To the Beasts' lair

A week or two ago, I went to ‘Beast Towers’ in darkest Evesham. I went there to take some pictures for our Norman issue, but obviously also took the opportunity to have a chat with the Beastie boys themselves - Andy (Lord S), Darren and Martin. When I arrived, they let me know they’d taken out more insurance since my last visit (one of their shelves collapsed - it wasn’t me, promise!).

After a precarious journey through rain and flood (yes, I had to drive through a flooded road to get to Evesham!), I arrived to a warm welcome from the Beast team. Perhaps more accurately described as warm inside the offices and less warm on the factory floor.

The Beasties have an excellent collection of painted miniatures which they kindly let me borrow (see WSS 84 for the results). While I was there, I had also got the opportunity to take a glance at their new Late Roman plastics. Very cool they are indeed and a very clever & bold move by Gripping Beast to produce them. Hopefully this will be the first of many releases for this era!

A full review of the Romans will be in the next issue of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy, but for now, I’m sure you realize I was impressed! I simply had to blag some to construct and paint…I already have some of the Foundry Late Romans mixed with the Gripping Beast figures in my proto-Arthurian collection. I predict my collection expanding soon with a box or two of the new plastics. This box will be out at Salute. 

I also managed to talk to Martin Gibbins about the Beast’s new battle game - Swordpoint. For details on this, you’ll have to await my next blog on Friday. For now, apologies for acting like a giddy fanboy…