Ral Partha-Long OOP minis coming back for 50th anniversary

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**Kid_Kyoto**

This July will mark 50 years since the founding of Ral Partha Enterprises Inc.
As part of celebrating the anniversary, we will be rereleasing more of the original RP miniatures, that were created between 1975 and 1977.
Our hope is to rerelease the original RP Dwarves by the end of this month, the original Orcs in June, and a bunch of classic RP human characters in July itself. This will include the original iterations of the RP horses, and some of the weapons that were included with the open-handed figures at the time.
Many of these figures have never before been produced in lead-free pewter, and most have been out of production since about 1981.
The original RP Elves, a couple of the Humans, and original Goblins currently available can be found here:
https://ralparthalegacy.com/collections/sentinels

https://www.facebook.com/RalParthaLegacy

Now we're talking about state of the art 1975 miniatures here. I won't say "poorly molded piles of goo" but I know others will.

Still there may be some nostalgic value.

**Pariah Press**

I prefer to refer to them as “tiny, intricate jewels.” Tom Meier was (and is) a master of his craft. Obviously these are very different in style and technique than modern digital sculpts, and they aren’t all bangers, but as someone who’s fascinated by the history of our hobby, I’m very much looking forward to these releases.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

For me, part of the joy in such venerable sculpts is seeing how far the overall industry has come.

Are they basic? Sure. But everyone learns to crawl before they can walk, and walk before they can run.

Gets even more interesting when you compare across manufacturers, and you start to see a certain level of egging each other on, looking to one up each others skills.

**Sacredroach**

I remember fondly being 8 years old and at a HUGE flea market in Houston with my folks and a guy at a table had a small box of lead miniatures...$10 for the box.

Luckily my dad bought it for me, and it was my first experience with miniatures. I still have them and there were 18 Ral Partha, 11 Grenadier and a Dragontooth wizard.

They are all awful by today's standards, but they were pathfinders. Because of them I found Citadel/Marauder...which lead to GW...which lead to my unhealthy obsession with Mierce, Kingdom Death and Axis Mundi.

**Red Harvest**

Grenadier minis, and most certainly Minifigs, were poorly molded; Ral Partha minis were much higher quality. I still have at least one lying around, a frost giant? Yeah, this guy It's not up to what we have today, a simple one piece casting with the included base, but I've had it 46 years now. I think I'll keep it.

**Prometheum5**

Having been diving deep into Heritage minis and Grenadier fantasy stuff recently, some reissue Ral Partha stuff could be a lot of fun. There's some real classics in there, and I agree that RP was leagues ahead of their contemporaries in the US at the time.

**ced1106**

Put me in the "goo" category.

That said, I have some 1990's / 2000's Grenadier and Ral Parthat figures that are quite good even today. Ral Partha had a Crucible line with unusual sculpts that are hard to find equivalents for.

That that said

with Archon's hard plastic and low crowdfunding prices, I pretty much left metals.

**Ancestral Hamster**

I've quite a lot of Ral Partha, but I have only seen a few of those before. What I saw and purchased back then were better quality sculpts than what is being released as Legacy. Like the Tom Meier Elves that IronWind have kept in production.

So, despite having been alive back then, I do not have any nostalgia for "goo."

Side topic: It always amazes me when eBay sellers price early Citadel minis as if they were contemporary offerings. The reason there are lots of that unsold figure was it was crap by 80's standards and no one bought them then. Yet you expect people to buy them now at $85 when no one bought them when they were $1 in 1982!

**MarkNorfolk**

As someone who dabbled in the Prince August 'cast your own models' kits, my standard of 'poorly molded' is probably a lot more forgiving than others.

**Eilif**

This is good news. Obviously sculpting standards have improved since the 70s and 80s but Ral Partha is probably the company whose older minis compare most favorably to contemporary figures.

In more than a few cases the vintage Ral Partha figures are actually better sculpted than contemporary miniatures and what makes them appear more crude to less-discerning eyes is the smaller size, difference in style (including being reliably sculpted to be cast in a softer metal), less unnecessary filigree (compared tol today's overdone GW minis), and the fact that they are not as often seen painted with state of the art paint jobs.

**kronk**

I only have a few Ral Partha minis, like the dragon below. I mostly use Reaper Minis when we play DnD. However, I really like the Ral Partha old school look. I'll wait and see what they release. I will probably pick some up.