Art of the Citadel Compendium

If you like things that are awesome do yourself a favor a go over here and click 'Citadel Compendium' over in the left-hand column.  I've always seen this work billed as a catalog for the early Citadel range, but it's much more than that.  There's capsule rules for Warhammer Fantasy Battles and an embryonic form of 40K, scenarios, and advice for painting and sculpting figures.  And the art is absolutely glorious.  Dig it:

I know those are goat horns, but I keep wanting to read the cover as an homage to the vorpal bunny scene in Monty Python & The Holy Grail.  The head is rather rabbitish in shape and those knights in the background look rather... hesitant.

"LET'S SMASH SKULLS"
Best tagline ever?

These dudes are supposed to be giants, but man that dude with the finger pointing up is totally badass.  I may cut him out of the pic and use him as a PC sometime.  The guy with the eyepatch next to him is also great.  That's obviously meant to be a boulder in his upraised hand, but imagine it as a mystic orb and him as a really sketchy magic-user.

I know those are just two revolvers, but I can kinda want that to be a pic of a gun with its own gun attached.

How's that for a dungeon entrance?  Photoshop project: change "(first) Citadel Compendium" to "Jungle, Baby!"

These dudes are wicked cool.  The slann (frog-dude in the middle) has an ax on his shoulder, but it kinda looks like he's holding a big fat cigar.

I have no idea what is going on here, but I know who to blame: RICK PRIESTLEY.

Empire of the Petal Throne referees should totally add these dudes to their campaign immediately.

Nice comic book style sound effect.  Note that Our Hero is attacking this dude from behind.

My greatest hope for this blog post is that some gamer named Mark sees this pic and starts a new blog named The Mark of Chaos.  Come on, Mark!  You know you want to!

There is nothing about this picture that isn't great.  Two details I love: 1) the orc in the back with both his jaw and weapon dropped, 2) the shooter's left hand making a "don't worry, I got this" gesture.

I'll close with three absolutely wonderful Chaos Mutant creatures.  Enjoy.

If you meet any of this trio in my dungeons, remember BLAME RICK PRIESTLEY.

Mystery Minis revealed!

So these figures were sold in the earliest days of Warhammer 40K as robots.  Any players from the Rogue Trader era (the original game, not the recent RPG) remember actually using the robot rules?  They're pretty much the most complicated part of the original game, as I recall.

Those of you who identified these figures as BattleTech mechs, fret not!  The top one is a dead ringer for the Archer, an 70-ton missile monster from first BT boxed set (and one of the anime designs later de-canonized as "Unseen").  The one with chicken legs is clearly based off of Duane Loose's original illo of the Catapult from the original BattleTech Technical ReadOut 3025, the first big book o' mechs.  

[Side note for BTech nerds on the Catapult's connection to the later Madcat from the Clan era:  Years before the clan stuff was in print a guy from Chicago (where FASA was headquartered) would occasionally come to my part of Illinois for BattleTech events.  He owned a Catapult figure to which he had attached Marauder arms.  He even called it a Madcat.] 

The bottom robot isn't an exact match to any mech design I've seen, but it's very close to Loose's version of the Vindicator, House Liao's 45-ton miscellaneous workhorse machine.  Dig the illo:

Loose rules.

Note the head mounted laser.  The arm mounted laser is not visible in this pic, but the Vindicator definitely has one.  Basically, if you swap out that big ol' particle cannon for a proper forearm and hand you'd end up with something that looks a crapload like the 'SAM' Type Light Wardroid from Slocombe.

Anyway, I was just curious yesterday to find out if anyone remembered these guys as 40K robots.  I knew a lot of people would see them as BattleTech figures.  Coopdevil offered a theory in the comments yesterday that these guys started as licensed figures, but I think the missing cannon on the SAM points more towards "borrowed" designs.

The Case of the Mystery Minis

WITHOUT looking at other people's guesses, please leave a comment where you attempt to identify the figures below.  Thank you for humoring me.  I'll reveal the answer in a follow-up post tomorrow.

Sorry about that stupid white line running through two of the figures.

Rafm's Custom Characters line

For a couple years back in the eighties Canadian-based minis manufacturer Rafm sold the Custom Character.  Each CC pack came with a body (early on you got two!), three different heads, various weapons, shields and items and often some cool extra bits.  Here's all the images I've found scouring the internet for these guys.

Neat lantern.

This goblinoid champion wears a loincloth but no pants.

The pet rat is cool.

The guy with the boomerang has a flaming torch in his other hand.

At $2.50 a pop these guys were about twice as costly as other figures for your PC.

Back in the day my buddy Dave had at least two packs he mixed and match to make unique characters.

I think the Evil Warlord in the middle has a pet demon perched on his arm.

I love the hat and moustache on the guy with the lantern.

Baldy MacBeardo with the scroll on his pack is looking wicked as well.

Dave had this guy.  I remember the bandana around the neck and buckskin pants.

That outfit plus the Native American and Old Timey Prospector go a long way  to support my pet theory that some of these sculpts are left over from earlier historical figure lines.

Snake in basket and sundial!

Who doesn't need accessories like this?

Is that middle Female Thief holding an anarchist bomb, like from the cartoons?

Skinniest. Barrel. EVER. 

Those guys are so pissed at the wine supply being shorted they're attacking the poor thing!

