Mini with Longest Production Run?

[Naagruz]

So what's your guess on the GW mini with the longest running, uninterrupted production? I'm not talking about the revived lines that have popped up again in the collector's/classics section on the GW site, but minis that never had an off year.

I know the Epic Reaver Titan had a pretty long run from 1988/89 to 2013, but I'd bet others, like some of the J. Goodwin Eldar had a similar span. I'm sure there is some 4th ed. junk still in the webstore (as it's still on the shelves in my LGS), but that didn't come out till 1993+.

Any thoughts?

 

[Goblinlee]

I can think of several candidates.

For GW it is probably the Snotlings. Some of the Snotlings still for sale on the GW website are the ones released in 1986. They have been in continued production.

Non GW it might have to be the Asgard miniatures for sale at Alternaive armies or Viking Forge from the very early 1980's; or some of the old Minifigs ranges redone at Minifigs which I think are late 1970's to early 1980's.
I think some Essex miniatures are quite old too.

 

[Legiocustodes]

The original Eldar war walker had a pretty long stint

 

[Harry]

It has to be snotlings.
The other candidates from GW would be some of the horses ... especially the skeleton horses.

 

[Asslessman]

I agree as far as GW is concerned, it must be an eldar who still has the record

Still on the current range :
Avatar
plastic motojet
warp spiders
Eldrad Ulthuan
Phoenix lords

which can all be found in the 1993 Black Catalogue (don't know about release dates) which means they've been available for 21 years.

Skaven must have kept some characters dating from 4th ed too I think (Thanquol?)

Ragnar blackmane is listed in the 1992 Green Catalogue 3 and is still out IIRC. that's 22 years.

The intersting point is to see that most of these are (well all the ones I posted are) from Jes Goodwin whose champions sorcerors and chaos warriors are still available (though they've been discontinued) after 28 years of service...

Oh and Lee is right, though the asgard range has also been discontinued, it has some very old references sculpted by... OH! surprise ! Jes Goodwin

EDIT Harry is right about the palstic horse ans snotlings, didn't think about those.
EDIT 2 : Cheers Zhu

 

[Zhu Bajie]

Slambo and some ofther Jes Goodwin chaos warriors released 1986,

...still in the GW web shop today, and I don't think they've ever been out of production, just buried a bit...

http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Champions-of-Chaos

...what 28 years? Also when was the 'bitz' service stopped -apparently you could order anything from the slotta period up until around 2000 or so?

Essex and Dixon Miniatures have some really old stuff in their catalogues.

 

[Asslessman]

You are right Zhu, a lot of us has used that opportunity to get old refernces at the time. I may be wrong but I think Naargruz was talking about those references which never left the "main" range. Both ways it's intersting to see the longevity some of these models can reach.

 

[Skarsnik]

Slambo and co. did have a period of not being available in the early to mid 2000s though, so don't qualify by the rules of the OP.

I think the snotlings are the best shout in terms of GW, some of those have definitely been available ever since '86.

 

[Zhu Bajie]

[/quote]

You are right Zhu, a lot of us has used that opportunity to get old refernces at the time. I may be wrong but I think Naargruz was talking about those references which never left the "main" range. Both ways it's intersting to see the longevity some of these models can reach.

Quoteth the OP: " longest running, uninterrupted production?" I suppose it might be interesting to look at "continually advertised" as well.

Slambo and co. did have a period of not being available in the early to mid 2000s though,.

Really? They're in the 2005 catalogue - http://www.solegends.com/citcat2005ussc ... 254-02.htm and presumably would have been available through mail order "bitz" if not advertised earlier. Can't find reference for any non-pump-wagon snotlings in the 2005 catalogues, so they might have dropped out for a bit as well.

 

[dieselmonkey]

What about the venerable slottabase? 29 years and still going.

 

[axiom]

I think the slottabases have been reworked and retooled several times over. From memory, the round 25mm ones have a range of release dates

If snotings had the longest production run, what about the shortest (not including limited edition stuff)? Something like the Piscean warriors perhaps? Or maybe something more recent - the metal Dark Eldar only saw about a year of production in metal before the switch to finecast.

 

[Skarsnik]

I think the slottabases have been reworked and retooled several times over. From memory, the round 25mm ones have a range of release dates

If snotings had the longest production run, what about the shortest (not including limited edition stuff)? Something like the Piscean warriors perhaps? Or maybe something more recent - the metal Dark Eldar only saw about a year of production in metal before the switch to finecast.

Some of the stuff that was released just prior to the demise of fanatic must be right up there.

 

[ardyer]

A lot of the 40k characters were released in early 2nd and still used. Especially with the dark angels, but also chaos and eldar.

 

[Asslessman]

A lot of the 40k characters were released in early 2nd and still used. Especially with the dark angels, but also chaos and eldar.

if we're considering main ranges which are constantly advertised , yes, chaos was the second last codex for 2nd ed though (just before space nuns) while space wolves were the first 2nd ed codex IIRC.

Another intersting view is to consider which model sold best in all history?

Quoteth the OP: " longest running, uninterrupted production?" I suppose it might be interesting to look at "continually advertised" as well.

