The Enemy Within: Shadows Over Bogenhafen Character Miniatures

Having just finished a small group of elves as part of my Warhammer Bestiary project, I am keen to start another painting challenge. Of course, I could just get cracking on the Fimir which is next in line, and well I might, if it hadn't been for the sudden arrival of Johann in the post. As you can see from the image above, I now have the full set of the Enemy Within characters (Shadows Over Bogenhafen) to get painting with. 

However, as I was preparing the models lots of questions started rearing their leaden heads. This got me thinking about the oddities that can be learnt from looking at ranges of models as you go about collecting them. So, what can we learn about this little band of mid '80s adventurers?

Here they are. Quite an expensive lot if I put them on eBay I suspect. In fact, these models are some of the most expensive I have ever bought. As you will know, I am a £4 man when it comes to the price of the average miniature but it didn't pay any more than £17 for any of these models, and some I got for much, much less. Looking at them here they seem rather unremarkable, but if we look closer things become a little more interesting. 

Johann, named 'Rowlocks' on the tab, Weiner and Harbull, to me anyway, all seem to share a design that make me feel that they were produced at the same time by the same person. Of course, I have no proof of this and I maybe wrong but I feel pretty confident that this is the case. 

Flipping the miniatures over shows us that two of them were designed in 1985, according to the date stamp on the tab. Though Johann is undated.

Now you would imagine that the other three models in the range would share a common look wouldn't you? After all, it makes sense that all of the characters would have been put into miniature form at the same time. A quick look at Wanda , Kirsten and Malmir makes me think otherwise. The design 'feel' of these three models is not as consistent as the first three, is it? 

Flipping the miniatures reveals that these three models were designed in 1987. Two years after the the original three! Is it just me that sees this as rather odd? After all, why would you create three models in support of the Enemy Within and then wait another two years to produce the rest? Additionally, Wanda and Kirsten were not originally intended for the Enemy Within, but are part of the Townsfolk/Villagers range of 1987. Malmir appears in the standard Elf range too. 

Actually, Malmir is an interesting model when looked at in context. He is a lot more chunky than the other models and has a distinct Marauder feel about him. Hardly the elfin troubadour, more like a bloke who works on the roads! As an aside, Malmir also has a distinct Elvis look about him. I think it might be his sideburns. If you look at the picture above, you can see how I have sorted the models in respect of style. Malmir is very much on his own. 

Now, before some of you hardened Citadel Collectors start pointing it out, there was a later, Death on the Reik set of adventurer figures. This range had new sculpts for Weiner and Johann but the models were stamped as part of the Fighters range. Now, I suspect that these were conversions of pre-existing models with a new head, though I have discounted the possibility of that process just being a had swap due to subtle differences on the two models.

With Weiner, that subtle difference is the direction that the character is looking in as well as the direction of helmet.

The differences are even more pronounced on the Johann model, as you can see from this picture. Its clearly a resculpted head.

And the dates? Yes you guessed it, 1987! Roughly around the same time that the villagers were made and the original Shadows set was released, not to mention the Death on the Reik set. 

This leaves me with one question. Were there originally other models for Malmir, Wanda and Kirsten? Are they waiting to be found by Steve Casey amongst the vast hordes of Bryan Ansell's collection? Could they be part of the 'not good enough to be released' box that the Citadel Collector often tempts us with?

The answer isn't as important as the fact that I will leave you with. Sometimes the actual collecting of a range or set can produce some intriguing puzzles and questions. Have you ever noticed anything strange among your own collections?

If you have, then I would love to hear about what you have discovered!

Orlygg

Thank You For Johann 'Rowlocks' Dassbut

I have been after this particular miniature for many years. He is the final Enemy Within character that I need to complete the collection that was released in support of the early Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay supplements. I had an idea some time again that required these miniatures that can now begin to be realised as I received Johann in the post today, on my birthday on all days!

The trouble is, I have absolutely no idea who sent him to me! The packaging was rather damaged by water on its way to me and the senders name and address rather smudged. So if you sent this to me, then thank you! Not knowing who you are makes it rather difficult to express my gratitude so I am going to do it with this blog post. 

Look out for Johann in the near future with a coat of paint on him. 

Thanks again!

Orlygg

A Mini Called Wanda

I love this set of miniatures and I have most of them. If anyone has Johann spare I'd love to take it off your hands as he is the last of the main characters that I need now! 

I have written about the large prices that some miniatures can sell for online. I am not talking about the silly 'Buy It Now' prices that confuse so many collectors and help create the 'myth' that old miniatures are always worth a fortune. I am sure you have seen plenty of ridiculous prices bandied about in your time, perhaps you have even fallen to temptation in the past (I know I have) and have paid a little more than you should have done for a particular miniature. Perhaps you are even guilty of listing minis with very high prices. I have always been a believer in the 99p starting bid, and that a miniature (or a lot of miniatures) will reach the price they are truly worth. Its a live and let live attitude that I shall always stick too. I am pleased to note, that there are a number of very experienced sellers out there who share a familiar philosophy, most notably bridgendsteve (are very own Steve Casey) who seems to have no end of rare and unreleased models to sell on eBay. 

