Old miniatures rereleased

I like the Asgard space range...very "Blakes7-ish" charm about them.

Urgh. If only someone would re-release those old badass-looking Eldar Pirates/Mercs featured in the 40K:RT manual. Could never get them at the time...
 
Beginning to work my way back to collecting after many years away, a few decades to be truthful.I am surprised to see some of the old Ral Partha and Citadel Models still in production. I thought many of them fell out of production many years ago and were something of my youth. The Tom Meier's dragons being a good example.In a way I am glad knowing I can get a brand new example but it also worries me a bit when buying second hand knowing that I may be buying a modern copy instead of a period piece online. This holds true to E-Bay and the inflated prices of some miniatures and poor photos and descriptions given in the listings. It would be nice to know just how some of the miniatures differ from the original period pieces.
 
Who is Alex Tattaway?

Greed killed the Classic Collectors range, pure and simple. No one was buying them because they jacked the prices up beyond reason to protect their falsely inflated prices of modern plastic kits.

A trusted source at GW once told me that many of the earliest pieces cannot be re-released due to poor wording in contracts with the sculptors. They'd have to re-negotiate the contracts.

Black Tree is making Harlequin's Fauxhammer line. https://eoeorbis.com/collections/fantasy
 
Tauntaun Scout":t6ctr76d said:
A trusted source at GW once told me that many of the earliest pieces cannot be re-released due to poor wording in contracts with the sculptors. They'd have to re-negotiate the contracts.
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Interesting. I'd have thought with Bryans' scrupulous attention to legality things would have been very clear and sculptors have no ownership whatsoever. If that's not the case maybe they should just hand the rights back to the original sculptors and let them release their own work again!
 
Fimm McCool":4d94zzhv said:
Tauntaun Scout":4d94zzhv said:
A trusted source at GW once told me that many of the earliest pieces cannot be re-released due to poor wording in contracts with the sculptors. They'd have to re-negotiate the contracts.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I'd have thought with Bryans' scrupulous attention to legality things would have been very clear and sculptors have no ownership whatsoever. If that's not the case maybe they should just hand the rights back to the original sculptors and let them release their own work again!
Click to expand...

Nah, GW don't have the contracts to prove IP was passed over. Several ex-GW freelancers got letters asking them to sign over artwork a couple of years back and point blank refused.
 
The first Citadel minis I ever saw were multi-part medieval metal guys, very obviously inspired by Monty Python movies.
They already had that chunky cartoon look that was a Citadel trademark until about the early 00s, when they started copying Rackham and taking their inspiration from things like video games and Animé. They were also already among the most expensive in the hobby, despite the fact that they weren't the 64,000 pound gorilla they are now and Minifigs, Ral Partha and Grenadier were actually the industry leaders.
I loved the fact that they offered an archive cast-on-demand service for many of their older models, but something significant changed at GW during the 00s, the creative energy of gamers, writers and artists being replaced by the mercantile energy of lawyers, stockholders and bean counters.
I haven't bought a significant number of Citadel minis in about 20 years, I'd rather track down 5th edition or older ones - or simply go with figures made by other companies, such as Black Tree Design/Harlequin, which are a very close match to the 80s/90s Citadel ones.
I'm also very pleased with Caliver Books for bringing back the old Minifigs lines like Mythical Earth, Aureola Rococo and Valley of the Four Winds. They may be very simple and crude by today's standards, but, to me at least, still some of the most magically evocative figures ever made.
There's something they have that even the most precise, hyper-detailed, computer-designed laser resin 3D print of today cannot match.
 
I recently discovered 5th field fantasy miniatures, a relatively young company (formed in 2022) based in the USA that is putting some classic models from old lines back into production, including models from "Center Stage Miniatures, the Secret Skeleton Miniatures range, the Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics range, a few of the Grenadier Julie Guthrie figures and a handful of Hobby Products Metal Magic figures."

What that translates to in effect are 32mm metal and resin fantasy models, many of which bring back memories of Ral Partha for me. I've ordered from them twice now, and I found their prices reasonable and their model design and casting quality excellent. They are particularly worth a look if you're into old-school D&D monsters, demons, and devils straight out of the original Monster Manual and Fiend Folio.

Check out their shop here: 5th Field Fantasy Miniatures.
 
FYI, I've ordered from both Viking Forge and Alternative Armies, and the casting and metal quality from Alternative Armies is much better than Viking Forge's. So if there's a model you're interested in and both of them carry it, if you're stateside and don't mind paying more for shipping, I'd got with AA.
 
AA have made quite an investment in remoulding the figures. As I understand it Viking Forge are just running old moulds into the ground. I need to pick up some crisp, new AA castings of my favourites. :)
 
^I wouldn't disagree with that. The castings I've gotten from them have generally been getting pretty soft. But I'm glad they're there anyway, since they're my sole source for a lot of the ships I've modeled, particularly merchies and auxiliaries. Their fantasy looked tempting, but if other folks have the same models . . .
 
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