What do you think?
Rate this book
Talking Miniatures
Talking Miniatures is an exciting new book about the early years of Games Workshop and Citadel Miniatures. Written and compiled by former White Dwarf Editor and Design Studio Manager – Robin Dews, and ex-Citadel/GW Sales Director, now Head of Warlord Games - John Stallard, the book consists of a series of lavishly illustrated conversations with some of the eclectic cast of designers, sculptors, artists, rebels and similar non-conformists who in the early 1980s gravitated towards Bryan Ansell and the early Citadel Miniatures team. More a collection of conversations than a series of interviews, Talking Miniatures, allows the participants to tell us in their own words, exactly what it was like in those very early years. How did that first edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle come to be written? Who was behind the incredible look and feel of the original Warhammer 40,000 – Rogue Trader? How did the iconic shape of the original RTB01 Space Marines develop, and how did Mike McVey create and then master the mid- 90s GW painting style? All these questions, and hundreds more, are answered in this book in the words, memories and recollections of the people who were actually there and doing these things! In addition to these incredible stories, the book is lavishly illustrated with photographs and images taken from the hundreds of the books, games, magazines and miniatures that Games Workshop has produced over the years. In addition, we have had privileged and unprecedented access to the personal collections of all the participants and present many of these artifacts and miniatures for the very first time. For anyone who has lifted their paintbrush, miniature in hand or rolled a fistful of dice across a tabletop battlefield, Talking Miniatures is an essential read. Even if you are not currently a hobbyist, Talking Miniatures will take you on a thrilling and insightful ride into that magical point where creativity and commerce coincide.
- GenresGaming
492 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2023
5 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 16, 2024
I've been a bit of an off and on collector of miniatures wargames for years. I've primarily been into products released by Games Workshop as I also quite enjoy model building as well. Lately, I've been getting quite into the hobby again and bought loads of stuff. On YouTube you can watch a lot of hobby channels while engaging in your own hobby building and through that search I've encountered a wonderful channel called Jordan Sorcery. By far some of the best and most enjoyable I've run across thus far. Anyway, on his channel he does pretty interesting dives into the history of the games and he does a wonderful job putting it all together. If he encounters a mistake he'll even make an errata update like you'd find from a real researcher. I found the history so fascinating that I wound up wanting to generally know a lot more about it and I got roped into building a huge archival project of all released Games Workshop products on the MiniSet website, so I've been diving into the history myself through the lens of how they structured their product codes! Needless to say, I'm on a bit of an obsessive tear with the project as now I'm interested in reading about the history in my free time!
Luckily two books have recently arrived on the scene! Dice Men: The Origin Story of Games Workshop which is written by one of the original Games Workshop founders from the 1970's was recently published and released, which I haven't read as I write this review. I'm sure that will be a fascinating read in terms of hobby gaming in the 70's and dealing with things like Dungeons & Dragons in the UK. Since Ian Livingston and Steve Jackson were more interested in the role playing end of the hobby, I figure the book is more about that end of spectrum. While I do like RPG's, D&D, being an American product is all around me. What isn't as available is Game Workshop stuff. I really wish it was available more around me when I was a kid in the 90's, because I would have probably gotten loads of their games instead of trying to backtrack into the historical catalog at wildly increased prices! Whatever, I've built a semi-decent collection thus far.
I decided to dive into Robin Dews & John Stallard's book first, because even flipping through it, I could tell this was more centered on the Wargaming end of things. That is exactly what I got out of this and it was a wonderful journey! Robin Dews & John Stallard were both employees of Games Workshop going back to the 80's, so they interviewed a lot of their colleagues from that time frame. The big names in here, for me, are people like Rick Priestly, Andy Chambers and Jervis Johnson. Just absolutely top rate creators as far as I'm concerned. This book is a little bit different than I expected though, because these aren't really normal interviews like you'd expect from a talk show host who asks pointed questions etc. No, Robin and John are recording conversations with their old colleagues, so it's quite a bit of reminiscing about the old days of trying to found a new approach to the wargaming hobby and bring it into the fantasy and sci-fi genres, which no one was really doing at the time.
