Who sculpted the Alternative Armies Fantasy Warlord range?

[nicknorthstar]

I don't know much about the SHQ/ Bob Olley designed Fantasy Warlord range.

What I do know is this though.

The founders of Fantasy Warlord, Ian Bailey and Gary Chalk, started a 'rival to Citadel' company, with the game (Fantasy Warlord), the magazine (Red Giant) and a figure range licensed through AA. It was AA's range, they paid a license fee to market them as FW. It was supposed to be a great little union of small companies to offer an alternative to Warhammer.

What AA didn't know was that Ian Bailey was a shark. Within a very short period of time he was manoeuvring to sue AA for (goodness knows what) with a aim of taking the figure range off them for nothing. It didn't work, so AA just started selling the figures as an unlicensed Fantasy range and Bailey went on to commission a new Fantasy Warlord range with someone else (I don't recall who). The giveaway is the packaging, they went to that awful 'shrink wrap figures to a blister card' method rather than blister packs.

Anyway, in true shark fashion, Bailey went on to shaft everyone and disappeared leaving his poor partner Gary Chalk holding all the unpaid bills.

Dunno what happened to the unsold books, Red Giant never got past 2 issues and Gary had all the masters to figure range part 2 and managed to recoup some of the money lost by selling them on (eventually to SHQ I presume).

This was my interpretation of what happened after the split from AA, I wasn't there of course to know for sure.

Thankfully, the hobby industry hasn't had an Ian Bailey character creeping around in a long time, at least not in my sight, maybe they just do Kickstarters now.

[Hobgoblin]

Hi Hobgoblin.
I know, I was there. I would have laid out that flyer.

The Dwarves, Eastern Orcs & humans were Gary Morley, pre-GW.

The Elves, Orcs and Goblins were Chaz Elliott.

The Ogres were a mix. Chaz did the heads and weapons, but left before finishing them so Gary did the bodies.

The listing as Kev Adams is wrong. Kev did some figures for AA but it was after the whole Fantasy Warlord project collapsed, he was still at GW at the time.

They aren't the same AA BTW. The Fantasy Warlord figures were made when AA was in Nottingham. The company was sold to the current owners in Scotland a good few years after the FW project, there's non of the same people involved anymore.

Ah - brilliant! Thanks so much for clearing all of that up!

The Chaz Elliot stuff is really good (limitations of the arm positioning/separate weapons notwithstanding); I'd never really taken note of which stuff he'd done at GW, etc., but those orcs are lovely - the wizard, leader and discipline master in particular.

It was all AA to begin with. Bob Olley made the Sidhe and Chaz Elliott made the Fomorians. Chaz Elliott went to work for Fantasy Forge after, and Bob Olley threw a dicky fit & walked out claiming AA was just a front for Brian Ansell and he'd never work for that %$£& again, leaving the bemused owner of AA with a part finished Celtic Myth range in his hands. The range was continued (The Milesians & other Fomorians) by Andy Cooper, who now owns West Wind of course.

Ah - right - many thanks again for clearing up! I have a very dim memory of there being some connection between the AA Fomorians and the Fantasy Forge Fomorians (the ones you sell now); I'm sure I got my AA Fomorians from the FF studio (perhaps they were there as samples from Chaz Elliot or something?). It's all pretty hazy, though!

I'm still amazed by that SHQ range. When you consider how much people will pay for Bob Olley's Iron Claw black orcs, it's astonishing that you can get those chunky "Urucks" for under £3 a pop! I suppose the same's true of the Essex Cursaa's orcs, but the SHQ stuff is better (to my eye at least) than the Iron Claw orcs - more in line with the Ral Partha and Reaper stuff that Olley did.

[nicknorthstar]

It was a veeerrry long time ago. The AA & FF Celtic ranges were out around the same time. The AA was generic whereas the FF one was going to be a licensed Slaine range, I've still got a Slaine figure in a FF blister that had to be withdrawn 'cus the licence fell through. It's offspring is of course the Celtos range, which was originally made by the same FF team then sold on (and on).

