Monday, 25 February 2013

Raiders of the Lost Adverts: Chaos Sorcerers and their Famous Familiars

Colour schemes aplenty here. How many have you got?
You've got to love these models, haven't you? Its the final full colour advert that I could find in the ancient magazines I have in my collection. Again, this ad is from 1986, though most of these models were designed and sculpted in 1985.

The chaos sorcerers are a varied bunch, as the catalogue entry below illustrates, with nearly every sculptor working in the studio in the mid 80s contributing a model or two. Subsequently, the sculpts vary in quality and design. Jes Goodwin's hand can be clearly seen here, with many of the more superior models being designed by him, but there are a few gems hidden here and there from other designers. A few years ago, GW released four rather strangely chosen examples for its collector's range.

Solegends has extensive research material about this range. See below.



The Famous Familiars (or Chaos Familiars, as they are also known) were the work of Jes Goodwin alone and must rank up there in the top ten of the releases put out by Citadel in the 1980s. They are so varied, imaginative and fun that even modern GW realised their potential and re-released them in white metal, though sadly not all of them. I have particularly happy memories of Lune, the moonheaded familiar, as my dad painted him for me when I was about 10. 


I am hoping to see one or two of these models among the warbands heading to the Oldhammer Weekender at the Foundry in August.If your up for it and are unsure which models to bid on, then I hope that this article makes good reference.

So then, are you a fan of these old school sorcerers and familiars? How many have you got? Which ones do you still need? I'm missing the tiny versions of Khorne, Tzeentch and Slannesh and daemonet 2

Orlygg.
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8 comments:

  1. Jason Fulford25 February 2013 at 09:59

    I think the chaos god familiars were nicked from Epic W40K but can't be certain I may be wrong

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    1. Orlygg25 February 2013 at 10:13

      Yes, I think it was for Space Marine, second edition if I remember right.

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  2. Davey25 February 2013 at 09:59

    I think I only have Jack O' Lantern. Not sure where the others have got to. All those Chaos Sorcerers look amazing - I quite fancy one of those.

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    1. Orlygg25 February 2013 at 10:15

      I still cannot fathom why some of these models, and others, are not re-released. The sheer quality of some of these sculpts is easily on par, if not exceeding, the quality of design of more recent models.

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  3. Suber25 February 2013 at 11:02

    They are utterly lovely, all of them. The charm they instill is wonderful and dificultly achieved agai, if ever.

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  4. Springinsfeld25 February 2013 at 11:08

    The weirdest thing, I got home tonight and dug out some old WD's and was looking at this very advert before logging on. I have got about 5 of the sorcerers (always wanted Mad Jakkle, but never found him), but more of the familiars as I bought quite a few for 15mm HOTT armies. I think my favourite is Mystery Imp.

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  5. Fulgrim25 February 2013 at 14:40

    I love these miniatures - some serious classics in here. I managed to pick up a lot of the ones I wanted whilst you could still buy bitz from GW (and they were still available). I always wanted to try and get my hands on Maalica Iron Hoof and Hess Poison Breath, though, but they evaded me.

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  6. Leadpest25 February 2013 at 15:19

    The ironclad imp is in the Slaaneshi warband I'm currently building. Gotsta love that mini! I'm just going to use him as a normal chaos warrior who's attracted the eye of the gods in some way and been promptly shrunk!

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