Alright, here are MY top ten

All the cool kids are at it, posting their top ten favourite figures, and I'm a sucker for a sudden trend; it's why I'm into this newfangled Oldhammer lark... Anyway, here are the nostalgia-winning ten that I first thought of for this list and therefore probably deserve their place here.



I've been gaming in one way or another, with a brief hiatus through university when I got into hitting people with swords, since I was in Mrs Fox's class at primary school way back in 1989. Since then I dread to think how many hours my brother and I spent drooling over all the miniatures we couldn't afford in the back of White Dwarf (read in Smith's, because we also couldn't afford that - tough times oop North when I were a lad!). So, here are my ten Citadel figures that a younger me desired so ardently:

1 - Nazgul on Flying Beast

I wanted this soooooo badly. Not only was I a massive Tolkien nut (still am), I had this idea of converting it to be the leader of an undead/chaos space marine traitor legion. What can I say, ten year olds have no idea of restraint -turn it up to eleven! Use all of it! Add chocolate sprinkles! And gravy!

Looking back, I don't like the sculpt of the beast's body; too flat and redolent of the f-ugly carrion of more recent times.

Status: Don't own, no longer want to.


2 - Skeletons!

How could I not choose these?! The box art, the sculpts, the novelty of pose-it-yourself, the box art, the sculpts... Yes, these have stood the test of time and I still want them! Of course, if I had got my grubby mitts on these back in the day, they'd have been cut up for the project mentioned above (the horror!) but now they'd take their rightful place as the soul-less minions of foul enchanters.

Status: Don't own, but want to.


3 - Imperial Guard (grenade launcher)

A Mark Copplestone sculpt (one of the greats, particularly for humans, in my book). This is a one piece metal figure except for his left arm which comes from the plastic 1989 guard sprue (thanks, Erny!) and probably my favourite all-time guardsman - the face, the shades, the stance. Unlike many more recent weapons that are overburdened with Teh Awsum!, this actually looks like it could be used. Sort of.

Status: Don't own, wouldn't say no but am more likely to go down the spacelords SECS route.


4 - Ogryn

Sticking with the Imperial Guard theme, I've always loved the abhumans (squats, beastmen and ogryns - not ratlings, they're just stupid) and this one is my favourite. It is exactly my image of how an ogryn from the little snippets in WD fiction should look.

Status: Don't own, wouldn't say no but am more likely to go down the spacelords SECS route.


5 - Blood Bowl skaven thrower

Jes Goodwin's skaven are the ultimate blend of rugby/yankee football and fantasy monster. I especially love this thrower, and when it's painted as well as this example by the talented horekim, how could anyone argue? Mine isn't near as well painted but has been responsible for a few victories for me that have particularly irked the coaches of slower teams :)

Status: Own it. Painted it. Love it.


6 - Man O War dwarf submarine

I think these were painted by GiraffeX on DakkaDakka

I never quite got into Man O War but my brother had it and I would play against him. His dwarf subs, with their torpedo attack, were my doom on too many occasions! Lovely boilerplate, steampunk-esque designs, before the craze for clockwork and brown had even begun.

Status: Don't own, don't need (!)

7 - Orc King F'Yar on wyvern

The fell beast sculpt's charms may be slightly lost on me now, but this flying monster still ticks the right boxes as far as I'm concerned. Thanks to phreedh I own this one now and it's sitting in my box to be tackled in 2015 when my oldhammer orc and goblin army will leave their envelopes, gain paint, and ravage the old world - waaaaaagh!

Status: Own it, looking forward to painting it.
8 - snotling pump wagon

I couldn't find the painter of this; if it's you, sorry - please let me know so I can credit your lovely brushwork!

Ah yes, the utter lunacy and great big dash of anarchy that pervades 80s GW releases is exemplified in this utterly ludicrous and strangely menacing creation. Love it!

Status: Don't own it, might hunt it down one day.


9 - Dwarf gyrocopter

As mentioned before, my younger brother was a dwarf player and he had two of these beauties, now long gone. By this point I was trying to scratch together a "big hat" chaos dwarf army, in thrall to the idea of army lists and codices (fear not, I have done my penance for such heresy) and, even though I really wanted a trio of 'copters to bring vaguely comedic death from the skies while trotting out glib phrases redolent of the pilots in black and white war films, it didn't even occur to me that I could let my imagination triumph over someone else's idea of how I should have fun. The shame!

Status: Don't own, don't need. Although, I do have some Imperial dwarfs ready to paint up as allies for my Bretonnians, so maybe one day.


10 - assault cannon terminator

Ignore the "dynamically posed" plastic monstrosities of the recent rerelease, this is what a terminator should look like. A mobile weapons platform, completely devoid of superman capes and great big "I love the Emperor" flappy bits. I did buy the box set, without the miniatures, and will be using 80s termies and 'stealers to fight out desperate dungeon crawls in spaaaaaaace. Pew-pew! Dakakakakakaakka!

Status: I have at least two of these, maybe three. I plan to have two full sets of the ten terminators in the SH rulebook to allow for really huge games.

So, agree? Disagree? Let me know, or post your own!
Rab