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Post Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 3:22 pm 
 

What sort of "old school" miniatures do folks prefer?  I have been amassing a small horde of mainly grenadier / ral partha oldies.  Some of the grenadier ones are charming, and have a very old school feel, but uh, are kind of lacking in the detail department.  Some of the older Ral Partha models are more my speed, although I wish they had some of the "primitiveness" of the grenadier models... the grenadier dwarves, for example, are really cool, and I really like their viking-style fighting-men (although the detail is sub-par compared to even the early Ral Partha models that I've seen).  

Just wondering what opinions folks have about miniatures.  I saw some dragonlance miniatures (the heroes of the lance) on ebay but they were going for more than I wanted to pay to take a look at them - anyone know if they are any good or not?  They were TSR branded, as I recall.



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Post Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 6:09 pm 
 

The TSR-licensed Ral Partha AD&D 2nd Ed. line is the best line out there for AD&D miniatures.  They are pretty faithful to the book illustrations with excellent detail and little flash.  They often command high prices but justifiably so, IMO.  Second is the old Grenadier AD&D line for 1st Ed., which were not as detailed or sophisticated as the RP line of the time or later, but they had a lot of character and were pretty faithful to the Monster Manual illustrations.  Third, I would say is the old Heritage line, which were not great quality but make up for it in nostalgia and character.  The current plastic pre-painted product that WotC puts out today just pales in comparison to any of these lines.  If one were to start collecting D&D/AD&D minis, I would suggest starting with the official RP AD&D line and the Grenadier AD&D gold boxes.  That will keep one busy for a while.   :wink:

  

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Post Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 10:26 pm 
 

The 11 series Ral Parthas are very good and has the most variety. Lots of monsters which actually look like the MM pics.  THe old grenadier while interesting to own (I have hundreds of them) are just not as good.  11 series Ral Partha minis do command a very high premium today; I have been struggling to complete my set (about 350 different packs) without spending a fortune. :)


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Post Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 10:39 pm 
 

beermotor wrote: I saw some dragonlance miniatures (the heroes of the lance) on ebay but they were going for more than I wanted to pay to take a look at them - anyone know if they are any good or not? They were TSR branded, as I recall.



The Dragonalnce minis that were released in the packs were better than the ones released in the boxsets.  They are also very collectable and will cost about $30 - $50 each even out of the pack.


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Post Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 8:08 am 
 

I am not a miniature collector, but ...

If I were to collect them for use or otherwise, I'd have to say I would go after the early grenadier(?) stuff in the boxes Thieves, specialists, henchmen... you know the sets I am talking about.

I realize they are not the most sculpted or clean miniatures, but they were the ones (mostly) that we used back in the day - very early 80s.

Other than that, I am a complete novice when it comes to miniatures.

But I do have all the cardboard cut-out miniatures that TSR produced with its various modules and D&D Challenger series! Sorted and ready to rumble 8O


And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

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Post Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 8:28 am 
 

I personally love the old Grenadier in the square boxes - and still have a lot of them, painted (then) and repainted (now). That's for nostalgia, I guess.
:D

By the way, it's sort of a side topic but...

do you folks remember the cardboard miniatures from Steve Jackson Games?

Just wondering how much do they fare in collectionism... I had some sets, but I think I have thrown them in the bin since...


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Post Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 8:45 am 
 

*looks around forlornly for any sign of patriotic fervor from over here*

  

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Post Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 9:19 am 
 

I collect the Ral Partha 11-series, I just got around to counting my blisters the other day and have about 500 of the little buggers.

  


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Post Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 10:53 am 
 

Howdy All,


You guys have really stumbled on to my critical folly. I have been collecting miniatures over the past 6 years to represent every kind of creature in the AD&D MM, FF, and MMII! I have even tried to collect enough to represent maximum numbers encountered but capped it at 70 figures (the max encounter for orcs is 400 so I have 70).

DO NOT GO DOWN THIS PATH!!! It is forsaken!

:D There are 1009 different creature types that can be represented by miniatures (some overlap, e.g. nilbog looks exactly like a goblin, and some don't need miniatures, e.g. cerebral parasites). My collection is up to 5,453  figures, accurately representing 533 AD&D creature types or 53% of the species found in the three monster books, MM, FF, MMII (including individual monsters such as demon lords, devil princes, deities, etc).

It is quite likely, that my collection constitutes a hazardous materials zone!

Anyways, it is sheer madness but I can't stop. The final battle in the Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl they faced 22 male frost giants, 14 female frost giants, 4 polar bears, a pack of 8 winter wolves, 1 cloud giant, 3 fire giants, 8 ogres, and 4 ogre magi. All were there on the table, all painted. I had 195 figures painted for G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King - every creature that could be encountered therein! When my players faced the 56 trolls in G3, I actually had 56 trolls, painted and numbered on the table.

