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so i have a question to ask . My grandfather passed away not to long ago but little did i know he was into Miniatures to ! . he left me 2 boxes i went to go pick them up and when i lifted the first one it was super heavy and same as the second . when i got home i opened them up . and i see about 300 Lead miniatures with a name one them Ral Partha ? .. dating all the way back to the 70's and a few other names could any one tell me wht these things are i mean i have huge giants and dragons and little horses and goblins i mean i have about 300 of the figures .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ral_Partha

Ral partha is a manufacturer, they still run in europe currentlly, they used to be to the best of my knowledge one of the leading fantasy miniature manufacturers before GW and were used manily for D&D

Do people Collect Them? still

Anything is collectible to someone, somewhere. Best bet is to do a search on ebay for some of the models you know or have identified. That will at least give you a general guideline as to what they are selling for.

I used to have a massive army of Ral Partha miniatures, that I used for playing the second edition AD&D Battlesystem game. Orcs, Goblins, Ogres, three kinds of giants, Trolls, Kobolds, Goblin wolf riders, Orcs on Wyverns, you name it. I stupidly sold them all for about half of what I paid for them, and they were all painted! Are the miniatures that you inherited painted?

no they are not

Personally I love Ral Partha minis, I originally got into the whole D&D table-top thing in the mid 80's, so the sculpts are a total blast from the past.

SpacePup1987 wrote:no they are not

Then it's time to get busy. Remember, washes and drybrushing, washes and drybrushing, and static grass.

Warpcrafter speaks the truth.l

http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/

From what I recall, Ral Partha are classic true 25mm models and will look quite small compared to many modern ranges. That being the case, it may well be worth keeping the collection intact as they all match each other.

Assuming you want to get rid of them rather than keep them, you are almost certainly better off selling the figures unpainted.

Don't listen to Killkrazy they deserve to be together ther is more to this world than capital gain.
(N offence intended Mr. K)

Mu wrote:Don't listen to Killkrazy they deserve to be together ther is more to this world than capital gain.
(N offence intended Mr. K)

Did you read all of my post?

I said it would be worth keeping them as a matched collection.

HRRRRRRNNNNNNG

Send them all to me now, they're lead so they're quite dangerous. I'll let you know if you should stick with them still.

lol

SpacePup1987 wrote:no they are not

Some are, if you have the right figures.

Don't forget, Ral Partha were closely linked with Citadel and many Partha miniatures were released by GW, some are highly collectible.

SpacePup1987 wrote:so i have a question to ask . My grandfather passed away not to long ago but little did i know he was into Miniatures to ! . he left me 2 boxes i went to go pick them up and when i lifted the first one it was super heavy and same as the second . when i got home i opened them up . and i see about 300 Lead miniatures with a name one them Ral Partha ? .. dating all the way back to the 70's and a few other names could any one tell me wht these things are i mean i have huge giants and dragons and little horses and goblins i mean i have about 300 of the figures .

Go here. Theres a few Ral Partha Catalogs that might have yours in them.

http://www.megaminis.com/0-MINI-MAG.htm

Defintiely take a look through the Ral Parthat catalogs at Megaminis and see what you have. Many Ral Partha figs were released in boxed sets or limited runs. So, whether your looking to sell or just catalog, so it's worth it to take the time to see what complete sets you might have. Did any of the figure sets come in set boxes? Those in particular might have some special value.

Whatever the case, it sounds like you've got quite an excellent collection from one of the pioneer companies of American fantasy figures.

Some of Ral Partha's stuff is still produced by Iron Wind Metals, but I doubt any of the really old stuff still is.

That is a LOT of lead though. Could make a nuclear shelter out of it...

Any old Battletech stuff sitting in there?

SpacePup1987 wrote: and a few other names could any one tell me wht these things are

Forgot to address this also, some other brands you might have include Minifigs, Grenadier, Metal Magic, denizen, Harlequinn, RAFM, Mithril, or Maurader, just to name a few. For ID'ing most of it, Dakka should be able to tell you what you have, but for some of the more obscure stuff, it's worth a trip to:

Stuff of Legends. Incomlete, with some dead links, but still a great catalog of dozens (possibly hundreds) of old minaiture brands.
http://www.solegends.com/maingallery.htm

The Miniatures Page.
Another forum (sorry) with alot of older gamers with a ton of knowledge about old figures. Great for finding the origin of unmarked figures.

MegaMiniatures, http://www.megaminis.com/0-MINI-MAG.htm has more PDFs of old catalogs than just Ral Partha. They've got some 15 other brands and a bunch of old miniatures guides, almost all for brands that have not been made for a decade or more. It's worth noting that some figures were not released for long, so even though there are multiple consecutive-year catalogs for some of the brands, it's worth downloading them all.

A useful address for identifying old Ral Partha minis:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tpope/sol/ral-partha/index.html

Thanks For all the help I have found some real Nice models !! and some very rare one's to . Again thank you so much

I to have a huge collection of Ral Partha figs, most of my fantasy army for WHFB is Ral Partha from the 70's to 80's and I still collect them. Most these days are used mini's but they are in my opinion best bargin if there free like yours. Lead is dangerous, so wash hands after handling the unpainted ones.

Pics? I'd be curious to see what this collection looks like.

Ral Partha was the first (large) miniatures company to switch to a lead free white metal alloy (they did it before GW) in response to a proposed ban on 'lead' in toys (that did not eventuate).

They called this alloy "Ralidium" (and it was as hard and as brittle as the alloy GW initially switched to when they went lead-free).

Hello,
Some of the old ones they produced are still being made, under a different name, (Dark Sword ex. http://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/miniatures/dark-sword-miniatures/elmore-masterworks/elmore-masterworks-set-6-6-miniatures.html ) (mainly listed by thier "artist" that the collection was derived from Eastly, Parkinson and the like). There used to be few series of them "Silk and Steel" and others that if you have comeplete sets especailly with the boxes and cards are worth alot to the old time players. One of the more contreversial sets was the slave auction one due to nudity, it is worth quite a bit as well. Nice find and good luck!

Regards,
Carl

Again:
Ral Partha is still existing and selling most of their miniatures under their original name:
http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/
No need to find obscure Iron Wind or Dark Sword sources.

If these models were from his Granpa and Ral Partha was from 70's/80's.
I'm 36 now and I was in my early teens when I got my Ral Partha minis
He would of been in his late 30's back then.
You Granpa was one of the original Beardies,rock on

Mattlov wrote:Some of Ral Partha's stuff is still produced by Iron Wind Metals, but I doubt any of the really old stuff still is.

Iron Wind Metals, is Ral Partha's US division. I believe they changed the name due to restructuring.