"It's Just Nostalgia!"

[Vermis]

Can't agree at all, my good man! Morley is a journeyman sculptor entirely without any spark, in any area, that puts him above soul-grindingly 'passable'. Yes, he is to me what Trish Carden is to you, Warren.

That's fair enough, I suppose. 

I'd argue High Elf archers should be robotic; a highly trained machine block of troops. I don't agree they are stiff, at least in the context of 90s Citadel miniatures.

I dunno. It's not so much the regimented look I don't like, but something about the heads rotated an almost perfect 90° to rest on the shoulder, and bow arms held ramrod straight even when relaxed. Or maybe that's just me showing my ignorance of archery stances. (And it might be a more plausible stance for archers, but I have trouble with that extreme, spread-'em, Prince George pose. Granted, he's far from the only one, it niggles me in the work of sculptors from Gary Morley to Kev White; but at a time when Citadel minis still just about fit on a 20mm base, Jes seemed determined to change that, just with a mini's feet...)
I'll concede that Gary's poses do look a bit wobbly. In any case I don't own either.

Inevitably, I think these Aly Morrison high elves are much better than either.    I've got the central chap on the painting table at the moment, and he's terrific:

Looking forward to see it.

[Conquistador]

Of course if I have several small armies ranging from a hundred to over 200 figures from the same source it makes no sense to discard them and replace them with "modern" sculpts that I do not prefer.  Rather it makes more sense to finish them to a playable state and field them.

"Those are not {fill in company name: optional} [fill in fantasy race]!" 

"Yes, they are [fantasy race], just not ones you are familiar with!"

Dwarf = Dwarf, Goblin = Goblin, etc., on the table...

It is what you define them to be in game terms that is important for the game.  And that you enjoy them...

In my early dotage (1970s) I started my fascination with military miniatures - started late but plan to finish strong.

[eilif]

I think that "It's just Nostalgia" is one of those phrases that doesn't do anyone any good.

When coming -as in the OP's example- from a gaming company it certainly doesn't help them to meet a desire that a portion of their particular audience has.  Is hammering the potential customer with the idea that what they enjoyed about a given gaming experience was somehow invalid going to change their mind about that experience?  Is it going to help the company make a sale or bring a customer back into the fold?  I think not.  Far better to either find a way to accommodate that customer or thank them for their enjoyment of a previous product and explain why supporting such is no longer feasible.

When used to shame someone who prefers a given era of miniatures is it going to make them stop liking that kind of miniatures?  Again not likely.

Now, I'm the first one to admit that in many cases it is often mostly about nostalgia.  I've heard it said that guys tend to consistently return to the music that they enjoyed when they were getting the most girls.  I suspect there are similar trends for some aspects of miniatures, games, etc.

At the same time just because a product has improved overall doesn't mean that there weren't aspects of a previous incarnation weren't great.  I can't deny that overall GW sculpting and level of detail has increased dramatically over the years. That doesn't change the fact that there was an individuality-of-charachter in many of their early sculpts (I love classic metal chaos warriors) and fewer skulls-per-square-inch which are both very legitimate reasons to prefer older style miniatures.

All this to say that "it's just nostalgia" is an oversimplification that rarely results in the customer getting what they want  or in two gamers understanding why the other likes what they do.

[grant]

I have given in to nostalgia and picked up some Warmaster. Nostalgia...

[Lt. Tibbles]

As someone that's just getting into the hobby, both to tabletop gaming and modeling at the ripe old age of 25, I never grew up around or was exposed to anything even remotely related this stuff (besides the occasional reference to D&D on tv that I never got until I saw the 2000 movie on dvd.) I find myself not only a fan of newer models and art like GW's Dark Eldar range or Nagash for example, I also find myself really digging the aesthetics of the older stuff like some of the models you'd find in Affun's thread which is how I discovered this website oddly enough.

Obviously not every model from that era was great (2nd edition Tyranids I'm looking at you) but there were a lot of good models from that time in that aesthetic that I wish I could still get my hands on without having to scour Ebay for and pray I get lucky. It all comes down to personal taste with everybody obviously and I see how this style can be unappealing to people but I don't think the hobby gains anything from not leaving older style models as OOP collectors items.

[Conquistador]

As someone that's just getting into the hobby, both to tabletop gaming and modeling at the ripe old age of 25, I never grew up around or was exposed to anything even remotely related this stuff (besides the occasional reference to D&D on tv that I never got until I saw the 2000 movie on dvd.) I find myself not only a fan of newer models and art like GW's Dark Eldar range or Nagash for example, I also find myself really digging the aesthetics of the older stuff like some of the models you'd find in Affun's thread which is how I discovered this website oddly enough.

Obviously not every model from that era was great (2nd edition Tyranids I'm looking at you) but there were a lot of good models from that time in that aesthetic that I wish I could still get my hands on without having to scour Ebay for and pray I get lucky. It all comes down to personal taste with everybody obviously and I see how this style can be unappealing to people but I don't think the hobby gains anything from not leaving older style models as OOP collectors items.

The success of the recent second Chaos Wars Kickstarter seems to suggest the market is there for some older lines of miniatures being revived.