Lord of the Rings - 1979 American Express style.

 

Back in 1979, American Express card holders got the chance to lay their hands on a pewter set of 12 Lord of the Rings miniatures. I don't have many details unfortunately, but was lucky enough to pick up a slightly worn set a few months back which has just arrived courtesy of a friend in the good old US of A.

The underside of each base was inscribed with name of the character in capitals followed by;

Limited Edition

Fine Pewter

authorized figurine from 

The Lord of The Rings ™

by J.R.R. Tolkien

©1979

Elan Merch, Inc.

The complete set.

Gandalf.

Frodo.

Sam.

Strider.

Boromir.

Gimli.

Legolas.

Saruman.

Galadriel.

Gollum.

Nazgul.

(note the unhappy broken axe)

Orc.

Unfortunately I have no more details regarding the sculptor or reason behind the choice of characters... surely the Fellowship should have been represented in full? Perchance it was the usual suit decisions...

The Certificate of Authenticity, presentation box and leaflet images have has been sent by a friend via old eBay auctions and are presented here for information only with all kudos to the original owner(s?). If anyone has them and can get the chance to scan them I would love to replace them.

Any more details? Please let me know!

All the best for now.

David

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Anton Derbilov, Strelets sculptor killed in action. The reality of war.

 

It's not often that I go to research a range of miniatures and find myself touched by the horrors of war however this has hit me with the repercussions and futility of war. Anton Derbilov was the sculptor for Strelets plastic figures until he moved on to his own family run company, Sirko Toys;

https://www.instagram.com/studio_sirkotoys/

There are more details of his passing here;

 https://gwaramedia.com/en/kharkiv-bids-farewell-to-fallen-soldier-and-sculptor-anton-derbilov/

An interview a month before he was killed;

https://gwaramedia.com/en/from-miniatures-creator-to-national-guard-soldier-story-of-anton-derbilov/

A lot of his work for Strelets is detailed here;

https://plasticsoldierreview.com/ManufacturerList.aspx?id=24

He also played banjo for 'Alcohol Ukelele' - worth a watch purely for the name alone...

https://www.youtube.com/c/AlcoholUkulele/videos

(image below off the internet on numerous sites)

RIP

I was attempting to research some miniatures I had picked up a few years back, carded '28mm' fantasy and a bunch of loose ones. The company name given was Strelec*R. Possibly nothing to do with Strelets at all of course and no link to Anton himself. The dwarves I passed to Kevan over at Stunties 

http://www.stunties.com/stunties/index.php?title=Strelets.R

and the 'Empire' types I passed on to a Frother's Unite colleague. I still have a few somewhere but came across this goblin card whilst, as usual, searching for something else.

A lot, if not all, of the miniatures were taken on by Alionas Minatures (website now defunct) and Lost Minis gives this detail;

Alionas Miniatures was owned by Elena Brodskaja and opened in 2001 as a painting service but soon added a large range of miniatures sculpted, mainly, by Igor Karpov and Evgeny Nifedov. They appear to have been out of business by 2009 when the website went dormant with it going offline sometime in 2018. At least 2 catalogs existed: 2005 and 2007; they were published in both book and CD format.

So... if anyone has any details of these please let me know!

enquiries@deartonyblair.com

Salute 1988 - the program!

 

I was perusing the first few years of Wargames Illustrated and came across this insert... nowadays Miniature Wargames has that honour of course. I don't think I was at this one although my memory recalls a coach trip to one Salute in either the late 80's or very early 90's. Thought I'd better scan it for posterity as South London Warlords seem to have removed previous Salute history off their website - please correct me if I'm wrong!

https://southlondonwarlords.co.uk/what-is-salute

And on to the show... scanned as decent quality jpgs so hopefully good enough. I should be there this year if I can find a cheap return train ticket as the current £75 is out of my budget... I might be living on the streets of London at this rate.

The joys of the last image, bearing in mind it was released in September 1987! Wonder if it will prove popular?