They did a great job of typing up all the interviews, but since these are conversations sometimes in the flow of the read I'd lose track of who was saying what. But this wasn't a big deal, as what I was after was the meat of the history and all of that is fully retained in the conversations. When I first saw the price of the book, I somewhat balked at the 85USD price tag, but I really wanted to read something of this nature, so I took the plunge. I have to say, they really make it worth your while in purchasing a book like this. They have it all split between two volumes and printed on very heavy paper, maybe even a little heavier than you'd find in a Games Workshop rulebook even. The two volumes are in paperback, personally, I would have preferred hardcover, but I'm sure that would have just increased the price. However, the books are actually of similar size if not a little bit bigger in dimension to the rulebooks published by game creators. I actually feel like they are the same dimensions as the old Imperial Armour books from Forge World, which were a bit taller than the standard Games Workshop books. (I sorely regret not getting the Forge World books when I had the chance and alas... I only have two.) Sifted throughout the book in true rulebook fashion, there are tons of photos of old products, pictures of the staff from GW working on things and even pictures of the buildings that still stand today of where GW used to be located as it moved around.
While they obviously go into the history of the games and their design, Robin and John go beyond just this one simple task. They also talk to all kinds of other areas of the staff that were absolutely instrumental in getting this hobby off the ground. They talked to the painting staff that became the 'eavy Metal team eventually and talked about the challenges of painting so many minis for a new product launch and the problems with photographing the minis at the time, which I found absolutely fascinating. They also dove into the history of White Dwarf magazine and how it transitioned from being just another hobby magazine reporting on all things in the hobby game industry and transitioned to only being dedicated to Games Workshop products. Which seemed like a bizarre choice when I first encountered it, but those magazines have loads of content that are really quite wonderful with rules supplements and extra lore etc. So, creating that kind of content every month was quite a huge initiative and those interviews are wonderful as well.
One mysterious thing Games Workshop did was they created a sort of "sub" miniatures company called Marauder Miniatures which featured sculptors like Trish Carden. When I encountered this company in my archival process, I was so baffled, since it seemed like a lot of hte sculpts were eventually folded into the regular range in the 90's. Well, we get a good telling of this story in this book. It was very cool to read about the sculpts being made for this new "company" though and they have wonderful photos from Trish's personal collection as well.
Surprisingly they even interviewed some of the people working as managers in the company, which was very interesting to read about. Some of the best stories came out of those interviews, such as the person eventually finding himself working on organizing the events like Games Day. Tim Pollard has one of the funniest stories in the entire two volumes when he regales us of a tale when a couple of the security people found someone stealing! I highly recommend this interview at least. They even interviewed people from the admin team like Helen Morley, which was pretty interesting, because she got to go into all this info about how things had changed from the 80's into the 90's. This was pretty typical of the interviews where they talked about the old technology of the time and how things were changing rapidly. One thing that was interesting was they also interviewed Anthony Epworth and he talked about the process of casting the metal minis and how that technology has largely been unchanged even into today.
I couldn't help but notice that a huge portion of these old Games Workshop employees now work for Warlord Games. So, if you want to see where some of the designers and creators went you can probably find similar content from them.
