It is genuinely difficult to get across just what variety there was back in the early through mid-80s. We think we have a lot now, and we do, but it's a lot of the same.  But, what do I know? I know I only spent 46 years of my life gaming at the expense of everything  and several years running a bricks and mortar game store,  putting games even befoe my grandfather's funeral. So, I guess that makes me a fair weather gamer, but I'll put me neck on the line and say that categorically, there was not only more variety, but there was more being put out by gamers themselves, who, as Jon Peterson also repeatedly makes clear, if my opinion is inavlid to you , were pleased if somone played or used something they typed up and Xeroxed, doubly so if they made a little money to support their hobby. Now, the amateur press such as it is, is geared towards making the next big thing, and that's all that matters. The simple joy of sharing their enthusiasm is not enough.  I confess, I ...

    The odd thing about my early years, was that despite the fact that my parents were overly strict and overbearing control freaks in the rest of my life, when it came to gaming, because I was mixing with improving and wholseome characters, I got a lot of freedom.  Ask to go into town when here was some kind of minor Left Wing/CND protest and I would be confined to barracks, but ask to travel 30-100 miles on a quest for games, and that was OK, as long as I let my parents know by publuc phone, when I had arrived and when I was returning home, laden down with booty which even the original Games Workshop could not provide. For a short day out, we would go  by bus or train , to  Doncaster which had The Stamp Corner, ostensibly a philatelic supplies specialist, but which also stocked Minifigs and Hinchcliffe figures and the entire range of Osprey books, which was amazingly useful when it came to Christmas and birthday, as my father worked in Doncaster and, worked wi...

  It's been a weekend spent pottering around the manse, punctuated by a Saturday night watching the Rocky Horror Picture Show, with original cast Q&A session and a 'shadow cast' performance in the manner of the 19th century Tableaux tradition. And, despite a mere 6 hours sleep, here's the first 15mm sci-fi force finished. I set out to do these for my own 'taste', not going for the level of finish I provide in my 'day job'. But, the end result has been quite nice, and very much in keeping with my desire to rediscover my own 80s aesthetic. The Hov-Cav are all GZG, apart from the Independent Power Armour (AKA The Light Ale Infantry) which are Brigade Models. Each vehicle is shown with it's crew. I'm certainly enjoyiong the creative process (at a personal level - like I said, I keep job and hobby compartmentalised) and have so much more to go at with the sci-fi bug.  I'm already working on the second force...      

 I was looking at a few historical conflicts over the weekend, and thinkinging to myself 'Hey, they are crying out for a range of figures. I think I'll get my sculptor on the case...' And then I thought, 'Fuck it! We are already collectively snowed under with more ranges than we need.' Indeed we have more periods than a sorority house. And I really believe that. We have way, way too many 'periods' and ranges of figures, which the 'Big Boys' in the industry troll out as the 'next big thing we all  need  to play'. And, because we are, like it or not obsessive with I think a higher than average spread on the autism scale - myself included, before some young scamp does their usual 'hatchet job' - we collectively believe the hype and spend money without thinking about it, considering what scope there is and replayability.  Of course, the Big Boys, want us to get bored and start something else, that they will already have planned... And do ...

 It's been a while... The Memsahib has been seriously ill and so, my days have been 'interesting', and to be honest, I've also been doing other things which, have meant I've not had time for the usual number of epistles. We did make it to Fiasco the other week, having missed T' Other Partizan for the first time in over 20 years (it was either Partizan or 3 nights at the theatre, and as the the theatre meant the Memsahib would not be driving a distance, or having to be on her feet for long, it was the no-brainer choice. Indeed, she had been out of hospital for a mere 14 hours when we crossed the threshold of Fiasco (and she spent more than I did) for what was a pretty underwhelming show. We were in and out including two breathers for She Who Absolutely Must Be Obeyed, and lunch, within 2 hours. Fiasco is now on par with Recon in December, and lacks the bring and buy, so I think it will be our last visit to a show I've loved since I was a teenager, schlepping ...

 I have been having a few days off from the world, to allow me to take stock of things and have three nights at the theatre in one way or another. Last night we saw Nigel Kennedy and frankly, were blown away by the playing and at his audience rapport. In the moments I have grabbed from what has been a hectic schedule - with more late nights than I have had in the last 20 years, as a result of being a 'patron of the arts' - I've been thinking a lot about how my hobby was afforded when I was a kid. Apart from spending money of £3 per week, and whatever I could scrounge from not using all my dinner money (around 40p per day), that was it until I started painting after school and earning more than my first job paid, every week. So, on a level playing field and for the first couple of years of being a gamer, I built armies on a weekly wage of £5, which got around 60 15mm or 20 25mm figures each week.  So, it must have been possible to do a lot, because I had a lot of stuff and i...

