Lovecraft eZine reader Matthew Stevenson sent in the following pictures of some Lovecraftian miniature sculptures he bought in England in the 1980s. He says they were made by a company called ‘Grenadier’.
He repainted them recently. Very cool!
Spawn of Cthulhu
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Sand Dwellers
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Nyarlathotep
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Mi-Go
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Investigators
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Ghoul
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Deep Ones
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Cthonians
The Lovecraft eZine 
Hello Lovecraftiens! I’d just like to say thank you for all of the kind compliments on my “Call of Cthulhu” monsters and races that were produced by Grenadier when I worked there as a sculptor in the early 80’s. I’m overjoyed to know that my work from so long ago is still held in high regard today as I had never expected such would be when I designed and sculpted these little dudes back then. Seeing them painted in so many variants is also a big thrill. Like everyone else a sculptor has highs and lows in their chosen profession so reading positive things about one’s work, no matter how old it might be, helps reinforce the belief that I chose the right career path. Thank you all, you’ve certainly made my day! Cthulhu lives! 🙂 Peace, John
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I would like to comment on the Spawn of Cthulhu, It is not only a thing of beauty but the thought of an abstract perspective not only makes a wonderful hybrid in real life but the surrealism is like clockwork.
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I also have the CoC Grenadier range, purchased when they were originally released (Wow, I’m old!) and still a part of my Mythos collections. Until I saw the new Cthulhu Wars sculpts I had always been of the opinion that these were the best Lovecraftian sculpts out there and many are still leaps ahead of the competition. Always had a special fondness for their Deep Ones.
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WHOA! Those are OFF THE red HOOK!!!!!
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IMHO , Grenadier molded the best led RPG figurines
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The range is featured here on the Lost Minis WIKI, a site I contribute to to promote lost lead;
http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Call_of_Cthulhu_%28Grenadier%29
Most of this range is still available via Mirliton in Italy under their Nightmare title;
http://www.mirliton.it/index.php?cName=nightmares-28mm
And if you are into old lead check out my own blog (non political despite the title!)
http://deartonyblair.blogspot.co.uk/;
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IIRC, Grenadier was one of the leading miniatures companies in the 80s and early 90s, and was most well known in the US as the producer of licensed AD&D miniatures.
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Sean, that’s fantastic that you met the sculptor. It’s even more fantastic to hear that such a creative artist is still working away.
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If you’re interested, here is the link to John Dennett’s website; he has some really cool projects on the go: http://www.moondevilstudio.com/
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My girlfriend at the time bought me the adventurer and monster boxed sets from this range (bless her for that!). I’ve been able to supplement my collection over the years. I think that, for the most part, the grenadier miniature sculpts are some of the most impressive figures that have been released in this scale, which in truth is a bit closer to 25mm than 28mm. Given that they were released not long after the 1st edition of the CoC RPG came out, nostalgia value is very high.
Grenadier even published a scenario for CoC called “The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island”, which I was lucky enough to be able to grab when it hit the shelves. I’d be happy to contribute some photos if you want to put a gallery together Mike… 🙂
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My brother bought those 80’s Grenadier Lovecraft creatures when they first came out and recently he gave them all to me. They look fierce sitting on my shelf!
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After Grenadier’s demise, the molds were bought by Italian company Mirliton.it who still sells them at wargaming shows (I do not know if they sell all, but I certainly have those investigators and the Deep Ones). I think they had to rename the monsters on the packs because the license from Chaosium was expired.
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I have most of the miniatures from Grenadier’s Call of Cthulhu line, which I bought back in the mid-80’s and I recently had the very great pleasure of chatting with the sculptor, John Dennett, over on the HPL Historical Society Facebook page. He’s a very nice fellow and is still sculpting miniatures after all these years.
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These are retro-awesome.
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I have many of these as well, great memories.
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They were indeed grenadier, some of the range is still available from EM-4 miniatures and mirliton miniatures
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Yipes! I actually have these sets as well. An adventurer pack and a set -o-critters. Never painted them, but now I’m feeling inspired t find them in the depths of my storage locker. M
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Yeah I remember these. Just before citadel miniatures became massive alongside games workshop grenadier lead figures were the business. I remember a model shop in the Merrion Centre in Leeds where I would go with equally geeky friends to look at them in cases in the basement and, once pocket money had been suitably saved up, buy them. No idea what happened to them.
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Grenadier was THE company for The Call of Cthulhu RPG miniatures!
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Yes, they were sold along side with D&D miniatures at hobby stores, comic shops, etc.
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