"Lost Ranges" Topic

Recently my mind has been thinking about various ranges that have disappeared from availability. I still own some, owned some that I sold off and others never had the chance to own. I posted thoughts and images on my blog here: lecoqfou.blogspot.com/2023/09/lost-ranges.html

Some of the ranges I wish I had the chance to own are the old 10mm conquistador range from Obelisk Miniatures and the 15mm Totentanz Carlist War range.

Ranges I owned and foolishly got rid of include the 15mm late medieval figures of Wargames Foundry and Peter Pig as well as the old 15mm Frontier Mexican American War range (the ones I owned had so much flash on the sculpts).

Some I still own but wish I had more. Grenadier Productions Liberators range sculpted by Mike Broadbent and the old Alphacast Greek War of Independence range fall into this category for for me. Another is the old GW Man o' War range of fantasy ships. I have a good amount but wish I had more.

How about everyone else? Any figures you lament disappearing from the hobby world?

GW Warmaster Bretonnians 10 mm
GW Bo5A/Middle-Earth metal range 10 mm
Cold Navy spaceships

Actually I have missed out or run short on a few ranges. Like you I have a nice size Mikes Models Imperialist army for the Italian Wars, I am glad I can still get them and finish it up. I was glad to see Venexia get picked up, that was a range I was interested in. May get some Swiss for my Pavia project.

The others, that I have little hope for,

HPC 20mm SCW, when Pat died someone got this stuff and, as far as I am aware, has dome nothing with it. I can try to get what I need from RH Models in the UK, thankfully I don't need too much.

Editions Brokaw 15mm WSS – Got on this bandwagon too late. While I have 75-80% of what I need, there is little chance of getting the rest. Talked to Jim Brokaw a couple years ago but the molds were in poor condition and he wasn't going to try and make any more of them. Probably end up filling in with Minifigs.

Bull Dancer 25mm Trojan War – I have been searching for these for the longest time. Found out earlier this year that Ral Partha Legacy had the masters. They have recently released the Trojans, so there is some hope now.

Musket Miniatures 15mm Mexican War – These bounced around a bit, there is a website, but it would seem they don't answer emails, and I tried FB with no response. Finishing with Minifig and Old Glory 15s.

Waterloo to Mons 28mm 1848 and 1864 Schleswig Wars,due to owner injury.Stuart Penhall bought the moulds years ago ..and there they sit. …sigh…

I'll go with all GW Warmaster. Such great miniatures. I regret selling mine in the late 2000s, but wasn't playing at the time and needed the money to help pay medical bills. 3D printed ain't the same IMO.

Cold Navy were great. Loved the Homeworld vibe. Never pulled the trigger sadly.

15mm Ral Partha fantasy. Thankfully today we have SLM and Khurasan here in the US.

Metal Reaper miniatures. Curse you, Bones!

Zvezda 1/72 big boxes. Man I miss them. 1/72 hasn't been the same. Beautiful figures. The death of the founder ruined the company.

Caesar 1/72, especially fantasy, ancients, and WWII. Their current offerings are meh. I missed the Adventurers box and Skaven, but did get some of the other fantasy boxes but not what I really needed.

I do miss the Eureka Teddy Bears, especially the SYW range

Several 15mm frontier miniatures ranges ranging from a wide to the Spanish American war

Ral Partha 15mm Battlesystem

Parzival, Mister Tibbles,
You may be happy to know that Ravenstar Studios still makes the Cold Navy line, and have actually expanded it since acquiring it. ravenstarstudio.com

Mike's Models in 15mm. Squats and Scrunts in 25/28.
I miss the Eureka Teddy Bears too.

Very tired of chasing around after Star Wars figures as the scale keeps shifting.

@Stsosstruppen: I had quite a few of those 15mm Musket Miniatures figures when I planned to game the Mexican American War in 15mm. Those were nice sculpts, I especially liked the Grenadier Guards of the Supreme Power. I think I converted some of their US regulars into Mexican light infantry.

