Old miniatures rereleased

Machen

Member
Very exciting news, fellows: Big Mr. Tong has bought Denizen's line of science fiction miniatures, and he plans to scan the original sculpts, upscale them to 28mm, and re-release them in metal.

Most of the minis I own are too large to scale well with 25mm, which is why I'd previously avoided Denizen miniatures, but 28mm is perfect.

Along with Denizen-designed aliens, civvies, and troopers, some highlights of the range include classic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy characters (the "good guys" - Dent, Ford Prefect, Marvin, etc.) and Aliens-style colonial marines.

You can read the announcement and look at the link below:
Space Denizens group on Facebook
 
Fimm McCool

Fimm McCool

Member
I'm glad they're getting picked up. The Denizen figures are beautiful, really underrated. Any word on the fantasy lines?
 

Nachtj

New Member
I have just watched the Warhammer preview for Adepticon 25 and I can scarcely believe it but it looks very much as if they are going to be rereleasing the 1987 JG sculpts of the wood elf beastmasters, all 4 lots possibly in one set!
 

Fencig

New Member
what a great thread. Tried starting something similar last week at my usual haunt and it fizzled out pretty quickly. So many great models being re-released, and in white metal, what a great time to catch up. Especially if you ( like me), have just re-discovered the hobby in the last 6 years.
I've bought from RP Legacy, Merliton, Mithril, RPG Elements-5th field, Forlorn Hope, Essex, Flipside, and Footsore + may more small hobby shops selling NOS or clean pre-owned. Wonderful experience every time, and multiple orders from some.
I guess by the thread postings, re-release of the Citadel classics remains a Forlorn hope :( It's too bad, i guess we'll have to live with $250. Elf Chariots on ebay for a long time.

one word of caution, and it brings me no pleasure to post this but Blacktree , aka OEO Orbis, i think might be taking payment and no shipments. i ordered from the US branch, and 6 weeks later no communication other than the auto-generated " order received" email. emails unanswered, phone number disconnected, and listed address is a house in texas in an old, rather shoddy looking neighborhood. I hope i'm wrong, and this still will show up ( thankfully not a big order) but doubtful. many threads on this and some people lost over a hundred pounds and ordered 6 months ago.
if i receive this, i will update, but proceed with caution.

But back to happier topic, Games workshop being what it is ( a corporate money churn), has anyone offered to buy the old molds? you would expect they would be happy to "sell some old junk" while they crank out sprue plastic in China (which actually is pretty decent for what i've seen, not up to the best metal standards but not bad at all)

Nachtj said:
I have just watched the Warhammer preview for Adepticon 25 and I can scarcely believe it but it looks very much as if they are going to be rereleasing the 1987 JG sculpts of the wood elf beastmasters, all 4 lots possibly in one set!
Click to expand...
in metal, or?
 

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Eric

Eric

Administrator
Fencig said:
one word of caution, and it brings me no pleasure to post this but Blacktree , aka OEO Orbis, i think might be taking payment and no shipments. i ordered from the US branch, and 6 weeks later no communication other than the auto-generated " order received" email. emails unanswered, phone number disconnected, and listed address is a house in texas in an old, rather shoddy looking neighborhood. I hope i'm wrong, and this still will show up ( thankfully not a big order) but doubtful. many threads on this and some people lost over a hundred pounds and ordered 6 months ago.
if i receive this, i will update, but proceed with caution.
Click to expand...
I know there has been a rather on/off service from them in the UK for some years now with it looking like things are properly in trouble at present, manic has posted on another thread about that.

Fencig said:
But back to happier topic, Games workshop being what it is ( a corporate money churn), has anyone offered to buy the old molds? you would expect they would be happy to "sell some old junk" while they crank out sprue plastic in China (which actually is pretty decent for what i've seen, not up to the best metal standards but not bad at all)
Click to expand...
I think the issue would be the IP around the molds - if many old molds exist at all - you'd hope the master models would exist in their archive at least! I've always though the Chinese sprues tend to have softer detail than those made in the UK. I think the majority of the plastics are still made in the UK however.

I'm certainly enjoying their discovery that there is a market for some of their old and not quite so old minis!
 

Fencig

New Member
Eric said:
I'm certainly enjoying their discovery that there is a market for some of their old and not quite so old minis!
Click to expand...
someone must have looked on ebay and saw Tiranoc chariots selling for $100., then light bulb went off. I hope they re-release this one, the original with the normal horses, not the silly " my little pony" version i posted a pic of above :)

Still, I'm going to go out on a limb and say they are done with metal. Pretty sure the metal LOTR stuff now is all NOS, and many of the models have already be re-released in plastic, sometimes the same, some different (like Treebeard).