I was chatting with friends over the weekend, and it was quite clear that I am far from the only one with 'views' on how the hobby is becoming a playground for people with agendas other than just playing with little lead dollies on make believe battlefields. One of the things we discussed was 'gatekeeping' and how it is used as a derogatory pejorative, when in actual fact, it's really time that the so-called gatekeepers of the hobby were given some due. Look, like it or not, those people who care so much about the history and traditions of the hobby will be the ones who history will show, were the true heart of wargaming. You can experiment and innovate all you like, but never lose sight or memory of where it all began. Admittedly, I only started in 81'/82' but hell, I was taught by my older gaming peers to respect the roots and trail blazers in the hobby. They did not try to constntly fucking milk gamers. They came up with something, improved it and honed i...

 So, we've seem so far, that I had a lot pf places to get my 'fix' of toys and models, and as you will recall from the first instalment, it was one of these lifelong (well I was only 12 going on 13  after all) haunts which gave forth my first whiff of wargaming models, and I was now buying the odd pack of figures (not blisters, but the baggies used by Citadel for trade stockists) and using my model paints - enamels back then - to give them rudimentary paint jobs. I was going into Beatties and Redgates and looking at the boxed games including War Of The Ring, D&D and Sarforce: Alpha Centauri (a scenario from which had of course, given the name to the Sheffield synthpop pioneers 'The Human League') but I could not make that link between the miniatures and these strange new products - and it was frankly a little fucking frustrating. I was looking everywhere, even in Sheffields 'Underground' book store 'Exit Books' just down from West Bar... I knew i...

 And so, we head towards the end of the primer on the toy stores which directly and indirectly led to my entry into gaming, in all it's forms. Leaving Redgates, we head now to the Moorfoot, the location of the current Games Workshop, but we are disregarding the Johnny-Come-Lately because it's not my Games Workshop, neither is it where we are heading. We are instead heading to Marcway Models, a compact two floor model shop where many good things can be found.  Now, Marcway was very much at the extremes of the Hides zone of control, but it had some great stuff. I still preferred Beatties for most of my stuff but it would be Marcways where I would find, in the mid-80s a stash of Macross kits, during... Well, let me jump the Shark a little and tell you what the situation was with regards to Macross kits.   The Macross range of anime themed giant robot kits were new in the mid 80s, and Darren Ashmore (now a tenured Pofessor of Giant Robots and Puppets at ICLA in Japan, no less...

 So, toy shops... I genuinely believe that in Sheffield, we were spoiled for choice. I was born in 1968, so I lived in the golden age when Action Man was an alpha male, but girls had Havoc, a smaller scale action figure for girls, who had a motorbike for Christ's sake... She kicked Sindy's flowery-knickered ass, and even Action Man watched his step around that lady. Barbie stayed well clear for fear of getting a brake handle taken down the side of her nipple pink convertible. Havoc was designed by Mary Quant - talk about designer toys - and was well tooled up: When it came to Action Man, I was a pedant for detail. I actually bough matching uniforms (Duck Hunter pattern, high boots and M1 steel Helmet , or green jumper and beret for commando missions, for all of the troops under my command - Which if I remember correctly was 7, although the Assault Boat could only stay afloat with 6, so two patrolled in my Cherilea PBR, to allow a fully tooled up 5 man team to conduct raids, rep...

 I wrote around 370 pages some years ago, ostensibly about being a tabletop gamer and roleplayer in the early 80s and beyond, but I think it's time to add to that and indeed add texture and context to what it was like to be part of something as awesomely different as this hobby was then.  So, let me try and fill in some gaps and widen the scope of my original writing. I make no apologies for being an unreconstructed man of my time. I don't have time for political correctness, nor for the identity politics of the world today. I believe that everyone has a right to do as they wish within the basic tenets of morality - it is private to them and should be kept that way. If you are 'offended' by terminology, recollections and the like, then please feel free to simply exit this blog and, off you can jolly well fuck, and live your own life. I won't be offended.  In  1981, I was just a normal kid - normal for the time, at least - and in that Autumn, I'd gone from Junior...