1987 - 2016 : 30 years of Blood Bowl Skaven miniatures !

Having sacrificed my soul to the Great Horned Rat many years ago, obviously I had to complement my collection of Blood Bowl Skaven with the most recent box of Skaven miniatures. And boy does Games Workshop deliver - I find the miniatures absolutely stunning !

The new Games Workshop Skaven miniatures from 4th Ed Blood Bowl 2016

The new box contains 2 identical sprues each carrying 3 different linemen, 1 thrower, 1 gutter runner, 1 storm vermin, 3 Skaven balls, a Skaven coin and a Skaven artefact to be used as a counter. Included are also 12 x 32mm slotta-bases, a full sheet of decal transfers allowing for many choices and a "ready-to-play" 1.000k team roster including all 12 miniatures for beginning Blood Bowl coaches. @ 25 € I believe this box to be excellent value-for-money.

4 editions of Skaven Storm Vermin 1987 - 1989 - 1994 - 2016

The technical quality of the miniatures is of the highest level, above my expectations. The plastic material of which the models are composed is very hard, not the soft stuff used in the 90s. This seems to allow for more crisp details in plastic figurines. I did not find a single mold line on any of the 6 models I assembled. All figures are multi-component (3 pieces + base) and require some careful assembly. They snap-fit, but obviously I applied plastic glue. I found these miniatures of the same technical quality as the incredible Space Hulk 4th Edition Blood Angel Terminator and Genestealer models - Games Workshop truly masters the craft of producing top-level plastic figures.

The lowly Skaven Linemen 1989 - 1994 - 2016

Compared to their historical counterparts, the design of the new Skaven miniatures is a huge leap forward. The poses of the different Skaven are very dynamic, the miniatures look like 3D pictures of the players in mid-action. Gone are the days of "clenched fists" all over and "one fist up, one fist down" poses (just take a closer look at the older models in these pictures and you'll see what I mean), the new figures actually show spread hands and individual fingers on anatomically correct limbs in mid-motion ! The model designers succeeded in giving the miniatures a realistic, agressive and menacing touch, very much fitting to what is supposed to be a race of mutated humanoid rats with evil and cunning minds. I only play tabletop, but from what I've seen in screenshots I guess the miniatures are inspired by the Cyanide Blood Bowl computer game.

Skaven Throwers 1989 - 1994 - 2016

The miniatures are bigger compared to the 2nd and 3rd edition figures - a positive evolution. Especially some of the 2nd edition linemen were very small, even next to other 2nd edition Blood Bowl teams. The dynamic poses make much better use of all 3 dimensions, in contrast to the classic "flat" poses by older models (I guess a limitation of the old molding process). This causes the new miniatures to take up more space, without becoming much taller. The only (small) point of critic are the long Skaven tails. While they do add to the visual spectacle offered by the miniatures, I wonder how long it will take before the first tail snaps off during play ? Also safe transport is worrying me. Possibly a better balance should have been looked for between visual design and playability.

Skaven Catcher / Gutter Runners 1989 - 1994 - 2016

This excellent set with outstanding new Skaven miniatures does not dissappoint - I'm truly impressed. This makes me look forward to what is to come before I will assemble my final 4th edition Skaven team, preferably with some variation options for the different positionals - the 2nd edition team counted no less than 17 different miniatures ! I do hope for some variations in body parts, possibly even some mutations and of course - the vicious Rat Ogre ! Wait and see what Games Workshop will offer the hordes of the Great Horned Rat ?

The Chaos All-Stars - a legendary Blood Bowl team

The Chaos All-Stars - from Old Skool Picture Archive

For a very long time, the Chaos All-Stars have been part of the Blood Bowl meta. This collection of bad guys, mutants and misfits from many different races, including multiple Big Guys, have claimed a legendary status since the conception of the game in 1987 (the team should not be confused with the 11-player team box which was released in 3rd Ed in 1994). Official Blood Bowl canon contains many references to the Chaos All-Stars, the team being the ultimate Chaos (Pact) team and often sporting an untouchable status. The Chaos All-Stars are the bane of the Blood Bowl league circuit, both because of their physical prowess and a series of random, magical events which make games against the Chaos All-Stars unpredictable (and often highly unpleasant for their opponents !).

