Oldhammer Beauty, Oldhammer Horror
We recently fell into one of our favourite hobby rabbit holes: browsing old Warhammer Fantasy Battle minis online and arguing about which ones aged like fine wine, and which ones absolutely, gloriously did not.
It started with Stas dropping an OLX listing for a batch of old Orcs from 1987 and 1988. You know the kind of listing that instantly makes you stop whatever you were doing and zoom in on every blurry photo, just in case there is some forgotten gem in there.
And then we saw that Black Orc Big Boss.
Honestly? What a beast. Peak chunky Warhammer energy. Stas immediately locked onto him, and we fully understand why. He has exactly the kind of exaggerated, heavy-metal, slightly ridiculous presence that makes old fantasy sculpts so charming in the first place.
Of course, once you open the door to old Warhammer miniatures, the conversation immediately becomes a mix of admiration and bullying.
Michał brought up one of those classic cases of a model that is mostly remembered today because people search for it as the ugly one. We had a good laugh about how some old WFB sculpts are less “timeless classic” and more “historical document of strange design decisions.”
And then came the Treelord, which may still be one of the strongest contenders in the “what were they thinking?” category.
For balance, Michał also posted the newer version, which really shows how much Citadel’s monster design evolved over the years.
That contrast is part of what makes looking back at old ranges so much fun. Some minis feel trapped in their era. Others somehow break free of it completely.
And that brought us to the real winner of the discussion: the Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount.
Michał’s take was that this sculpt aged like wine, and honestly, we completely agree. It is one of those late-era Warhammer Fantasy models that still looks fantastic today. The silhouette works, the pose works, the mount still feels threatening, and the whole thing has enough character to stand proudly on a modern table.
He even said he would happily use it in Age of Sigmar, which feels like the highest possible compliment for an older WFB sculpt.
That kicked off a little side discussion about timing too, because this was already the twilight of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, around 2008-2009. And maybe that is part of why some of those kits still feel so good: Citadel had already become extremely confident in dramatic fantasy character design by then. Stas’ conclusion was simple and beautiful: if that was the era, then that era is now canon.
We also found an article about old Warhammer models that aged brilliantly, and naturally Stas was pleased to see his beloved Black Orcs getting recognition there as well. Validation matters.
By the end of it all, the practical outcome was exactly what you would expect from this kind of conversation: Stas started seriously considering ordering that Big Boss from eBay.
And really, that is how it always goes, isn’t it?
You start by laughing at weird old sculpts. Then you defend a few classics. Then you convince yourself that one particular goblin, ork, chaos lord, or deeply questionable tree monster is actually an essential part of your collection.
Oldhammer may not always be pretty, but it is never boring.
If nothing else, this little chat reminded us that the history of Warhammer miniatures is not a clean march from bad to good. It is much funnier than that. It is full of bizarre experiments, unforgettable oddities, and occasional masterpieces that still hold up decades later.
And yes, we are absolutely still thinking about that Black Orc Big Boss.
