What happened to the "Old School" Bretonnians?

[Yuber Okami]

Checking the net I remembered this guys which GW commercialized 30 years ago, and I wondered what happened to them?



I guess that they could pass for historical, but Foundry doesn't sell them. Did they disappear forever? Is there any manufacturing selling something similar?

[Byrthnoth]

The older Bretonnians are basically Hundred Years War figures -- you could use the Foundry HYW range (I don't think they're identical to the GW ones, but still still sculpted by the Perrys), and 1st Corps and Front Rank both have nice HYW ranges. The Perry Miniatures late HYW range is early 15th century rather than the mid-late 14th C of the 'classic' Bretonnians, but if it's fantasy you can fudge things a bit.

[Davout]

I'm using Fireforge figures for my Brets. They look close to the miniatures in your picture and have the advantage of coming in plastic. 

[Elbows]

They were originally sculpted by the Perry's and were...as said above, just a historical disguised as fantasy miniatures, etc.  They were scooped up by loads of historical players at the time as they had some excellent kits (if not precisely historical, more than close enough).

GW does not sell lines of miniatures off, so the Bretonnians are dead for now - and if they reappear in the Warhammer fantasy world they'll definitely be wildly different.

[JollyBob]

As Byrthnoth said, the Foundry HYW figures are almost exactly the same. Two pages of them here:

https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/hundred-years-war-1337-1453

I think the only noticeable difference would be the horses if you were to put them side by side.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

If you're looking for the actual GW plastics from the 90s and early 2000s, the Bretonnia range was completely discontinued shortly after they shot Warhammer Fantasy Battles in the skull and started up Age of Sigmar.  There's no Bretonnian equivalent in AoS, and unlike most of the Empire figs they didn't find a home under the Cities of Sigmar coalition army.  You might find the models on ebay and the like but they'll likely cost a mint like most OOP GW stuff.  Tomb Kings are in the same state - whole faction was abandoned and is long OOP. 

[arloid]

To put it short, they got axed and morphed lore wise into feral vampires still thinking they are brets.

[robh]

.......You might find the models on ebay and the like but they'll likely cost a mint like most OOP GW stuff. 

I have a bunch of those plastic knights to get rid of from an old Bret army I am breaking up. Some fully or partial painted some still original unassembled. Some pictures in my Gallery here if anyone is interested. Cheaper than eBay!

[Calimero]

 

https://spikeybits.com/2020/12/gw-announces-the-return-of-bretonnia-and-wood-elves.html

[Ogrob]

https://spikeybits.com/2020/12/gw-announces-the-return-of-bretonnia-and-wood-elves.html

Maybe they've seen the prices in the second hand market, eh?

[Chief Lackey Rich]

https://spikeybits.com/2020/12/gw-announces-the-return-of-bretonnia-and-wood-elves.html

That news is from late last year, and there's been no sign of an actual release announcement for the "Old World" stuff at all to date.  On top of which, GW's release rate in that time period was so high they were failing to meet basic restocking orders for stores and (more importantly for GW) on their own online shop, and they've backed off to bi-weekly new releases in response.  Old World is probably still coming, but it's far enough down the pipeline that I wouldn't hold my breath in anticipation.  The company's production chain is still struggling to adapt to pandemic safety restrictions and months worth of delayed production fouling up a release schedule that I'm reliably informed runs between three to five years ahead at the best of times.

[SotF]

Maybe they've seen the prices in the second hand market, eh?

I'd have suspected a friend of mine for being at fault...she was slightly unhinged when Warhammer Fantasy was ended. Her main armies were Kislev and Wood Elves, but had put quite a bit into adding a Brettonian force that she rushed for the End Times campaign that was being run locally. The rest of us at the store had been wondering if she was going to go set fire to a GW store or two in response to Age of Sigmar...and recently was transferred to the UK for a few months.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

I'd have suspected a friend of mine for being at fault...she was slightly unhinged when Warhammer Fantasy was ended. Her main armies were Kislev and Wood Elves, but had put quite a bit into adding a Brettonian force that she rushed for the End Times campaign that was being run locally. The rest of us at the store had been wondering if she was going to go set fire to a GW store or two in response to Age of Sigmar...and recently was transferred to the UK for a few months.

She wasn't exactly alone in feeling that way.  AoS was very poorly received among most of the local WFB fans, many of whom had been playing for 20-30 years.  It's still struggling to find a player base around here, almost all of whom are younger folks - well under 30, many too young to go for a beer after a game.  Even in that age group 40K is far more popular these days.

Some lovely and creative figs in the AoS ranges, but many truly ugly ones as well and the rules are iffy at best, even for their gonzo high fantasy setting.

[Emir of Askaristan]

The archers and knights in plastic turn up on eBay at reasonable prices, especially the former.

It's the metal stuff which goes for silly prices even the basic mail clad foot figures.

What are you looking for - anything in particular ?

[SotF]

She wasn't exactly alone in feeling that way.  AoS was very poorly received among most of the local WFB fans, many of whom had been playing for 20-30 years.  It's still struggling to find a player base around here, almost all of whom are younger folks - well under 30, many too young to go for a beer after a game.  Even in that age group 40K is far more popular these days.

Some lovely and creative figs in the AoS ranges, but many truly ugly ones as well and the rules are iffy at best, even for their gonzo high fantasy setting.

My Vampire Counts army along with the smaller vampire pirates I'd been running have been in their storage case bar a few times when stores have a Fantasy thing and a few that got moved to my D&D stuff. I was annoyed about it as well...and I could have shifted them to a AoS force, but decided to not bother.