The Chaos All-Stars by Phil Lewis in White Dwarf 114, June 1989 - from Realm of Chaos 80s

Many coaches field creative combinations of miniatures to represent the Chaos Pact team. For die-hard Blood Bowl collectors, there exists an "official" set of Games Workshop miniatures which represent the original Chaos All-Stars. At the core of the team are 7 limited edition figures, complemented with 10 x 2nd edition models. The original (and unique !) team was composed by Phil Lewis, a former employee with Games Workshop / Citadel Miniatures in the 80's. You can find an excellent interview with Phil Lewis on Realm of Chaos 80s by orlygg. Below you find a classic picture of his original version of the Chaos All-Stars :

The Chaos All-Stars - from MidgardBB.com

Phil Lewis based his selection of miniatures on several images of the Chaos All-Stars in Blood Bowl meta, such as the one at the top of this article and the one below. For 10 players he found a proper miniature available in the existing Blood Bowl range; the other 7 are conversions. This original set of miniatures and unique figures have come into the possession of Tom Anders aka GalakStarScraper, THE reference in the Blood Bowl community. You can find a detailed set of pictures of the original Chaos All-Stars on his website.

The Chaos All-Stars - from Old Skool Picture Archive

For about 15 years the Chaos All-Stars team continued as a unique collector's item. On a good day, Tom Anders decided the annual GW Chaos Cup tournament organized in Chicago required a special give-away miniature. I prefer to quote Tom himself from a reaction he posted on the Phil Lewis' interview on the Realm of Chaos 80s blog:

"Working with Games Workshop Chicago ... I had purchased original master metal casts of Phil's sculpts of Juergen Demonfeeder and Garak Grigolson that were original cast by GW so those were moulded and cast up for the GW Chaos Cup event with their approval. The other original characters that were given away at future years Chaos Cup tournaments at Games Workshop were created by Phil Bowen who took the original stock figures that Phil Lewis had converted and then converted them to match as closely as possible the conversions Phil Lewis had done ... those figures were Sark Four-Eyes, Snake Sanders, Krefft the Despised, Acid Scarred Max and Constrictor Atlanson. So these 5 are very similar to the Phil Lewis models for these characters ... but are not exact."

Yes, you have read correctly: It appears only Juergen Demonfeeder and Garak Grigolson (the 2 blitzers with the big shoulderpads) are EXACTLY the same like in the original Chaos All-Stars team by Phil Lewis ! The 5 other limited edition figures are proxies created by Phil Bowen aka Lucien Swift - a well-known miniatures sculpter - looking very much like the original team members but NOT exactly the same... On some figures the differences are hard to spot, but the difference is clear when comparing the original and the copy of Acid Scarred Max. Thanks to the efforts by Tom Anders, a couple of hundreds (?) copies of all seven "special Phil Lewis minatures" have been distributed at the Chaos Cup tournament and some other, smaller occasions. The original team is safe in Tom's cabinet (see picture below).

The original Chaos All-Stars in the cabinet of Tom Anders - from MidgardBB.com

For the sake of completeness you find below a full list of Chicago Chaos Cup tournaments figures. This is a direct listing by GalakStarScraper on TalkFantasyFootball.org. As you can see, all 7 limited edition figures which are part of the Phil Lewis team have been distributed between 2004 and 2009. Galak continues the tradition of launching a miniature based on Chaos All-Stars meta, but from 2010 these were no part of the original Phil Lewis team.

History of the Chaos Cup figures:
2004 - Garak Grigolson and Jurgen Demonfeeder
2005 - Sark Four-Eyes
2006 - Snake Sanders
2007 - Krefft the Despised
2008 - Constrictor Atlanson
2009 - Acid Scarred Max
2010 - Rex Farsight and alternate Rex Farsight
2011 - Lord Dorian the Lost
2012 - Spider Smith
2013 - Phil Lewis sculpted Apothecary/Wizard for the Chaos All-Stars (from when he made the original team)
2014 - Ruddog Ironhead (starting in 2014 all Chaos Cup miniature moved from metal to spincast resin)
2015 - Margoth Doomgrim
2016 - V'hnn Qlss 'Snakey' Zzchhtrr

My references for this article have been TalkFantasyFootball.org ; midgardBB.com ; Realm of Chaos 80s and old skool picture archive. I would appreciate if any of the people actually involved would correct me on any mistake I have made in the reconstruction of this small but relevant part of Blood Bowl history.

