I always wondered what the creature in this ad was supposed to be. It doesn't look like an orc, goblin, or troll: more like a cross between a werewolf and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
My father had that suit, minus the basket-weave. Incredibly he wore orange or sienna toned ties over that shirt. 1978, man. I remember having to polish the Florsheim wingtips he wore with it. Is Florsheim even around anymore, or was it absorbed like Bostonian?
Uh-huh. And less than a year later, their license will be gone because they refused what amounted to takeover threat from TSR. I advise everyone to go read the "Metal" articles in Space Gamer issues 63 and 64 (both easily found in pdf online if need be). The first has an interview with Kevin Blume attempting to dispel industry rumors about some of the shenanigans TSR had been up to as they attempted to enter the miniatures market for themselves. The second has an interview with the head of Grenadier exactly what the offer TSR had made them would have entailed. To put it mildly, Blume doesn't come off looking too good.
Throughout Jon Peterson's book The Game Wizards, he documents how TSR executives thought of running a business as itself a wargame. I feel like that's made apparent in basically every interaction they had with an adjacent company in the early 80s. How depressing.
@Ben True, although as the Grenadier interview makes quite clear, TSR was initially quite happy to work with them to ensure that there'd be a line of fantasy miniatures available to their D&D players, and one that specifically catered to the game's quirky variety of monsters. Heck, you can see the first Beholder sculpt ever made in that ad, and I guarantee you Grenadier wouldn't have bothered with it without the D&D license. Those eyestalks were really pushing the limits of casting techniques at the time, hence the way they laid flat on the thing instead of standing upright like every sculpt since then. It's also one of the first "levitating" minis ever made, possibly the first, even if the effect seems crude by modern standards.
And then the money started pouring in, both Gygax and the Blumes decided they wanted more of it for themselves, and it became "let us take over your business and make you all employees with as little control as a 20% share implies or lose the license" and that was it. Looked at as a game, that was the shameless Diplomacy backstab in all its infamy, and they did it right after destroying SPI in a similar fashion. TSR was immensely predatory, even compared to the shady business practices of WotC these days.
And TSR's own casting efforts were pretty much a debacle for them, being dropped in under five years and the AD&D license grudgingly awarded to up-and-comer Ral Partha. They didn't really have a choice with that either. Their own behavior made sure Grenadier wouldn't work with them again and there wasn't another US company that could reliably handle the production volume called for by AD&D as the company neared its peak in the mid-to-late 80s.
Man, my old brain must be shot. I had a sub at this time and I don't recall that ad whatsoever. I had/have zero interest in minis..but not sure that's a good excuse- I remember some other minis ads.
As someone who worked in Silicon Valley during the Dot Com Boom, I personally interpret at lot of these TSR/Blume/Gygax/Williams stories through the prism of people who were not prepared, professionally or personally, for the sudden rush of business success and/or public prominence that they abruptly experienced and tried, in their own myopic ways, to leverage (mostly unsuccessfully). I probably know a lot less about Gary Gygax as a person than does not only James M. but also many/most reading these comments. But I always saw him as a middle aged insurance salesman/fantasy novel enthusiast/war gamer from northern Wisconsin, for which nothing in his personal life story/background to that point prepared him to: (1) be interviewed on "60 Minutes" or, (2) fight out battles about corporate law and stock transactions, or (3) be revered by a subset of people in the 1980s/90s who would grow up to establish businesses (citing him as a big influence) about which he would have little or no personal comprehension, and which would become dramatically more financially successful than anything he ever did. A close high school friend of mine was an undergraduate at Stanford in the late 1980s when Gary made a paid speaking appearance at his college dorm. Would Gary have had any comprehension, in that moment, of the impact of his legacy on thoise kids and/or kids of 'that sort' at the time? I really doubt it. And, in any event, he never reaped the financial rewards of his vast impact on a small group of people who went on to dramatically change American culture via the various evolutions of the internet.
I always wondered what the creature in this ad was supposed to be. It doesn't look like an orc, goblin, or troll: more like a cross between a werewolf and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that it was whatever Halloween mask someone had handy
DeleteMy father had that suit, minus the basket-weave. Incredibly he wore orange or sienna toned ties over that shirt. 1978, man. I remember having to polish the Florsheim wingtips he wore with it. Is Florsheim even around anymore, or was it absorbed like Bostonian?
