Wandering Adventures

The Coolest Ork Characters in Warhammer 40,000 With the new 11th Edition of Warhammer 40K launching with the Armageddon box and the Fourth War for Armageddon kicking off, the Orks are having a moment. The green tide is descending on the ash wastes once again, and there's never been a better time to start an Ork army or dive into the lore of the galaxy's most enthusiastic warmongers. Orks don't fight for ideology or survival. They fight because fighting is the best thing there is, and their greatest characters embody that philosophy in gloriously different ways. Here are the coolest Ork characters in Warhammer 40,000. Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka The big one. The Prophet of Gork and Mork, the Beast of Armageddon, and the closest thing the Orks have ever had to a unifying leader. Ghazghkull started life as a fairly ordinary Goff boy until a bullet to the head and some creative surgery from Mad Dok Grotsnik left him with an adamantium skull and a direct line to the Ork gods. Since then he has launched two full-scale invasions of Armageddon, fought a decades-long grudge match against Commissar Yarrick, been beheaded by Ragnar Blackmane, and been rebuilt by Grotsnik into an even bigger body because being dead is apparently just another obstacle to krump. Now his WAAAGH! has returned to Armageddon to finish what he started, and the entire setting is shaking because of it. No character in 40K has more momentum right now. Wazdakka Gutsmek The Speedboss himself. Wazdakka is the greatest bike-riding Ork who ever lived, a Mekboy-turned-warlord whose life's ambition is to build a warbike big enough to ride across the galaxy, jumping from planet to planet in one endless roaring convoy. That is an absolutely deranged goal and he pursues it with total sincerity, which is what makes him great. In the new edition's lore, Wazdakka leads the vanguard of the invasion of Armageddon, tearing across the ash wastes ahead of Ghazghkull's main force. If you love Speed Freeks, buggies, and the Evil Sunz philosophy that red ones go faster, Wazdakka is your guy. Makari A grot. Just a grot. And yet Makari might be the most beloved character on this list. He is Ghazghkull's personal banner bearer, and he has survived battles that have annihilated entire armies, always emerging without a scratch while clutching the boss's banner. Orks believe he's blessed by Gork and Mork, and honestly, the evidence supports it. There's something perfect about the mightiest warlord in the galaxy being followed around by a tiny, smug, improbably lucky gretchin, and the current model of Makari holding the banner aloft is one of the most characterful sculpts Games Workshop has ever made. Mad Dok Grotsnik Every Ork Painboy is a nightmare, but Grotsnik is the nightmare other Painboys tell stories about. After a Dark Eldar attack scrambled his brain, Grotsnik rebuilt his own head with a reinforced skull plate and lost whatever passed for restraint he had before. He performs surgery nobody asked for, installs bionics into patients who came in for a checkup, and famously wired his own body with explosives so nobody could profit from killing him. He's also the reason Ghazghkull exists in his current form, twice. Grotsnik is equal parts hilarious and horrifying, which is the Ork faction in a nutshell. Kaptin Badrukk The most notorious Freebooter in the galaxy and the richest Ork alive. Badrukk leads da Blacktoof Flash Gits, a mob of mercenary pirates armed with absurdly overbuilt guns, and his own weapon, Da Rippa, is so powerful it's slowly killing him with radiation. He wears it as a badge of honour. Badrukk fights for teef and glory, sells his services to any warlord who can pay, and struts around in a greatcoat and bicorne hat like an Ork Napoleon. He's pure style, and his model remains one of the best in the entire Ork range. Boss Snikrot The scariest Ork on this list, and the one with the deepest Armageddon roots. Snikrot is a Blood Axe Kommando who spent the Third War for Armageddon haunting the equatorial jungles, ambushing Imperial patrols and leaving no survivors except the ones he deliberately let escape to spread the fear. Imperial soldiers on Armageddon genuinely believed he was a myth, right up until he wasn't. While most Orks announce themselves from a mile away, Snikrot and his Red Skull Kommandos appear out of nowhere, do horrible things quietly, and vanish. With the war returning to Armageddon, you have to imagine he's out there in the green somewhere, waiting. Start Your Own WAAAGH! Whether you're drawn to Ghazghkull's unstoppable momentum or Snikrot's silent menace, there's an Ork playstyle for every kind of hobbyist, and the new Armageddon launch box is a fantastic way to start an Ork army in 11th Edition Warhammer 40K. Wandering Adventures in Woodbridge (Vaughan), Ontario carries Warhammer 40,000 miniatures, the Armageddon boxed set, and everything you need to paint your greenskins, including Citadel, AK Interactive, Vallejo, and Army Painter paints. Visit us in-store or shop online at wanderingadventures.ca with free shipping across Canada on orders over $150.  

