Ral Partha

(Note: Thanks again to Chiríne ba Kal for his help with the below information.)

Bill Murray was more of an artistic figure sculptor and not as interested in wargame miniatures. He soon gave up the Petal Throne line. Ral Partha started advertising that it had taken over the Petal Throne figures in April 1978. At the time, Ral Partha was aggressively expanding its ranges of figures. Ral Partha continued all the figures previously produced by The Old Guard and produced and sold some figures that had been sculpted by Bill Murray but never sold by The Old Guard.

In February 1979 Ral Partha announced seven new Mu’ugalavyáni figures sculpted by Tom Meier based on drawings by Craig Smith. There were also two priestesses sculpted by Brian Apple and some non-humans (some sculpted by Meier and some by Apple) added to the line in 1979.

For the previous The Old Guard figures, Ral Partha wrote slightly new descriptions for its catalogue but the same stock number means the same figure cast from the same mold.  The one exception is the hláka, which was redone in a standing version.

In the list below, the new figures are in bold and the name of the sculptor is in parentheses. I do not have good photos of all the Ral Partha figures but you can check  the general appearance by looking at the photos for the equivalent PHD figures.  A future post will also discuss how to distinguish figures made from the same molds by the various companies.

T1 General, Standard Bearer and Trumpeter (Bill Murray)
T2 Heavy Infantry Pikeman, in full armor (Bill Murray)
T3 Heavy Infantry Archer, in full armor (Bill Murray)
T4 Legion of Red Devastation, Medium Infantry, armed with two-handed sword (Bill Murray)
T5 Warrior Priest of Fire, armed with great mace and sacrificail (sic) dagger. Officer for T4 and also separate battalions (Bill Murray)
T6 Sokatis Regional Medium Infantry, with slung demon shield (Bill Murray — Ral Partha changed this figure slightly; the Old Guard Version had a halberd with a thin shaft and Ral Partha made it with a thicker shaft)
T7 Aridani Light Infantry Girl, armed with spear and shield (Bill Murray)
T8 Ura (sic) Light Infantry Slingers, armed with sling, mace, and shield (Bill Murray)
T9 Crossbowman (Bill Murray)
T10 Light Infantry, with spear (Tom Meier)

Y1 General, Standard Bearer and Gong Beater (Bill Murray)
Y2 Heavy Infantry Pikeman, in full armor (Bill Murray)
Y3 Heavy Infantry Archer, in full armor (Bill Murray)
Y4 Dharu Regional Medium Infantry, armed with axe (Bill Murray)
Y5 Regional Medium Infantry Swordsman, supporting Y4 (Bill Murray)
Y6 Light Infantry Skirmisher, with axe (Bill Murray)
Y7 Makhis Light Infantry Archer (Bill Murray)
Y8 Hlikku Desert Warriors, sect of The Mad One (Bill Murray)
Y9 Crossbowman (Bill Murray)
Y10 N’lyss Medium Infantry, swinging two-handed sword (Tom Meier)

P1 Priest of Hr’ry (sic) (evil) robed, wearing demon mask with temple standard and spell scroll (Bill Murray)
P2 Priestess of Avanthe (good) (Brian Apple)
P3 Priestess of Dlamelish (good) (Brian Apple)

NH1 Shen, (reptilian) armed with spear and sword (Bill Murray)
NH2 Ssu, (four legs, two arms) carrying shield and sword (Bill Murray)
NH3 Hlaka (winged creature) armed with javelins and firepots (Ral Partha’s Brian Apple redid the original Murray figure as a “standing hláka, which now had smooth fur and an integrated base and did not have the hole for a wire in the stomach)

Ral Partha NH4

NH4 Ahoggya (large, four arms, four legs, three weapons and shield) (Bill Murray)
NH5 Great Sro, (large dragon) armed with sword (Bill Murray)
NH6 Shen, in full armor (Bill Murray)
NH7 Black Ssu (Tom Meier — Ral Partha shipped the figures with two sets of front legs “standing” and “upright”)
NH8 Pachi Lei, armored (Brian Apple) (Note the Ral Partha 1979 catalogue has a typo and lists this as “unarmored”)
NH9 Mihalli, Magic user (Brian Apple)
NH10 Mihalli, Warrior (Brian Apple)
NH11 Pechoi, unarmored (Tom Meier)

Ral Partha NH12. (Image used with permission of Lost Minis Wiki.)

NH12 Pe Choi, armored (Tom Meier)

Ral Partha M1. (Image used with permission of Lost Minis Wiki).

M1 Heavy Infantry Spearman (Tom Meier)

Ral Partha M2. (Image used with permission of Lost Minis Wiki.)

M2 Medium Infantry Swinging Warhammer (Tom Meier)
M3 Medium Infantry Spear (Tom Meier)
M4 Heavy Infantry Swinging Axe (Tom Meier)

Ral Partha M5. (Image used with permission of Lost Minis Wiki.)

M5 Archer reaching for arrow (Tom Meier)

Ral Partha M6. (Image used with permission of Lost Minis Wiki.)

M6 Slinger (Tom Meier)

M7 Command Group (Tom Meier)

Real Partha would not hang on to the figures for long.  Interestingly, mention of the Petal Throne figures dropped from Ral Partha’s advertising even before the Mu’ugalavyáni figures were released.  By 1980, Ral Partha had given up its rights and stopped producing the figures.  That will be the topic  of our next post …

(BTW: If anyone has images that I am missing, please send them along with permission to post!)