That's it for now... if by any chance you feel like contributing to my getting back from London you could donate via my Ko-Fi site...

https://ko-fi.com/davidwood

Much appreciated if you do as the Salute content will be on the blog! Previous Salute posts can be found via the tags on the right.

Until next time!

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Northern Militaire 1987

 

Somehow I have mislaid my programs for the earlier shows however, inadvertently came across this little one... no longer sponsored by Hinchliffe Models I assume, although I could be wrong. According to Roger Bigg via Facebook it was held at the 'Queen Elisabeth suite, Oldham town hall. The Mailed Fist WARGAMES Group were exhibiting there, as we did at all the Northern Militaires invited by the organiser Mr John Leigh'. 

I have many fond memories of the show including seeing the wonderful painted display at Poste Militaire and the (then) new 25mm Star Troopers range by Garrison Miniatures... tying in with a certain sci-fi film. My late father, god bless him, took me to my first one around 1975. I certainly have progs from then on (somewhere in the house) but it may have been the year before. If only I could go back in time and ask people to take lots of pics

Looking at the traders it's a sad indictment of the hobby with so many lost in time, like tears in the rain... 

A few more posts on the shows (amongst other things) here; http://www.deartonyblair.co.uk/search/label/Northern%20Militaire

Some enhanced pics from one of the 80's shows here;

https://thewargamingmegalomaniac.blogspot.com/2014/01/northen-militaire-1980s.html

As always; enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Grenadier Gamma World - Yexil - one more off the list.

 

I picked this one up a while back but just realised I hadn't posted it. G50 Yexil, one of the rarer Gamma World blister packs... a lot bigger than I'd imagined and, judging by the eBay images sent to me (all kudos to original owners who are unknown, posted here for the community), it stretched the blisters' ability to hold it! It was a great range that never came over here back in the day although the boxed sets did. I was fortunate to be gifted a pair of the boxes which helped immensely (thanks Joel!).

Good source for Gamma World information;

https://gammaworld.fandom.com/wiki/Yexil

It was quite a large and varied range (listing courtesy of Stuff of Legends);

G-01 Android Workers and Warriors

G-02 Human Adventurers 1

G-03 Human Adventurers 2

G-04 Grens, Woods People

G-05 Serfs, Mutant Men

G-06 Orlens, Mutant Men

G-07 Healers

G-08 Restorationalists

G-09 Knights of Purity

G-10 Knights, Mounted

G-11 Brotherhood of Thought

G-12 Seekers

G-13 Iron Society

G-14 Tribesmen Human

G-15 Barkskin Tribesmen

G-16 Mutant Tribesmen

G-17 Tribesmen Mutant #3

G-18 Woman Adventurers

G-19 Townspeople

G-20 Villagers

G-21 Power Armor Troops

G-22 Partial Armor

G-23 Arns and Blaash

G-24 Herps and Parns

G-25 Soul Besh and Cal Thens

G-26 Hissers

G-27 Kesshin and Sleeths

G-28 Menral and Blight

G-29 Arks and Wolfiods

G-30 Badders

G-31 Hoops

G-32 Centisteed

G-33 Brutorz & Rakox

G-34 Podogs

G-35 Robots 1

G-36 Robots 2

G-37 Robots Attack Borg

G-38 Ecology / Agricultural Robots

G-39 Engineering Bots

G-40 Transport / Lifter Bots

G-41 Warbot

G-42 Ground Cars

G-43 Intelligent Animals

G-44 Weapons Pack 1

G-45 Weapons Pack 2

G-46 Medical Pack

G-47 Mutant Do-It-Yourself 1

G-48 Mutant Do-It-Yourself 2

G-49 Mutant Do-It-Yourself 3

G-50 Yexil

G-51 Robot Tankettes 1

G-52 Robot Tankettes 2

Lots of images on Lost Minis (more needed please);

https://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Gamma_World_(Grenadier)

Some of the range was taken from the unofficial John Carter of Mars range, various, Red and Yellow Martians including a mounted one? The JC range is one that has never been listed unfortunately and remains one of my hobby holy grails (various pics on the blogs if you search on the tags). 

As always leave a comment or shoot me an email; enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk