Top Ten Manufacturers Of 2016 - A "Fantorical" Viewpoint

The third article in my ongoing look back over the years at my favourite miniature manufacturers, this particular period interestingly precedes my utter obsession with “Doctor Who” and his adventures through Time and Space, and instead clearly demonstrates an almost unhealthy preoccupation with comic book super-heroes; both those created by “Marvel Worldwide” and “DC Comics”. In addition, I was just starting out with the then highly-controversial fantasy-based world of “Age Of Sigmar” by “Games Workshop”, and surprisingly popular “Frostgrave” by “North Star Military Figures”…

No.10 (Joint) - "Black Tree Design" - "Doctor Who"

Predominantly pigmented simply because Yeti were quick to paint and I needed some figures to post reasonably quickly, this horde of half a dozen abominable snowmen was actually the second such time I had finished an assortment of the Great Intelligence’s automatons, having previously painted a sizeable batch when the sculpts were originally produced by "Harlequin Miniatures". Bemusingly, I did later add the animated gargoyle Bok to my overall tally, but other than that “Black Tree Design” simply hit my radar through necessity/quantity as opposed to a desire to actually game with its models.

No.10 (Joint) – “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” - "7TV"

Building upon the back of a huge push during the previous year to paint up enough plant-infected humanoids with which to play a “Doctor Who And The Seeds Of Doom” flavoured game of “Zombicide”, as well as a similar desire to use “Guillotine Games” cooperative adventure board game to recreate Terry Nation’s world of “Blake’s Seven”, the only surprise concerning “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” was that more miniatures from its coffers weren’t finished during the year. Disappointingly, this was undoubtedly due to my “Doctor Who” game never being fully realised, and the “Blake’s Seven” campaign, which was actually using the original “Space Hulk” missions as a basis”, was brought to an abrupt halt after just a couple of battle reports.

No.8 - "Irregular Miniatures" - "Star Trek"

Featuring in the very first of my (Lead) Mountain Musings, a themed monthly attempt to try and reduce my backlog of unpainted lead, plastic and resin, this assortment of 6mm spaceships were predominantly posted during the month of September, and whilst the reimagined “Star Trek” vessels have never seen any actual tabletop action, the likes of ten tiny Blitzspear Class Corvettes (Romulan Raiders) and Perry Class Frigates (Soyuz-class Federation starships) still managed to leave a lasting mark upon my annual painting tally. Indeed, not only did this mini-project take on a life of its own as my initially modest ‘Federation Starfleet’ quickly dwarfed that of the ‘Romulan Star Empire’, but “Irregular Miniatures” Kitakami Class Tug (U.S.S. Enterprise) was voted my Eighth most popular model of 2016 by Dick Garrison in his annual Top Ten Miniatures - A "Rantings From Under The Wargames Table" Viewpoint post.

No.7 - "Mongoose Publishing" - "Judge Dredd"

For any pledgers badly burnt by the “Judge Dredd Miniatures Game” “Kickstarter” run by “Mongoose Publishing” in September 2012, my participation in Zomtober 2016 was doubtless something of a sore point, as I showcased several of the Undead models financed by that particular farcically-run crowd-funder. However, despite predominantly utilising the plastic torsos of “Mantic Games” zombie sculpts, there is no doubting just how strongly these figures sparked my imagination for the Undead denizens of Mega-City One, and I even went so far as to personally contact ‘Mongoose Matt’ in order to secure supposedly the last of his Zombie Judge figures.

No.6 (Joint) – “Pulp Figures” – “Weird Menace - The Strange Villainy of Pulpdom"

Despite having previously pigmented Bob Murch’s marvellous Boys In Blue collection some twelve months earlier, there can be no doubt that the motivation behind painting this particular batch of sinisterly-robed goons was entirely due a need to safely reach my target tally in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge rather than wanting to progress any actual opposition for my characterful cops. However, that didn’t stop me undertaking a simple conversion so that at least one of the fearsome figures would be better armed with a rifle (as opposed to a lantern) should their diabolical machinations ever be interrupted by the law.

No.6 (Joint) – “Warlord Games” – “Doctor Who”

This ‘handful’ of “Doctor Who” figures initially caught my eye due to representing characters from “Nu Who” as opposed to the classic BBC Science Fiction Television programme, and resultantly helped me overcome my initial scepticism concerning both their significantly larger 32mm scale and my somewhat negative perception that the Nottingham-based producer was behind a number of other popular casters receiving ‘cease & desist’ orders for their ‘not-Who’ models. In addition, the re-booted Zygons were an absolute joy to paint, despite depicting the somewhat contentious ‘official’ paint-job of blackened hands/feet, and quickly became one of my favourite factions to field whilst playing  the “Doctor Who: Exterminate!” tabletop game.

No.4 – “North Star Military Figures” – “Frostgrave”

Arguably the successor to the old “Games Workshop” skirmish game “Mordheim”, I was ultimately somewhat disappointed by the sheer brutality of combat within Joseph A. McCullough’s rule-set, and as a result found my desire to continue playing “Frostgrave” rather fleeting. However, that dissatisfaction didn’t set in until after I had finished painting both an entire warband with alternative Mage and Apprentice, and a sizeable menagerie of animals. In fact, towards the end of my time exploring the frozen ruins of Felstad I even started trying to progress enough hard plastic skeletons so as to play the skirmish game’s Mausoleum scenario.

No.3 – “Reaper Miniatures” – “Chronoscope”

Churned out like so many cans on a food factory production line so as to provide me with a plethora of points for the Sixth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, this assembly of automatons actually proved much more time-consuming that initially envisaged due to both the need to pin several of their stick-thin limbs in place and my concern that any heavy-handed dry-brushing would actually result in a breakage. Fortunately, despite these fears, I actually managed to paint a staggering sixteen of the Cyber-Reavers up, plus finish the second member of a travelling party I planned to have wander the post-apocalyptic wasteland of “Gamma World”.

No.2 – “Games Workshop” – “Age Of Sigmar”

Definitely something of a fantasy gaming revelation for me, “Age Of Sigmar” firmly took me by the scruff of the neck and before long had me producing Plaguebearers like the puss-filled daemons were going to go out of fashion. Not only did this “successor to the discontinued… Warhammer” capture my imagination enough to paint a plethora of the Chaos Gods’ finest, ranging from the diminutive Nurglings, to monstrous Beast of Nurgle, but it additionally encouraged me to complete a whopping ten-strong unit of Bloodletters as well. In fact, I probably haven’t felt quite so strong a motivation to be able to field a fully-finished faction since I worked on both a British and German force for “Secrets Of The Third Reich” by “West Wind Productions” in 2014.

No.1 – “Wizkids” – “Heroclix”

By far and away the most popular genre, these pre-painted plastic superheroes dominated my hobby table, starting with a quantity of readily re-painted OMAC robots for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and ending with the far more time-consuming stars and stripes of Captain America. In between times I also managed to whittle my way through an entire nine-strong swarm of “Horrorclix” Aliens, a ten-man squad of U-Men, and five members of “DC Comics” Metal Men, as well as converting a few of the New Jersey-based company’s Lackey figures into the bobble-hat wearing minions of Mister Freeze during the annual “Forgotten Heroes” challenge.