There were a few interviews I would have really loved to see, but I imagine they would be tough to get. First and foremost, I would have completely loved to read a reminiscing interview with Bryan Ansell and at the time of this books writing that would have been possible. Sadly, Bryan passed away recently on December 30, 2023. Bryan wound up being the real driving force for the wargaming hobby that Games Workshop would be known for. He set the major foundations and all the interviews talk about him and his incredible creation. However, they always make some passing reference to how he could be difficult to work with etc, but no one ever really goes into details, because I gather, at the end of the day, they truly respected the man and what he was trying to accomplish. He could also be very kind and go out of his way for his employees, but his vision of what he was creating was probably somewhat uncompromising I reckon. I still would have liked to read an interview with Bryan reminiscing and seeing if he had accomplished all that he wished to accomplish with the company. They speak of the transition and buyout from Tom Kirby and it is usually phrased that Bryan wanted to take a step back from the company and I always wonder why at that point. It doesn't seem like he really confided in many people on his staff about it. It makes it seem like it was not a hostile take over and Bryan was never ousted by Kirby. Which brings me to another interview I would love to read... one with Tom Kirby. Under his management he grew the company to a global force and it would be interesting to see some of his insights of that time. He also killed off a lot of unique aspects of what Games Workshop did at the time as well or didn't believe in some of the initiatives like the publishing of novels. Only to have the novels come back later.
Aside from those giants of the company I would also have loved a John Blanche interview, arguably one of the most influential GW artists that set the tone for the whole franchise practically. At the time this book was being put together he was still employed by GW and has only recently retired, so maybe he will be free to get some interviews. Naturally, I hope he will wind up on Jordan Sorcery!
With such a massive history under its belt it is probably impossible to tell the full story in these interviews, even in two rather massive volumes. So, this installment of interviews stays pretty focused on the 80's, with some sections diving into the late 70's. Since Robin and John started in the 80's, naturally most of their colleagues are from that era. However, I would love to see interviews discussing the creation of material in the 90's as that is what I collected the most of at the time. Some games are mentioned in passing, like Necromunda, Epic 40,000 etc. but these interviews stay pretty focused on Warhammer Fantasy Battle and the 80's games. In the epilogue section of the book it is clear that Robin and John realize this and made allusions for a possible second edition of interviews featuring more things from the 90's. I would love to read these! Covering things like the creation of Forge World, which seems to have recently been folded back into the company and labelled with "Expert Models" in the store rather than the Forge World logo. Maybe we could get that coveted John Blanche interview! Andy Chambers and Rick Priestly took on game development in the 90's and I'd love to see them talk about these. Andy's work on Necromunda would be a wonderful read as well.
While I do enjoy the reading of the interviews, because I just love reading. Part of me also would have enjoyed listening to the interviews as well. Sitting down and putting on an audio version of this while I build and paint some minis would be a wonderful afternoon. Who knows if the source material is good for that kind of release though.
If you are fascinated by these games and want to relive some of the history with the creators I highly recommend this book. They do an absolutely wonderful job of putting it together. You get to read about some first rate remembrances of the time and what it was like to work in the games industry back then. I truly hope for a second volume!
Luckily two books have recently arrived on the scene! Dice Men: The Origin Story of Games Workshop which is written by one of the original Games Workshop founders from the 1970's was recently published and released, which I haven't read as I write this review. I'm sure that will be a fascinating read in terms of hobby gaming in the 70's and dealing with things like Dungeons & Dragons in the UK. Since Ian Livingston and Steve Jackson were more interested in the role playing end of the hobby, I figure the book is more about that end of spectrum. While I do like RPG's, D&D, being an American product is all around me. What isn't as available is Game Workshop stuff. I really wish it was available more around me when I was a kid in the 90's, because I would have probably gotten loads of their games instead of trying to backtrack into the historical catalog at wildly increased prices! Whatever, I've built a semi-decent collection thus far.
I decided to dive into Robin Dews & John Stallard's book first, because even flipping through it, I could tell this was more centered on the Wargaming end of things. That is exactly what I got out of this and it was a wonderful journey! Robin Dews & John Stallard were both employees of Games Workshop going back to the 80's, so they interviewed a lot of their colleagues from that time frame. The big names in here, for me, are people like Rick Priestly, Andy Chambers and Jervis Johnson. Just absolutely top rate creators as far as I'm concerned. This book is a little bit different than I expected though, because these aren't really normal interviews like you'd expect from a talk show host who asks pointed questions etc. No, Robin and John are recording conversations with their old colleagues, so it's quite a bit of reminiscing about the old days of trying to found a new approach to the wargaming hobby and bring it into the fantasy and sci-fi genres, which no one was really doing at the time.
