Fantasy adventurers and White Dwarf Personalities attack the Gazebo

In 1982 Citadel was producing 'preslotta' figures in a line called fantasy adventurers for PCs and fiend factory for baddies.  Everything was totally geared towards role playing, because at that time GW was an importer of Dungeons and Dragons.  The idea that wargames with rules that require lots of figures sells lots of figures had not yet dawned.

I picked up a few figs from the line that I fancied, and quickly realised that they where not as bad as I first thought, and many had oodles of charm.  Whilst the fiend factory floundered around with dodgy looking monsters, fantasy adventurers was scoring home run after home run.

FA18-2 Female Cleric with Mace

This figure, apart from the bug eyes (which as you can see I am having trouble getting to look natural) has oodles of character and is, as you can see, just perfect for classic old school dungeon bashes.  You may also note that the character carries two crude wooden crucifixes.  Christian uproar against D&D was hitting a peak at this point, and shortly after the crucifix was replaced by an Anhk... most famously in the dungeon starter set, which not only was released with the crucifix holding priest replaced by one with an ahnk, but the box art was crudely adjusted too!  Good luck finding those collectors items!

Anyway, at this point in history, GW was totally down with JC, he even appears on the shields of some of the paladins of this era.  Speaking of which...

Paladins, Lawful knights and Clerics.  Gain Hymn attack +3.

These are a few work in progress pics of whats floating around my painting table.

Goodly Knight of Law, and converted paladin

The figure on the right (neither are finished) had his crucifix removed and smoothed to allow me to paint a design upon it.  I chose a naked depiction of justice, as I pictured the character as a black knight who does the right things, but in wrong ways.  I replaced his tonsure with a Brian Blessed beard and hair.  The sword is from Reaper weapons packs (which I always think are expensive but damn it, they are so convenient that it pays for itself in no time).

Anyway, I am having a blast collecting and restoring this range, though I am in no hurry... the set is quite extensive and having a resurgence in popularity on ebay.  If you have some tucked away, now is a good time to sell.  Especially to me.  You at least get to see pictures of them here, right?

White Dwarf Personalities boxed set (and doubles)

Speaking of ebay, you know those bidding wars that go crazy, then, for no reason at all, another identical item pops up like a few days later and no one bids... well... this is my lucky strike right here.  The two figures to the left are GW founder, Eidos owner (Lara cha-ching Croft) and writer of Fighting Fantasy books- Ian Livingstone himself.  The goblin and his mate need no introduction I am sure.  Well, after months of trying to track down the set bit by bit, watching bidding wars go crazy over two of the figures, I landed a whole mint condition, never painted box of the buggers for small change.  Go figure.  These need neutralizing, polishing and priming ASAP, after many years in a cardboard box, lead rot is a threat here.  Right down the front you can see The original White Dwarf himself.

Just goes to show you bargains do slip through the net.

Oh yes, I will be flogging off my cleaned and doubles of these soon on Ebay.  I will post when.