As we come to Christmas and the end of the year - and who can't wait for the end of 2020 - we get a bevvy of products, and this week sees a metric tonne.
The Blood Angels are the next faction to get their updated Codex Supplement which comes in Let Me Suck Your Blood Collector's Edition and But I'm Pretty Under This Armour Standard Edition. There are of course the Blood Angels Datacards and Dice too, plus the new Combat Patrol: Blood Angels and the Blood Angels Death Company Intercessors. Both of these sets can be made as Death Company or regular Blood Angels, it just depends if you want black or red dudes...
This week sees a pump to the Primaris armoury with the much-awaited and much teased Gladiator tank, which comes in three flavours; Reaper, Lancer and Valiant. There's also the new multi-part Assault Intercessors which will give your normal Primaris a much greater range of leg and arm poses. Great for bitz! 
The annual Christmas Battleforces hit the shelves next week, and are sure to sell out online before then. This year they are a bit bigger, and around the $350 AUD, so around $100 more than last year. If you're in the market we have the Astra Militarum Bastion Platoon, Tyranids Brood Swarm (a very different set to last year), Space Marines Interdiction Force, T'au Empire Starpulse Cadre, Necrons Eradication Legion (a great set!), Chaos Space Marines Decimation Warband (interesting not to see the Vex Machinator, Arch-Lord Discordant in here), Ogor Mawtribes Meatgrinder Warglutt, Kharadron Overlords Barak-Nar Skyfleet (the most expensive), Disciples of Tzeentch Fatesworn Host (with a tonne of minis), and the Gloomspite Gitz Fungal Loonhorde (which seems like pretty good value too). These sets are always really exciting, but in our experience do tend to sit around untouched by many of us.
In books this week it's just the one - the limited edition Astorath: Angel of Mercy, based around the Blood Angels Successor Chapter, The Red Wings.

For those playing along at home, you may know that Australia and New Zealand aren't getting all the goodies the rest of the world are at the same time, so this week sees the pre-order for the Hexmark Destroyer, the Primaris Chaplain on Bike and the Monolith. The Monolith has seen just a bump in price that the market for the old model has exploded. In Australia and NZ, this is close to Primarch pricing.

If you've been following us for a whole, you will know our love for Slaanesh and the hopes of one day getting human acolytes for the ranks of She Who Thirsts. The dreams first started when Tzeentch got their excellent acolytes, then Khorne (who has multiple layers of them), and Nurgle - but Slaanesh was left out in the cold, which is not a good place to be with that many piercings.
When the Hedonites of Slaanesh was released, we were very excited, expecting to see our acolytes, but it was not meant to be.  But last night finally they were announced...

... and I have to say, it was not the acolytes were were expecting! Looking more like corrupted Stormcast Eternals, or spikey Slaves To Darkness, these acolytes are missing any real crossover with the Hedonites of Slaanesh or any real trace of the 'pleasure' element to the 'pleasure and pain' that is Slaanesh. We get lots of bulky armour with big swords and long smooth metallic surfaces, but where's the skin, the straps, the studs and lithe toned bodies? Maybe in a different paint scheme they will seem more Slaaneshi, but they look almost entirely different to the Hedonites of Slaanesh range.
It is interesting to note that Games Workshop did produce a set that was so close to being the perfect Slaaneshi acolytes - the Cypher Lords (below) for Warcry. I'm sure these will be the basis for many people's Slaaneshi acolytes, they are for mine, as are the Tzeentch Kairic Acolytes.

In closing, maybe this new release is actually the Slannesh version of Slaves to Darkness, not actually acolytes. If so, then that's fair enough and Slaanesh now has heavy armour in their ranks - but it would have been great to have human Slaaneshi acolytes that match the theme that has been set for over 30 years and was so nicely teased for us in the Cypher Lords. Glad I bought some of those and have already converted them up, it's a fun project and well worth a try if you too would like a more traditional feel.

For some time now, Games Workshop have bundled their Hobbit and Lord of the Rings line under the Middle-earth banner, and this week we get the chance to order some of the "classic" metal miniatures from the early days. Let's start with the good guys - Heroes of Helm’s Deep - a really stunning set with some iconic poses, then we have some riders, Gamling (Warg Attack), Théoden (Warg Attack) and Legolas (Mounted with Bow) plus the humorous Gimli on Dead Uruk-hai, and GW's version of an Ent. There's also the valiant Elves, with Haldir's Elves Warband as a set or you could get Galadhrim Warriors with Bows (Haldir's Elves) and Galadhrim Warriors with Swords (Haldir's Elves) separately. Definitely the coolest dudes in the Lord of the Rings movies were the Uruk-hai, of which you can get the Uruk-hai Scouts and Uruk-hai Battering Ram sets on order this week, plus there's the Warg Riders who - let's be frank - looked pretty stinky.
In Warhammer 40K this week, there's three terrain bundles - the 44"x30" Festering Factorum Battlefield, the 44"x60" Forge World Battlefield and the ​44"x30" Chaos Invasion Battlefield. The inclusion of the Skull Altar is an interesting touch, as it was originally an Age of $igmar piece.