They did a great job of typing up all the interviews, but since these are conversations sometimes in the flow of the read I'd lose track of who was saying what. But this wasn't a big deal, as what I was after was the meat of the history and all of that is fully retained in the conversations. When I first saw the price of the book, I somewhat balked at the 85USD price tag, but I really wanted to read something of this nature, so I took the plunge. I have to say, they really make it worth your while in purchasing a book like this. They have it all split between two volumes and printed on very heavy paper, maybe even a little heavier than you'd find in a Games Workshop rulebook even. The two volumes are in paperback, personally, I would have preferred hardcover, but I'm sure that would have just increased the price. However, the books are actually of similar size if not a little bit bigger in dimension to the rulebooks published by game creators. I actually feel like they are the same dimensions as the old Imperial Armour books from Forge World, which were a bit taller than the standard Games Workshop books. (I sorely regret not getting the Forge World books when I had the chance and alas... I only have two.) Sifted throughout the book in true rulebook fashion, there are tons of photos of old products, pictures of the staff from GW working on things and even pictures of the buildings that still stand today of where GW used to be located as it moved around.
While they obviously go into the history of the games and their design, Robin and John go beyond just this one simple task. They also talk to all kinds of other areas of the staff that were absolutely instrumental in getting this hobby off the ground. They talked to the painting staff that became the 'eavy Metal team eventually and talked about the challenges of painting so many minis for a new product launch and the problems with photographing the minis at the time, which I found absolutely fascinating. They also dove into the history of White Dwarf magazine and how it transitioned from being just another hobby magazine reporting on all things in the hobby game industry and transitioned to only being dedicated to Games Workshop products. Which seemed like a bizarre choice when I first encountered it, but those magazines have loads of content that are really quite wonderful with rules supplements and extra lore etc. So, creating that kind of content every month was quite a huge initiative and those interviews are wonderful as well.
One mysterious thing Games Workshop did was they created a sort of "sub" miniatures company called Marauder Miniatures which featured sculptors like Trish Carden. When I encountered this company in my archival process, I was so baffled, since it seemed like a lot of hte sculpts were eventually folded into the regular range in the 90's. Well, we get a good telling of this story in this book. It was very cool to read about the sculpts being made for this new "company" though and they have wonderful photos from Trish's personal collection as well.
Surprisingly they even interviewed some of the people working as managers in the company, which was very interesting to read about. Some of the best stories came out of those interviews, such as the person eventually finding himself working on organizing the events like Games Day. Tim Pollard has one of the funniest stories in the entire two volumes when he regales us of a tale when a couple of the security people found someone stealing! I highly recommend this interview at least. They even interviewed people from the admin team like Helen Morley, which was pretty interesting, because she got to go into all this info about how things had changed from the 80's into the 90's. This was pretty typical of the interviews where they talked about the old technology of the time and how things were changing rapidly. One thing that was interesting was they also interviewed Anthony Epworth and he talked about the process of casting the metal minis and how that technology has largely been unchanged even into today.
I couldn't help but notice that a huge portion of these old Games Workshop employees now work for Warlord Games. So, if you want to see where some of the designers and creators went you can probably find similar content from them.
There were a few interviews I would have really loved to see, but I imagine they would be tough to get. First and foremost, I would have completely loved to read a reminiscing interview with Bryan Ansell and at the time of this books writing that would have been possible. Sadly, Bryan passed away recently on December 30, 2023. Bryan wound up being the real driving force for the wargaming hobby that Games Workshop would be known for. He set the major foundations and all the interviews talk about him and his incredible creation. However, they always make some passing reference to how he could be difficult to work with etc, but no one ever really goes into details, because I gather, at the end of the day, they truly respected the man and what he was trying to accomplish. He could also be very kind and go out of his way for his employees, but his vision of what he was creating was probably somewhat uncompromising I reckon. I still would have liked to read an interview with Bryan reminiscing and seeing if he had accomplished all that he wished to accomplish with the company. They speak of the transition and buyout from Tom Kirby and it is usually phrased that Bryan wanted to take a step back from the company and I always wonder why at that point. It doesn't seem like he really confided in many people on his staff about it. It makes it seem like it was not a hostile take over and Bryan was never ousted by Kirby. Which brings me to another interview I would love to read... one with Tom Kirby. Under his management he grew the company to a global force and it would be interesting to see some of his insights of that time. He also killed off a lot of unique aspects of what Games Workshop did at the time as well or didn't believe in some of the initiatives like the publishing of novels. Only to have the novels come back later.
