Old Metal?!

No, I'm not talking about Judas Priest or Iron Maiden (although they probably did figure prominently in the lives of my fellow AD&Ders back ages ago), but old miniatures.  Specifically, I must admit I'm a bit nonplussed when it comes to nostalgia regarding minis.  I fully grasp why people collect old things in general, or why we yearn to play the older versions of D&D, why anyone would feel as though older D&D "has to" be played with old metal is utterly beyond me. 

Now I'm not suggesting that anyone should dump their own collection of lovingly painted critters and adventurers they've built up over the years.  No, what I mean exactly is: why is it that some folks I've spoken to think that just because a line of miniatures were released years ago that they're the "proper" minis to play AD&D with?

I have to confess something: I think the majority of Grenadier's minis were terrible.  I know - I have more than a few floating around the ol' Dungeon proper.  Minis with giant chunks of flash, poor sculpts and a tendency towards disproportionate heads is what I remember about Grenadier miniatures.  Lord knows we used them, but it's because it's mostly all we had.  Fans of Grenadier shouldn't take it that I'm targeting that company specifically - most of what was around from the 70's onward until about the mid 80's was junk.  Since '81 or '82 or thereabouts, miniatures have come in to their own.  The sculptors (many of whom were around then - I seem to recall a few mid-aged D&D miniatures with Sandra Garrity's name on the blister) have gotten much better; perhaps they now have better tools to work with or have just gotten overall better, but I'd much rather have a fighter or whatever from, say Reaper than spend a small fortune on eBay trying to track down one of the out-of-print early Ral Partha dragons.

At the risk of sounding like an advertisement, Reaper is pretty much exactly what I want to see in my AD&D minis.  Furthermore, they've got a decidedly old-school bent (no pun intended) to them.  Their Fire Giant mini looks almost exactly like Dave Trampier's illustration in the original Monster Manual!  Plus most of the major demon lords (with names changed for obvious reasons) have been released by reaper.  Even better, with a few exceptions Reaper has avoided the ridiculous "dungeonpunk" look that seems to be passing as "art" produced for d20 Fantasy by Wizards of the Coast. 

Ultimately, I just don't look back kindly upon the lumpy figurines of old.  In this one rare case, newer is better.

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