Do you remember what your first ever mini was? Have you still got it? Back in about 1988, I bought a blister pack with three heavy weapon space marines for £2.50. Yes you youngsters out there, you did read that correctly - three metal miniatures - in one blister - £2.50. Those were the good old days when you could get a box of three Rhinos for a tenner! Anyway, these three kicked it all off for me, I thought they were awesome! Still got them, they could do with a repaint, but that's on my to do list. I had originally christened them 'Dark Knights - Chapter 666!' But then I thought it sounds a bit too much like Batman - and not long after GW brought out 'Grey Knights - Chapter666!' - Damn them. Might eventually repaint them as Crimson Fists just like on the front of the original Rogue Trader rule book (still got that too!).
If my memory doesn't fail me it was three Gorka Morka orks (can't remember if they came in one blister) with giant pistols I got with my brother around 1998 or something. They were really great, still are, if a bit small.
They might still be around somewhere...
Battle for Macragge that I found at some little store at the back end of the world.
My first REAL miniature that I chose consciously was a Dreadnought.
Ironically, a Dreadnought was also my last GW miniature. Circle of life or something like that.
Fantasy 5th edition Empire outrider-6 bucks per model. Ten years ago. That was a gift. My first purchase was a 4 pack of metal Empire swordsmen for 10 bucks. Then a 2 pack of crossbowmen for 6. Ah...the good old days. Okay, so now they're in plastic and only slightly more expensive...but still...2 metal models for $6?! That's crazy talk
I can't remember exactly what my first miniature was, but I know it was for dungeons and dragons. I bought a lot of fantasy figures in the eighties for D&D.
I remember the first mini that I painted was a monk. Kind of a Friar Tuck looking guy, a little heavy set and carrying a bunch of stuff on his back.
The first Citatel figues I bought were a blister pack of three guardsmen. I can't even remember if they were called guardsmen at the time, but that is basically what they looked like. It was a total impulse buy. I hadn't ever purchased sci-fi figures before that.
Well not counting my older brothers figures, my first miniature was a MARX Fort Apache playset.
My first metal figures were The Fellowship from the LOTR, made by Heritage (Minifigs) from the animated Bashki film.
Yes, I am no young'un.
I remember quite well. It was a Ral Partha mini of an evil cleric in plate mail armor with a mace, shield, and backpack under a cloak. The helm had horns on it. I have never been able to find this mini again - but I would snap one up in a second if I found it.
First ever.... Ral Partha wizard @1980
First War game mini.... BattleTech Stalker @1988
First GW mini.... Box set of Squats I think it had 30 or so, @1990
Bolt of the blue, I was wrong earlier, I remembered what my first figures where. As it was the fact these existed that led me into wargamming, and I only got this thanks to the corrosponding book I read the previous summer.
Back in the dim and distant late 80s, my first minis purchase was Warhammer Fantasy Lords of Battle - 4 metal figs for £2.50 !! Painted them (badly) with Humbrol Enamels, yuk...
Got another couple of packs a week or so later, then some of the rogues & rangers packs. Moved on to Orcs and Goblins shortly after, the rest as they say is history...
Not sure if I still have them now, had a phase of selling old figs last year on eBay
Ah, my Necron Destroyer... I called him Buddy. He's rattling around somewhere, but I tend not to use him because his paint scheme is completely different to the rest of the army.
first minis, i guess, were the ones that came with the dragonstrike game i got for christmas back when i was a wee lad
first mini i bought and then painted was something from reaper
First wargaming mini was a Rifleman ripoff action figure.
First actual gaming mini (used for gaming, that is) was an AoBR nob some friend gifted me with, that I promptly Konverted into a KFF mek. I calls 'im Whizzitz, and he still leads my army.
Second mini was the Deffdredd I made out of a cardboard tube and a doorknob.
I am not 100% if these were my actual first ones, but this box was definitely among the first bunch of figures I ever got.
I knew I wanted them and I wanted them bad. I had a thing for skeletons and I guess I still have.
For some obscure reason, I sold them away. (I hardly ever sell anything for money. I prefer solid possessions over currency.) Would love to get these guys back again.
I don't have my first mini, which was a wizard that came with the introduction paint set. I still have the dragon on a pedestal that I got right after that. I use it as my chooser of the slain.
My first miniatures were some dungeon and dragon ones from early 80s. They were my cousins and I sort of had them handed down to me. I used to play with them alot. I didn't know anything about dungeons and dragons but it was fun to fool around with the miniatures. My favorite was a ninja with a spear. They were metal and some were painted. I wish I held on to them. I sold them for money so I could buy Magic cards when I got older. FAIL
First figure? Some Prince August swedish Caroleans. First GW was some imperial guard on jetbike*. Never got it together properly since it required some serious pinning, but it was damn cool!
Ah, Schaeffer, Grease Monkey, Shiv, Scope, Warrior Woman, Hero, Animal, Brains, Fingers, Rocket Girl, Ox and Demolition Man. You each had your own individual glorious weapons and rules back in 3rd edition.
