"Aureola Rococo backstory query" Topic

Hi all,

For the old school among us and any one curious I was taken to wondering was there ever a backstory for the wonderful Aureola Rococo fantasy range from Minifigs? Certainly there was for the Valley of the Four Winds, but Aureola Rococo seemed to be just the figures and no indication of the factions. Who were the Sharadan Lords of Darkness? The Borderers defended which border? Why were there Tunnel Elves that appeared to look evil?Who were the knights of the Silver Rose?

Any body know anything?

My personal take on them is that somebody was a massive Rodney Matthews fan and made a range of figures to match Matthews' pictures.

Maybe there was a story.

I don't know of any backstory but you got me remembering this cool thread over on Lead Adventure Forum:
link

My take is that the few that I purchased were weird and poorly cast.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, "Aureola Rococo" is still one of the coolest names for a figure line in miniatures history.

Nick, I was aware of Matthews's work at the time, mostly by way of album covers, but I never made the connection to Aureola Rococo. Now that I look at his work online, though, the connection seems obvious. Good work!

I'm not aware of any background story for the line, but if there is one, I'd love to read it.

Space Monkey, thanks for that link. Love the Orange Goblin army!

John, weird, definitely, and the sculpting was typical of Minifigs of the time. Poorly cast, though? Not mine. The ones I bought were well cast, with minimal flash: Women Warriors, High Elf Cavalry, and Foot Knights of the Silver Rose. The latter saw service in many games in many different guises: City Guard, Bodyguards, Lord's Personal Troops, and on and on. I liked that they looked like *fantasy* warriors, and not just Medieval soldiers with a different name.

I still have all of mine, but I'd like to see someone do new 28mm sculpts for the line, with state-of-the-art sculpting, as is being done with Tekumel minis, Otherworld's classic D&D minis, and similar current lines.

Otherworld would be a natural.

I still have a small army of those Knights of the Silver Rose, and a few single models of the other AR range.
They haven't left their box in over 20 years.

I wish I had bought more of them when I had the chance…

I have no idea if there ever was some background to the range. For the VFW range there was a story (in four or five parts I believe) in the very low numbers of White Dwarf, from issue 7 to 11 or 12.
There was even a board game called Valley of the Four Winds, which I also happen to own!

Good spot Space Monkey. King Crimson gobbos! Makes me want to get the old figures out and give them a repaint. Some of the Aureola Rococo range has been made available through Matchlock Miniatures for those interested in getting a few again.

link

Space Monkey thanks for that link. I remember the Minifigs range but only bought the Frazetta Deathdealer from the Molly Hatchet cover. Those King Crimson troops just look so cool and I've never described anything as cool for years.

Just wish someone had done the Matthew's Razor King from Nazareth's No-Mean City.

That would been grand.

There was a story behind the figures, but if I recall correctly, there was a disagreement on the licensing and it was never completed.

We (GFI) had remolded several of the line from the master molds and original "tank" figures. We actually did pretty well with the first re-releases, too. ….Then I got stationed in Germany and the firm went under.

v/r
Tom Dye

That's intriguing Tom. So there might have been a story to go with them.Rodney Matthews leads directly onto Michael Moorcock. Knights of the Silver Rose could be part of the Eternal Champion world.

I heard somewhere that Moorcock collects toy soldiers.

Thanks for the info guys.

Interesting stuff. I got some of the remolds from you Tom via Paul? some years back. The torture wheel was one I'd never had the pocket money for at the time of first release.

Most figs are pictures on the Lost minis wiki here; link

Minifigs are re-releasing various of their old ranges (including some of the AR range and the Middle Earth Gandalf!) here;

link

I've got a unit of Elf Cavalry from the AR line, and the mounts are dead ringers for the beast in that Rodney Matthews' piece shown by the OP, chamfron and all. Well cast too, minimal flash. I did a lousy job painting them all those years ago, maybe a redo is in order.

Dave

I love this range -I also hold the Minifigs Sci fi range to be the best ever!!!

I was a huge fan of the Valley of the Four Winds range but I never liked the Aureola Rococo range as much. To me the figures just don't seem to be as well-proportioned. However, I do like the fact that the elves look like weird fairy tale creatures instead of pretty humans with pointy ears.

Hmmm. old Minifigs.

I'm looking for some of the Aureola Rococo "Tunnel Elves" (for a Tunnel Elf army, strangely enough). It's for Hordes of the Things, so I probably only need around another 15-20 of the swordsmen and, say, 8-10 spearmen. I already have the bow, crossbow and catapult figures I need.

I'm also after some Gnomes, from the Minifigs D&D range – for a Gnoman Legion army. Another 20-25 GNM4 "Gnome with spear" should do it.

If anyone has any old lead they need to unload/dispose of… please let me know.

Thanks,

Geoff – "elliesdad".

Always wanted to get an army of the Tunnel Elves, amongst others, but never got around to it. I wonder how many people bought them and never did anything with them or gamed with them for awhile and went on to something else. I wouldn't mind Otherworld or Red Box doing a take on these. I don't hold out much hope in getting enough Minifigs at a reasonable price to do it.

It would be nice to have some riding bees, depicted below, made.

Minifigs tunnel elves were the first figs i ever bought in 1979.Still have a couple lying around.Must find time to repaint them.

These goblins work for me.Let's have more goblin/goblin strife.

Did anyone ever find a back story for these?
I wonder who sculpted them. I really like the old time fairy quality to the elves…

Sean in Oregon
eastofthesun@mail.com

I found some information:

Minifig's "Aureola Rococo" range was created in the late 1970s to early 1980's. The range was sculpted by Dick Higgs who used solder to sculpt with. The designs were heavily based on Rodney Matthews art.

Aureola Rococo is one of Minifig's more bizarre and most reused ranges, parts of this range became parts of the World of Greyhawk, Legendary Legions, and Minifigs fantasy ranges.

Many of the figures are still in production at link .

Richard "Dick" Higgs Obituary link

Sean in Oregon aka maninthemoon1965
eastofthesun@mail.com