he's wearing a padded glove !!!😊

Bought two boxes and a paint set with a sprue of these. Great minis. I still have a sprue of them someone unused. They were pretty easy to kitbash also to make new poses.

You've brought a tear of nostalgia to my eye, this was thd first 40k box set I ever bought! Great video!

Ooh, I’ve got some of those in my leftovers box. I was never into 40k in the day, but I ended up with them and some escher, purely because I liked the models. 40k was the new thing when I was already invested into other genre, and was a bit ‘silly’ in its earliest incarnation. I’m happy it’s grown into something that brings in new players, but I’ve always been interested in the less popular games, niche products with established lore based on mythology, history or novels. Considering how niche the whole hobby was in the day, I’m just happy to see it’s still around despite everything that’s come after. I still prefer White Dwarf when it wasn’t just a GW brochure.

Loved it, my intro was Space Crusade leading to 2nd Ed box set. I just missed out on Rogue Trader.

Citadel lore is wild. I had never even heard of Fighting Fantasy before!

Great vid again,still got a full box to build and paint along with a finished battle company of ultra...wombles.

Love seeing the Lamenters on show, absolutely fantastic job

I remember how the white dwarf told about the variability of the kids of 3rd Edition Era Marines with a nostalgic look on those old kits.

"And the psyco part coming from the fact it was GW in the mid 80's" is such a great line.

Love your videos as always. I don’t remember ever seeing the RTB-01 boxed sets around when I started WH40K around 93/4 only the monopose sets from the 2nd Ed boxed set, or the poly-pose 6 man box (I think “Heroes of the Imperium”?)

Man, I miss the Skeleton Horde box. Best value for money Citadel ever offered.

Nostalgia button pushed I had that and the "space ork" boxed set when I was 12ish. Had no idea what I was doing with them think I "painted" a squad of each they looked exactly as you would imagine 😂 Fun times

These weren't the first 40k minis I got (those were a blister pack of squats) but they were close. Picked them up from a local hobby/comic shop in 1992ish. They already looked a bit retro even by then, as Mk 7 armour was everywhere at that point. Might have been one of the boxes of 10 I picked up, can't quite remember.

My RTB01 are treasured possessions! Who's beakies look amazing, i don't know how you've stomached painting so many checkers.

Pretty sure in my local GW the RTB-01 ten-mini squad box was retired when the 2nd ed boxed set plastic marines were released in a squad box - so a short overlap with 2nd ed., but not much. Then the few remaining boxes were sold off cheap in the following year's February sale, but at least in Peterborough this was something like three boxes!

Love this model, got 30 of these little dudes ready for my custom chapter!

That box was my first ever GW product!

Yes to a vid on the FF books. I used to own every single one :)

I hope I am not being too odd here, but i am glad you both are looking like you are doing well.

I might be wrong but I remember there being 2 different types of pistol in this box. The more "needly one" shown here and a more boxy, stubby one that looks like a square 90s computer mouse.

Ah the old beakies, how I love/hate thee. I can never tell how I should paint parts of you, like the empty space between the arseplate and legs. The RT1 beakies have been a lot easier to paint, even through the casting errors and... weirdness. But the retweet b01s are still very fun, and surprisingly I never had any more trouble with the eyelenses than I normally have.

"they're 30 years old and a little bit wonky" 1987 was 37 years ago wib, that's nearer 40 years

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NEW SNIPE AND WIB VIDEO JUST DROPPED BABE WAKE UP!!!!

My friends and I got into 40k back in 7th grade. My friend had this space marine set and I had the Orks. We didn’t really know how to play so we made up rules based on DnD to hit rolls.

That were some pretty yellow miniatures. Both pretty and pretty yellow. Good video I didn't know I needed.

I wish it was tenner for 30 marines in the modern day. Was shocked by the 45 euro price of the Chaos Space Marines box I bought as a college student.