Tuesday 10 September 2013

Foundry ex-Citadel and more: what lies beneath?

If you read my posts on the ex-Citadel Mercenaries that have recently been found at Foundry and are now for sale on their website, you might be wondering what else from the distant past they have stored away, ready to unleash? A similar question was recently raised on the Foundry Arena Venue Facebook page, and Bryan Ansell himself has given the following response (I added the links to the Foundry's ebay sites mentioned in Bryan's response):

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.

There will be ten or more items on each master mould, so it is likely that more interesting and/or strange stuff will eventually appear. I know that we have old Rick Priestley odds and ends including some rather worrying sphincter beasts that date back to the Asgard days. Also some tremendously characterful models from Tony Yates.

We will be in a better position to sort through the really old and characterful stuff when all the ranges that were sculpted and cast, but not released during the last decade by the Pinfold/Fletcher team have seen the light of day. There are also SF models by Terrifically Tim Prow that deserve casting up. We have been casting the more obscure models up and putting them on ebay either on Flyte of Fantasy or Casting Room Miniatures.

I'm pretty sure I have one of those sphincter beasts (seriously). So, 5,000 master moulds that haven't been fully catalogued? Very intriguing!

If any more ex-Citadel emerges you can be sure I'll post it here as soon as I hear the news.

25 comments:

  1. No...flipping...way.

    Seriously, reading this is like learning Atlantid really existed and it's in fact right under our feet some 300 feet below ground level.

    I say we volunteer to cast every single mold they have to see what it is and catalogue them during the next sundays (lead cost on our part of course).
    Thanks you Steve for reporting this and Thank you Bryan for casually saying telling us some hidden treasures of mankind are yet to be (re)discovered.

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  2. Er, wow! That's very interesting news.
    Thank you for letting us know, I (and I am sure everyone else) will be interested to see what they find. :)

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  3. Crikey, that's pretty exciting. I await news from the archaeological dig at Foundry with great anticipation.

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  4. Quite a few years ago (20 years?) I tried to order some old zombies from GW, but they said they weren't available.

    The reason given at the time was that the master mold's had 'worn out". The mold's (being made from vulcanised rubber) deteriorated over time.

    I was always a little suspect about that excuse.

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    1. It does happen, more than once I've found chunks of mould in the cavities of models. I reckon though, there's a treasure trove in the mould storage room at foundry.

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  5. Very nice to hear,Foundry are going to make some money and we are going to get some great figures win/win :)

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  6. Surely whoever holds the IP would be well within their rights to get hold of a decent collection and make good quality, "recasts". A little shrinkage sure but nothing so bad. One can dream.

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    1. You can bet your bottom dollar that when it comes to IP Bryan will know exactly what's what :-)

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  7. Plus we may get to build armies of "sphincter beasts", doesn't that sound like the best modelling project?

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  8. That is very interesting news. Regarding what is ex-citadel at Foundry I noticed recently looking at there ebay shop that some minis where labeled "Ex-Citadel". You can found e.g. the old F4 / C26 Feudal Men at Arms. A few examples:

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ex-Citadel-C26-Feudal-Men-Arms-Mounted-Knights-MED311-/121068720334?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item1c304210ce

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mounted-Norman-Knights-Originally-Released-Citadel-Norse-VNS016-/121069210658?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item1c30498c22

    /Hans

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    1. Thanks for that - those mounted C26 dont seem to be on Foundry's main website at the moment.

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    2. By the way. There are a few ex-citadel on the main Foundry site as well. I think quite a big part of the range "VIKINGS, NORMANS & SAXONS" are mostly ex-citadel.

      http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/vikings-normans-and-saxons

      /Hans

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  9. *Rubbing hands together* News like this is fantastic! Its quite exciting to wait and see what they discover next, isn't it? Its funny, we have spent years collecting and researching these models, and social media has allowed us to create groups, such as CCM or the Oldhammer Community, and now our combined interest is encouraging companies like the Foundry to search through the archives to see what they can find!

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  10. Does Bryan know what period the moulds cover? Are they likely to be just 80's or might there be slightly later items (maybe very early 90's Perry Bretonnians perhaps...?)?

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    1. I'm guessing they may go as far as when Bryan left Citadel (93?) but most will probably be earlier.

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  11. This is even more exciting than old Dr Who episodes turning up in attics!

    A slow trickle of goodies into the Foundry store would be great as they find and cast up these old beauties (whatever they are) so we don't all go bankrupt.

    I like Asslessmn's idea of volunteering to catalogue the moulds for Bryan - that's be a great few sunday afternoons :)

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  12. A a trained archaeologist of may yeas experience I volunteer to head up the expedition into the vaults!

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  13. 5,000 master moulds that haven't been fully catalogued?
    Why Foundry don't use them?

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    1. They will get there eventually - it just takes time.

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    2. Ok thank for answer... I hope...

      I remember... Buy old Citadel figures in a shop... A lot of good souvenirs :)

      Bye Nico

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  14. I'd volunteer for this effort as well...sounds like it would be a blast...

    ....from the past....hahaha....terrible.

    sorry.

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  15. 5000 moulds!?!?!? Crom's hairy balls, that's a lot of potential figures!!

    Can you guys just imagine if they've got all the old chaos stuff from Realms of Chaos?!!! And 2nd/3rd ed Warhammer Orcs and goblins, and Undead!! And the old Dragons!!! :O

    We'd never again have to waste hours of our lives trawling ebay, only to have what we wanted sniped away from us by some f*cker with seemingly limitless money!

    I too volunteer for this vault exploring and cataloging expedition! Just let me get my fedora hat and bullwhip!...

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  16. I fear that there is very little fantasy stuff, as my father(Clifford Ansell: for who Foundry was originaly set up as a retirement job) was never interested in having anything at all to do with fantasy.

    Marcus (Ansell) has written (or is writing) something for a blog on this subject. Actually, it could well be for you Steve. Well, I hope that this doesn't contradict him.

    The sad truth is that......

    In the late(r) 80's my father did quite a lot of mould making, master casting and such for GW. I believe that odds and ends of residue from that period may survive.

    Of course, Alan and Michael Perry went from their old C26 Citadel medievals to ranges of compatible models for Foundry: the Foundry models are just a touch bigger and more carefuly sculpted.

    The C26 range of men at arms was Citadels best selling Fantasy range for three years.(I just threw that in here for a bit of OldHammer colour).

    There will be a scattering of Perry models that never made it into a pack.

    There will be loads of Human Manikins: with and without heads, faces, arms, genitals etc. Many of them will never have been used: you can't stop a sculper making yet another manikin. Plenty of naked horses, other naked animals. Scabbards, swords, muskets, hats and weaponry of every kind. Shields: variants of every possible shape of shield. Strange things that sculpters or members of staff made for their own amusement. Nick, the caster who came with us from Guernsey made some interesting things. Tony Yates made a number of very fine items.

    The Seven Sculpters that worked at Foundry for me a Decade or so ago all worked from home, this generally results in the larger-than-usual-number-of-models-that-are-left-over-because-we-cannot-make-up-a-full-pack syndrome manifesting itself: so there will be a fair number of those.

    There are a small number really old moulds from the period we were casting Asgard and Citadel (and Ral Partha) simultaneously. Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything terribly rivetting on them. Simple conversions for playtesting Laserburn and suchlike. We have shown the laser-armed Fishmen to the world already. I suspect that these were converted by either me or Rick, and that I must have made the mould, but I have no memory at all of the event.

    Time for bed

    i
    will
    finish
    this in the
    morning

    Bryan Ansell







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  17. I reckon a team of volunteers would work nights to catalogue everything!

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