DeleteUh-huh. And less than a year later, their license will be gone because they refused what amounted to takeover threat from TSR. I advise everyone to go read the "Metal" articles in Space Gamer issues 63 and 64 (both easily found in pdf online if need be). The first has an interview with Kevin Blume attempting to dispel industry rumors about some of the shenanigans TSR had been up to as they attempted to enter the miniatures market for themselves. The second has an interview with the head of Grenadier exactly what the offer TSR had made them would have entailed. To put it mildly, Blume doesn't come off looking too good.
ReplyDeleteAh , so the ad depicts Kevin Blume! ;)
DeleteThroughout Jon Peterson's book The Game Wizards, he documents how TSR executives thought of running a business as itself a wargame. I feel like that's made apparent in basically every interaction they had with an adjacent company in the early 80s. How depressing.
Delete@Ben True, although as the Grenadier interview makes quite clear, TSR was initially quite happy to work with them to ensure that there'd be a line of fantasy miniatures available to their D&D players, and one that specifically catered to the game's quirky variety of monsters. Heck, you can see the first Beholder sculpt ever made in that ad, and I guarantee you Grenadier wouldn't have bothered with it without the D&D license. Those eyestalks were really pushing the limits of casting techniques at the time, hence the way they laid flat on the thing instead of standing upright like every sculpt since then. It's also one of the first "levitating" minis ever made, possibly the first, even if the effect seems crude by modern standards.
DeleteAnd then the money started pouring in, both Gygax and the Blumes decided they wanted more of it for themselves, and it became "let us take over your business and make you all employees with as little control as a 20% share implies or lose the license" and that was it. Looked at as a game, that was the shameless Diplomacy backstab in all its infamy, and they did it right after destroying SPI in a similar fashion. TSR was immensely predatory, even compared to the shady business practices of WotC these days.
And TSR's own casting efforts were pretty much a debacle for them, being dropped in under five years and the AD&D license grudgingly awarded to up-and-comer Ral Partha. They didn't really have a choice with that either. Their own behavior made sure Grenadier wouldn't work with them again and there wasn't another US company that could reliably handle the production volume called for by AD&D as the company neared its peak in the mid-to-late 80s.
Man, my old brain must be shot. I had a sub at this time and I don't recall that ad whatsoever. I had/have zero interest in minis..but not sure that's a good excuse- I remember some other minis ads.
ReplyDeleteI love the depiction of the 1980s executive office, with the desk blotter, succulent and staple remover.
ReplyDeleteNot tomention the achievement chart, which shows another alarming dip this quarter.
As someone who worked in Silicon Valley during the Dot Com Boom, I personally interpret at lot of these TSR/Blume/Gygax/Williams stories through the prism of people who were not prepared, professionally or personally, for the sudden rush of business success and/or public prominence that they abruptly experienced and tried, in their own myopic ways, to leverage (mostly unsuccessfully). I probably know a lot less about Gary Gygax as a person than does not only James M. but also many/most reading these comments. But I always saw him as a middle aged insurance salesman/fantasy novel enthusiast/war gamer from northern Wisconsin, for which nothing in his personal life story/background to that point prepared him to: (1) be interviewed on "60 Minutes" or, (2) fight out battles about corporate law and stock transactions, or (3) be revered by a subset of people in the 1980s/90s who would grow up to establish businesses (citing him as a big influence) about which he would have little or no personal comprehension, and which would become dramatically more financially successful than anything he ever did. A close high school friend of mine was an undergraduate at Stanford in the late 1980s when Gary made a paid speaking appearance at his college dorm. Would Gary have had any comprehension, in that moment, of the impact of his legacy on thoise kids and/or kids of 'that sort' at the time? I really doubt it. And, in any event, he never reaped the financial rewards of his vast impact on a small group of people who went on to dramatically change American culture via the various evolutions of the internet.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't listened to When We Were Wizards yet, all of your hypotheses will graduate to theories after listening to it.
DeletePlanning for success is traditionally more difficult than planning for failure. Even the vultures look confused.
DeleteDude, that looked EXACTLY like someone in blackface until I zoomed in a little. I need a glass of water. Jesus.
ReplyDeleteI thought that was Jim Belushi from Trading Places… sobered-up in his gorilla suit, ready to take on the gaming world!
ReplyDelete