Warhammer 40,000 – Dark Angels The Lion & Retinue Lion El’Jonson

The Lion Returns! After Roboute Guilliman, the next of the loyal sons of the Emperor returns to the 41st millennium.

Similar to the themed initial release of Guilliman (Triumvirate of the Primarch, with the Lord of Ultramar accompanied by Cypher and Grand Master Voldus), Lion El'Jonson doesn't arrive alone but with a retinue of three Bladeguard Veterans.

The box is available for pre-order since today, April 15th, at a RRP of 85 EUR and will be delivered a week after.

But let's start with the basics, who is Lion El'Jonson? Lion El'Jonson was one of the twenty Primarchs created by the Emperor of Mankind during the Great Crusade to reunite the scattered human colonies in the galaxy. He is the Primarch of the Dark Angels, the first Space Marine Legion. But to point it out clearly, they were the first legion founded by the Emperor in absence of the primarchs, the first primarch to be reunited with the Emperor was Horus. Lion El'Jonson's origins are shrouded in mystery, as he was found by the Emperor on the world of Caliban, which was a planet on the fringes of the galaxy. On Caliban, Lion El'Jonson was found by a group of knights known as the Order, who raised him as their own. He quickly rose through their ranks, becoming their leader and uniting the various knightly orders on the planet. This is covered in more detail in the Horus Heresy novel #6 Descent of Angels.

During his time on Caliban, Lion El'Jonson fought many battles against the dangerous creatures that inhabited the planet, as well as against the rebellious factions of human settlers who refused to submit to the Order's authority. Eventually, the Emperor arrived on Caliban and revealed Lion El'Jonson's true origins to him. The Dark Angels Legion was created and Lion El'Jonson was made its Primarch, leading his Space Marines on many successful campaigns during the Great Crusade. During the Horus Heresy, where Space Marine fought Space Marine, the Dark Angels had an internal struggle, where a part of the Legion would betray Lion El'Jonson and became known as the Fallen. This internal conflict had grown to such a scale, that it caused the destruction of the Dark Angels home planet Caliban, and in this final battle between the leader of the Fallen Angels, Luther, and El'Jonson, the Primarch vanished.

But now in the Era Indomitus, 10.000 years later, as part of the Arks of Omen Campaign (of which we covered Azrael and Vashtorr the Arkifane), it was revealed that the Lion roams the galaxy once more, as he was still alive and resting in stasis, deep in the Dark Angels mobile fortress, The Rock, until he was fully healed from the wounds that the received during the fall of Caliban, and now is ready to lead the Dark Angels once more, for a last and final battle of Mankind.

The name Lion El'Jonson is inspired by an English poet, Lionel Johnson, the author of  "The Dark Angel". In Rogue Trader times the name initially was spelt "Lyyn Elgonsen"  and over the time went from "Lynol Jonsen" to Lion El'Jonson in the 2nd edition.

But what is in the box? As mentioned above, you get the primarch himself, across three sprues, on who we will focus today and another three sprues covering the Bladeguard Veterans. Both come with instructions of their own and a Dark Angels decal sheet. The Bladeguard Veterans are generic Primaris Marines, no Dark Angel insignia what so ever and no Dark Angels upgrade sprue. Why is that? I don't know, they could at least have added the Primaris Dark Angels Upgrade sprue, which would have provided sculpted shoulder pads and a few minor items to make them at least look a bit more like Dark Angels. But we're not going to go into detail on that and stay with Lion El'Jonson.

Similar to Abaddon the Despoiler, Lion El'Jonson comes with a bit of extra, he has two nice artworks included in the box, protected in a thick black envelope showing his matured face and a battle scene of him fighting Angron.

The Lion is spread across three small sized sprues, including a base topper and two watchers in the dark. Cast is very clean and crisp. Only minor clean up necessary for mould lines.

And that's what we're going to begin with. The Watchers in the Dark and the base topper. Lion El'Jonson comes with a mighty 60mm round base, just like Roboute and Abaddon.

Now we will start building Lion El'Jonson. It is interesting to point out, that his armour got an upgrade as well. The design is closer to the Primaris Mark X power armour, yet picks up many design choices and iconography from his 30k miniature, which was one of the last Primarchs to be released by Forge World.

