[The Sullen One]

It may seem a stupid question, but I'm genunienly curious as to why they're so popular, and I'd like to here from anyone with an opinion.

 

[Baron Spikey]

Well as an indication of their popularity- they account for at least 50% of all 40k sales.

How they got so popular is, in my opinion, to do with their ease of use and modelling/painting. They don't require a large amount of units to be a viable army, they can be painted in as simple or complex a manner as the painter wishes whilst still looking perfectly fine, alongside their awesome background of 'knights in space' they're also extremely well supported as the flagship race of Games Workshop (you could say they're the minature wargames version of Mickey Mouse).

 

[Kale Hellas]

ultramarines are the poster boys and they come in the starter kit so it makes sense that almost everyone starts with a spacemarine army, and that there are multiple kinds of spacemarines with different codex's would also help.
Not to mention the fact they are a very strong army.

 

[Stella Cadente]

well I'm sure it has nothing to do with having 5 codex's of varying types, holding 90% of the shelf space of any GW store and absolutely nothing to do with the fact that space marines are rammed down your throat 24/7 by GW and its staff, and in no way related to the fact most players will treat you like the dog turd they stepped in on the way in if you DON'T play SPESS MAHREENS.

plus almost there entire range is plastic and its never hard to paint tonka toys.

 

[Margnus]

Everyone else has said it, but yes, it's because they are in all the starter sets, are the "poster boys" and because there is a large range of models. I got into space marines because of a starter set, and because I liked the look of dark angels

 

[LukeValantine]

1) Easy/straight forward to paint (To a relatively acceptable level).
2) Can be simple yet resilient enough to give even a amateur a decent chance of not getting spanked every time they bring their models to the table.
3) Young people like being on the side of good over the side represented by suicidal/insane/hate filled monsters.
4) They are in most cases the first army anyone sees when entering the hobby.

 

[the-ad-man]

they are beginner friendly.

/thread

 

[Doelago]

well I'm sure it has nothing to do with having 5 codex's of varying types, holding 90% of the shelf space of any GW store and absolutely nothing to do with the fact that space marines are rammed down your throat 24/7 by GW and its staff, and in no way related to the fact most players will treat you like the dog turd they stepped in on the way in if you DON'T play SPESS MAHREENS.

plus almost there entire range is plastic and its never hard to paint tonka toys.

Wow... Stellas crusade against GW and everything related to SPESS MAHREENS (HERESY!) continues....

 

[aboytervigon]

i personally see through the space marines and chose orks and swapped my friends orks for my space marines and the closest thing i have to a space marine army is a chaos space marine army

 

[GrizBe]

Its pretty much been covered...

The starter set contains Space Marines, so most players start with them.
They're Easy to paint, easy to play, and easy to remember the rules for.
They've some of the best 40k models and units out there.

And so on...

 

[Doelago]

Of course, they are the Emperors finest! You dont need any other reason!

 

[yanlou]

i think its to do with whats already been mentioned but it could also be because there super humans in almost impervious armor, its like when your a kid and you imagine yourself as a super hero or super soldier been able to defeat anything and i think its also to do with the movie aspect of things as well and that's what contributes to them been so popular, the fascination of been more then your are, if what i said has made sense.

 

[Waaagh_Bong]

enough said lol

 

[bitsandkits]

40K has always been about the marines , they were at the very core of the game right from the start, the first box of plastics was RTB01 (Rouge Trader box 01) was space marines, they were the only army with vehicles for a very long time, and everyting we love about 40k models stems from the marines from multipart kits to modular kits.The fluff for 40k is wholey entrenched as the marines fluff, 40k isnt really the story of mankind in the future its the story of superhuman soldiers and the guy who engineered them.

I find the hatred for them pretty strange, i think they basically suffer from being too popular so it then becomes "popular" to hate them, as stella pointed out they are shoved down everyones throat in a manner of speaking but without them the game and the company would have been long gone by now, i think they are a great hook for new players as they are both fantastical and easy to identify with until you know about the rest of the 40k universe, then you can expand into a real army like the Eldar.