Lord Gort and the Outcasts : Lost Metal from the Mists of Time

I was cruising through the annarchive.com Dragon Magazine archive one day recently.  Let me tell you, 1) it's interesting to see some of those issues 2) in retrospect I find much of it laughably corny, 3) the April and October issues remain my steadfast favorites.  I must have had a good sprinkling from #80 to about #140 or so, right about the time our group's interest in 2nd edition started to peter out, and they got in on the Vampire: The Masquerade thing.  I don't know I don't hold a grudge or anything.  I can't remember a damn thing about the system other than the Gangrels...

Anyhoo, this might probably better be put up on my wargaming blog but it has more to do with games in my own personal golden era, back in the murky formative yearsof my yute.  I distinctly remember slobbering almost continuously over Imperial Space (with the deadly Space Pope - heard it's a vapor game...) and Villains and Vigilantes.  And I probably appreciate Gamma World and Star Frontiers much better now than I ever did then.  And I find I hate Snarfquest and Wormy in an abject way.  Maybe 'cause of nostalgia and that I never saw the ends of them.  I only just the other day recalled the 1st edition of Ghostbusters and 2nd edition of Paranoia, both of which I owned and maybe played one time (nobody at 13 could be a capable DM, just saying)

There's this.  This group of little distorted lead and tin bullets likely distorted my thinking about games and this hobby in a way that I wasn't aware of until I saw the full page spread (which I cannot find again, but here's the RAFM 1987 Catalog Page):

You see here: Pongo Gutbag (on litter), Lord Gort, The Vicar, Majuba Sunshine (not pictured), Scary Mary, Yob the Faceless One, Digger the Thief, Pinhead the Assassin, Scags (I think Scags had a spear IIRC)... Pinky the Eunuch is not pictured, either.

I was already focused on may of the Ral Partha and RAFM minis, and when the early Citadel stuff came around - especially the Chaos and Elves of the late-80's, I was hooked.  I had Gamma World 1, by this point, and also Star Frontiers, and also had tried to suss out CoC (too early).  I was 11 when these ads hit in 1986, and I think I had seen The Road Warrior about 17 times.  These particular figs, turns out they were sculpted by Bob Murch and may account for why I still collect these ridiculous hunks of metal and plastic today.

In particular, I love The Vicar, Digger, Yob, and Lord Gort himself.  Strangely, you can get some of these from Noble Knight and so I just got somewhat poorer by a small margin in the pocket-book.

I don't know the story behind any of these personalities but at 11, my brain feverishly attempted, and failed mostly, to think about what kind of fantastic lives they lead.

With nigh on 30 years of experience behind me, I can vouch that the reason they are The Outcasts is because they are louts, and have mental mutations of the worst sort, and would kill you and your party for a nickel or a copper piece or a cap or a half-a-cred, or a nice pair of boots.

They don't seem any less cool for all that, though.

Maybe I try to hunt up the official story for these figs (doubtful one exists), but if I don't find anything then maybe I will stat 'em up in DCC or CUaBM/Crawljammer/MCC terms.  I imagine that my Purple Planet thing will need a burst of twitching life by the time MCC drops, so it could be good.

Anyways, cruise through the annarchive thing and see what your childhood hath wrought.