Yep, I admit from this point it's about choice of words, strictly speaking Slambo and the snotlings may very well be the winners (unless someone finds out something even better).
What I'm considering is that during the early 2000's, they were still produced but on an individual basis (they had a fistful of each possible model to pick from and they cast it to refill small stock and you had to have the old ctalogues to get the references) whereas Ragnar blackmane has been in the mass production and advertised range for 22 years. Let's say ragnar and some of his fellow Space marines are amongst the "longest mass produced and advertised ranges".

 

[ardyer]

A lot of the 40k characters were released in early 2nd and still used. Especially with the dark angels, but also chaos and eldar.

if we're considering main ranges which are constantly advertised , yes, chaos was the second last codex for 2nd ed though (just before space nuns) while space wolves were the first 2nd ed codex IIRC.

Another intersting view is to consider which model sold best in all history?

Quoteth the OP: " longest running, uninterrupted production?" I suppose it might be interesting to look at "continually advertised" as well.

Yep, I admit from this point it's about choice of words, strictly speaking Slambo and the snotlings may very well be the winners (unless someone finds out something even better).
What I'm considering is that during the early 2000's, they were still produced but on an individual basis (they had a fistful of each possible model to pick from and they cast it to refill small stock and you had to have the old ctalogues to get the references) whereas Ragnar blackmane has been in the mass production and advertised range for 22 years. Let's say ragnar and some of his fellow Space marines are amongst the "longest mass produced and advertised ranges".

I can't remember the order of a lot of those codecii, but I know the Eldrad model is from when the 2nd ed edition codex came out.

And Slambo was definitely out of production in the USA for a while.

 

[Asslessman]

I can't remember the order of a lot of those codecii, but I know the Eldrad model is from when the 2nd ed edition codex came out.

And Slambo was definitely out of production in the USA for a while.

PInch of salt with this but if I'm correct, the space wolves were released under RT and hence were the first codex out, Eldrad and his friends (avatar, phoenix lords etc...) definitely were in the 2nd ed codex which was released the same year (1994) with the orks codex. Chaos being released in 97.

 

[Goblinlee]

Concerning Games Workshop on and off production, the C series Elementals were from 1985 and were still avaliable this year, as were some elements of the Arcane Architecture range which I think goes back to 1982 or before. Some of the Dragons dated from 1985 onwards, but all these are now gone from the current GW catalogue. Slambo and Co. were on and off too.

Outside Citadel, Minifigs are re-doing Valley of the Four Winds, Aureola Rococo, Mythical Earth, Greyhawk ranges, although they have not done many.

Continuous production for GW, the Metal Mordians, Attillian Rough Riders, Tallarns, Catachans, are all 1994, and a one of the Farseers I think is Rogue Trader 1990. All still avaliable, although some of the Imperial guard were off the catalogues for a few months but still avaliable to order from Mail Order.
I don't recall the Snotlings dropping out of production around 2005, however GW was a little chaotic in it's listings and stocking of stuff. You could still use Snotlings in an Orc army at the time, but they were never dropped or replaced, just added to. 'Harry' is right, I think the plastic horses were the second wave to be made, and were from 1991.

Outside GW, apart from Essex miniatures, and maybe Tradition's ranges, I think that the most continous are some of the Mithril Miniatures range has been in continuous production since they gained the franchise 1987. The 'ME series' and the boxsets maybe?
Also, Alternative Armies have models from their Flintloque, Ion Age (the old 'Firefight' range), Celtic Myth range, and Fantasy range, all dating from about 1991.
Some of Wargames Foundry's ranges must be getting on too, but I am unsure as to which have been continous. I recall buying some of thier Pirates in about 1995, and there are a few of them that were old solid based Citadel Pirates from the 1980's.

-"Another intersting view is to consider which model sold best in all history? " -
Tricky. A lot of the RTB101 Space Marines were sold, but it might be something such a the 2nd Ed 40k plastic Gretchin or the 4th Ed Goblin? They must have sold a lot of Cadians by now, or plastic Space Marines from 4th edition until they re-did the boxset last year?

Shortest lived range? Leaving aside limited editions, and the barely released Piscean Warrior, the shortest proper range must have been Citadels 'Lord of the Rings Uruk Hai' range in 1987, which I think lasted a month or two.

 

[Asslessman]

Lee,

You don't stop to amaze me

 

[Zhu Bajie]

Concerning Games Workshop on and off production, the C series Elementals were from 1985 and were still avaliable this year, as were some elements of the Arcane Architecture range which I think goes back to 1982 or before.

</snip>

Shortest lived range? Leaving aside limited editions, and the barely released Piscean Warrior, the shortest proper range must have been Citadels 'Lord of the Rings Uruk Hai' range in 1987, which I think lasted a month or two.

I think we have a winner! Although the Elementals seem to have disappeared for now.

I was going to mention the Jes Goodwin Uruk Hai as possibly the shortest run, honest guv.

Now I'm not so sure about these Snotlings being original tho'.

The only one I recognise off there is the little guy with the Y shaped catapult in the front row - who was a pump wagon (1987) release - I know because I got him BiTD, and he's up in the loft with a broken foot (also see here). Are any of the others identifiable from the earlier snotling releases? Certainly many of the sculpts look much later, perhaps even mixing in various other incarnations.

 

[Flippa]

Azreal Supreme Commander of the Dark Angels?

http://coolminiornot.org/254652