We start from the legs and move upwards. The power armoured feet are covered partially by a tunic. The left knee pad shows once again the crossed swords and his belt swapped the crosses for more warhammery skulls. The design proximity to the Mark X armour can be seen on the joints and sides of the knee and ankle.

A cloak / upper tunic is added to the model. Very dynamic, flowing design and to properly underline his name, he obviously carries once more a lion pelt across his shoulders. Clever design, the undercuts and connections are hidden well.

Now for the bracers, shoulder pads and a small shield for the shoulder is added. The shoulder plates are a rounder design compared to the classic 30k armour, a more "artistic" interpretation of the power armour, moving it from an upscaled power armour to something worth of a Primarch, an artificer armour.

While the 30k Lion El'Jonson covers a bare head and a helmeted one (the Lion's Helmet), along with the choice between the Lion Sword or the Wolf Blade. In the 41st millennium / 10th edition of Warhammer 40k, he does not have access to these anymore. For multiple reasons. The Lion's Helmet is worn by Azrael, and the Lion Sword is rumoured to be with Cypher.

But his new gear is nothing short of impressive. He wields Fealty, a radiant power sword and is protected by the Emperor's Shield. His brother Roboute wields the Emperor's Sword (so any other returning primarchs should speed up, as long as there are still items in the armoury to be inherit). As for head options, the Lion has four to choose from. A matured bare head, a full helmet and two heads covered by a hood, with and without a helmet. you can easily magnetize them if you want.

And last item to be build is the backpack. This comes in an updated primaris influenced design as well, with little wings on the exhausts carrying a bit of angel iconography and an optional halo on top. This is only to be used with the lower head options, to not interfere with the wings of the full helmet.

The last picture shows how I split the build groups for an easier painting afterwards. With these more detailed miniatures, I highly recommend not assembling them fully prior to painting. You will have it easier this way.

A primarch is an impressive sight on the tabletop, and it is interesting to see how these legendary characters of the grim dark are designed. In the first picture you see one of the first Dark Angel commanders in the Warhammer range, next to the about twice the size primarch. I don't have the Forge World model of the Lion, but here's a comparison with his brother Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists and as you can see the size is kept with the 30k range, yet the way the details are covered is different in resin to injection mould plastic. And last but not least, another iconic hero, who is announced today, Dante after crossing the Rubicon Primaris.

A very impressive model, shown here with close ups and the two different hooded head variants.

Conclusion

Interesting to see the return of another Primarch after Roboute Guilliman. With the Ultramarines being the largest collected chapter among the Space Marines (and them being the breadwinner among the Warhammer 40k range), it was the most logical to benefit from the return of a Primarch. As per history, the next three "big" legions of the first founding are the Blood Angels, the Dark Angels and Space Wolves. And beside the very obvious reason for Sanguinius to not be next (he's officially dead, otherwise my money would be on him) along with Ferrus Manus being excluded from the choice as well, all other loyal primarch would be fair game and could probably return. As the Imperial Fists became more popular with the last editions, I think it is likely that we will see Rogal Dorn and / or Leman Russ somewhere in the future. On the traitor's side, we already have the daemon princes of Mortarion, Magnus and Angron, and there are rumours that Fulgrim could be next (as he would complete the four major chaos gods) and Abaddon still being around since the Horus Heresy. Leaving only Perturabo and Lorgar open, both as daemon princes still around in the warp, and Alpharius/Omegon, who is dead, or maybe not, maybe both, ... it's Alpha Legion. Rather unlikely.

Currently the Lion comes with his retinue, who is a bit underwhelming, but I assume you can either wait for the individual release or convert the bladeguard either using the Primaris Upgrade or some of the various, very amazing bits from the Dark Angels Deathwing boxed set (Which will probably be reduced to a part donor after the new upscaled Terminators will be dropped with the launch of 10th edition).

Beyond that, fun to build. Clean and impressively fast for a model this size. Love the head options. The sword could have been more draconian, like the bane of all Fallen, and not just a long power sword. Have something engraved in it or be more detailed.

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The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer