Every so often I dig out something that makes me smile. This is just a box, very true... however this isn't just any old box, this is a Minifigs box! The first coded mini for the Middle Earth / Mythical Earth range. There's still argument over who produced the first of the fantasy ranges... people still argue that Jack Scruby may have been the first but I think they came after Minifigs around 1975 whereas Minifigs advertised in 1973... the way adverts went back in the day you needed to send your material well in advance as well.
Jack Scruby fantasy here.
Note the COMING SOON section at the bottom (Military Modelling, July 1973)
More details on this post;
http://www.deartonyblair.co.uk/2020/09/beginnings-of-fantasy-minifigs-me.html
The old Minifigs ME catalogue page...
If you're interested, I appeared on the Rollin Bones show the other night... Canadian time 20:00... UK time 02:00. I'm still recovering! A good chat about the history and evolution of miniatures in tabletop gaming although I think I kept straying back to my own love of old lead.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1446655812
I've also put a couple of old Empire of the Petal Throne minis on eBay... got to pay that mortgage somehow!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/deartonyblair/m.html
3 comments:
An American box too! That Giant is very nicely painted - look at all that tartan. That reference to the ME range in Mil Mod was the first I could find too - and I think that pretty much nails the timing of this range. I don't know about the Scruby range - mostly because in 1973 you couldn't really buy US products directly if you lived in the UK - so even if they were available in the US I don't think we would have known or had any way of buying them. I mean it was all postal orders for goodness sake!
Re interview... I know of at least one other whose divorce cited the toy soldiers... so you are not alone. Fortunately, Lindsey is very understanding ;)
Great post. I'll try and watch your TV appearance later. I'm very keen to get a unit of scruby orcs somehow.
Thank you for this interesting recovery of the first fantasy miniature manufacturers, which we did not know about. Scrolling through the Minifigs series on the Lost Minis Wiki, we discovered two different series of gnolls produced: one is the better known one of Dungeons & Dragons (GNL), but there are other three gnolls in "More Fantasy" (MF). And they are all plantigrades! Unfortunately Caliver Books has only released a single miniature of these gnolls so far ...
The work of painting on the giant is great: you made up for what was missing in the sculpture of the figure with painting. Bravo!
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