Things just got official people

[Primarch]

not every one is as addicted to plastic crack as we are mate.. MIJ has a very high degree of temperance... something I wish I had...

Its true, M_i_J only buys nice looking figures. The art I am talking about looks very cool and sinister. Hopefully the model will do it justice, in which case he will have a non-game excuse to buy it.

[Admiral-Badruck]

they are sure to look good... I would bet on it. but I am not sure if that will make MIJ buy them...

[Primarch]

If you look carefully at this VERY small picture, you may be able to see some of the Beastmasters and Beasts models from the upcoming Dark Eldar 2nd wave.

beastmasters-01.jpg

[me_in_japan]

new dark eldar beastie types are up. Not sure about em -

beastmaster - not really impressed at all. A bit lumpen, frankly. Not a fan of the skyboard, either.
Succubus - somewhat overbling, but still, a nice mini. Good showpiece model.
Clawed fiend - impractically large. OK, he's 40pts and T5, but he's gonna get shot to bits.
Khymera - nice mini, surprisingly. However, since you practically speaking need at least 5 of them, thats gonna be one hella expensive unit (12pts each, 5 per beastmaster, up to 5 beastmasters in one unit. Khyms are only WS4, S4, A3, so not too scary individually. Technically, you could have a unit of 25, but not for almost 9 quid each...)
Razorwings - not bad. not great, but not bad.

The thing is, to make beastmasters a viable unit, you need multiple beastmasters and multiple beasties. For the prices being charged, youd be cheaper starting a wraithguard army...

[Primarch]

beastmaster - not really impressed at all. A bit lumpen, frankly. Not a fan of the skyboard, either.
Succubus - somewhat overbling, but still, a nice mini. Good showpiece model.
Clawed fiend - impractically large. OK, he's 40pts and T5, but he's gonna get shot to bits.
Khymera - nice mini, surprisingly

Linky bit

Beastmaster - Yep, its a wee bit ugly.
Succubus - looks like it can be converted from Wyches + Warriors
Clawed Fiend - Welcome to the world of Ogryns. At least this guy can be in a unit with guys who can easily get a save and therefore get one for himself. (How often is anything ever completely out of line of sight from everything on the table?)
Khymera, 12 pts, WS4, S4, T3 and A3. Also, I6, so its going before most things and at the same speed as genestealers and daemonettes which are two of the fastest assault units going. It hits like an ork on the charge (but faster) and has a 4+ invulnerable save.

The strength of the unit isnt in spamming any one type, its in mixing everything.
The Khymera give you 4+ invulnerable saves vs big nasty guns
The Fiend is where you allocate small arms fire to as it gets better the more it gets wounded
The Flock have rending attacks to help beat armoured opponents and a lot of wounds each.
The Beastmasters can get agonizers for killing high T, high save enemies.
And all of them get a load of attacks so they can pulverise whatever they hit.
For the cost of a kitted out marine assault squad you get 11 models, 22 wounds, 43 attacks on the charge hitting first if the target is in the open, with 4++ saves if you need them.

[The Other Dave]

That Succubus is pure unadulterated Jes Goodwin Love, ain't it?

I suspect that the Beastmaster will look better in the flesh. GW seems to have a painter on staff who can't help but make muscles look fugly - witness the plastic minotaurs, the new savage orcs, and now the bizarre six-pack on this guy, which all have the same weird extreme contrast in muscly nooks and crevices. I've seen minotaurs painted up to look not-terrible, so we can hold out hope, I reckon.

[AndrewGPaul]

The photography doesn't always help. The Displacer Beasts - sorry, Khymeras - look better in the group photo at the top of the page than in the individual online shop photos.

[Primarch]

The Displacer Beasts - sorry, Khymeras

Dungeons and Dragons called, they'd like the contents of their Monster Manual back.
Glad to see that I wasn't the only one to go "Hang on....?" At least GW did them without black fur, so they dont look exactly the same.

[me_in_japan]

d'oh! forgot the link...

youre right about mixing the unit, but I dont want to have to. I want a unit composed entirely of razorwings, please. (tbf, at least that is affordable.)

and how do you get 11 models for teh same price as a marine squad? a razorwing flock is one model, btw, not 4...

[Primarch]

and how do you get 11 models for teh same price as a marine squad? a razorwing flock is one model, btw, not 4...

3 Beastmasters, 1 Fiend, 5 Khymera, 2 Flocks. A shade over 200 points with equipment for the Masters. 11 models.