My personal cherry on the cake is my very own copy of this famous team ! I started collecting the miniatures when I got the opportunity to buy a full set of the 7 limited edition figures from Dave "Da Dutch One" via the Belgian Blood Bowl Forum in 2014. Next I started selecting eBay auctions for the 10 remaining miniatures to complete the team, which took me about 2 years to get some affordable wins. Being a slow painter, after another 6 months I can finally present below pictures of what is today the prime of my Blood Bowl collection : The Chaos All-Stars, a tribute to the Phil Lewis classic team !

The Chaos All-Stars - my tribute to the classic Phil Lewis team !

The 7 limited edition Chaos All-Stars miniatures

Chaos All-Stars marauders - some  classic miniatures !

Skaven mutant, Dark Elf and Goblin - the Animosity carrying Chaos All-Stars allies

The Chaos All-Stars are mainly associated with the inclusion of 3 different Big Guys !

The most expensive Blood Bowl miniatures to date ?

When quickly going through the eBay offers a couple of weeks ago, I was quite exited to find a Games Day 2000 limited edition Lizardmen team on auction, including the Kroxigor ! This is a very rare event, the first time I witness one in recent years. For those not familiar with this team, Games Workshop produced 200 copies to distribute during its annual gaming fair event (called Games Day) in 2000. The models themselves are not exceptionnal, they are simple conversions from Lizardmen miniatures from the Warhammer Fantasy Battle range in 2000. You find below the pictures of the miniatures which were actually put on bid by an Italian seller in November 2016. Best pictures you can find at Stuff of Legends.

Games Day 2000 limited edition Lizardmen team

Games Day 2000 limited edtion Kroxigor

I was very curious @ what prices these would sell. I'm not a Lizardmen player so I'd only have a collector's interest , but I would take a shot at getting these legendary miniatures if the final price would be reasonable (= low ☺). My illusion at getting these in possession was quickly broken, as bids rose sharply and still several days remained for the auction to close ! As prices can easily triple in the last hours of an auction, my expectations were high and I was sure these would shatter the record of 115 € for the sales of the unreleased Human Blood Bowl coach !

When the auction finally closed, the Kroxigor went first in a separate auction for 185 € ! Approx. 1 hour later the Lizardmen team was sold for 419 € !!! The same seller also offered the limited edition Skink Cheerleader - not an official part of the Lizardmen team but a fitting company of rare and limited edition Lizardmen miniatures. It went for 47 €, which suddenly sounds quite modest ! That's a total of 651 € for a set of 13 metal figures. "It's only money", a couple of collectors must have thought - I do hope the different miniatures were sold as 1 set to 1 person, this would make an awesome addition to any Blood Bowl collection !

Limited edition Skink Cheerleader

The investment in these ultra-rare miniatures possibly is not even that foolish. Intrigued by the high prices, I did some quick research on the internet, mainly TalkFantasyFootball.org - the collective Blood Bowl memory ! I found a link to a eBay auction from April 2012 in which the team went for 220 €. Much longer ago, in a TFF.org thread from 2002 some collectors discuss the price of the Games Day 2000 Lizardmen team, including GalakStarScraper aka Tom Anderson. It appears in 2002 a price of 150 USD for the complete team was considered "expensive", as 1 auction closed even below 75 USD !

Quite a good return : from 75 USD in 2002 to +600 € in 2016 ! It also means that this team will most probably remain out of reach for those still looking for it, unless they are willing to put an indecent amount of cash for a couple of toy soldiers on the desk - if you can find one. Good hunting !