I'm not that familiar with Bob Olleys work. I presume the SHQ ones are cheap because so few people know about them. The Iron Claw will have 1000s of nostalgic fans, remembering the White Dwarf adverts etc. I agree though, Bob's style definitely got a lot better as he got older. I worked at GW when the Iron Claw range arrived, and we 'shop floor' types were horrified by how bad they were, and how flat they were.
Bob got better while he was there, I have a Bob Olley and Slanesh Beastmen story I'll leave to another day.

[Bloggard]

yep - some real bargains in the SHQ range re: Bob Olley - and Ral Partha Europe too.
some of his best work in their ranges.

[Major_Gilbear]

I have a Bob Olley and Slanesh Beastmen story I'll leave to another day.

Is that the beastmen with the penis-horns on their heads? I heard that towards the end of making Realms of Chaos beastmen, Bob did a fair few with sculpted lewd bits on them (mostly as head-crests); they got all the way through the studio approval process until somebody in casting spotted what they were... Management then stopped the whole set, and hence why they even exist at all as unreleased cast models (as opposed to just greens).
...But, it could all be hearsay (or, er, heresy) of course! 

[Hobgoblin]

yep - some real bargains in the SHQ range re: Bob Olley - and Ral Partha Europe too.
some of his best work in their ranges.

Definitely - those RPE ogres and trolls are some of the best out there.

[nicknorthstar]

Is that the beastmen with the penis-horns on their heads? I heard that towards the end of making Realms of Chaos beastmen, Bob did a fair few with sculpted lewd bits on them (mostly as head-crests); they got all the way through the studio approval process until somebody in casting spotted what they were... Management then stopped the whole set, and hence why they even exist at all as unreleased cast models (as opposed to just greens).
...But, it could all be hearsay (or, er, heresy) of course! 

I was the one that spotted them.

[Major_Gilbear]

I was the one that spotted them.

Oh, wow, excellent! 

[peleset]

It pays to keep ones eye on the balls.

[Fates Fickle Finger]

Nice thread, does anyone know of any links to pictures of the SHQ Elves? Why in this day and age no pictures of stuff your selling!
FFF

[Major_Gilbear]

Nice thread, does anyone know of any links to pictures of the SHQ Elves? Why in this day and age no pictures of stuff your selling!

Yes, this is a really good question; right up there with "why are there only low-res postage stamp sized pictures of the miniatures?" - it's not as if digital film is expensive to get developed, is it?! 

[nicknorthstar]

Not defending anyone specifically, but remember it takes all sorts to make the world what it is. Lots of people are not technically up to date. I bumped into an old chum at the Hammerhead show on Sunday, a creative who has contributed lots to the Hobby, and he got out his Nokia 'pay as you go' phone. I said 'do you not have a smart phone?'. 'No, don't want one'. I suspect this is one individual you'll never get a digital photo from.

[President Buer]

Love oral histories like these. Why on earth did Olley think AA were involved with Ansell, them selling of the old TableTop rules and figs maybe?

Not defending anyone specifically, but remember it takes all sorts to make the world what it is. Lots of people are not technically up to date. I bumped into an old chum at the Hammerhead show on Sunday, a creative who has contributed lots to the Hobby, and he got out his Nokia 'pay as you go' phone. I said 'do you not have a smart phone?'. 'No, don't want one'. I suspect this is one individual you'll never get a digital photo from.

This is what makes the Lost Minis Wiki so valuable as a central source but I wish they didn't segregate the historical companies off where they're a bit forgotten.

[nicknorthstar]

Love oral histories like these. Why on earth did Olley think AA were involved with Ansell, them selling of the old TableTop rules and figs maybe?

I can't quite remember. The guy who founded AA was a GW senior manager who'd just been made redundant/ pushed out. Bob had not long gone either, & I suspect left under a cloud from his boss Ansell. I think Bob got paranoid that AA was just a front for Ansell and he was back working for him again. Remember at the time Ansell was actually doing this with Marauder Miniatures, lots of people in the hobby thought it was a genuine independent company in 1990. It truly wasn't, it was a front for Ansell. 

There was no convincing Bob, he never made a figure for AA again.

[Dr. Kevin Moon III esq.]

Really good thread. I'm fairly sure the hill orcs (as they are now sold) are Bob Olley figures.

Here are my painted ones.