The Coolest Tyranid Characters in Warhammer 40,000 When people talk about Tyranids, they usually talk about the swarm. Endless waves of Hormagaunts, walls of Termagants, tide after tide of ravenous organisms consuming everything in their path. And that's fair, the Great Devourer is defined by its numbers. But within that swarm, there are individual organisms so terrifying, so uniquely engineered or freakishly mutated, that the Imperium has given them names.  Here are some of the coolest Tyranid characters in the lore. The Swarmlord The Swarmlord is the apex of Tyranid evolution. It is the Hive Mind's greatest weapon, a being of supreme strategic intelligence that the Hive Mind births and rebirth endlessly, carrying the accumulated tactical knowledge of every battle it has ever fought across every hive fleet. It cannot be killed permanently. Destroy it, and the Hive Mind simply grows a new body and pours its consciousness back in. Every death makes it smarter. What makes the Swarmlord terrifying is that it doesn't just lead Tyranids, it outthinks its enemies. When the Swarmlord appeared at the Battle of Macragge, the entire nature of the invasion changed overnight. Defences that had been holding suddenly crumbled as the swarm shifted from mindless aggression to coordinated, multi-vector assault. It identified the Baneblade Pride of Hera as the key target of the Imperial western flank, drew the Ultramarines away with a diversion through tunnelling Raveners, and then sent a wave of Carnifexes to tear the super-heavy tank apart. The western flank collapsed. On the tabletop, the Swarmlord anchors a Tyranid army's synapse network and makes everything around it hit harder and move faster. If you're building a Tyranids army, this is the centrepiece.   Deathleaper Most Tyranid organisms kill. Deathleaper does something more insidious: it breaks minds. Created by Hive Fleet Leviathan as the ultimate terror weapon, Deathleaper is an evolved Lictor-strain designed not for slaughter, but for psychological warfare. When it was deployed against the Imperial world of St. Caspelan, it didn't kill the planet's spiritual leader, Cardinal Salem. It knew that would make him a martyr. Instead, it got close, over and over and over again. Sentries would vanish. Bodies would be found with their skulls hollowed out. For ten days, Deathleaper breached ever-increasing layers of security and came within a claw's reach of the Cardinal then vanished, leaving him alive. The Cardinal shattered. His paranoia consumed him, his panic paralysed the planetary defence forces, and when Leviathan's swarm finally arrived it tore through a leaderless, demoralised enemy with almost no resistance. Deathleaper is a reminder that the Hive Mind isn't just hungry, it's patient, and it understands its prey. Old One Eye Old One Eye is a Carnifex that refuses to die. It spearheaded Hive Fleet Behemoth's assault on the Ultramarine world of Calth, swatting aside Leman Russ Battle Tanks like they were nothing. An unnamed Imperial hero eventually brought it down with a plasma pistol shot through the eye socket, the one wound Old One Eye has never been able to regenerate. The plasma burn scar still runs across its skull to this day. After Behemoth was driven off, its body was left frozen in Calth's ice packs for decades. A band of smugglers eventually dug it out, hoping to sell the corpse. The moment they thawed it, Old One Eye's wounds began to heal. It woke up, killed every one of them, and resumed its rampage across Calth drawing leftover Termagants and Genestealers from the old invasion to its presence as a dominant organism, heralding a new wave of destruction. Scout Sergeant Telion of the Ultramarines eventually tracked it down and made an impossible shot into its ruined eye socket. Whether that killed it for good remains unclear. Old One Eye has reportedly been sighted on multiple worlds since, and nobody is certain if these are the same creature or further proof that the Hive Mind has simply learned to reproduce it. The Doom of Malan'tai Most Tyranid organisms feed on flesh and biomass. The Doom