Archive Miniatures & Game Systems

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Archive Miniatures & Game Systems was one of the first companies to produce fantasy miniature figures following the birth of role-playing games in the 1970s.

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History

Typical octagonal base of an Archives miniature, 1977 Closeup of distinctive Archive Miniature base 1977.jpg
Typical octagonal base of an Archives miniature, 1977
Orc from Archive's 25 mm Middle Earth line, showing typical stretched octagonal base with clipped corners Metal miniature of an orc produced by Archive Miniatures.jpg
Orc from Archive's 25 mm Middle Earth line, showing typical stretched octagonal base with clipped corners

One of the first fantasy role-playing games (RPGs) to be published after the appearance of Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 was White Bear and Red Moon , a fantasy RPG set in the world of Glorantha, created by Chaosium of Oakland, California in 1975. Chaosium searched for a company that could produce metal miniatures specific to Glorantha, and found Archive Miniatures in nearby Burlingame, run by head sculptor Neville Stocken and his wife Barbara. [1] Chaosium granted their first license to Archive to create 25 mm Gloranthan miniatures. [2] : 323 

In his 2014 book Designers & Dragons: The '70s, Shannon Appelcline noted that "Soon some of the counters from White Bear and Red Moon such as the darkness witch Cragspider and the centaur Ironhoof were represented in lead. Some of Archive's existing miniatures also got incorporated into the Gloranthan series, so that Stocken would have more licensed miniatures to sell immediately. Most notably, Archive's existing 'Pumpkinhead' figure became the infamous Gloranthan Jack O'Bear." [2] : 249 

Archive soon released other licensed lines, including miniatures for J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, Chaosium's Runequest , TSR's Dungeons & Dragons , Lucasfilm's Star Wars , and Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone.

Although the market quickly became flooded with metal miniatures from other American and British companies, [3] those from Archive remained distinctive for their unique "stretched octagonal" bases, formed when the corners of the rectangular bases were clipped off. [4]

In 1978, Archive also tried to move into the RPG market with a science fiction RPG called Star Rovers . Game designer David A. Hargrave, best known for creating the quirky fantasy RPG world known as Arduin, and who owned a games store in nearby Concord, announced he was working on a new game, likely Star Rovers. [2] : 323  Hargrave was the lead developer for only a few months, until Archive's Neville Stocken took over, but Shannon Appelcline believes that "Hargrave's contributions still can be found in the final product, Star Rovers Module 1 (1981). Because of its wacky and gonzo nature, some have called it 'Arduin in Space.' Unfortunately, it also proved to be Archive's one and only roleplaying release." [2] : 323 

By 1981, Archive had moved to San Mateo, and were advertising a "Monster-of-the-Month Club" in the pages of Dragon . [5] In 1982, the company went out of business. [1] Their miniatures lines were taken over by R*kiiv of Berkeley, California, which continued to produce Archive miniatures until it also went out of business in 1987. Center Stage Miniatures occasionally re-released some Archive miniatures until its demise in 2015. [1]

Reception

In the April–May 1978 edition of White Dwarf (Issue #6), John Norris was impressed by Archive's Middle Earth line, saying, "The monsters are ideal for a DM using figures, and the Middle Earth range is a source of fine, if rather large, personality figures. The hobbits and the dwarf will fit in fairly well with the Heritage/Asgard size of figure, and I recommend the former in particular to anyone using Heritage hobbits as rank and file." [6]

Archive Miniatures were often featured in the pages of Dragon in its first few years.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Archive". Miniatures Workshop. 2019-01-05. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Shannon Appelcline (2014). Designers & Dragons: The '70s. Evil Hat Productions. ISBN   978-1-61317-075-5.
  3. ↑ Arnaudo, Marco (2018). Storytelling in the Modern Board Game: Narrative Trends from the Late 1960s to Today. McFarland. p. 82. ISBN   9781476669519.
  4. ↑ "Archive Miniatures". DND Lead. 2009. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  5. ↑ "Help Fluffy Find a Home...". Dragon . TSR, Inc. (56): 71. December 1981.
  6. ↑ Norris, John (April–May 1978). "Archive Miniatures". White Dwarf . Games Workshop (6): 9–10.
  7. ↑ "From the Fantasy Forge". Dragon . TSR, Inc. (6): 18–19. April 1977.
  8. ↑ "Fantasy Forge". Dragon . TSR, Inc. (9): 17. September 1977.
  9. ↑ "Fantasy Forge". Dragon . TSR, Inc. (10): 26–27. October 1977.
  10. ↑ "Fantasy Forge". Dragon . TSR, Inc. (12): 16–17. February 1978.
  11. ↑ "Fantasy Forge". Dragon . TSR, Inc. (15): 16–17. June 1978.
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