What is your first memory that started you collecting war-gaming minitautres??

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**Genoside07**

Just wondering what everyone first memory of what started their collecting miniature games..

My first memory of miniature gaming was buying a book / marine box set combo at the local Walden books, but the only one having figures and rules in a small rural town made it difficult to play. A few years later I moved to a city to go to college and was visiting a local con. I was there to play Marvel Super Heroes RPG and the table set up besides us was a game of Space hulk and I was amazed at it. Even back then it had a very nice presentation and the models for the time addicted me immediately. Picked up Space Hulk the next week and found it went to the 40k book that I already bought years before.

Funny thing is my first purchase of a RPG was the "Time Trap" module for Marvel Super Heroes RPG, Not realizing till after what I had done.Then I had to save my allowance again, return the book store to buy the base game to play it.

**Carlson793**

For me it started with role playing. I was about 12, and a buddy's brother needed to get rid of a bunch of fantasy minis (parents were clearing house). Still have a few of them - nice late 70s/early 80s Ral Partha and Grenadier models. Started buying my own at that point. Few years later, about the time of Star Trek III, found a few FASA Trek models, and shortly after that discovered Battletech.

**Da Boss**

We rented the PS1 Space Hulk game Vengeance of the Blood Angels. It was buggy and clunky, but we loved the atmosphere and ideas behind it.

So, my brother was talking to his friends in school about it and it turns out one was a big closet 40K fan and thought my brother was too. He lent my brother all the 2nd books and we took them with us on holidays. Over the course of the holidays I absolutely devoured the books and fell in love with Blood Angels, Squats and Orks.

Got the second edition boxed set that Christmas, and my fate was sealed.

**Kilkrazy**

I had a game called Star Soldier by SPI and I wanted SF figures to use instead of counters. I got them from the Minifigs shop near Victoria Coach Station in London. I bought some "not LoTR" figures at the same time.

This was about 1977 to 78.

**zedmeister**

**Nevelon**

I can’t remember a time before D&D. My brother and I were playing in the early 80s at the very least.

First minis came later. Probably mid/late 80s. One of the guys in our gaming group brought a mini to represent his character. It was paradigm shifting. Before that we just used dice or random chits. Later he brought a painted mini and upped the ante. It’s been rolling since then.

Old Ral Partha and Greneder stuff. Still have them:

The first minis I ever painted are in that lot. I’ve gotten a bit better since then.

**Wolf**

Well for me it was many visits to one of my numerous aunty ans uncle's house when I was little. My cousins were already collecting by this time, (they are older than me) they had a 1992 warhammer collection book of some kind, that showed every model available by games workshop at the time. Every time we visited the house I looked through the book for hours.

Eventually they said I could have the book which led to my dad buying the space marine and dark elder starter set. And that is how I first got into wargaming

I still have the book win with my old white dwarf collection.

**spiralingcadaver**

My friend got me into it, went to a local gaming store, they had an Epic 40k display, I thought the Thunderhawk was fun, wanted one, and the very typical pre-2000's elitist game store owner brushed me off and eventually pointed me to a necron destroyer, which took me ages to build because I kept trying to figure out how you made a space ship out of those parts.

**TheAuldGrump**

I have been an historical wargamer for a long time - and I played map and counter wargames even before that.

For miniatures gaming I started playing with Minifig Napoleonic War Prussians, back in 1975 or so, introduced to the hobby by a Catholic priest. (He later introduced me to role playing games, fanzines, and how to operate a Roneograph machine.... He has much to answer for.

)

The Auld Grump

**chromedog**

A friend asked me to come with him to a local games con.

I was 18. Battletech was the big thing at the time (in SF games). That's where I found out about this stuff.

**Kilkrazy**

I just want to add that like many boys I collected and played with toy soldiers in 54mm or 1/32nd scale, and 1/72nd scale tanks and planes, long before starting "serious" war games with proper printed rules, like the SPI games, that eventually led to buying real wargame figures.