At one point I even hired a full time painter at $400 a month to get the job done.


Futures Bright,

Paul


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Post Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 11:27 am 
 

stormber wrote:Howdy All,


You guys have really stumbled on to my critical folly. I have been collecting miniatures over the past 6 years to represent every kind of creature in the AD&D MM, FF, and MMII! I have even tried to collect enough to represent maximum numbers encountered but capped it at 70 figures (the max encounter for orcs is 400 so I have 70).

DO NOT GO DOWN THIS PATH!!! It is forsaken!

:D There are 1009 different creature types that can be represented by miniatures (some overlap, e.g. nilbog looks exactly like a goblin, and some don't need miniatures, e.g. cerebral parasites). My collection is up to 5,453 figures, accurately representing 533 AD&D creature types or 53% of the species found in the three monster books, MM, FF, MMII (including individual monsters such as demon lords, devil princes, deities, etc).

It is quite likely, that my collection constitutes a hazardous materials zone!

Anyways, it is sheer madness but I can't stop. The final battle in the Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl they faced 22 male frost giants, 14 female frost giants, 4 polar bears, a pack of 8 winter wolves, 1 cloud giant, 3 fire giants, 8 ogres, and 4 ogre magi. All were there on the table, all painted. I had 195 figures painted for G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King - every creature that could be encountered therein! When my players faced the 56 trolls in G3, I actually had 56 trolls, painted and numbered on the table.

At one point I even hired a full time painter at $400 a month to get the job done.


Futures Bright,

Paul



That's the funniest post I've read in awhile Paul.  Here Tonya is paying a Packer and Lister $1 each item, and you're paying a painger $400 a month...WHERE WILL THE MADNESS STOP!!!
 I agree the best part about miniature collecting is painting and using the items in play.  I have probably 1000 or more painted and ready to adventure, with about half that many waiting for the paintbrush. Not that I paint, I suck at it.  The last 25 years only three people have painted figures for me and I've been lucky with all three. For the first 20 years or so of gaming one of my best friends painted all our figures, he was an artist and his figures are still highly prized (and due to various protective coatings they still look great!).  About 25 of my figures were painted by the son of a friend of mine who was stuck in his house for a year due to certain medical problems, these are great also, he detail painted better than anyone I've ever seen (he had a lot of time on his hands and he used it well). My third painter is my middle brother, who has moments of brillance and moments when you can tell he just tried to get the figure finished. (the shiny hair on the giant ape he just painted didn't look good, but his latest Roper looks incredible).  He uses the color guidelines from the original monster manuals slavishly and has amassed quite a paint colledtion (I think he has 400 individual colors last check).  
  I had a Stormber moment when running the U-series.  My brother assembly line painted over 30 Lizardmen I had aquired, along with various giant lizards, giant snakes, etc for U2 Danger at Dunwater when you invade the lizardman lair.  I also had about a dozen sahaughin for the final conflict in U3 (with lizardment having to double for Sahaughin due to not having enough of these).
  Due to figures like Orcs, Skeletons, and Lizardmen being enountered in bulk I have about 30-40 of each painted and ready to go.  I need to bulk up my Troll and Bugbear armies (only about 10 each painted) when I run D1 Descent into the depths again. I doubt I'll be able to match your "giant" feat for the G-Series though, I have maybe 10 painted giants total, the thought of amassing enough to run the G-series is truly an accomplishment Paul!!!!  I can't even imagine what that table looked like when those guys kicked in the door to the Fire Giant Hall, did you take pictures?

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Post Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 11:40 am 
 

beermotor wrote:What sort of "old school" miniatures do folks prefer? I have been amassing a small horde of mainly grenadier / ral partha oldies. Some of the grenadier ones are charming, and have a very old school feel, but uh, are kind of lacking in the detail department. Some of the older Ral Partha models are more my speed, although I wish they had some of the "primitiveness" of the grenadier models... the grenadier dwarves, for example, are really cool, and I really like their viking-style fighting-men (although the detail is sub-par compared to even the early Ral Partha models that I've seen).

Just wondering what opinions folks have about miniatures. I saw some dragonlance miniatures (the heroes of the lance) on ebay but they were going for more than I wanted to pay to take a look at them - anyone know if they are any good or not? They were TSR branded, as I recall.


I exclusively collected Ral Partha and Grenadier since the late 70's, but lately I've been bit by the collecting bug for older miniatures.  I think they really give the "Feel" of old style gaming and make me and my brothers all misty eyed with nostalgia, particularly when running one of the classic "letter" modules!  I recently bought two large lots of minis from Citadel and Texas Miniatures, they came in the other day and the figures are absolutely beautiful, with lots of "large" leads like demons, devils, giants, ogres, random monsters, etc. Just going through them deciding which my brother should paint first is fun!

