Friday, 26 July 2013

Wargames Foundry's first ever mail order flyer?

In addition to being a big collector of Citadel Miniatures and associated paraphernalia, I'm also interested more broadly in the history of the fantasy, scifi and historical figures and games etc that developed in connection with Citadel and Games Workshop. So it was with great interest that I recently picked up an early flyer for Wargames Foundry. What I found even more interesting when I read it is that the letter from Bryan Ansell that is inscribed in the flyer seems to suggest that this may well be Foundry's first mail order flyer. Very handily, the flyer is dated - April 15th 1985.

I've included a close-up of the letter from Bryan below, then the two sides of the flyer in their entirety below that.

Incidentally, isn't the design very reminiscent of the early Citadel flyers? hardly surprising I suppose!






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4 comments:

  1. Orlygg26 July 2013 at 22:31

    A busy year for Bryan. Buying GW and setting up Foundry. He's not called the Mighty Avenger for nothing!

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  2. Aiteal26 July 2013 at 23:32

    I still fondly remember my first big order from foundry, lots and lots of Gauls to compliment my alternative armies Sidhe for a 3rd edition 'Celtic' army, an army list my friends and I had drawn up, complete with Red Branch Knights, little Belgic and some of the more fantastical scythed AA chariots and druids.
    Although they were a little on the 'small size', compared to most fantasy manufacturers, the sculpts were great as a company they certainly were a gateway into the wider historical gaming scene for someone brought up on a diet of 2nd/3rd edition WH and RT era 40k.

    I still put the odd order in with them (bought the massive paint set just before xmas) and although they still seem to have the reputation as being a little 'pricey' among the historical gaming crowd, I've always found their customer service (especially this past year) to be second to none, little hand written notes from the staff to say 'thank you' and 'here's an extra mini we think you may like!''

    My Saga warbands are almost all foundry, and I still have their Norse Dwarves on my 'i'll get those next!' list (If I could find them on either their ebay or web site that is)

    It would be great to see them release some new 'old' fantasy minis that are neglected now by the big boys.
    Amazons, Slann, Fimir etc

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  3. zhu bajiee28 July 2013 at 22:40

    Yes, that's the identical same typesetting machine that Warhammer was produced on, typed up by Rick Priestlys mum IIRC. The 1983 Dragon cover Catalogue was done on a different system.

    This is all a bit odd tho. Foundry claim they started in 1983 on their website, the Flyer above implies "recently", "loosely formed" and "will be" the company started in 1985, and a check on Companies House shows Wargames Foundry Limited was registered in 1988.

    Interesting stuff!

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  4. Steve Casey29 July 2013 at 09:12

    I'm sure Bryan will be able to clarify things when I next see him.

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