I also purchased quite a few of the Editions Brokaw WSS sculpts. I remember corresponding with Pat and seeing him at the conventions. Those were nice little figures.

Frontier Figures were nice sculpts as well. I still remember the 1st Mexican Cavalry with the Tarleton helmets.

West End Games Star Wars figures, and Imperial Assault figures , though you can still get them the range ceased expanding after 'Legion' appeared.

Did anyone pick up Naismith?

Prince,

I believe Eureka now makes the Grenadier Production LA figures. I just got some from them about a year ago.

Falcon Miniatures American Range. They had lots of different Native Americans.

Alan Touller Miniatures.

Just recently Lurkio Miniatures.

The Alain Touller ranges will be sorely missed, some real nice sculpts there. I believe Lurkio are only temporarily out of production, read on another thread that they will be back up around Christmas.

I emailed No over at Eureka to find out about the old Liberators range by Grenadier Productions. Thanks for the heads up

I've always wondered what happened to the Dragontooth line by Tom Loback. I bought many packs of Saurians and Crocodylians back in the late 1970's and a few additional figures off eBay within the past few years. The figures were well sculpted and detailed for that era, but look pretty plain these days. I especially loved the Crocodylians because they were outfitted as in the segment in Fantasia with the alligators and ostriches.

Caesar Miniatures really cut back on production. Lyzards Grin 20mm WWII artillery under the Tracks range. I got some but still needs a few more 120mm mortars and Soviet Union 203mm tracked howitzers. The line just seemed to have disappeared even though the other lines seem to have gone on.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Alain Touller figures for sure! They were some beautiful little figures. Also the Heritage American Civil War true 15mm range. My first foray into 15mm back in the day.

The Heritage 15mm ACW line is out of production as I understand. They can be found sometimes on Ebay, but I don't own any. They look very nice, but they're awfully pricey.

The Heritage/Custom Cast Duke Seifried unlicensed LOTR figures -- some of the first metal minis I ever painted, maybe a little crude but full of character. Likewise Ral Partha fantasy; although I know that some of their lines are still available, the last time I looked it was only a fraction. It's nice that their colonial range is still around, even if it's pretty spendy in its current incarnation.

All the Citadel C range stuff of the 1980s so many cool miniatures no longer with us. The Ral Partha AD&D licensed range which were fantastic. The early Grenadier stuff like the Fantasy Lords blister packs and licensed stuff. The WotC Chainmail and Early D&D metals.

Historical wise I liked Renegade Miniatures who temporarily closed about a decade a go.

Any news about Warrior?
Are Heroics and Ros 5mm figs still available?

Heroics and Ros are here heroicsandros.co.uk I also miss the Teddy Bears

The HPC 20mm SCW line, I thought I had what I wanted and sold off the extra and now I want more and they're unavailable.

FrieKorps 15mm FPW Prussians. QRF seems to have replaced them with another range.

Woodens Foreign legion.

Ral Partha Colonials.

Leo Walshe's terrain items, TCS?

I just got rid of my Warmaster stuff. It goes for crazy amounts on eBay.

With the rise of 3D printing, "saving it just in case" doesn't make sense if you can print it.

" What is dead may never die, but rises again from UV resin"

Ral Partha Imports Romans…beautiful figs

For me it's a range that I'm not sure was even cast up. It's the 28mm WWII range from Tom Meier. Photos of the beautiful greens did the rounds, but then nothing seemed to come of it.

Otherwise, there was this small UK company, probably about a decade ago that did a splendid range of orcs. Just a limited range, but wiry, vicious looking characters.

I suspect that many of those ranges will never be seen again due to metal casting being in decline. I think that there are thousands of moulds out there which will be discovered one day and probably be cast from? Forgotten but not lost methinks.
People with enough money often buy a range thinking it to be great fun. However the practicality is much tougher.

martin

The one I'm kicking myself for not getting more of while I could is Legio Heroica.

(They claim to be "temporarily closed", but it's been so for over a year now, so hope is fading.)

"Musket Miniatures 15mm Mexican War – These bounced around a bit, there is a website, but it would seem they don't answer emails, and I tried FB with no response."

