Afridhi Queen Miniature is Mine!

As I reported back in January, the miniatures made by Lance & Laser for the Dave Arneson's Blackmoor line are now once again available from Armorcast! I recieved my first batch of miniatures a few days ago and they are awesome!

The piece I really wanted to get was the miniature of Toska Rusa, the Afridhi Queen. Sculpted by Kevin Contos, this miniature was originally only a limited print item so I was pretty excited about picking it up.

Along with this miniature, I also got the Thouls, Afridhi Scouts, and I also picked up a miniature called Frogman Scout, which although I cannot confirm that it was originally part of the Blackmoor line, it just felt like it would feel very well at home in Dave Arneson's Temple of the Frog! 

For some reason I always imagined the Afridhi to look more middle eastern or asian rather than the "human-sized Frost Giant" types that these miniatures look like, but they are based on how they were presented in the D20 Blackmoor line so I cannot really complain about that. The Thouls look a little big (labelled Half-Trolls), but very nice with the archer one somewhat resembling the Thoul from the Mystara Monstrous Compendium Appenix. 

In any case I am happy about having these in my collection and will be getting the rest of the line as soon as I can :)

-Havard

Toska Rusa Miniature Available!

As I reported a few weeks back, the Blackmoor miniatures are back! ArmorcastDLL is not allowed to use the Blackmoor Trademark names, but these miniatures are still the same ones that Lance & Laser made during the Zeitgest Games Era of Blackmoor products. Even more exciting, this includes the limited edition Toska Rusa miniature that apparently Lance & Laser never got around to making! Toska Rusa is of course as most of you will know, the queen of the Afridhi, detailed in DA4 The Duchy of Ten.

Best news of all, these miniatures are all available now! As Glenn from Armorcast writes:

 The minis are all up in the webstore. I have found three minis that were late releases and the limited miniature. The Frogmen set was one of the last to be listed, the evil sorceress was the limited miniature and the casting sorceress was the regular production variant, that was never released. Are all available here at www.armorcast.com under Lance and Laser miniatures.

I know that Armorcast will have one new customer for sure. How about the rest of you? Visit Armorcast's website now.

More details on which miniatures you need to get here.


-Havard

Blackmoor Miniatures Return in 2013!

When Dave Arneson's company Zeitgeist Games announced that they were relauncing Blackmoor back in 2003, the company Lance & Laser obtained the lisence to produce miniatures for the setting. The miniature line included Ash Goblins, Beastmen, Afridhi, Thouls and other classic Blackmoor creatures. I posted more pictures and details about these miniatures in this blog article.

Now the old Dave Arneson miniatures are due to return thanks to Armorcast LL:

"All of the old Arneson Select molds and masters have been purchased by Armorcast at www.armorcast.com. The miniatures will be re-released during the first quarter of 2013.
 -Steve aka Ginfritter VP Armorcast LLC"

This could be my chance to finally get my own Blackmoor miniatures! :)


-Havard

A Miniature of Dave Arneson

Some people get a statue in their honor. How should we best commemorate Dave Arneson? At the Maritime Mayhem event back in April, some of the attendees were discussing the matter with Dave's Daughter, Malia Arneson Weinhagen .

The idea of erecting a statue in Dave's memory might not have been something this modest man would have been comfortable with, Jeff Berry stated afterwards:

"we all agreed that if somebody had suggested this idea to Dave, he would have laughed his head off and very kindly told you that you needed to go soak your head in a bucket of water as your brain was obviously overheating; statues in the town square seemed silly to him. "

If not a statue, then what kind of a token could be made so that Arneson's many fans could remember him? Jeff continues:

I thought that running games for people to have fun with and at would be a more fitting tribute, and Malia [Arneson Weinhagen] agreed with me as she watched the mayhem and happiness unfold around the game table. We also talked about a Dave Arneson figure for people to have for games, and I'm going to see what I can do about that. Glasses, beard, and that Cheshire Cat grin; what more do you want in a wandering monster, eh?

 A miniature then, in the shape of the game designer himself to be used on every gaming table? This is something I would love to get my hands on.


(The fake miniature illustration was made using the software on this site) 



-Havard 

The Blackmoor Miniatures

Dave Arneson enjoyed using miniatures for his game. However it wasn't untill after 2003 that a line of Blackmoor Miniatures were produced. They were manufactured by Lance & Laser Miniatures and included the following:

The above are three Afridhi Warriors. They are pretty much in line with the way the Afridhi were depicted in the ZG material. I always imagined them to be more exotic though, more Persian or perhaps even African. The models are nice, but they look more like man-sized Fire Giants. Which may have been the idea.

The models above are Ash Goblins. This is a race that was introduced in the D20 Dave Arneson's Blackmoor Sourcebook. They are goblins that have been exposed to the effects of the Valley of the Ancients (Radiation?), mutating with horns and other strange features.

Next models up (above) are Ash Goblin Wolf Riders. I guess they can be pretty menacing when charging down from the Dragon Hills...

These three models are Beastmen. If I remember correctly, these models cam with loads of different beastial heads so that you could mix and match bodies and heads. Beastmen were introduced to the Blackmoor mythos through Mystara. In the Mystara version, there are no Orcs in the Blackmoorian Age, just Beastmen. Beastmen were also included in the D20 Sourcebook, though the D20 line also has Orcs. 

The final models are Thouls. A classic Monster that appeared in OD&D and Classic D&D. In other additions, Thouls were associated with the Mystara line, appearing in the Mystara Monsterous Appendix and appeared under the Mystara logo in 3E conversions. 

One other miniature was also produced. It was a limited edition miniature of Toska Rusa. If anyone has pictures of this miniature, I would very much like to see them! Also, I don't own any of the miniatures above. Lane & Laser seems to have disappeared so I have no idea where I can get these. Ebay perhaps?



-Havard

A MINIATURE OF ME?

I will try not to become too self-centered in this blog, but reading Badelaire's blog entry about Havard the Dwarf Warrior put a smile on my face amidst all these bad news about Blackmoor. I hope the young Dwarf makes it to Blackmoor one day, maybe dropping by Mount Uberstar. I know he would be happy there!











Havard