**LuciusAR**

This. I saw it and begged my parents for it for Xmas. Soon I discovered D&D, then Warhammer and then a book on historical Wargaming in my School Library got me into Historical gaming as well. But it was this advert that first introduced me to the idea of gaming.

**Fifty**

I played 2nd Ed Blood Bowl in 1988, aged 10, with my then-best friend. I got the same game for Christmas and was hooked from there, mainly due to the adverts on the side of the box.

**hanshotfirst**

"playing" black reach with my brother. and him discovering 1d4chan and me not so he would say things like "thin your paints!" or "anime fan mecha!" and i would be very counfused...

**TheAuldGrump**

LuciusAR wrote:
This. I saw it and begged my parents for it for Xmas. Soon I discovered D&D, then Warhammer and then a book on historical Wargaming in my School Library got me into Historical gaming as well. But it was this advert that first introduced me to the idea of gaming.

That game is how my good lady was introduced to fantasy gaming - playing Heroquest with her mum.

The Auld Grump

**JamesY**

I remember being in primary school and someone came in with a beige plastic skeleton holding a large scythe, and feeling an unexplainable, overwhelming urge to own it. A couple of nights later I saw the ad for heroquest, and knew I had to have it. Got it that Christmas, and that was me hooked.

**zedmeister**

LuciusAR wrote:
This. I saw it and begged my parents for it for Xmas. Soon I discovered D&D, then Warhammer and then a book on historical Wargaming in my School Library got me into Historical gaming as well. But it was this advert that first introduced me to the idea of gaming.

Re-dubbed Blasphemy!

The Christopher Lee voice over is the only one accepted!

**Vankraken**

The day me and my friend traded in our MTG cards to a FLGS to buy 40k stuff. I remember seeing Killa Kanz and wanting to make a Killa Kan army with lots of Lootas. We got a fairly good trade in value for the cards and went to my friend's house with our $500 worth of stuff and figured we can get them put together to try and learn to play. We were not prepared for the amount of time and labor it required to get a 40K army put together.

Years and years before this I had a highschool classmate in 2001 that was trying to get me into Battletech. Got myself 2 Caldron Born, and I think a Mad Cat but never got around to assembling them together. I wonder if they are still in my old room at my parents house....

**Eldarain**

A friends mother bought him a White Dwarf thinking it was about computer games. He gave me the 2nd edition 40k catalog that came with it and I immediately wanted to start a Chaos army.

**JoshInJapan**

I started with Grenadier and Ral Partha models for D&D around 1980 or so. I still have a lot of them.

**brizbraz**

I played Space Hulk at a friend's in around 1988 (I would've been 9)

Then for, I think my 10th birthday, I got this:

Spoiler:

Did the whole Heroquest / Space Crusade thing through high school with a bit of 40k and Space Marine thrown in for good measure.

**-Loki-**

Thinking my dads first edition metal DnD miniatures were awesome. They were in boxes the size of VHS cases, lined with foam trays with all these metal miniatures inside fully painted.

Also playing Heroquest on the coffee table with my dad and brother.

**Krinsath**

Growing up my dad was in the military and so I had a natural interest in anything vaguely military-like. Thus I already had an impressive collection of plastic army men for longer than I can remember. However, my interest in what would turn into wargaming started when I want to play at a friend's house. His older brother was, to my ~4th grade mind, a really great artist and he'd drawn a sketch of an Imperial Space Marine with a banner planted into the foot of a defeated Titan or some such (it was a large robotic foot, though I'm not sure if I knew what Titan was back then). "Space Marine" sounded cool so that became what I wanted and my folks actually got me a set of RTB01 Space Marines. In hindsight with the small pointy parts this may have been questionable parenting for my age at the time. I did love that set though and a short time later one of my prize possessions during this time was a metal Terminator, though I did eventually lose him on a trip.

