Warhammer 40,000 has been a well-known brand for many years with a plethora of different products, but also many fan creations. In the latest conflict, fans are fully on the side of Games Workshop.
What kind of company is this?
- Galactic Armory offers various 3D prints, cosplay props, and printer files that represent replicas from well-known franchises.
- Among the offerings are lightsabers and Clone Trooper helmets from Star Wars or capes from Helldivers 2 – mainly science fiction stuff.
- Until recently, products from the world of Warhammer 40,000 could also be found in the range, at least until around mid-July 2025.
What is this warning now? Games Workshop, the makers of Warhammer 40,000, have sent a cease and desist notice to Galactic Armory, as explained in this YouTube video.
The warning came shortly after Games Workshop itself announced the sale of official Space Marine helmets (visible in the title image). In the video, Galactic Armory complains that Games Workshop now wants to take over this area and arbitrarily shuts down fan projects.
Something similar has happened before: The animated web series Astartes suddenly disappeared and fans have accused Games Workshop of having sued. In fact, the company has engaged the creator and Astartes 2 is set to officially debut on Warhammer+.
Consequently, some parts of the community have come to believe that the evil giant company Games Workshop only wants to crush small fan projects. In the current case, however, fans are fully behind the Warhammer creators.
“It sucks that I’m siding with the big, evil corporation”
In several threads on Reddit (like here and here on Reddit), users are reopening the case. They explain: What Galactic Armory has done is simply theft of intellectual property.
The company has used the motifs of Warhammer 40,000 and sold them without ever paying anything to Games Workshop, without a license, without permission. This is not a simple fan project; it is the business with foreign property, and Games Workshop is absolutely right to demand that the sale be stopped. More precisely, it states:
I believe we often forget that behind a company are artists and creatives who have poured their souls and time into the franchise to support themselves and their families. Here, Galactic Armory took the work of these people […] and sold it without paying the creators any money.
If Games Workshop does not make money from the things under their licenses, then the people who created these things will not receive their rightful share of their work either.
It is not necessarily the case that employees benefit if a company makes money from licenses. The distribution of funds is usually not transparent. However, Games Workshop recently paid out fat bonuses due to the success of Warhammer.
Users explain that it often happens that intellectual property – especially from Warhammer 40,000 – is sold elsewhere. However, the names are at least different so that it doesn’t seem like official products.
Galactic Armory, however, used the original names from the Warhammer universe. Therefore, it is only logical and quite right for Games Workshop to enforce the rights to the intellectual property here.
In many cases, fans can showcase their own creations without getting into trouble. Only when it comes to selling does it lead to disputes – understandably, as the community sees it. However, the creativity of fans leads to very interesting things: Player returns to Warhammer 40,000, builds his own army out of clay, delights fans: “Father Nurgle is happy”