of Malan'tai fed on souls. A uniquely adapted Zoanthrope strain, the Doom didn't just consume bodies, it drained the psychic life-force of its victims, leaving nothing behind. It played a central role in the destruction of the Aeldari Craftworld Malan'tai, an entire population of one of the galaxy's most ancient species, consumed not by claws and teeth but by something worse. To the Aeldari, the destruction of Malan'tai and the creature that caused it are inseparable the lament doesn't distinguish between them. The Doom was never conclusively destroyed. Grey Knights arrived at Malan'tai after the fact and found nothing. Some Imperial xenographers believe the creature was eventually reabsorbed into the Hive Mind and that its genetic template lives on in the Neurothrope strain. Which, if true, means its legacy is now standard equipment across every hive fleet. The Parasite of Mortrex The Parasite of Mortrex wins the award for the most horrifying method of reproduction in Warhammer 40,000, which is saying something. A bat-winged Warrior-strain organism, the Parasite carries a barbed tail tipped with a hollow tube like a snake's fang. When it stings a living victim, it implants Ripper parasite embryos directly into the body. These embryos mature in hours and devour the host from the inside out, bursting out as fully grown Rippers hungry for more. It first appeared on the Imperial Fortress World of Mortrex. The defences held for ten days before the Parasite arrived. Each victim it claimed added to a growing tide of Rippers until armoured vehicles were the only things that dared leave the fortress walls. Two weeks later the planet was gone, overrun by a Ripper swarm that the Parasite had grown from the bodies of the defenders themselves. A single astropathic transmission got out before the end, warning of what it had seen. The Parasite of Mortrex has not been sighted since Mortrex fell. But Astra Militarum troops who know the lore keep their eyes on the sky.   The Red Terror The Red Terror is the mystery entry. It has only ever been confirmed in one place, at one time, the Imperial mining world of Devlan. A massive Ravener-strain covered in blood-red chitin, with scythe blades and a maw wide enough to swallow a man whole, the Red Terror emerged from the mining tunnels beneath Devlan's starport and began hunting the garrison. Not en masse but methodically. It would attack, kill, retreat into the tunnels, and return again. When a search and destroy team went in after it, they didn't come back. What happened after is darker still. One ore ship fleeing Devlan arrived at the world of Adri's Hope dark and silent, making an automated landing with no communication. When investigators boarded, they found a slaughterhouse. Thousands of refugees, dead. No creature was found aboard, but three weeks later, Adri's Hope itself went silent. Nobody knows exactly what the Red Terror is. Some Imperial scholars believe it was the Hive Mind's first prototype for the Ravener strain, or an early experiment toward the Mawloc and Trygon bioforms. Whether it was one creature or several, whether it's still out there nobody knows. That's what makes it so effective. Build Your Tyranid Army at Wandering Adventures Whether you're just getting into Warhammer 40,000 Tyranids or looking to expand an existing collection, Wandering Adventures carries a full range of Tyranid miniatures, paints, and hobby supplies in-store and online at wanderingadventures.ca. From the iconic Swarmlord and Old One Eye to Carnifex broods, Hive Tyrants, Genestealers, and everything in between, we stock the kits you need to bring the Great Devourer to the tabletop. We also carry Citadel, Vallejo, and AK Interactive paints to help you nail whatever colour scheme you're going for — classic Hive Fleet Leviathan purple and blue, the bone-white of Behemoth, or something entirely your own. Located in Woodbridge (Vaughan), Ontario, with Canada-wide shipping available. Stop in or shop online — and if you have questions about building or painting your Tyranid army, our staff are hobbyists who actually play the game.

