Saturday 19 March 2016

Original Astrogranite?




I have always been rather puzzled by this initial shot of the famous 'astrogranite' Bloodbowl pitch which arrived with the second edition of the game. It doesn't look right does it? There is something different about the pitch seen here and the one we all played on for so many years thereafter.

Strange, isn't it?

The image above is taken from White Dwarf 101 and in many ways that edition of the magazine served as a 'launch issue' for the game. The iconic '80s artwork adorned the front cover of the mag, just like it did the big box, and inside the pages were a number of irreverent articles in support of the new game. 

I have already mentioned the 'Big Box' era of games and Bloodbowl was the very first. I find it hard to explain to younger gamers how exciting this period of GW history was. Everything was new... you were never really sure what was around the corner. Sadly, the last 25 years or so has not really been about innovation but repetition, and many have taken it for granted that such a wealth (in production or not) of GW games existed! 

Think about it! Bloodbowl, Dark Future, Space Marine, Adeptus Titanicus. Advanced Space Crusade, Advanced Heroquest.... The games seemed endless. And the excitement of purchasing one of these games was incredible. The weight of the box. That smell that opening the lid for the first time unleashed. The joy of seeing row upon row of mint plastic miniatures on sprues, card counters and playing surfaces. 

Bloodbowl's pitch was the ultimate though. For those of you who don't know, the pitch came in three sections. A middle (with a nifty skull design and Bloodbowl logo) and two identical 'ends' the completed the piece - there was even space for you to add your laminated card team colours! All in a milky grey polystyrene material.

Here's an extract from one of the '80s ads for the game.


Now compare the two boards. They really are quite different are they not? The original is more streamlined, less bulky and lacks the cracked stone paving around the edges. If you peer closely at the circular blow ups on the first image you can also see that the iconic Bloodbowl design in the centre of the pitch has simply been painted on.

In truth, they are utterly different!

You are probably thinking 'how on earth did I not notice that over the last (nearly) 30 years'? Well don't worry, I have been researching, collecting and writing about old school Games Workshop for nearly five years... and I didn't notice it either!! If it hadn't been for our friend Darren Matthews mentioning it in passing, I doubt we would have ever known.

Here is what Darren had to say:

DM: One little thing that I have remembered is that the very first Bloodbowl board used in the advert in White Dwarf was made out of... wood! I had to spend over two days trying it to resemble the polystyrene foam that was going to be included in the boxed game... I loathed having to paint it and I was never a fan of the game or it's miniatures afterwards! 
As the saying goes - you learn something new everyday! And today we discovered that the very first brutal tackles carried out in Bloodbowl second edition were on MDF, rather than the legendary 'astrogranite'!

I asked if he could recall who built the original wooden board for the game. I suspected Trish Morrison but this was just a hunch based on the fact that Bryan Ansell has since told me she built the first Mighty Fortress model out of, yes you guessed it, wood! 

DM: I don't remember who made the first Bloodbowl pitch, but Phil Lewis dumped the project on me after he had become frustrated with painting it. I had start all over again... repainting Phil's work with my own. In the end I think it took about six different coats and shades until management where happy with it. One of those 'advertising production nightmares' no-one ever finds out about! 


I asked if he could remember any other 'challenging assignments' that would match the original Bloodbowl pitch in difficulty.

DM: I remember Sid (the mysterious 'Evey Metal painter) throwing the very first Juggernaut of Khorne in the bin for being too insulting for us to paint. He said that it looked 'worse than Battle Cat from He-Man'! We all nearly died from laughing but were told off by our managers. It did stay in the bin though, for about five hours until I relented and removed it to work on. Later on, a second version of the Khorne Juggernaut arrived in the Studio and we painters all drew straws to see who would have to paint it! Everyone hated that figure in the studio and it wasn't often we received something we didn't like.


And here is the earliest Khorne Juggernaut I could find in a Games Workshop publication and one that Darren confirmed was one of his. Whether it was the unfortunate model that ended up in the bin I guess we will never know. One intriguing question does raise it's head here, though...

We all know that there are unreleased 'prototype' Beasts of Nurgle. Could there be 'prototype' Juggernauts of Khorne out there waiting to be discovered too? 

Perhaps the Nuln Spearman is riding one?

Orlygg


15 comments:

  1. Crikey - wouldn't have envied him that task! Fascinating stuff - especially the Juggernaut story!

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    1. I often wondered what happened the infamous Sid. Bryan told me that he fell out with some Hell's Angels and had to disappear quickly one day.

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  2. I have been informed that there IS an unreleased Juggernaut of Khorne. Thanks for the tip Steve! Just follow this link:

    http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/images/c/c1/Unreleased_-_Juggernaut_of_Khorne.jpg

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    1. Except possibly for the skulls at the back, isn't that the same model as the one in the picture from Slaves to Darkness?

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  3. Wow... I had that edition of the game, the styrogranite board with the skull in relief was glorious. I wished then I could have painted the gaps with an airbrush instead of sloppily with a brush and black paint. But at some point while I was in college the whole kit and caboodle vanished from my parents' basement anyway, so it doesn't matter now. Probably went to a church rummage sale. Ouch.

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    1. I too used and abused my edition of the game. I think I laid on a thick layer of grey paint and rather crudely daubed on a darker grey between the stones. I went overboard with blood and lichen too. Still, it was a great game and a great time in my life. What an idiot I was to sell it all!

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    2. My brother's Battle Masters mostly disappeared too, though perhaps not the same way. I still have a few of those figures for some reason...

      My consolation for losing BB is that I got some other poor bastard's Hero Quest box at a church rummage sale a few years back! Almost complete. Some great times painting those figures, so far :D

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  4. Also, the end zone 'plates' were never used. The Galadrieth Gladiators you see were never featured as an End Zone in the box set that was sold and the Gouged Eye end zone has a helmet for an entirely different team on it.

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    1. Well spotted. I don't know enough about the game to comment on little touches like these. I expect these were the original drafts that were just kicking about the studio. I wonder if they still exist?

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  5. I'd noticed the board was different way back in the day. The giveaway for me was the stairs on the initial promo shot that always looked different to the astrogranite version that I had (and still have). Never had a clue that it was made of MDF, though!
    I'm also glad to see that I'm not alone in hating those original Juggers. The best I ever got was getting one almost fully painted before it went into unfinished limbo, which is where it resides today. I might finish it one day for bad nostalgia's sake, but every iteration since of those models have been significant improvements on that terribad original.

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    1. I had one, and still own it I think, but I never hated the model. I quite liked it at the time. I guess I am very much in the minority though! (;

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    2. I had one, and still own it I think, but I never hated the model. I quite liked it at the time. I guess I am very much in the minority though! (;

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  6. Those Big Box games were a perfect introduction to the hobby for newcomers, everything you would need to play the game at an affordable price, but with that tantalising prospect of being able to expand your collection with new (and better!) models and stuff as and when, not to mention all the extra support they received in the form of WD articles. It's something that GW seem to have lost sight of (as with so much in the modern era) with their recent forays into big box games being expensive collector's editions type affairs like the recent Deathwatch game - sure the models and stuff look nice, but at £100 a pop it's pricey even for an adult, something for people who are already into GW stuff.

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    1. Bryan often states how important 'new products' were to his way of thinking. New miniature ranges, new games, new supplements all the time. This strategy is very obvious in the later '80s. Sadly, those who took the company over after he left had very different attitudes and ideas. The Big Box games were fantastic, I agree, and they are still excellent to this day, if you can snatch one up at a decent price! Thinking about it... I NEED to get my hands on another copy of Bloodbowl second edition!

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