Being a Warhammer 40k fan often comes down to patience. Sometimes you just gotta wait a long while to get the good stuff, and sometimes that good stuff is downright brilliant.
For example, let’s rewind all the way back to 1993 – Jurassic Park was all the rage, DOOM was kicking off gaming mania and Warhammer 40,000 was celebrating it’s second edition. Part of this second edition was a brilliant range of new bombastic characters, and none were more loved by I than the ridiculously named Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub, leader of the Bad Moons, a bright yellow armoured Ork dork that somehow came into my possession. Sadly Nazdreg didn’t get a recurring model update in later years, but he always floated around my cerebellum as a fond memory.
Now out of nowhere, the impending release of Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 has actually brought the yella fella back into the Warhammer 40k tabletop realm:
So turns out Nazdreg has himself a proper (proppa) role within Total War, with the videogame spurring a return to form for his physical counterpart – and the new model is a doozy.
Take a look at this original second edition incarnation alongside the new enormous plastic kit:
As far as glow-ups go, this one is for the ages.
So why did I like Nazdreg back in the day? Apart from his exceptional dress sense, one of the core things I love about Orks within the 40k universe is that their savage culture has a few ramshackle societal constructs – for example, Wealth. Orks use their own teeth as currency – tearing them out and literally exchanging them for goods and services – and the ork with the most teeth (“teef”) is considering the flashiest git around. Nazdreg is part of a clan of orks that have exceptionally fast-growing teeth, so they have basically unlocked a proper get-rich-quick hack, and in doing so they have access to the finest weapons and armour that money, I mean teeth, can buy. And that means ol’ Nazzy is the snazziest ork in the galaxy. This is reflected in Nazdreg’s incredible tabletop rules, where is enormous gun actually functions as three separate weapons that can all be fired at once. Zounds.
Amusingly, I actually loved Nazdreg enough to make my own model a little while back – trying to keep true to the main core tenets of his identity, those being:
- He has to have chonky armour
- He needs the most impressive gun
- He needs an absurdly large claw
- Make him big
Using bits and bobs, I managed to achieve my goal and produce the following:
Sure, it looks a bit like he has some impending back problems – but it is a worthwhile Nazdreg. Not sure what I will use him for now however, but I am not going to complain about having too many awesome Orks.
The new amazing Nazdreg is scheduled to drop in a few weeks when the new rules drop in Codex: Orks. In the meantime however, You can add Total War: Warhammer 40,000 to your Steam wishlist now. I know I am proppa keen knowing that this big fella is going to be making an appearance within the game.
After all, he is the snazziest git in the universe.
We want to hear from you. Are you excited to see Nazdreg return to the tabletop? What about within Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