This prompted a full walk down memory lane, but I'm spoilering it since it's not really all that interesting:

Spoiler:

Early in middle school, I played HeroQuest at another friend's house and really liked the experience and got that for a birthday, completely oblivious that the the game was related to my beakies. I eventually got the 2 expansions released in the US for HeroQuest, and also picked up the BattleMasters game AGAIN being completely oblivious to the relationship (though I eventually figured out from the fluff that BattleMasters and HeroQuest were related). BattleTech garnered my attention for some reason (maybe via RoboTech on VHS?) and that was a focus for a while of pencil-and-paper gaming for a few years where I had binders full of 'Mechs (I think at one point I had 5 full regiments kitted out). Then I took up building model aircraft with my dad, so I joined an after-school club for model-making. Since I needed models, I stumbled across Epic and was reminded of my beakie Space Marines and I went back to miniatures gaming...kind of. During this time my dad and brother had been messing around with various things with 40k/Epic and when they weren't looking things would disappear. I would go on to inherit a copy of Rogue Trader from my brother, which is still on the bookshelf.

For some reason, my high school years passed without me doing anything much with models, though I still had them and would randomly play some quasi-game with them vaguely following the rules. It was actually the year after college where one of my friends still in high school needed a lift to a local gaming store to play a game of 40k that all of that stuff came rushing back. At the time I was unemployed, so I'd take what money I'd made working an odd-job here or cashing a check from grandparents there to pick up models here and there. I assembled most of a Space Marine Battle Company via holidays and Bartertown and within 3 months had all of it painted to a form of standard (god I wish I could paint even half that fast now

). It was very helpful during a time where I struggled to find where I was going or even what I was doing.

Then I started working, and the floodgates opened. Having a professional income and comparatively few bills meant that money poured into my collection. What most people in their early 20s would be spending on booze and parties and such went into metal and plastic (and sometimes resin). Kind of went a bit overboard, honestly, though I'm trying to reign it in slightly now that it's starting to turn into an episode of Hoarders...

One thing I would like to note though: I still know where my RTB01 marines, HeroQuest and BattleMasters are...they moved with me and are still in (mostly) good shape.

**Phydox**

As a kid I hated the cheapo army men in a bag, and would always go to the local hobby store and buy the 28mm "army men" to play with. After a while, I was looking at a selection of guys and noticed color coding on the back. When I asked the owner he said you paint them and it blew my mind.

I painted some stuff as a kid... WW2 stuff mostly.

I hadn't painted in maybe 10 years, was playing Magic at the time and noticed some guys playing on terrain with 28mm models. I asked them about it and they let me watch and explained the game as they played. I asked them where I could get the models and they pointed me to the GW stuff. I wandered around looking at different models, and as soon as I saw a line of models that were dwarfs with Babylon beards and Abe Lincoln hats.. I was sold! I started my first GW army Chaos Dwarfs.

**kb_lock**

I think it was 3rd edition (Black Templars VS Dark Eldar)

I remember painting the trees that came with it by simply washing them in the old Green Ink hex pots (over the unprimed green plastic).

I dropped that pot of green ink on the (cream coloured) carpet

**Raven911**

Got Aerotech back in the late 80s and still to this day haven't figured out how the hell it works. Still have it somewhere. That of course led to Battletech, which led to 40K, etc.

**Wolfstan**

Got the Dungeon's & Dragon's basic set (red box version) for Xmas in 83 and getting figures for that followed closely afterwards

Had 2 boxes of those Citadel sets at one time and some single models.

**Kaptajn Congoboy**

Playing IG vs IG with paper tokens on the floor, with our own ruleset extrapolated from a White Dwarf IG army list. Then buying two empire knights and painting them without basecoating them first. I was very young.

Later, Rugluds Armoured Orcs (by then basecoat had been discovered although it was from an autoshop) and playing DBM on cons.

**Ruglud**

Ruglud's Armoured Orcs - oh yeah.

Remember walking into GW Beckenham back in the late 80s and picking up my first box set for something like £9.99, then embarking on my adventure into WFB and the rest is history...

Spoiler:

Think I also picked up Harboth's Orc Archers the following week...

Spoiler:

**Nostromodamus**

Got Heroquest when I was about 8. Got 4th ed. WFB when I was 10. 2nd ed. 40k at 11. No turning back...