Oldhammer: Eternal Champion

I still remember the time when I first starting buying wargaming miniatures. This was during the late 80s, when Warhammer 3rd edition was published. For me, this was my main vehicle for acquiring new wargaming stuff, and naturally, I was drawn heavily into the Citadel range of figures. I sort of knew other figure ranges were available, but I only moved into historicals around 1997. For me, Games Workshop was my entry point into miniature wargaming, due to its availability, but also because the tone and nature of the games that came out of Nottingham during that period struck a certain chord with a geek still at university. (For the record, I started with wargaming much sooner than that, but during high school, was mostly involved with board wargames such as those from Avalon Hill, SPI or International Team).

Anyway, I never gave away or threw out any of my Citadel miniatures. After 25 years, they not only hold a nostalgic spot in my gaming experiences and they much defined my early miniature gaming, but I still use them! Our Scifi Antares campaign features Mark6 Space Marines (beakies!), and I still have dozens of unpainted Citadel miniatures lying around. These days, they are becoming fashionable again -- cfr. Oldhammer.

Browsing through old catalogues, I sometimes regret that I didn't buy more of those classic Citadel miniatures from the 80s. That's why now and then, one gets lucky. Looking on a 2nd-handsite, I suddenly discovered someone who was selling the boxed set "Eternal Champion". Not only were the figures unpainted, but still in the original (opened) box. A real treasure - also because Moorcock's Elric stories inspired much of the Realm of Chaos backstory back in the day.

I even drove to the seller's house, to make sure I picked up the figures myself and they wouldn't get lost in the post.

I know that the Elric range of Citadel figures was much more extensive than just this box (see this page on the Collecting Citadel Miniatures wiki), but it is a start. When collecting old figures, I have learned that one must be patient!