I did see "made in UK on my last box, called "Isengard Battlehost", but hard to tell what that means in todays world, the 51% value rule. subaru's here are labeled " made in the USA", but they shipped here in tubs and crates, assembled and painted in Indiana, and that's where the vehicle acquires 51% or more of it's value.
My mines of Moria came in a plain bag, i'll look and see if " made in" is molded into it
 

Nachtj

New Member
in metal, or?
[/QUOTE]

I am guessing they will be metal. Going by recent instances of re-released metals from old molds for the OW lines. Plus I'm not sure how else they could do these particular sculpts. The bear is one solid lump of lead!
 
dieselmonkey

dieselmonkey

Member
Fencig said:
Games workshop being what it is ( a corporate money churn), has anyone offered to buy the old molds? you would expect they would be happy to "sell some old junk" while they crank out sprue plastic in China (which actually is pretty decent for what i've seen, not up to the best metal standards but not bad at all)
Click to expand...

There are no 'old moulds', they were disposed of in the early 2000s, I know exactly what landfill they're in as I knew the owner of the waste diisposal company that had the GW contract back then, if anyone wants to break in with an excavator and recover them, lol.

They do however have master figures for pretty much everything going back to the earliest Citadel days in their archives, so they could make new moulds from them, but obviously they're never going to sell them.
 
ManicMan

ManicMan

Member
depending on the age, moulds were only really disposed of like that when they were of no more use, often meaning you can't cast with them. being a big company, they did keep alot of the masters well and over the years, tons of models for each figure. GW is a company that makes thousands of the same miniature even back in the late 80s. Can't do that with one mould.

and even if someone got a hold an original mould, you don't have the rights to product it. Under UK law, it's classed as Art. Artistic work is authors life + 50 years from the year of death. When sculpting for a company, the copyright protection on the work is often 'sold' to the company. This can either be a one time thing (you by the model and the rights to do whatever with it) or with some restrictions (you by the model and the rights to do whatever for up to X amount of years, then it reverts back to me). For more detailed work on that, you would need to see professional sculptures and various company lawyers for the kind of deals they give.

Technically, when a 'fan sculpt' is made based on some thing they don't own (like if someone made a sculpt based on a piece of GW artwork) that is.. kinda illegal if you sell it.. it gets very VERY complex but mostly companies turn a blind eye when they can as long as it doesn't harm there property (copyrights etc). Years ago, I did some work (not a sculpt) based on something else as 'fan' work, and got a nice little C&D over it. Fair enough. They thought it was not so much as very good but a little bit too good and close to the source design so as to cause 'confusion'. Friends in Germany one created a fan Sonic statue and asked for permission for it as a prize gift for something, which was allowed by SEGA as long as they make it clear and stick 'Unofficial' written on it. That is also kinda why you can (to a degree) get way with alot of them 'Unofficial' or 'Unauthorised' fan mags in newsagents and even supermarkets. by including them special words, you get a bit of protection.

Hell, you could probably publish a Warhammer campaign you made, IF you stick alot of 'unofficial' 'unauthorised' and stuff on it, don't be stupid in the price' and by pretty careful with your credits (like DO create GW etc).. If it was a modern edition, GW might get a bit iffy.. If it was an old edition, as long as there is enough 'original' content, they would probably be fine (though often best to ask permission first).. Oh and don't just say 'It's parody so it's protected, even though I'm using the official names' cause that isn't parody.. calling it 'PeaceMallet' would be parody.. Warhammer isn't.


anyway.. sorry for sidetrack ^_^ I wonder if we need to make up a ever-changing list of which of the GW current Old World products are re-issues and what from.. though the price is getting iffy after that first wave with the Giant and Wyvern..
 
dieselmonkey

dieselmonkey

Member
ManicMan said:
depending on the age, moulds were only really disposed of like that when they were of no more use, often meaning you can't cast with them. being a big company, they did keep alot of the masters well and over the years, tons of models for each figure. GW is a company that makes thousands of the same miniature even back in the late 80s. Can't do that with one mould.
Click to expand...

Gw used a master and production mould system, like pretty much everyone else in the industry. The master moulds created from the originalgreens, and were spun very occasionally to provide master models which were then stored and used to create prod moulds, which would last anywhere from a month to many years depending on how often it was spun. All of the prod and master moulds were disposed of as I mentioned in the above post after they moved away from white metal for finecast. They did keep the master models though, usually about 16-20 of each one to create a full mould.
 
ManicMan

ManicMan

Member
yeah, that's kinda standard. for one thing, Greens can get damaged in mould making, and you want to protect them a bit if you need to. It's like with any mastering system, you make use first generation copies more then original masters.
 
dieselmonkey

dieselmonkey

Member
ManicMan said:
yeah, that's kinda standard. for one thing, Greens can get damaged in mould making, and you want to protect them a bit if you need to. It's like with any mastering system, you make use first generation copies more then original masters.
Click to expand...
I know, I still work on the industry, just not GW any longer. ;)
 
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