Monday, March 1, 2021

Miniature Memories

My relationship with miniatures is complex. I've always loved them in principle, but I've never managed to get much use out of them, despite trying. Nevertheless, when I was a kid, I used to spend far more time than I ought to have staring at glass cases in hobby stores where they displayed their individual miniatures for sale. Many of them were Ral Partha, including some of the ones pictured above. At the time, I was largely unfamiliar with Tékumel, so I have no idea what or where Mu'ugalavyá was, but I thought the minis were cool. 

I was reminded of this the other day when I was perusing issue #22 (February 1979) of Dragon and saw this advertisement. It's amazing the weird, disjointed memories one carries around in one's head after decades. Usually, they make little sense until a seemingly random image or sound or smell suddenly brings it all into focus again. Perhaps it's a bit pathetic that so many of my memories pertain to spending time in hobby shops and ogling products I'd never buy, but there it is. 

4 comments:

  1. I'm pretty fanatic about miniature myself and have been for over forty years now, and I can safely say that "getting use out of them" is strictly secondary to the pleasures of painting, converting, and showing them off to others - although getting paid to do all that on commission does make it easier to justify the time and effort involved. :)

    Also, don't beat yourself up over window shopping at game stores. A big chunk of my memories are filled with that preoccupation as well.

    Oh, and speaking of Tekumel minis, a link I stumbled on the other day:

    https://tekumelcollecting.com/2015/03/08/short-history-of-tekumel-miniatures-preface-and-chapter-1/#more-196

    Doesn't get any earlier than Barker's own hand-carved figs, does it?

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    1. Barker's figures are amazing. I hope one day to get the chance to see them.

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  2. Funny, was reading Dragon #43 yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by the number of miniature advertisements.

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  3. I feel that in this day and age maybe we should be demanding more from our miniatures. We are all used to the painful monopoly of games workshop whom kind of hijacked the medium. Mercilessly squishing any chance of a natural broad evolution under a rather nasty and generally cheap "daemon complex" from which they are even now inevitably and inescapably intertwined. Sure they've had some good ideas but their support for any system they create should the sales dip is brutal in its cut off. I feel it is high time the busness men whom have taken over table top gaming were challenged by the one thing they cannot muster. Passion for the art.

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