Ral Partha

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Painted Ral Partha miniature. Actual height is about 1 inch (25 mm).

Ral Partha was a company based in Cincinnati, Ohio that made 25 mm and 15 mm miniature figures for role playing games and historical games. These figures were made of lead or pewter and sold unpainted.

The company is named after a Dungeons & Dragons wizard character belonging to a friend of the founders.^[1] The company was built around the skills of Tom Meier, widely considered a pioneering force and the best sculptor of miniatures ever.

In the mid 1980's Citadel Miniatures reproduced several of Ral Parthas lines (including Elves and Halflngs) under license for the UK market ^[2].

Ral Partha miniatures are all currently available again from the company Iron Wind Metals, LLC (also based in Cincinnati). Iron Wind is a shadow of Ral Partha, having been formed by one of Partha's original owners and their production manager.

Ral Partha and Iron Wind miniatures are identical in craftsmanship; Iron Wind uses the same casting personnel, metal and molds used by Ral Partha before it went out of business in 2000. However, most Ral Partha sculptors have left the company and now work for other companies such as Thunderbolt Mountain Miniatures^[3], Ollies Armies ^[4], Reaper Miniatures ^[5] and others ^[6].

[edit] History

Tom Meier was 15 and loved to sculpt figurines. Jack Hesselbrock, the man who would go on to become Ral Partha's president, took notice of Meier's work. Part of Meier's secret: he was using a new substance called E-Pox-E Putty. As an untrained amateur he just stumbled onto the substance, although no trained modeler was using it. Meier discovered it was ideal for creating small miniatures as it held detail well.

Hesselbrock was aghast to discover the company that Tom was doing work for was only paying him half what a designer half as good would earn. Glenn Kidd saw raw talent, got together a group of investors including Jack Hesselbrock Partha's first and longest employee, and started Ral Partha in 1975 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The other investors were Rich Smethurst, Charles Crain and Marc Rubin.

The company started making casts of ancient historical soldiers, a small market at that time. However, it attended Gen Con 1975 and discovered a growing market for swords and sorcery type figures. Ral Partha was making a line of ancient Greek warriors like hoplites and found a ready market selling to the D&D crowd that at this early stage would use any kind of miniature as long as it had a sword or spear in hand. Actually, Ral Partha had about 35 different fantasy figures on hand and sold out of its entire stock of miniatures after Gen Con '75.

In 1988 Ral Partha signed a deal with TSR to produce an official line of AD&D figures. Ral Partha also held the rights to make miniatures for other games like FASA's Battletech, Chaosium's Runequest, and Metagaming's Ogre. When Wizards of the Coast took over the TSR product line for Dungeons and Dragons, the decision was made to create and market their own line of miniatures. The deal with Ral Partha was terminated after Partha was sold to FASA - a competitor and Partha was ordered to destroy not only the molds of the official AD&D line, but all unsold product as well. As a result, these old miniatures are now highly collectible.

By the late '90s, with D&D eclipsed by Magic: The Gathering, FASA's Battletech line became a major source of revenue for Ral Partha. However, with revenues from its fantasy RPG line of miniatures drying up, Ral Partha got into a business nightmare as FASA product accounted for 53% of it's sales. FASA saw an opportunity. It gave Ral Partha an ultimatum. Ral Partha could either sell itself to FASA for 1/3 its market value or FASA would pull its Battletech license. With little choice, Ral Partha sold itself to FASA in 1998.

When FASA went out of business in 2001, Ral Partha ceased to be. Most original Partha, Battletech and AD & D figures are no longer available except for the historical lines.

Meier himself left Ral Partha in 1988 and founded his own company called Thunderbolt Mountain Miniatures which specializes in dioramas and larger figurines (54mm+).