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Hi there,
I need for an university study names about brands gone bankrupt.
So I wondered if there are some miniature's brands that gone bankrupt (They don't product anymore).
So here's the question: Do you know some of them?

Armorcast?

Praxiss wrote:Armorcast?

Changed hands, I believe, but still in business.

Games workshop?

Balance wrote:

Praxiss wrote:Armorcast?

Changed hands, I believe, but still in business.

And therin may lie the OP's problem. Quite often, miniatures producers that wish to leave the business for whatever reason don't just declare bankruptcy and fold up shop. Quite often, they see the writing on the wall (poor sales, long hours etc) and sell out to another, or a larger producer. Just a few examples I can think of off the top of my head.

Armorcast (as mentioned) was taken over by Ginfritter of Ginfritter's Gnomish Worksop.

Shock Force and Alpha Forge both ceased operation and were purchased by John Lauk of MegaMinis. He in turn is cutting back on his time in the business and has started to sell of the molds for some of his even older stuff.

At one point Bob Olley of Olley's armies decided he needed a break and closed the shop, selling a lot of the earlier Scrunt molds (which are still not in production as far as I know) but has since reopened and released new batches of space Dwarves.

Bolt Action closed up shop with the figures moving to Warlord Games.

I do not actually recall any minis companies off the top of my head that filed for bankruptcy. Most just changed hands. It's an interesting aspect of the hobby that most of the manufacturers are also gamers, and like the rest of us they hate to see a line end.

I hope the OP might be able to glean some useful info out of this.

Dan

Rackham declared bankruptcy as far as I remember. Their story is rather long.

I think Rackham actually went through bankruptcy & had it's assets sold off.

Both Bastion and Wargames Factory have recently undergone radical changes in ownership due to financial issues.

http://www.purplepawn.com/2010/03/the-convoluted-story-of-iron-wind-metals-ral-partha-and-battletech-miniatures/
Here is a twisting tail from the miniature business. Probably a much more common story than actual bankruptcy.

Here's a few

Warzone
Void (Ikore)
The Figure Trading Company (did mainly terrain)
Rackham (AT-43, Confrontation)
Starship Troopers (Mongoose Games)

2 Questions, just to clarify.

1) Are you looking for "Brands" or Companies?

2)Are you specifically looking for cases of bankrupcy or simply companies that have ceased operations?

Kyrolon wrote:
Shock Force and Alpha Forge both ceased operation and were purchased by John Lauk of MegaMinis. He in turn is cutting back on his time in the business and has started to sell of the molds for some of his even older stuff.

For Shock Force, the companies involved were "Demonblade" and "XB9" Games. For Shock force, Mega only has the rights to Shockforce figures (not the rules, or the GWAR figures), whereas for ALphaforge, they seem to have acquired the rights to figures and rules.

Tazok wrote:
Warzone

For Warzone and Chronopia, the Companies were "Heartbreaker" "Target Games" "Paradox" and Later "Excelsior Entertainment" (spelling?) All of which are now defunct IIRC. Heartbreaker also had other Fantasy lines

Tazok wrote:
Starship Troopers (Mongoose Games)

Mongoose still exists even though they no longer make Starship Troopers. http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/

Some more fairly well known companies now deceased.

-FASA, producer of Battletech, Shadowrun and other notable properties

-West End games, which had RPG's as well as several figure lines including 25mm Star Wars/

-Metal Magic (spacelords, fantasy, etc) went away and it's figs were bought by several companies. It was a section of "Hobby Products" which I believe is no longer in existance.

-Grenadier Miniatures, makers of Kill Zone miniatures and alot of classic fantasy stuff.

-Global Games made "Legions of Steel" and is now defunct.

Other lesser known classic lines that have gone away. Check the Megaminis "minimag" page for more info on thse companies. http://www.megaminis.com/0-MINI-MAG.htm
-Grim Reaper
-Dragon Tooth
-Dark Horse
-Viking FOrge
-Martian Metals
-Midgard
-Heritage
-Dark Horse
-Gold Ring
-Archive

And there are probably many, many more.

Most of these things change hands I imagine.

What happened to Harlequin Miniatures? I know Blacktree have the moulds but that's not the same thing.

You best bet for a good study is TSR because there's bound to be information on that. Then there are other games companies like Decipher which apparently still exist but are a nothing but a shadow of what they once were.

I think Harlequin minis is gone. They've defnitely hit the bargain bin in most of the shops I've seen them in.

TSR, FASA and Possibly West End Games would be good candidates for companies about which a fair amount is known.

I'd also do some searching over at The Miniatures Page. There's alot of obscure info about old miniatures companies there.

Ral Partha, although the line was picked up by Iron Wind.

Fantasy Forge - stuff still available from Scotia Grendel.
(company went under, moulds purchased by other company).

Target games (Warzone minis) - still available through Prince August minis (as above).

Ral Partha - minis still available through Ral Partha Europe and Iron Wind Metals.

Gitkikka wrote:Ral Partha, although the line was picked up by Iron Wind.

To illusustrate to the OP how complex it is to identify whether a company is around or not:
(Information subject to deterioration of brain cells.)

FASA and the owner of Zocci Distribution basically bought Ral Partha from the 5 original owners.