Value of GW Blood Bowl miniatures - with a focus on eBay auctions

From 1987 to 2007 Games Workshop has been selling miniatures of 5 different editions of Blood Bowl. Except for some plastic frames included in the basic game boxes, all of these models were in metal and do not degrade as time passes - they can survive the most horrible paint-jobs with a simple acetone bath. That represents 20 years of building up a pool of Blood Bowl miniatures, with 2nd (1988) and 3rd edition (1993) probably representing 95% of the bulk of miniatures.

While the game retained a fanatic following, Games Workshop discontinued the Blood Bowl range in 2007 as the company was bending back on their core systems of tabletop wargames. Demand remained there so the supply gap was filled in by (small) non-GW companies launching alternative "fantasy football" miniatures. The original GW miniatures remained very popular so a market for 2nd-hand miniatures proliferated, facilitated by on-line auction sites with eBay being the biggest reference.

Following-up eBay auctions and having some experience myself in buying and selling miniatures, Blood Bowl miniatures can be classified according to value:

1. Zero-value : These miniatures have no individual value which justifies any additional costs such as shipping, commissions, ... Market is saturated with these models, coaches have no use for them and / or they have no esthetic or fluff value. They'll only be part of a "package deal" transaction, in which costs are spread over multiple miniatures but even so the quantity of models needs to be high, the package needs to contain some higher value miniatures or these miniatures are part of a well-painted team with a good miniature balance. Bulk of 2nd and 3rd edition linemen miniatures belong in this category, but also some particularly useless or ugly positional models.
2. Low-value (approx. 2 - 5 €) : Coaches / collectors will pick these up to fill in a key player gap in their near-complete roster. In this category you will mainly find 2nd and 3rd edition positional players, and a few 3rd edition star players.
3. Mid-value (approx. 10 €) : Getting into the more expensive range of models, miniatures will catch this price because they are harder to find or because they have a high esthetic and / or fluff value. Blood Bowl coaches / collectors are a nostalgic bunch and will pay money for miniatures which represent particularly well the spirit of madness embodied by Blood Bowl. On the lower end of this class you find most 1st edition miniatures. Moving up in price you'll encounter 2nd and 3rd edition star players and big guys. As 4th and 5th edition was on sale for a relatively short period of time, many of these miniatures have low numbers of availability and will fit into this category.
4. High-value (approx. 20 €) : We are talking serious money for a single miniature here  ! All models in this category are rare or even limited edition collector's items. Blood Bowl coaches will have a very good reason why they are looking for these specific miniatures and are willing to put cash on the table to get them. Bidding wars between motivated collectors can drive prices significantly up. Typical examples are 4th and 5th edition star players, "Rotters" from the Nurgle team, 5th edition Griff Oberwald , Zara the Slayer, Hack and Slash, Skitter Stab-Stab, Slibli, ... and all 7 limited edition Chaos Cup All-Stars miniatures.
5. "Let's go bananas"-value (+35 €) : Yes, some Blood Bowl miniatures will easily hit values of 50 €, with a record 114,53 € for a single, unpainted model as recently as November 2016. Demand for these miniatures far outweighs the supply, with collectors not willing to separate from their treasure. So everybody is watching out for the rare opportunity when a miniature goes on sale because of whatever reason and bidding wars start. The list of these Blood Bowl miniatures is limited and well-known to collectors (possibly I'm forgetting a few here) : Mighty Zug 5th edition (both official and GW-staff version), both 5th edition Dark Elf Assassins, Thrud, "Resurrection" Gutter Runner, Lizardmen Cheerleader and an unreleased Human Blood Bowl coach which it appears is the most rare and expensive miniature in the market ?

These are my findings and I don't expect everyone to agree, certainly not some semi-professional eBay re-sellers when I have a look at their "Buy it Now" prices . But these do not represent the value of a miniature as long as no-one is buying them to confirm the price. Basic principle of market mechanism tells the price is where demand and supply meet. That is why I love the auctions, as a finished auction confirms seller and buyer have found each other in the open market and the value of the miniature has been confirmed by a transaction.

The secret to happy collecting is "be selective". Unless you have unlimited resources to spend but that wouldn't be as much fun, I guess.