I'm not really sure... It may have been skeletons (back in the days when there were just the "Undead" army, not TK and VC). In those days, the plastic minis was beige, so I didn't think I needed to paint them.
May also have been that bretonnian knight on foot with a hammer, but that one I painted better than the skellies:
I started gaming with the Star Wars RPG back in 1987, back then Games Workshop was the local store for buying RPGs. My first miniatures though would have been around 1989 with the purchase of Space Hulk.
I suppose the hero quest models were my actualy first models.
Actual games workshop modes I beleive was the old box of skeletons that had cavalry, warriors and chariots i think. They were like the detachment boxes you get now.
Once upon a time £5 got you a standard brush, 1 pot of chaos black, 1 pot of skull white, 1 pot of blood red and 1 pot of goblin green, 1 saurus warrior (5th edition) and an old monopose Chaos Warrior.
I'll try and get a photo later of the Saurus. The Chaos Warrior is long gone.
First ever? I found a mangled plastic army man while digging a hole in the backyard.
First legit mini for painting/wargaming? Can't say which, as my first wargaming purchase was AoBR. Don't even remember if I assembled a boy or tac marine first. First paintjobs were a trio of big shoota boys, though, so they're the closest to a definitive "first" I have.
Eldar Jetbike. As a kid I did some plastic models and then painted some ceramic pieces (where I first learned of drybrushing and washing!) I bought the jetbike on a whim, not knowing anything about Warhammer or Eldar or anything. I ended up spending the next year or so buying lots of cheap Ral Partha miniatures. I finally took the plunge into Warhammer 2nd edition about two years later, not really knowing the difference between any of the armies or even that Space Marines and Eldar were two different forces, and not understanding why Imperial Guard had a bunch of units from World War 2 but assuming there must be a rogue time machine involved.
I got a box of generic adventurer type figures in '85 for my 15th birthday, back in pre-Slotta base days when a single figure blister would set you back the vast sum of 60p! I believe the box cover was this -
Had loads of other minis that I can't remember (apart from some Undead Samurai which were the coolest thing. Ever.) 1st 40k minis were the Ork and Marine box sets released with RT and which I got cheap thanks to being runner up in a WD competition I then left my entire collection at the house of a friend of a friend, forgot them and never saw them again... :(
a blister of three space ork painboyz. From encounter games in cardiff - I remember going back there a while later when GW cardiff opened round the corner. Encounter games was selling buy one get two free on any blister! GW drove them out of business soon after
My first was a dwarf archer, I believe Ral Partha, from a small shop in Colchester, around '79. I think the elf below was second, and the weirdo next to him was probably my first SF mini, came on a weird little space scooter thingy.
Archroy wrote:I got a box of generic adventurer type figures in '85 for my 15th birthday, back in pre-Slotta base days when a single figure blister would set you back the vast sum of 60p! I believe the box cover was this -
Had loads of other minis that I can't remember (apart from some Undead Samurai which were the coolest thing. Ever.) 1st 40k minis were the Ork and Marine box sets released with RT and which I got cheap thanks to being runner up in a WD competition I then left my entire collection at the house of a friend of a friend, forgot them and never saw them again... :(
If we don't count MB Hero Quest, then my first minis were a blister of Eldar Rangers, 2nd edition 40k, when they came 4 in each blisters. I wanted to buy a blister of Swooping Hawks, but the hobby store didn't have any in stock. So I but the Rangers. I just wanted some Eldar
The blister included:
- badass ranger with two laspistols.
- standing ranger with shuriken pistol and "sniper needle rifle*".
- standing ranger aiming (and shooting when I made "pew pew") the needle rifle.
- standing sniper at ease.
* I don't know how it was called in English, this a literal translation of the name in Spanish at the time.
Erasoketa wrote:If we don't count MB Hero Quest, then my first minis were a blister of Eldar Rangers, 2nd edition 40k, when they came 4 in each blisters. I wanted to buy a blister of Swooping Hawks, but the hobby store didn't have any in stock. So I but the Rangers. I just wanted some Eldar
The blister included:
- badass ranger with two laspistols.
- standing ranger with shuriken pistol and "sniper needle rifle*".
- standing ranger aiming (and shooting when I made "pew pew") the needle rifle.
- standing sniper at ease.
* I don't know how it was called in English, this a literal translation of the name in Spanish at the time.
well It was def the 3rd edition GW paint set that had 5 tactical marines in it, purchased from HobbyTown in Ledgewood NJ(best store ever!no longer around ) those poor models are long gone, ...........thank god,they suffered,the paint job was terrible, they were followed by the cool catachan SGT with bolter and cigar and and two ST SGTS and two ST with hellguns. Still got the catachan SGT, he's about to get a fresh paint job
I can't remember exactly which model was first, but it was out of the AOBR set. Either a ork boy or space marine. That was the first kit I ever purchased.