They then put Bob Watts and Chris Bledsoe in charge of the new company. Bob had started Heartbreaker, but lost control of it over the years in the merge with Target games. (When Target went bankrupt, Excelsior bought the rights and molds. ) Bob Watts had worked for GW and Grenadier. Heartbreaker had some relationships with Grim Reaper and Grendel Miniatures. Chris had worked for Bob at Heartbreaker, and later headed up RP after Bob left for WOTC. Bob then formed Sabertooth Games, which got bought by GW, and now works for Privateer in Europe.

Back to Ral Partha, they went along for about 2 more years making several lines of figures, the last of which was for the Fasa produced Vor game that went over horribly. FASA bought out Zocci for some amount of FASA/RP merchandise to be delivered later. (No clue if ever delivered). Zocci distributing closed doors at some point. FASA then basically stuck RP with all the production bills, kept the cash from sales, bankrupted RP. FASA goes bankrup, and the owners son forms Wizkids. Some of the workers at RP formed Iron Wind Metals, purchesed miniature rights, the molds, and casting equipment. IWM still produces many of the things RP used to do 20 years ago.

So in some ways RP is still around, as some of the miniatures still get produced. In other ways it's bankrupt and gone for years.

Citing your sources for your paper won't be a bitch at all!!

Medusa Game co. was bought from the creators of D.U.S.T Tactics .....if any of you know what that is........

TSR was bought by WotC which was then bought by Hasbro, correct?

I think FASA did some sort of weird 'graceful shut down' as the owners decided to call it a day. MS got the video game rights, the rest were sold off. I don't think it was technically a bankruptcy.

The big problem with this, I'd guess, is how many small gaming companies are privately held and not subject to filing shareholder reports like publicly held companies.

Avalon Hill

GDW

TSR

FASA

Ral Partha

Grenader

93 Game Studio ( Twilight 2000 Remake)

Eden ( on again, off again.- don't know as of now.)

West End Games

Milton Bradley

Avalon Hill - Bought by Hasbro, board games spun into Computer games, now getting some games back into print.

TSR - Bought up by Wizards of the Coast, still a valuble brand.

FASA - Closed, but parts spun off

Grenadier - Closed, no bankruptcy that I heard of.


Eden - Still operating.

West End Games - no clue, but last I heard they were in a weird sort of limbo, having been bought up but not doing much

Milton Bradley - Still in operation. Did almost go bankrupt in 1941

mikhaila wrote:TSR - Bought up by Wizards of the Coast, still a valuble brand.

Although they stopped using the TSR logo after a few years.

I'm not sure that many of these companies went bankrupt as such but they always get bought out and all their IP and physical materials change hands. TSR was finished when WotC took over, so does that count for the purposes of this essay?

As someone said earlier, referencing this will be almost impossible. What's he going to say? - Mikhaila (2011) Dakkadakka; pers comms.

Can anyone remember the name of the company that did a fantasy line of elves in a red & gold colour scheme? I know that's extremely vague but I remember looking at their website about 10 years ago. Did they go bankrupt?

Skarwael wrote:Can anyone remember the name of the company that did a fantasy line of elves in a red & gold colour scheme? I know that's extremely vague but I remember looking at their website about 10 years ago. Did they go bankrupt?

If you are referring to Ilyad games yes...

They had 2 ranges :

- Chroniques de la lune noir
- Retour des Dieux

Howard A Treesong wrote:

mikhaila wrote:TSR - Bought up by Wizards of the Coast, still a valuble brand.

Although they stopped using the TSR logo after a few years.

I'm not sure that many of these companies went bankrupt as such but they always get bought out and all their IP and physical materials change hands. TSR was finished when WotC took over, so does that count for the purposes of this essay?

As someone said earlier, referencing this will be almost impossible. What's he going to say? - Mikhaila (2011) Dakkadakka; pers comms.

Yep, going to take a lot of digging for source material. With TSR you have the big white HC book that documented 30 years of the company. Good reading. Bankruptcies my be on file for some companies. Purchases and aquisitions are tougher. Anything from the internet is pretty much heresay. While stuff in this thread is good for hints of where to search, it's not good material for a paper in and of itself.

Airfix went into recievership a few years ago.

Balance wrote:
I think FASA did some sort of weird 'graceful shut down' as the owners decided to call it a day. MS got the video game rights, the rest were sold off. I don't think it was technically a bankruptcy.

Mort wanted to retire and Jordan wanted to do something different (started WizKids). Stuff was spun off (Catalyst Games does BatteTech and others), but I think Most/Jordan still get royalties from the FASA IP.

Tim


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Balance wrote:

Praxiss wrote:Armorcast?

Changed hands, I believe, but still in business.

I sold Armorcast in 2007, but it is still very much in buisness. I have noticed that Armorcast has been picking up smaller brands/lines, presumably from people who don't want to continue making the stuff and adding them to their product lines.
As others have said, sale/transfer of assets is a more likely scenario for smaller companies than bankruptcy. Smaller companies are not as likely to have huge debts that would force a bankruptcy.

Tim

Jordan is putting a new game out that is rather reminiscent of "crimson skies" - it's a steam-punkish air combat game is all I know about it.

It will be released by Wizkids, afaik.