Finieous Fingers - 'The World's Greatest Thief', Miniatures & More.....

The world was introduced to Finieous back in October 1976, courtesy of TSR's Dragon Magazine Volume 1, No.3. The creator, J.D.Webster apparently based his characters on friends he gamed with.

After moving from Dragon Magazine, both Finieous and the then editor, Tim Kask, moved to Adventure Gaming Magazine. The set was released in 1982...this was (as noted below) an attempt to keep 'Adventure Gaming' magazine afloat....

I've had the miniatures for some years although I recently picked up the box, courtesy of the wonderful artist Lissanne Lake. Only the leaflet to find now!

An early advertisement....

Some better images here on the Lost Mini WIKI.

Finieous later moved to Steve Jackson's 'The Space Gamer' and 'The Fantasy Gamer' in April 1984 and finally to Shadis' magazine which was set up by Jolly R.Blackburn in 1990....eventually becoming Knights of the Dinner Table magazine which gave birth to another set of Tom Meier minis to be documented at a later date.....

Jolly Blackburn mentioned on a recent Facebook post; 'We did some Finieous Finger strips in SHADIS. J.D. approved the scripts (but was too busy to draw them) and we contracted a different cartoonist --- who I thought did a great job updating the character. It was going pretty good til JD and the cartoonist had a falling out/creative differences. I remember one strip where Finieous finds himself on a Space Hulk-type environment with aliens running amok.'

 Some years later Thunderbolt Mountain released a set, again sculpted by Tom Meier.....this has caused some controversy recently due to licensing issues. Not sure what happened in the end or if it was justified as I think there may have been confusion in thinking someone had re-released the original set. These are definitely new sculpts (although only 6 in this set).....

According to an article from Comicvine;

He continued to appear there intermittently until 1981's issue 54, and his adventures were collected in The Finieous Treasury that same year. After a brief hiatus, Finieous resurfaced in Manzakk Publishing's Adventure Gaming magazine, before moving to Steve Jackson Games' magazines Space Gamer and then Fantasy Gamer, and eventually Alderac Entertainment's Shadis magazine.

A few comments from a 2004 thread from The Miniatures Page;

......there were indeed fineous figures.

they sometimes turn up on ebay but the molds were destroyed long ago. (actually I think Tim Kask still has them but by agreement with JD, they were a limited run only.) The production molds were burned up in the process of casting as many figs as we were able in the time allowed us.

There were also 10 gold plated sets created at that time.

JD has one, I still have mine, The Gorb still has his I believe. Im sure T. Kask has his and I'm pretty sure T Meire still has his. I have no idea where the other 5 sets are.

I know that one set went for $100 at an Origins auction a few years back.

Thats about all I can remember of them, its was about 20 years ago.

Yeah, and Ravenscraft has the world's only unit of Grond.

The Fineous figures made their debut at the 1982 Origins in Baltimore.

IIRC, Ral Partha lured Tim Kask away from being editor of the Dragon to start Adventure Gaming in 1981. Tim brought JD & Fineous along.

During the big Partha management shakeup of '82, they decided to dump AG. A group of us tried to keep it going but we just didn't have enough capital.

I think after distributor discounts, we were selling a magazine with a $3.50 cover for $.90. The average distributor also had an average-days-to-pay of about 6 months even though terms were 2/10 net 30.

The Fineous figs were a last ditch effort to raise enough cash to cover production expenses. They worked to a point, I think we got out issues 11-13 on that money.

Regards, the Gorb

I believe the Shadis strips were "with permission". They did not look like JD's work, but they were welcome.

As to JD, a late '70's graduate of Auburn NROTC and the best D**n GM I've ever played with, the last I heard, he was married with a teenage daughter (Proof: There is a Dept. of Cosmic Justice.), flying for Northwest, and living in Michigan (?). As for the models for some of the crew, BoredFlak (Borflac/Everette Burge) was back in Selma, IDemandMore (Ozyamadas/Grant Castlebury) is doing the areospace thing for REAL money in TX and FF (me) is delivering mail in B'ham. I was going to get with JD at DragonCon '90, but that was when I started with the post office, and I missed him. Personally, I liked his mailing cover efforts for Space Gamer. Think Nuclear Hand Grenade.

Now he's gonna find me and claim I owe him $5 for that pizza back in '78...

For those with a real Fineous jones, I think Boredflak's "targeting ring" is still available from Atlantis miniatures.

comes with a nice ruby looking stone.

cant remember the price. If Atlantis isnt alive and kicking you can try contacting Thunderbolt Mountain Miniatures who did production for Atlantis.

Man, do I miss Fineous!