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem& ... T&rd=1

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem& ... T&rd=1

I wish I had purchased the Superior models cache the same seller offered, but the price got just a little too high, now I have remorse I didn't just get crazy:

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem& ... T&rd=1

If you are looking for some good older minis, I would recommend Superior (Wizards and Lizards line), older Citadel, RAFM, Essex, Heritage, Broadsword, and Texas Miniatures.  For some good background and ideas, check out old Dragon magazines (any double digit issue) for their miniature reveiw section, they can give some great ideas what was put out in the 80's and you might see something you like.  I, like you, love the "primitiveness" of the early miniatures, that is what the bulk of my collection is made up of, and believe me almost EVERY old style character has a story! The newer Reaper miniatures are for me the mini of choice when buying something new or shoring up a hole in my collection (I just bought a clutch of their giant apes for a nasty jungle enounter that is coming up for my group).

Mike B.

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Post Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 12:15 pm 
 

stormber wrote:It is quite likely, that my collection constitutes a hazardous materials zone!

Paul



Haha ... as a geologist in the environmental consulting field, I can tell you that you likely do not qualify for EPCRA (community right-to-know) reporting based on hazardous materials storage. Even if all the minis are lead and the paints are pure cadmium and chrome, you're going to be okay unless you have them stored outside ... on the grass ... next to a storm drain ... by a pre-school. :)

Thanks for the tips, all.  I appreciate it.  I love painting, and I'm pretty decent at it.  My miniatures collection is tiny, but growing slowly.



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Post Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 12:50 pm 
 

Howdy Mike,


Well...

The party enters the Great Hall. The ogre magi spring a surprise attack!

Image

The Jarl orders the assembled host to attack!

Image

The Jarl sends in his personal guard and hunting polar bears!

Image

The party braces for the attack!

Image

The clash is on! The giants swarm the party!

Image

The ranger fights under the press of the giants (see the green cloak between the giant's legs)!

Image

The Jarl's cloud giant lieutenant engages the storm giantess in a tianic struggle!

Image

The Jarl sends in everything he's got in reserve, even his young!

Image

The party is nearly crushed but disappears (ring of 3 wishes saves the day!). Jarl Grugnur, his wife Hruda the Hoary, and survivors celebrate their victory!

Image


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Post Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 12:58 pm 
 

Great set-up  8)  8)

I really like the idea of having enough miniatures to be able to "visualize" an entire adventure. I'm working on the same thing, only with the Saltmarsh series... my gamers love it.

  

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Post Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 4:14 pm 
 

Paul - Forget Gencon, I'm coming to your house!

That was awesome! 8O

I particularly love the shot of the Ranger in the crowd.


Re: Steve Jackson cardboard figures. We used the hero/superhero figures they had for Champions (the best rpg combat and character generation system ever devised). We also raided the Marvel Super Heroes RPG (great comics/shit game) stand-ups, too.

I know not everyone on this forum may be familiar with the D&D Challenger series by TSR, but they hit on the "have a mini for every encounter" idea therein. Plus full color scale maps for the entire adventure. I still think those modules and box sets are woefully underappreciated. My group had a great time playing those and we are going on 27 years of playing D&D.

I think miniatures improves all games. Star Fleet Battles is an awesome strategic board game, but with miniatures it is much cooler. The Games Workshop stuff is hugely popular and the long discontinued Man-O-War is still one of my personal favorite games. How can you beat an Orc Drillakilla? Or a Dwarf Nautilus?


And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

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Post Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 7:23 pm 
 

That was simply awesome!  Have you invested in any Dwarven Forge products to give it that last extra oomph?  I think we all want to play at stormber's place now... especially with the original DMG painting on the wall too.  And I thought I had a lot of minis, whew!   :wink:

  

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Post Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 10:05 pm 
 

I'm still blown away.   :D
I notice the orange AD&D sheets, I assume those are not copies but straight from the accessory?  
Also, the pictures look great, especially the close-ups.  You might want to change the white balance setting to tungsten bulb on the first couple overhead shots to get rid of the orange hue and to make the shot color balanced.  
Also, I get a kick that you know down to the 5,453rd miniature how many you have.  Now that's good inventory keeping!  
:wink:

  


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Post Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 10:18 pm 
 

I must admit that until today, I really wasn't into collecting minitures. :twisted: That set up is awesome. :D  I am not sure exactly where the hell I am going to put them if I really start to buy them, but what the hell, who needs a bed to sleep on anyway. :wink:


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