Wargames Foundry: the unseen master moulds

In September I blogged the response from Bryan Ansell to the question of what ex-Citadel figures may yet coming marching out of the Foundry factory. Bryan's response was:

"I'm afraid that the sad truth is that we don't really know. When we gathered up the various discontinued ranges that had become redundant at Citadel, we had no idea that anyone would ever attach any great significance to any of them. They were never properly catalogued. We do have over 5,000 old master moulds here at Stoke Hall, but they have never been fully catalogued either."

You may recall that this was prompted by Foundry's release of the old Citadel Mercenaries range.

Yesterday I visited Bryan at Stoke Hall and was delighted to be given a glimpse of these 5,000 moulds that have not been fully catalogued, which I would like to share with you:

Great, eh? I couldn't resist asking Bryan if I could take a peak into some of these moulds. The very first mould appeared to have the impression of something like a large ogre or minotaur (I think it had cloven hooves) but only the lower body and part of the torso was present on the mould. Bryan didn't recognise it and I didn't recognise it as something that had been put into production by Citadel, so chances are it's an unseen Foundry figure (or at least one that hasn't been in production for some time). A good start.

But...the next few moulds appeared to have various Darkest Africa, Saxon, and Seven Years War figures inside. If you're a Foundry historicals fan you may be jumping up and down at this point, but I was seeking more fantastical fare.

Some of the moulds were quite a bit larger than the others and Bryan suggested these may have ex-Citadel in them. So I grabbed at one and opened it up to find - a giraffe. Arrrgggh!

I guess at this point I'd opened around 10 moulds, and given that my my next port of call was to photograph some of Bryan's figures I decided to call it a day with the moulds. But I hope to return...

So, what did I see at Bryan's yesterday? Well, all will be revealed but suffice to say I'll be publishing pictures of unreleased Citadel figures that have never been see before. I also took photographs of what Bryan believes are unreleased Foundry figures; time allowing I'll be uploading these pics tomorrow.