Our next stop on this 40-year journey through the annals of Warhammer history takes us to 997.M2,* where we’ll be taking a peek at the latest shiny new kit for Warhammer 40,000. We’ve just got time for a quick spin around the block so let's have a look at the sleek and deadly Vyper Jetbike.
The Vyper soared out of the Craftworlds at the height of the second edition of the game, when the chaotic skirmish games of the Rogue Trader era had given over to proper cinematic battles fought between brightly painted armies on cheerful green bases.
There were 30 or more infantry models per side now, and where once everyone (Imperials, Orks, and Aeldari alike) had had to make do with Rhinos, now a dozen or more plastic vehicles terrorised the battlefields of the 41st Millennium – including numerous Space Marine tanks, even more for the Imperial Guard, and a Warbike and a War Buggy for the Orks.
It was now time for the Eldar – as the Aeldari were then known – to get their own slick plastic vehicles. At first there were two: the Vyper Jetbike, followed by the Falcon Grav Tank four months later. Both came with a major innovation – clear plastic canopies, an advanced eldritch technology befitting what was then the elder race in the galaxy.
The Vyper was a masterpiece in plastic engineering, and the first plastic vehicle sculpted with curved panels and clean lines. The Aeldari are a graceful race with a sleek aesthetic quite unlike the bulky brutalist shapes of Imperial tanks or the ramshackle creations of the Ork Mek Boyz, and the kit needed to reflect this. While the overall shape of Eldar technology had previously been set with plastic jetbikes that came out in the mists of 1991, with the same oval cowlings and wraithbone fins that would help define the rest of the range, seeing it elegantly refined in detailed plastic was a game-changer.
The Vyper also has its roots in the Aeldari machines of the Epic scale, which we discussed last week. On top of all those lovely Titans, there were aircraft, huge HQ vehicles, and super-heavy tanks for every faction. Most of our current Lords of War – the likes of Baneblades, Stompas, and Wraithknights – got their start in Epic, which was also a proving ground for smaller vehicles that could make the step up in scale once the technology was developed.
The really wild thing? The same Vyper kit is still on sale today. Even as plastic technology has come on in leaps and bounds – and we have learned to pack our sprues tighter together – the classic ‘97 design holds up really well against today’s miniatures. Since then we’ve seen new plastic Jetbikes, Shining Spears, and Scouts, plus Harlequin Starweavers, and the rather more angular and spiny Drukhari vehicles – all of which owe their design to the original Vyper.
* That’s 1997, Gregorian fans.