How to Store and Protect Your TCG Collection — A Practical Guide If you're playing or collecting trading card games, your cards are an investment. Whether you're sitting on a binder full of Flesh and Blood Majestics, a set of Pokémon chase cards, or a competitive Magic deck you've spent months building, the difference between a well-protected collection and a poorly stored one can be hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Here's exactly what you should be doing to keep your cards in the best possible condition. Sleeve Your Cards — No Exceptions This is the non-negotiable starting point. Every single card you care about should be in a sleeve. Full stop. Unsleeved cards pick up wear incredibly fast — shuffling, handling, and even just sliding in and out of a deck box leaves micro-scratches on the surface that add up quickly. A card that's been played unsleeved for a few months looks noticeably worse than one that's been sleeved from day one, and in the secondary market condition is everything. Think of sleeving in three tiers depending on how much you care about the card: Minimum — Single Sleeved One good quality outer sleeve is the bare minimum for any card you're playing with. Dragon Shield Dual Mattes are widely considered the gold standard for competitive play — they shuffle smoothly, they're durable, and they come in enough colours to colour-code your decks. Gamegenic Matte Prime sleeves are another excellent option at a slightly lower price point. For standard size cards across Pokémon, Flesh and Blood, Magic, and Riftbound, both work perfectly. Better — Double Sleeved For any card worth money or that you'd be gutted to lose, double sleeving is the way to go. Put the card in a tight-fitting inner sleeve first — these are thin, snug sleeves designed specifically to fit the card — then slide the whole thing into your regular outer sleeve. The inner sleeve seals the card away from moisture and edge wear while the outer sleeve takes all the shuffling abuse. This is how most serious competitive players sleeve their decks and it makes a noticeable difference in how well cards hold up over time. Maximum — Triple Sleeved For your most expensive cards — high value foils, chase rares, cards you've spent serious money on — triple sleeving is the gold standard. Inner sleeve first, then your regular sleeve, then a thick outer sleeve on top of that. The outer sleeve adds a third layer of rigid protection that essentially armours the card against virtually anything short of a direct coffee spill. It does make the card thicker and some deck boxes won't fit triple sleeved cards, so it's best reserved for your most prized singles rather than your entire deck. Deck Boxes Once your cards are sleeved they need somewhere to live that isn't just loose in a bag or rattling around in the bottom of your backpack. A good deck box keeps your cards upright, protects them from being crushed, and prevents the sleeves from getting scuffed against each other. For a single deck, a rigid deck box like the Gamegenic Bastion XL or the Ultimate Guard Boulder is ideal. These are hard shell boxes that won't compress under pressure — important if your bag is getting thrown around at events. Avoid flimsy cardboard or soft plastic boxes for anything you care about. For players who run multiple decks, a larger storage box or a portfolio case is worth the investment. The Gamegenic Academic 133+ XL holds a full double sleeved deck plus tokens, dice, and everything else you need for a game night in one organised package. Binders and Portfolio Albums For your collection cards — pulls you want to keep, singles you've bought, cards you're not currently playing — a good binder is essential. Side-loading pages are significantly better than top-loading ones because cards can't fall out if the binder is tipped upside down. The Gamegenic Prime Album and the Ultimate Guard range both use side-loading pages and are well worth the few extra dollars over cheap generic binders. Organise your binder in a way that makes sense for how you use it — by set, by rarity, by colour, whatever works for you. The important thing is that cards are stored flat, not bent or crammed in at angles, and that the binder itself is stored upright rather than lying flat with weight on top of it. Toploaders and Card Savers for High Value Cards For your most valuable cards — anything worth $20 or more — a sleeve alone isn't enough for long term storage. Toploaders are rigid plastic holders that keep a single card completely flat and protected from bending. Put the card in a soft penny sleeve first, then slide it into the toploader for maximum protection. This is standard practice for storing and shipping valuable singles. Card Savers are a softer semi-rigid alternative that are preferred by grading companies like PSA and BGS if you're ever considering getting cards professionally graded. If grading is on your radar, store your candidates in Card Savers rather than toploaders to avoid any edge indentation from the rigid plastic. Temperature, Humidity, and Light This is the part most collectors don't think about until it's too late. Cards are paper and paper reacts to its environment. High humidity causes warping and can lead to mold in extreme cases. Direct sunlight causes fading — even through a window over time. Extreme heat can cause cards to warp or sleeves to stick together. Store your collection somewhere cool, dry, and out of direct light. A climate-controlled room is ideal. Avoid garages, attics, and basements where temperature and humidity fluctuate significantly. If you live somewhere particularly humid, silica gel packets in your storage boxes absorb excess moisture and are cheap insurance for an expensive collection. We stock Dragon Shield, Gamegenic, and Ultimate Guard sleeves at Wandering Adventures — including inners and outers for double and triple sleeving. Browse the full range at wanderingadventures.ca/collections/trading-card-games.