Aside from those giants of the company I would also have loved a John Blanche interview, arguably one of the most influential GW artists that set the tone for the whole franchise practically. At the time this book was being put together he was still employed by GW and has only recently retired, so maybe he will be free to get some interviews. Naturally, I hope he will wind up on Jordan Sorcery!
With such a massive history under its belt it is probably impossible to tell the full story in these interviews, even in two rather massive volumes. So, this installment of interviews stays pretty focused on the 80's, with some sections diving into the late 70's. Since Robin and John started in the 80's, naturally most of their colleagues are from that era. However, I would love to see interviews discussing the creation of material in the 90's as that is what I collected the most of at the time. Some games are mentioned in passing, like Necromunda, Epic 40,000 etc. but these interviews stay pretty focused on Warhammer Fantasy Battle and the 80's games. In the epilogue section of the book it is clear that Robin and John realize this and made allusions for a possible second edition of interviews featuring more things from the 90's. I would love to read these! Covering things like the creation of Forge World, which seems to have recently been folded back into the company and labelled with "Expert Models" in the store rather than the Forge World logo. Maybe we could get that coveted John Blanche interview! Andy Chambers and Rick Priestly took on game development in the 90's and I'd love to see them talk about these. Andy's work on Necromunda would be a wonderful read as well.
While I do enjoy the reading of the interviews, because I just love reading. Part of me also would have enjoyed listening to the interviews as well. Sitting down and putting on an audio version of this while I build and paint some minis would be a wonderful afternoon. Who knows if the source material is good for that kind of release though.
If you are fascinated by these games and want to relive some of the history with the creators I highly recommend this book. They do an absolutely wonderful job of putting it together. You get to read about some first rate remembrances of the time and what it was like to work in the games industry back then. I truly hope for a second volume!
October 22, 2024
Este libro es una auténtica delicia, un placer para cualquiera que sienta curiosidad por cómo funcionaba Games Workshop en el periodo que va desde el momento en el que Citadel (y Bryan Ansell) toman el control de la compañía hasta poco después del cambio de milenio (al adquirir la licencia de El Señor de los Anillos). En este sentido, Talking Miniatures es una continuación natural de otro libro que ya reseñé, Dice Men, este último centrado en la época inmediatamente anterior.
Talking Miniatures hace muchas cosas muy bien: las entrevistas se desarrollan de forma muy ágil y con los entrevistadores participando de forma activa; el texto está acompañado de numerosas fotografías; el elenco de participantes es amplio y representativo, incluyendo no solo a creativos y comerciales, sino también a personas con puestos menos "glamourosos"; y el tono de las entrevistas, si bien cae en una constante alabanza a Games Workshop y a sus líderes (algo natural teniendo en cuenta a quién se entrevista), es muy sincero. En este sentido, se nota que uno de los dos entrevistadores (y autores del libro), Robin Dews, tiene una enorme experiencia editorial.
De hecho, no puedo evitar recordar otro libro de entrevistas que también reseñé hace poco, Like a Hurricane, sobre la historia la saga Street Fighter. Todo lo que ese libro hace mal, Talking Miniatures lo hace bien.
