Legendary Miniatures Range

 

In celebration of Ral Partha's 50th Anniversary, this range is being produced to make versions of many of the earliest Ral Partha miniatures available to our hobby community once again.

 

You can find all of the miniatures currently available in the Legends range in our webstore here:

 

You can also view the individual factions here:

 

The focus of this range (or group of ranges) are the figures produced by Ral Partha Enterprises primarily from 1975 to 1977, and a handful of those from 1978 to 1980 that helped to fill out those lines of product.

 

Though it is subject to opinion, I have no hesitation stating that Ral Partha Legacy Ltd. is privileged to produce some of the most beautiful and technically impressive miniature sculptures that any company has ever put into production.

 

But in addition to the beautiful and technical, there is a compelling argument to acknowledge and hold dear the earlier works of art which set the foundations upon which world-spanning enterprises are built upon.

 

The majority of the figures were sculpted by Tom Meier when he was a about 15 to 17 years old, before he chose to make a profession out of sculpting.  Most of the earlier figures were sculpted in a style intentionally done to be compatible with the miniatures released by Custom Cast (which later merged with Heritage), which was the first company he sculpted for.  In fact, several of these miniatures were intended to be sold to Custom Cast, until Tom found out that he was being paid below the standard rate for sculpts.

 

After the original set of releases, a number of conversions were done by others at Ral Partha Ent. including owners Rich Smethurst and Chuck Crain, and others who remain unidentified.  During the 1976 to 1979 period, others added to the ranges by converting some of Tom's earliest sculpts (possibly without his permission).  When Dennis Mize started sculpting for RP, some of his earliest pieces were conversions on some of Tom's earlier pieces.  These became the figures used in the Witch's Caldron boxed set, and the Goblins in Caverns Deep.  It is likely that some of the conversions found in the Wizards, Warriors, and Warlocks range were also done by him in a similar manner.  During this period, up and coming sculptors Brian Apple and Jay Adams are noted to have been doing sculpting work at RP.  It is suspected that some of the conversions may have been their work also.  I would like to confirm this with them, if possible.  If you have any contact information for them, please reach out to me as soon as possible.

 

Around 1977, George Freeman sculpted 15mm Napoleonics for RP.  This was followed by 15mm American Civil War, 15mm Desert Rats, and a 25mm Waterloo Collectors range.  Several dozen 25mm historical miniatures by Freeman were also pressed in the master molds.  A number of these figures were unfortunately crushed in their initial pressing, and have a very flattened look.  I am going to try and repair copies as I am able, but that will be an extensive project.  A handful of the less-damaged pieces have been found in private collections, and some of the RP owners recall some of these figures being sold as convention-exclusives at the time.  We have at least one mounted knight, and one on foot that survived the molding process, that will be included in the Legendary Humans portion of the range.  

 

There are also a number of sculpts that Tom made back in the 1975 - 1977 period that were used in personal games, but never produced commercially.  Where appropriate, we are including these in the ranges.

 

 

 

More figures will be added to the range throughout the year.

A very tentative release schedule includes:

July:  Human Heroes and Troops

August:  Human Cavalry

September:  Mythical Troops

October:  The Undead & Demons

 

 

LIMITED TIME DEALS:

For a limited time, as each faction is released, we will offer some packaged deals, probably for about two weeks after their addition to the webstore, where you can save about 20% off the price of buying them individually.  This is being done as a thank you to our customers who help fund the purchase of new mold material, and continue us on our mission of rereleasing as many classic miniatures as we can.

 

AVAILABILITY

We have taken great care to use only the best quality master castings that we can find for each figure.  After almost 50 years, many of the master castings had taken damage just from rubbing together, or deteriorating with time and moisture.  On some, the master molds had dried, cracked, and torn out in places, so that getting good copies was not easy.  This means that we only have one or two cavities per mold for each sculpt.   Some of these early castings are also not very gentle on their molds, as they sometimes have deep undercuts that can tear the molds over time.  Because we only have a few good cavities for each, if they tear out to the point that we can not get reasonably good quality castings from them, the individual miniatures will be discontinued, and added back onto the end of the "molds to make" list.  Keep in mind that we have about 600 other miniatures on that list, so when the molds wear out, it may be a while before we get around to making new ones.