If anyone knows anything the 'targeting ring' mentioned above (or indeed the gold plated sets) please let me know. I can't find Atlantis Miniatures (barring a new UK organisation).

Heroes of Asfar Expansion.

This was an addition for the original game (details here).

Images edited but borrowed from Boardgame Geek, full post here.

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Pictures that didn't make the 1983 Armory's Guide......

In 1983 a US importer of miniatures and gaming paraphernalia released what was to become, for me, a veritable pre-internet Bible. The Armory's Buying Guide to Fantasy Miniatures; Vol 1 Issue 1.

 A short few years later the manager of the Games Workshop where I worked in Manchester (Tim Olsen) travelled over to foresee the GW taking apart of the company after it had fallen the way of many, if indeed not most, gaming related companies in those halcyon days of yore. I sent him over with a large list of pieces I would like with little thought of the cost involved....I worked alongside a youthful (as was I at the time) Tony Cottrell who now runs Forge World. Tim came back laden with bits and pieces but without the cornucopia of lead I was hoping for...apparently airlines at that point preferred to be able to have their planes being able to leave the ground. Strange. Anyway, Tim brought me back my first ever Dragontooth set......The Magic Shop. Thanks Tim!

It was a loose unboxed set however it was my first sight of actual Dragontooth minis after the few that had been advertised in the early Citadel / Games Workshop catalogues of the 70s. I was hooked even further along that nylon line of leadalism....... I digress a little. The line drawings in the Guide were invaluable and only after the advent of the internet did I start to find more and more of these pieces......the perils of Stateside trading had not even entered my tiny mind before that point. By the time the Guide came out a few companies had already fallen themselves, Heritage Models Inc and Superior Models being two of the most memorable. Minifigs' lines had changed and their Stateside 'World of Greyhawk', an amalgamation of their historical and fantasy lines to populate said world had gone.....as well as the wonderful Valley of the Four Winds and the Aureolo Rococo. Today some of these pieces are being resurrected by Dave at Caliver Books here.....don't forget the more you hassle him, the more he will find. Mention my name for a speedy rebuttal....

A copy of the Armory Guide is available in PDF format from the wonderful 'Painted Miniatures' site here.

The point of this post...if there is one beyond my waffle..is one of posting some more old ads from Dragon magazine, the old TSR publication that lost its way once it stopped featuring miniatures...in my most humble opinion of course. The miniatures are mostly photographed on the Lost Minis WIKI..where there are gaps there is a need........ Enjoy.

Also discovered this one for Citadel Miniatures........most illustration are in the Armory's Guide however a few aren't so worth tagging on here.

 

As always enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Dragon Magazine No.15 June 1978

I was fortunate enough to finally get a copy of this magazine - I have been after it for ages for a decent look at an unknown Minifigs Valley of the Four Winds miniature - see below....looks kind of like a dog headed foot stool. Centre piece was a poster as a '2nd Birthday Present'.......

If anyone can identify this missing piece please let me know.....

Heritage Models Inc. and Custom Cast Inc. merge......February 1977

I was lucky enough to pick up some old wargaming magazines and miniature catalogues......oh the joy of looking back.  'Little Wars' magazine was a TSR historical companion to 'The Dragon' and featured pictures I tell you, yes pictures my precious of old lead.......let the images speak.......

Jack Scruby catalogue from 1976.....I was 15 at the time and wouldn't know anything about him for many years.....the vagaries of youth of course. Historifigs are producing a lot of these old gems.  Do mention the blog if you check them out....... as they state, Scruby designed his Fantasy figures with the man-sized figures being 30mm scale. This is the scale recommended by Gary Gygax in the classic rules book Chainmail (published first by Guidon Games and later by TSR). There is a good source of info on the WIKI and also on Table Top Talk.

 

I have found few pictures of the actual fantasy minis although Stunties has the dwarves of course.....

Grenadier historical..... 

Wonderful sets of pics that I have never seen before of Grenadier miniatures....these were so well sculpted for the time and stand to muster by today's standards.

I have no examples of Archive Miniatures 15mm so this will have to suffice.

Even back in '77 miniature companies encountered difficulties.... 

Hopefully I will find more pics as time goes by, I am expecting 3 more issues of Little Wars Magazine this week so will post as soon as I find anything

Dragon Magazine Fantasy Forge

Back in the 70s and early 80s Dragon Magazine had a semi-regular feature called 'Fantasy Forge'. It was a centre spread of minis available - a most poured over section for me as most of them weren't available in England.......the joy of reading the magazine was that miniature companies advertised in it - most other magazines were probably great for gamers but the lead content was normally left wanting.......grrrrrrr.

No post like this would be complete without some of the accompanying ads.....oh to visit the 70s again with a full wallet..................