That's not a shuriken, that's the frickin' Glaive from Krull!

I think there's a campfire in that last pack.  Sweet!

Those last three are from someone selling three sets for seventeen bucks apiece on eBay right now.

You can see the dwarf set over at Stunties.

Okay, now that you've seen my exhaustive presentation on this old figure line, here are my questions for the audience: Is anyone doing this sort of thing today?  If not, why not?  With better material and production methods, this concept could be implemented with five times as much coolness.  Hell, imagine using 3D printing so you can select individual parts.

question for 25mm enthusiasts

What minis manufacturer, currently in production or long gone, makes the shortest halflings?  I got some 1:72 plastic fantasy figures (as mentioned here many moons ago) for Christmas.  The makers of these figures also offer packs of elves and dwarves, but no hobbity types.  My attempts to google up 20mm halflings have failed.  So now I'm looking for particularly small 25mm halflings, if anyone can recommend such. Metal or plastic is fine, but absolutely no footwear, please.

two more minis

These aren't really part of the group I showed earlier, but I found them during my search and thought they needed to be shared.

 

Hobby Products (later Mega Miniatures),  Metal Magic line 

C1019 Villagers and Townspeople 

C1019e, "Rat-Catcher" 

Sadly, a small but vicious dog is not included.

Heritage/Elan Merchandising, Lord of the Rings Diorama Sets

1701 Bilbo's Birthday Party 

1701e, "Gandalf with Fireworks"

A picture of a wizard with an armful of primitive rockets is enough to get any DM's brain going. Now imagine a variant MU class where Gandalf is the sole exemplar.  At some level you gain the ability to create fireworks!

serious dungeon adventurers in 25mm

You know what's missing from most miniature representations of dungeon adventurers?  Backpacks, sacks, and friggin' light sources.  On a lark I combed through the Lost Minis Wiki to see what I could dig up in the way of minis that looked like they were properly equipped for dungeoneering.  Below is every photo I found.

Adiken Miniatures, Nin-Gonost line, 

AF-040, "Eric, Squire with Lantern"

Asgard Miniatures, Dungeon Adventurers

DA-33, "Human Magic-User"

Is that a coil of rope maybe?  That would be cool.

As I recall a fair number of other Asgard figures came with backpacks and other equipment.

Grenadier and later EM-4 Miniatures, Fantasy Warriors Blister Packs
906, "Fighters and Companions"

Heritage/Game Figures Inc., Dungeon Dwellers Figure Sets
1215, "Henchmen"
They also appear in Heritage's Dungeon Dwellers box 3501 Adventuring Characters.

Grenadier, Small Boxed Set
2004, "Hirelings" (also Dragon Lords 2004, "Hireling Crew")

These guys are awesome.  James Maliszewski talked about them here.  Hireling H is pounding in an iron spike.  Isn't that great? I have yet to see another guy like that.  Several figures here also appear in the Grenadier large box 5001 Dungeon Explorers.

Dude with torch about to throw a flask! Sweet!
"Magsman w/ oil"

from Grenadier Small Boxed Set 2008, "Thieves"

Unidentified figure with a great array of equipment.

I like the substantive backpack on this guy,

Ral Partha, Fantasy Adventurers

03-081 or 61-050 or FA06 (appeared in 3 different production runs)
"Thief with Longsword in Ambush"

How do you get the bard to stop playing his damn lute?
Make him hold the torch!

Ral Partha, Fantasy Adventurers

61-006, "Bard with Sword/Lute"

Ral Partha, Fantasy Adventurers

FA37, "Questing Ranger with Torch and Sword "

Ral Partha, Fantasy Tribes Fighters

Boxed Set FTF300 Defenders of Law 

FTF55, unnamed 
I don't know what all this guy is carrying,
but here sure has a lot of it!

Ral Partha, Larry Elmore Collector Series

02-802 "Journey to the Gathering"

The sacks these two are carrying aren't much,
but the little weird dude also has great pouches.
This duo are based upon the classic Elmore piece below.

Ral Partha, Larry Elmore Collector Series
Boxed Set 10-310 Silver and Steel
"Female Warrior with Sword & Torch"

Ral Partha, Weird Fantasy line

WF-03 "The Complete Adventurer"

Probably the most realistic D&D mini ever made.

Reaper
02572, "Overladen Henchman"

Reaper
02638, "Adventuring Accessories"
Add some useful equipment to other figures!

There are a few more properly figures out there.  The HackMaster mini line features a few hirelings carrying substantive gear. I think I've seen a Grenadier figure with a 10' pole at some point. I'm pretty sure the Iron Wind Metals store (who now sell a bunch of Ral Partha's old designs) carries at least one fighter with a torch not in the Lost Minis Wiki.  The D&D type comic Nodwick got a figure line at one point and the Nodwick mini is hauling a bunch of stuff on his back. The Rafm Custom Character line is woefully under documented on the internet, but several figures in that line came with all sorts of great equipment.  Back in the day my buddy Dave had one Custom Character that had a big ol' wineskin. We loved that.  Many CC figs also came with backpacks.  And I haven't really sifted through the complete Reaper line yet.  I love Reaper's sculpts, but the fact that torch or lantern aren't even options in their awesome Figure Finder is not a good sign.