EDIT: You know, I archive my SD cards occasionally, and turns out, going by the dates there, I did indeed purchase AOBR and then assemble and basecoat my orks first - September 2008 - they were not, in fact, the first miniatures I ever completed. They weren't even the second.
The first mini I ever completed, at least going by what I took pictures of (which is probably a reliable method) was a Necron Immortal, January 17 2009. The second mini I ever completed was a Space Marine Jump Chaplain, then a SM Librarian I gave to a friend. The Orks weren't done until March 6 09. Not sure why there was a 7 month space between buying AOBR and actually finishing some minis out of it, but the Necron was definitely first: it's not even based and man did I do a bad job on it.
Ahhh, my first figure is a sad tale of wasted youth, intellectual theft and a voyage through American-Asian pop and comic art from the 80s that spawned entire franchises of modern movies and comics! I can't say how nostalgic this really is for me. Hopefully you will enjoy the tale! Where a single figure ties it all together!
My first figure was a FASA BATTLETECH PHEONIX HAWK! I got it when I chose to go into a mall game store instead of a skate shop (in 6th grade). They were side by side and I found a metal model for a robot I had seen in a cartoon called ROBOTECH. It looked like this (but this is NOT mine):
Ironically these minis (and several others) were actually illegal copies of a Japanese design called a Valkyrie from Shoji Kawamori (a pinacle of comic art rivaling Stan Lee),
and was actually blatantly stolen from the Macross series. Here's some source art:
Amazingly the series ROBOTECH was actually a hack job edit of 3 animated series that a US company called Harmony Gold had welded into a single show after changing the scripts and dubbing 3 different completely unrelated Japanese Cartoons together. Considered by many to have been an egregious violation of artistic integrity.
Eventually they would sue for the rights and take all the Macross designs from the FASA Battletech property.
Today these minis are around but very rare and hard to find.
Additionally the series 'Macross', featuring the first transforming planes and the designs of Shoji Kawamori are the original concept that gave rise to the series Transformers! Though few people seem to remember or know.
Here is what the latest version of the Valkyries (a VF-25) essentially looks like today:
Ironically no one can make or sell miniatures, figures, models, comics or animation of these awesome designs in the US because Harmony Gold to this day defends a broad interpretation of the Macross copyright and keeps all the cool Asian stuff out of the US market unless they pay royalties. They even went as far as to claim their welded together titles are the TRUE story despite having done almost nothing with the property for the last 20 years while simultaneous Japanese story arcs have taken the story through at least 3 more variations of shows....
Ah well, that was my first model ever, so humble looking now. I have ALWAYS wished someone would make anime style mecha miniatures, but inexplicably, no one ever has...
Ah well, that was my first model ever, so humble looking now. I have ALWAYS wished someone would make anime style mecha miniatures, but inexplicably, no one ever has...
Surely Tau are modelled on Anime? They certainly look like alot of the Anime Mecha stuff I've seen in the past.
lord_blackfang wrote:WHFB 5th edition starter, awful monopose Brets vs Lizzies.
I remember when those were new. Everyone got excited because, although monopose, the infantry had two designs (and you could glue the Saurus arms at different angles) and we now had plastic cavalry! So this was something of a revolution at the time. Plus, Lizardmen were a new army (not counting the old Slann) and Bretonnians had vanished for a while prior to 5th edition.
I suppose green army men don't count so it would have to be my Box of RTBO1's ordered that and the rogue trade rule book from CRAZY IGOR'S discount games warehouse, 30 marines, the rulebook and the space marine paint set(9 paints, painting tray and painting guide) for a grand total of............$40 with shipping.
By the way those were three of my most favorite marines when they came out, I still use them today, nice pick. Although who really needed multi meltas in first ed!
Mine was one of the 'Learn to paint' Brettonian Archers which I believe were with the WHFB 5th or 6th ed paint sets. Still have it knocking around somewhere: i believe he stands in for my High elf archer champion.
I bought a pair of stealth suits when I was young. They were awesome but the tau codex let me down. I also thought they were robots, unfortunately they were little blue men.
My first miniature was a LRBT which I bought off my friend for $20. He was quitting guard and I wanted to play them so I bought it. I also later bought his battleforce for another $20.
He now wants to play DKOK and regrets giving me his russ.
First miniature model I ever bought was a Landraider. Fell in love with them playing Dawn of War. Landraiders are the whole reason I started playing Space Marines
Mine was an old Snakebite Boarboy, followed by some old metal Ork Boyz (I still have one of them) and a Deathskulls Warboss.
I then got the 2nd edition starter and started playing Blood Angels. I still have all of them.
I cant recall the exact miniature, or even it was produced by GW, but it was a bretonnian knight sort of model on a steed. The horse was plastic and the figure pewter. This was back during the second edition....long long time ago, before I was able to grow face hair
). It looked awful but I loved that mini with all of my heart.
well It was 