For many years I had a strict £4 rule for buying single cast miniatures, and that price had to include postage. It was very simple to keep to this budget in the pre-Oldhammer days, when I was buying up RoC miniatures in droves for a couple of quid each. I once bought two Palanquins of Nurgle for £10 for the pair (and what a prat I was for selling them on, when one will set you back about £50 in 2014) and won 16 chaos beastmen for £20. I am sure many of us collectors can sit back in our chairs and swap success stories about bidding victories but that isn't really what I want to talk about today.

I have said before that I feel that eBay, and sites like it, are just the 21st century equivalent to the blister racks of yesteryear. You must remember them? You'd walk into Wonderworld (my store in the '80s) and the first thing that would hit you (apart from the smell of damp and cigarettes) was the wall groaning under the weight of blistered lead. Rows and rows and rows of the stuff. The card backings were all in different designs, often with paintings by John Blanche on them, and within the plastic bubbles lay a thousand possibilities. Your imagination would race. The pulse would pound. And you'd dived right in. 

The trouble is, back then the prices were set. You'd look at the price label or browse the funny code wall that some shops used. You 'knew' what something was worth and occasionally you'd be lucky enough to hit a sale and get that Landraider boxset even cheaper than the RRP suggested. These days, there are no price lists for the OOP models that all of us collect. We have our own vague price ranges in out head, one that seems to fit in with my £4 rule of years back. Average models are about £2-3, pop a quid on the top for postage and off you go. 

But what about the more 'collectible' models where the £4 rule isn't going to apply? 

So I come on to Wanda, illustrated above at the height of her fame in the Shadows Over Bogenhafen ad for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. There is no doubting that she is a lovely model. Even my wife likes her and expressed her opinion that she is one of the best miniatures she has ever seen. 'You should paint more like her!' she states without understanding that female figures in the world of Citadel (Old and New) are a rare breed indeed, especially ones that are realistically proportioned and clothed. It seems that many other people agree, and it took me many months to actually win an auction for her.

However, the auction process lulled me into a false sense of what she was 'worth'. You see, the first time I tried to get hold of her I just put a tenner down and walked away. If I won, great, if I didn't I'd have a pretty good idea how much collectors would have to pay. That auction ended with Wanda selling for £38.

Wow! I thought, that is quite a bit of money for one, small metal miniature that wasn't even that limited! Still, I wanted her and was happy to flog off the lead I didn't want to fund getting hold of her. A few weeks later, she arrived once again on the eBay scene. It was a simple 99p start so I was pleased to find a seller who followed a similar set of rules as I do. Learning from my previous experience, this time I put £30 down as my starting bid. In my mind, this would be enough to be in a strong position throughout and I like to win things for less than other people - who doesn't. This strategy paid off until the final minutes of the auction, when someone sniped me for £40. My wife, who was watching the auction said, try £50 and with spousal permission I typed in the amount with about a minute to go.

I was outbid by a pound.

I left it at that. Rather disappointed that I had lost out on her. Still, I had saved myself some money but I kept an eye on eBay for similar figures. A few weeks later, a Wanda model popped up as a 'Buy It Now' for £29.99. Oh, I thought, that is a good price! The trouble was, I was at work when I noticed the auction and had to wait until I got home to buy her. All day, I imagined other collectors noticing the lot and snapping her up for a bargain price. After work, I got home and raced up stairs to grab the KindleHD Fire and loaded up the eBay app. Wanda was still there! Phew, I gasped and I was just about to click the buy button when I noticed ANOTHER Wanda.

This one had a starting bid of £9.99.

Not wanting to drop £30 when I could spend a tenner, I put a healthy bid down on her. £20 to be precise. I hoped that having another example of the mini up would reduce the price for the listed auction version. Incredibly, and following on the rule about buses, another Wanda arrived on the site a few days later. This one was listed as starting at 99p. I was overwhelmed with Wandas!

Anyway, nothing really changed in the coming days. A few bids were made for the 99p Wanda, pushing her up to a couple of pounds while 'my' Wanda remained at £9.99 and a single bid. In fact, this remained this way until about 45 seconds until the end of the auction, when someone dropped in a sneaky 'sniper' bid taking her up to £17.00. It was too late though, my initial £20 sailed through to victory and ensured, finally, that I had a copy of the sculpt in my collection. What struck me was the variation in price, especially when the the other Wanda sold too. Have a look what I mean...

Wanda #1: Sold for £38.
Wanda #2: Sold for £51.
Wanda #3: Sold for £17.
Wanda #4: Sold for £21.

Calculating an average of these four amounts gives us a average price for the Wanda miniature, namely £31.75. Now that is a lot of money for a single cast model that was neither particularly limited or unreleased isn't it? Yet, looking at the bidding history over the last couple of weeks you can see how the price of the same item varies enormously.

Strange isn't it?

To conclude, I have learnt an important lesson during this little journey. Namely, Citadel Miniatures are not always worth as much as we think they are, and often, price can be determined by availability. You just watch the price of the Ass Cannon come down when five people list them all in the same week!

Before I go, I am am interested in asking you lot if you have had any similar collecting instances where you see a model you have been after for a while soar in price, only to be snapped up by your good self later at a opportune moment for much, much less. On the reverse of that particular coin, have you ever forked out big money on a model and then regretted it later?

I await your experiences with interest!

Orlygg.

My beautiful Wanda!