Una vez terminada la lectura de Talking Miniatures, uno se lleva la impresión de que se ha formado una imagen muy fidedigna sobre cómo era trabajar en la Games Workshop de aquella época. Para lo bueno y para lo malo. De hecho, la gran figura ausente en el libro, en torno a la cual gira todo, Bryan Ansell, queda retratado de una forma que se intuye muy fiel a como debía ser su personalidad real, con sus claros y sus oscuros. Es una pena que, al haber fallecido, no pudiera ser entrevistado para este libro, aunque no sé si se habría prestado. Pero no importa.
Podría hablar mucho más sobre pasajes y aspectos concretos de este libro que me han encantado, pero no es necesario: basta decir que es una referencia obligatoria para cualquiera que fuera aficionado a Warhammer durante los años 80, los 90, o los 2000. Es más, Talking Miniatures es una lectura muy edificante para quien aspire a entender cómo funciona una empresa de tamaño mediano en un entorno que es tanto creativo como comercial.
Lejos de idealizar a las personas que conformaban la Games Workshop de la época, Talking Miniatures hace algo mucho más interesante: humanizarlas. Muestra que, aunque estamos hablando de una empresa y unas personas especiales, a pesar de todo, todos los trabajos son trabajos y todas las personas son personas.
Talking Miniatures hace muchas cosas muy bien: las entrevistas se desarrollan de forma muy ágil y con los entrevistadores participando de forma activa; el texto está acompañado de numerosas fotografías; el elenco de participantes es amplio y representativo, incluyendo no solo a creativos y comerciales, sino también a personas con puestos menos "glamourosos"; y el tono de las entrevistas, si bien cae en una constante alabanza a Games Workshop y a sus líderes (algo natural teniendo en cuenta a quién se entrevista), es muy sincero. En este sentido, se nota que uno de los dos entrevistadores (y autores del libro), Robin Dews, tiene una enorme experiencia editorial.
De hecho, no puedo evitar recordar otro libro de entrevistas que también reseñé hace poco, Like a Hurricane, sobre la historia la saga Street Fighter. Todo lo que ese libro hace mal, Talking Miniatures lo hace bien.
Una vez terminada la lectura de Talking Miniatures, uno se lleva la impresión de que se ha formado una imagen muy fidedigna sobre cómo era trabajar en la Games Workshop de aquella época. Para lo bueno y para lo malo. De hecho, la gran figura ausente en el libro, en torno a la cual gira todo, Bryan Ansell, queda retratado de una forma que se intuye muy fiel a como debía ser su personalidad real, con sus claros y sus oscuros. Es una pena que, al haber fallecido, no pudiera ser entrevistado para este libro, aunque no sé si se habría prestado. Pero no importa.
Podría hablar mucho más sobre pasajes y aspectos concretos de este libro que me han encantado, pero no es necesario: basta decir que es una referencia obligatoria para cualquiera que fuera aficionado a Warhammer durante los años 80, los 90, o los 2000. Es más, Talking Miniatures es una lectura muy edificante para quien aspire a entender cómo funciona una empresa de tamaño mediano en un entorno que es tanto creativo como comercial.
Lejos de idealizar a las personas que conformaban la Games Workshop de la época, Talking Miniatures hace algo mucho más interesante: humanizarlas. Muestra que, aunque estamos hablando de una empresa y unas personas especiales, a pesar de todo, todos los trabajos son trabajos y todas las personas son personas.
October 2, 2023
All the stories about the early time of GW and Citadel has been an absolute joy to read. All the personas, all the geniuses, all new territory charted in improvisation for the new hobby.
I do miss biographical notes about the interviewed, but otherwise this is really fun books.
And they have done an excellent job with the illustrations, when they are talking about a miniature or an illustration, Robin has searched it out and put a picture of it beside the text.
This books have made me really see forward to my evening reading time in my comfy armchair.
I do miss biographical notes about the interviewed, but otherwise this is really fun books.
And they have done an excellent job with the illustrations, when they are talking about a miniature or an illustration, Robin has searched it out and put a picture of it beside the text.
This books have made me really see forward to my evening reading time in my comfy armchair.
April 10, 2024
A beautiful book. Loved it.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews