Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: paspas on September 28, 2021, 11:10:42 AM
-
hello
I'm writing an article about "wargaming on Middle Earth".
I'm listing the different brands that manufactured minis for Tolkien's universe.
Mithril was founded in 1987.
I'd like to know if any company manufactured specifically LOTR minis before that.
Thanks
Pascal
-
Citadel had an official Middle Earth range (http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Lord_of_the_Rings_%28ME%29) in 1985. Grenadier had a Lord of the Rings range in the same year (http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Lord_of_the_Rings_%28Grenadier%29).
The Heritage range (http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Lord_of_the_Rings_Figure_Sets)was earlier still (1979 or 80, perhaps).
There were unofficial Ral Partha and Minifigs ranges early on too (late 70s, I think).
-
Minifigs in the 70's were the first I had. They are in the loft!
From memory they were about 15p a mini and you got 2 Dwarves or 3 Hobbits for that price.
The Balrog was not much bigger than a man and the Nazgul rode Pteradactyls.
They had a set of rules, also, in the loft, I remember that was quite a bit of emphasis on the orcs working best under dark skies and the magic was geared towards light and dark.
The first figures I bought for myself and painted.
Happy days
-
Minifigs in the 70's were the first I had.
Lost Minis wiki says they were 1972, which jibes with my (dim) memories. They have a pretty good gallery of the "Mythical Earth" range along with a bit of history over here:
http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Mythical_Earth
EDIT: Thanks for the inadvertent reminder to go look at some old metal. I'd forgotten how truly bizarre the Valley of Wind range was. Feel inspired to do some homage kitbashing for some of it now.
-
Here they all are (http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Mythical_Earth) - 1972, so coming up for their fiftieth anniversary. Some of them are still in production (http://www.miniaturefigurines.co.uk/Catalogue.aspx?ScaleID=3&CategoryID=35&SubCategoryID=269).
Here's the Ral Partha range (http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Wizards%2C_Warriors_and_Warlocks), from 1978. These are unofficial too, but they're painstakingly close to the book's descriptions. For example, look at the "Giant Goblins" (Uruk-hai of Isengard). They've got the short, broad-bladed swords, long bows, White Hands on their shields - and even the S-rune (for Saruman) on their helmets!
(Oops - sorry - repeating some of what Rich said here!)
-
I think the Minifigs ones were the first specifically LOTR figures I bought while at university which certainly places them in the very early 70s and I remember playing small games, that are now called "skirmish" games, as small forces were all we could afford.
EDIT - sorry just repeated what others said while I was looking for the links!
-
Waves of nostalgia upon seeing the Mini-Figs.
The good (Man Orcs & Harad Spearman) & the not
so good (Frogman???? & The cowardly lion, sorry
Balrog). They do crop up on e-bay from time to time.
Saw some only last week, about 20 figures.
I thought that if they stayed at under a tenner
I would buy them for the six or so Man Orcs. They went
for well over a hundred quid!!!!
Needless to say I didn't buy them. :D
-
(Oops - sorry - repeating some of what Rich said here!)
S'okay, Lost Minis can't get too much signal boosting. Fantastic resource that seems to fly under the radar for far too many people. :)
-
The guy in the middle here is one of the Ral Partha "goblins of the night" (i.e. Mordor orcs):
(https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=124592.0;attach=123927;image)
-
The Ral Partha figures are stamped 1976.
Looks like the Custom Cast Der Kriegspielers Fantastiques range hasn't been mentioned:
http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Der_Kriegspielers_Fantastiques_%281000%29
This was a mainstay of Middle Earth gaming from what I understand, and is quite complete and faithful.
Grenadier also made unofficial LotR figures a decade before they got the license in their Wizzards & Warriors range: http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Wizzards_and_Warriors#W15
-
Looks like the Custom Cast Der Kriegspielers Fantastiques range hasn't been mentioned:
http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Der_Kriegspielers_Fantastiques_%281000%29
This was a mainstay of Middle Earth gaming from what I understand, and is quite complete and faithful.
These are fantastic. It's interesting (to me at least) that the earlier ranges tend to be more faithful to the books than later ones - so that you get all those little details like the S-runes, the hooped badge on the front of Orcish helmets and appropriate relative stature for the various creatures. I suspect it's down to having little to go on but the text - before later "secondary sources" distorted the signal!
-
Thank you all for your replies.
It brought back nice memories and also made me discover brands I did not know.
-
The figures in the Heritage range (linked in the first response by Hobgoblin) were made to go with the Ralph Bakshi LotR film, which was released in 1978. So '78 or '79 sounds right for them.
-Michael
-
These are fantastic. It's interesting (to me at least) that the earlier ranges tend to be more faithful to the books than later ones - so that you get all those little details like the S-runes, the hooped badge on the front of Orcish helmets and appropriate relative stature for the various creatures. I suspect it's down to having little to go on but the text - before later "secondary sources" distorted the signal!
It's why Fellbeasts keep looking like Dinosaurs, the books vague description brings to mind Pteradactyls.
-
It's why Fellbeasts keep looking like Dinosaurs, the books vague description brings to mind Pteradactyls.
So true. I suspect the Jackson films have put their indelible stamp on modern LotR/Hobbit imaginings, for better or worse. Mostly worse, IMO. Bakshi was far from perfect but felt more faithful to the books than any of the six recent-ish films.
-
Yes - and there's even a degree to which gaming has commoditised and categorised things in a way that doesn't reflect the books. There's a nerdy, systematising impulse at work that leads to confusion when the same things are called by different names (the powerful fannish impulse to separate "orcs" from "goblins" by size is the best example - even though JRRT calls the very biggest orcs - the Isengard Uruk-hai - "goblins" on more than one occasion). Part of it is probably simply that gamers want bigger bestiaries than Middle Earth allows!
Actually, "fell beasts" is a good example; Tolkien only describes one of the Nazgul's winged steeds as "fell" on a couple of occasions, and he doesn't use "fell beast" as an exclusive name for them (other evil creatures are called "fell beasts" at different points in his works; the archaic adjective fell was one of his favourites). Yet it's been taken up by gamers as a name for the species, which it patently isn't in the books - whereas "hell-hawks", which a character actually calls the things - hasn't been (it's clearly not a formal species name either, of course).
I suspect David Day's famously poorly researched (but wonderfully illustrated!) Tolkien Bestiary played a big part in distorting and "packaging" some of Tolkien's concepts. He isn't responsible for "fell beasts", as he has an entry for "Winged Beasts", but he does introduce the persistent idea that the Uruk-hai are as tall as Men - something that's flatly contradicted by the books themselves. The Bestiary has been in print for a very long time before people started pointing out its many inaccuracies and inventions.
So true. I suspect the Jackson films have put their indelible stamp on modern LotR/Hobbit imaginings, for better or worse. Mostly worse, IMO. Bakshi was far from perfect but felt more faithful to the books than any of the six recent-ish films.
Yes - the idea of those two-decades-old films being the "official" look of Middle Earth is a bit dismaying. I was disappointed to learn that the Amazon series would tell other stories in the film version of Middle Earth rather than telling the story afresh - as a long TV series could do really well.
The Radio 4 adaptation is still the best in my book! :)
-
I agree with much of what Hobgoblin has said there.
It must be a sign of getting old, I still think of Jackson's films as being a "recent" take on ME (at least compared with the 80 year-old books.
-
...he does introduce the persistent idea that the Uruk-hai are as tall as Men - something that's flatly contradicted by the books themselves.
Too right. The books make it quite clear that uruk-hai are noteworthy for being almost as tall as Men, with the norm being quite a bit smaller, probably closer to a Dwarf than a full-grown human. Regular orcs are runts unless you're a halfling or Dwarf, and even Dwarves never seem to be concerned about facing them in a fair fight where the numbers aren't against them (which never happens, of course).
Uruk-hai are also cockier, at least the ones who have speaking roles - although they don't seem to be much better at actually winning fights when it comes down to it. In game terms maybe better morale (at least when other orcs are watching) and better equipped but not much more skilled.
Yes - the idea of those two-decades-old films being the "official" look of Middle Earth is a bit dismaying
I probably shouldn't mention that the LotR set I'm currently re-reading (think this makes the fourth time now) has covers that consist of images from the movies, eh? Never wanted to punch Orlando Bloom in the face so much, but at least I don't have to look at him while revisiting Treebeard and company.
Must admit I'm terrified that I'll start imagining all the battle scenes in crappy Jackson quick-cut shaky-cam mode. :)
-
The figures in the Heritage range (linked in the first response by Hobgoblin) were made to go with the Ralph Bakshi LotR film, which was released in 1978. So '78 or '79 sounds right for them.
-Michael
Heritage was also seeling Der Kriegspielers and Fantastiques before the movie figures, but I think that was a distribution deal more than manufacturing?
-
I bought the Minifigs characters, one a month, when I was about 13-14 years old. I remember playing the game where as the evil sorcerer, you first spell had to be to “darken the skies” in order to deploy the orcs. If it failed , you were in big trouble! I still have the Gandalf and Treebeard figures.
I think the simple truth is that to the majority of LotR fans, the films ARE Middle Earth. The GW game and figures initially had a good reception but very quickly faded in popularity, the plastic population of GW Uruk Hai out-numbered the human population of New Zealand for a while! This was followed in a sharp decline in sales of the range until the teenagers who had seen the films had grown to an age where they had a disposable income and bam! the franchise took off!
If your first exposure to the world of Tolkien is a visual one, and let’s face it with all the inaccuracies they are incredible films in their own right, visually stunning, then you will always visualise Aragorn as Viggo Mortensen, no matter how many times you read the books.
I love the BBC Radio adaption and listen to it regularly, everything about it is better than the films, in my opinion, but then I am very old
-
I remember playing the game where as the evil sorcerer, you first spell had to be to “darken the skies” in order to deploy the orcs. If it failed , you were in big trouble! I still have the Gandalf and Treebeard figures.
I also remember buying the figures as a student at University and the home brew rules we used opened with a contest between the "Good" and "Evil" sorcerers in "Cloud Rolling" with bonuses and penalties for both sides dependant upon the outcome.
I still have and use quite a number of the figures, mainly the orcs, goblins, ents, eagles, wizards, nazgul etc. as the "good" side were mainly repurposed historical figures. I could not afford to create both sides!