If you have a good search online you'll find so many excellent 3rd party Blood Bowl-style miniatures. For years they have outclassed the Games Workshop offerings, until maybe this week when Blood Bowl Second Season Edition is released. Sporting (no pun intended) great new miniatures, including a new Imperial and Black Orc range, this new iteration of the classic game looks amazing! These Orcs really are everything Orcs should have been for a long time. There are of course new rules, so if you have the old game or some of those 3rd party minis, then you will need the Blood Bowl Official Rules. One of the venerable minis of the game is the old Treeman, and now 2020 brings us the new Treeman model, and it's very cool! As with all gam3es these days, there are game cards, so don't forget to pick up the Blood Bowl Special Plays Card Pack. Now if you pre-order through the webstore you'll get the Blood Bowl: Second Season Edition Promotional Dugouts and Blood Bowl 3 game Beta Key Code for free.
Books this week have a very Blood Bowl feel, with Death on the Pitch: Extra Time in paperback, plus the the Blood Bowl Omnibus in paperback. If you're a fan of some classic tales, then there are yet more classic Inferno! Print on Demand available - this time it's Issues 36-45. Love your old school Fantasy? Well there's the fifth omnibus for Gotrek and Felix out, plus a gorgeous looking Warhammer 40k Ravenor Limited Edition. In the world of Horus Heresy, the Siege of Terra: Solar War Book 1 is finally available in paperback, and for the serious collector there's a cool Siege of Terra: Solar War Map, which will either gather dust or you will spend the money to get it suitably display-worthy. Plus next week is a White Dwarf week.
If you're in Australia or New Zealand, then you can finally get your hands on the Space Marines Heroes Series 3 as individuals, or the ​Space Marine Heroes 3 - The Complete Set. Bit of a price bump from the last series by the way!

Age of $igmar is about to take a bit of a turn, over a year after Morathi reappeared with her Daughters of Khaine, she finally gets to take her rightful place - or does she?
The Broken Realms saga starts with the Broken Realms: Morathi book which comes in Who Knew Snakes Were So Hot Limited Edition and Where's The Dark Elves Standard Edition.
There's also a cool battle box, Shadow & Pain, which pits the Daughters of Khaine against the Hedonites of Slaanesh. The set also includes to excellent new miniatures; the Melusai Ironscale and the Slaaneshi Lord of Pain. We didn't see any humans in the last Slaaneshi release, so this is a nice change to see some human acolytes... with more to come! There are also some battles forces, Drusa Kraeth's Shadowpact, King Sythus Nemmetar's  Bloodsurf Hunt, Rokar Gresh's Iron Reapers (using three of the excellent Chaos chariots), and Keiser Ven Brecht's Black Watch.
In the world of 40K, Space Marine Heroes Series 3 featuring Plague Marines is on the way. There are six blind-boxed models available, each one with its own different Nurgling. Thankfully you can order the complete set that’s guaranteed to get you all six.  This set won't be available to Australia & NZ until the end of November. We also get a look at this year’s Christmas model, Jakkob Bugmansson XI: Brewmaster-General, certainly not as good as some from the past!
As Christmas fast approaches we'll get a whole lot of stocking stuffers, and Warhammer 40,000 Indomitus Playing Cards are but one - 52 cards split into 4 suits: The Imperium, Adeptus Astartes, Chaos, and Xenos. 
Black Library love Christmas, and the annual novella series returns with five hardback tomes' - Adepta Sororitas at war on a forge world in The Rose in Anger, Traitor by Deed sees a new generation of Soul Drinkers struggling with the Chapter’s troubled past, escape from an ork prison alongside an Astra Militarum officer in ​Prisoners of Waaagh!, embark on a quest to save a town from the bone tithe in Bonereapers, and Spark of Revolution is set during a slave rebellion start in the underhive. This year these are all hardcovers, which is interesting...
With Shadow and Pain on pre-order, there has to be a book too, so Covens of Blood is set around the Daughters of Khaine. There's a new audio drama, Heirs of Grimnir, which was originally released in three parts last Christmas, is being collected together on CD and MP3 for the first time.
Speaking of Christmas, the Black Library Advent Calendar containing 25 individually wrapped, A3 art prints which can sit around waiting for you to get them framed like last years...