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Okay, so now I just helped someone move, and found a cigar box filled with old miniatures, and an old inquisitor model still in box
most of the models are pewter, unpainted, and from a company or game called "Ral Partha" which I have not a clue what it is
I do have some old GW ones with them as well, but I know what they are haha
they're all from 79 or 88, except the GWs and Inquisitor, those are 91s
If I could get some help determining if this was an amazing find, or if I just think it's an amazing find that would be swell haha

Pictures would help?

Once I officially get my hands on them, I plan of photo dumping, might take me a day or so though :(

Old minis aren't always worth tons, but to a collector they are gold. You can also make some great conversions out of early minis.

Ral Partha is a mini company.

Ral Partha was a really big mini company back in the '80s, specializing in 25mm minis for D&D and other RPGs. They're still around, just eclipsed by the behemoth that GW has become.

E-bay will give you a decent idea of what sort of prices they command.

Old minis are like anything else old. A tiny handful are worth a ton, some are worth a lot, most are worth a bit more than melt value.

The inquisitor ones are easiest to check for their value, if you have the rarer ones then they might be worth quite a bit.

The older things, well some are worth a great deal to collectors. But you have to know what you have, I recommend the Citadel Collectors Yahoo group for people who will offer a fair offer.

Vulcan wrote:Ral Partha was a really big mini company back in the '80s, specializing in 25mm minis for D&D and other RPGs. They're still around, just eclipsed by the behemoth that GW has become.

E-bay will give you a decent idea of what sort of prices they command.

No they arent still around they went out of business after losing the AD&D miniature license back in the late 90s. Another company (Iron Wind Metals) bought up a lot of their old molds and now sells them. Depending on what you have from the Ral Partha range you could have some stuff worth some pretty good money. Most likely not though as most of the stuff that is really worth the money is their AD&D range for which most of the miniatures that are really sought after were produced in the early and mid 90s.

Most likely the stuff you have is worth very little unfortunately. I can help you identify the Ral Partha stuff as I used to be a huge collector of their stuff.

I love my Ral Partha minis. That is a good find.

Polonius wrote:Old minis are like anything else old. A tiny handful are worth a ton, some are worth a lot, most are worth a bit more than melt value.

As Im finding out, since I recently started collecting OOP Warriors of Chaos minis. Some are $20+ each, some are cheaper than the shipping cost. I won an auction yesterday for 2.55 GBP ($3.93 US) and the shipping was 5 GBP ($7.71 US). Another Mini I got the same day was 9 GBP for just the mini. A few months back I got the old plastic WoC regiment, still new in the box, dont recall the price.

Vulcan wrote:Ral Partha was a really big mini company back in the '80s, specializing in 25mm minis for D&D and other RPGs. They're still around, just eclipsed by the behemoth that GW has become.

No, in Ral Partha's market, they are eclipsed by Reaper. Citadel stopped making minis for D&D long ago. Ral Partha maintained the D&D lines for a while, along with several historical and sci-fi lines.

I would like to see those minis too when you get a chance.

Concur. I'd like to see pics too!

Ral Partha was the gold standard for good sculpts in the fantasy market back in the 80s to early 90s (Grenadier was also big, but mostly not as good quality IMO), and have since been replaced by Reaper. Some other companies (including Reaper) are using some of the same sculptors (like Julie Guthrie) and even reproducing some of the good old sculpts.

RAL PARTHA is still around (RP Europe).
They also still carry and do the old Battletech line and others.

Iron Wind Metals picked up the US market and moulds.

For the look at the old catalogues, go here-

http://www.megaminis.com/

Grenader was the old old school "officially official ones, but there were tons of Ma and Pa shops out there that casted as well.

IIRC, Megaminis has a few different catalogues from different places. check them out.


P.S.

Please show a picture of those wonderful toys.


Almost forgot....


check here as well.

http://www.dndlead.com/Archive/Archive.htm


GL

Geez, how long does it take for me to get pictures of these things?
Unfortunately forever
I do however have them, there a quite a few, a lot of little dwarves
I'll post pics tomorrow morning but just to say, most are fantasy, some are more modern, they remind me of necromunda minis
the dates are 1979-1999 for the lot
I can't wait to get these pics up

Alright so here's a large group of dwarfs that I came by, all Ral Partha, all from '79
There's alot more, but this feels like a good start

Those minis are located here.

http://www.megaminis.com/MEGA/CATALOGS/RalPartha-CATALOG-1979.pdf

Some more of those old guys here, looks like a giant, a hippogryph, a knight, some cavalry, and a necromancer, cool looking models
Oh, and I think some old vampire counts warhammer fantasy models

Love that giant.