Battles of the Old World: #9 The Patter of Teeny-Tiny Little Claws

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So I saw the new Skaven recently and am undecided on my opinions of the new models, the heroes are very sexy, with a heroic assassin model incoprorating the symbol of clan Eshin (the clan of assassins) with his three daggers (Only model to use three weapons at ones ) I didn't get to get a decent gander at the new Stormvermin, but the new clanrats I had a good nose at... and meh. This may be just myself (and probably is) but part of the fun of assembling a model is putting it in a pose, creating a dynamic within the unit, so some may look stationary or ready to brace themselves, while another unit looks like it's charging, things like that... but the new clanrats are one lump of plastic. With an arm missing. No gluing on the heads at an angle to look around them at the 90° arc that is their line of site, no bickering between two ratties next to each other... five rats a sprue looking dead ahead, with a deformed arm on one side to glue a shield onto and a socket to put the weapon in. The tails are much better though, they curl up around the back of the model so no more instances of drunken units refusing to line up. However well I understand the notion of Skaven being the truest horde army in any of the model series', I cannot help but feel the clanrat sprue is a little lazy. It's reminiscent of the old rats all staring diagonally in their little slotted bases. It isn't that much of a challenge to build up a unit of 30+ gluing arms, heads and shields on. Since the introduction of the spraygun as well it seems that Skaven are the hobby-lite option, or becoming viewed in such a way now they have reached a pinnicle point of simplicity. They may as well have done them in brown plastic! I can't help but feel the poor vermin have been a little neglected. They may have simply been rushed as the artists designing and creating the models work on this and that all year round and it's all collated together when a book is being prepared, if they aren't popular to model there would be a bit of an 'uh-oh' rush to get enough done, so perhaps that could be part of the reason. Who knows? The Doomwheel is pretty awesome though, I will admit that. Was hilarious watching a staff member trying to assemble it with no instructions and only a print out of a painted model of it from the GW website as a guide. The screaming bell is also very nicely done, it just seems a shame the most numerous units have not had the same treatment that the other lines have had.