Musket Miniatures closed and sold the molds and rights to someone in California, about 5 years ago. No wonder nobody is answering the phone there! <8]

The Wargames Foundry 15mm Burgundians will be back in production. I spoke to them at Hammerhead and they say they will get everything in order, but it probably wont be this year.

The Alain Toullier figures are greatly missed.

Legio Heroica, following the sad death of Guiseppe, they have been out of production for a while, but maybe due out Christmas.

Lurkio, we will still need to find a new distributer.

The Eureka teddy bears, been looking for years for these, but cannot find them on the website – i guess this explains why.

I wish I had a lot more of the "strip" medievals in 15mm from Minifigs – cast as a strip of figures which one had to separate oneself.

They were replaced by "better" single cast 15mm figures. But I still wish I had more of the older style.

Redcurrant, as I understand it, the Teddy Bears, like the Scrunts and TCS Terrain, were a victim of what I call Dentist Syndrome. A hobbyist with a good professional income buys a line and intends to become a dealer. Then he finds out he needs a spin caster, someone to run it, money for advertisements and so forth, and just leaves everything in a basement or garage. He can make more money from his regular job, and he doesn't really need the money he spent on the line, so he has no incentive to sell it. He'll put it back into production some day, when he retires.

Which means we'll probably never see it again.

Robert@ scrunts damn I'd forgotten about all the Bob Olley stuff he sold off to various individuals most of which has never been seen since 😐

@Redcurrant:

Has there been some sort of announcement re a possible reopening of Legio Heroica? Their website doesn't seem to have been updated since the big red line went up sometime last year.

Perhaps Im an exception in that I don't pine for ranges of yore. There may be some nostalgia value but so much has improved.

I will admit to missing FAA who were once two miles away but have been in the USA for a long time, they still exist I believe but postage was prohibitive last time I looked. They would hold up well today.However, others have filled the gaps.

I'll second Jurgen's longings for the Waterloo to Mons line. I wish I had grabbed them when I had the chance.

The Last Conformist : sorry, I mixed up Lurkio with Legio Heroica.

@Redcurrant:

It's a shame, had my hopes up there for a while.

Forrester: On FAA, have you checked with East Front Miniatures in the UK? They recently got into 20mm in a big way. The now own the "Soljers" range (ex-Thoroughbred) and "Combat" ranges(ex Emperor's HQ range. You might want to give them a call as they MIGHT also have acquired FAA, as well.

MiniFigs, Garrison, Grenadier, Ral Partha (some live again!), Naismith, Pendragon (?), QT, Heritage, Archive, Superior, and metal Reapers that have been replaced by plastics.

Whole companies, not just ranges.

Thanks for the good news of Ravenstar doing the Cold Navy lines!

Snapdragon Studios range of resin terrain. I got a few of their Old West buildings – separate facades and rears – and they were outstanding. They did a range of scifi and fantasy terrain as well.

Keeping with the terrain theme, and this is a very old one, Torchlight Scenics did a range of 15mm resin building called Starport 15. I was desperate for some of them back when I was a boy collecting my 15mm Laserburn armies a few figures at a time.

I'd have to disagree, forrester--or at least hedge that "improvement" can be very subjective. Compare the new GW Sortasquats to their old Squats or Olley's Scrunts. Different, certainly. An improvement? Not to me at least.

Other lines of 15s are an improvement on Mike's Models only if a photograph is an improvement on a Hogarth engraving. Caricatures aren't supposed to be realistic.

The new Star Wars figures--setting aside the expense--are about two scales off my old West End Games. They're simply no use to me.

And if there's an improved replacement--any replacement at all, really--for the Eureka Teddy Bears, a number of us would like to know what it is. (I sold out, and availability was a serious factor.)

Snapdragon Studios range of resin terrain.

Wish I'd bought more of their fantasy range.

Starship troopers.

Epic 40k.

War master to a degree too.

Luckily I did get crooked dice John Pertwee. Yes!

Older nids.

Always seeing something.