Olleys Armies closing down
Bob Olley has announced that they have decided to close down Olleys Armies.
From their announcement:
It is with much regret, infact I am gutted, that I have to inform you all, that we have decided to close down Olleys Armies. We came to this decission after much consideration and number crunching. As you know we have been in business for over 4 years and to this day still have tons of enthusiasm for making new models but, unfortunately we have failed to get a large enough customer base to sustain the business and give us any expectation of a reasonable profit. We have found running Olleys Armies a very demanding but rewarding experience and although we have both been prepared to work hard without initial returns we have reached a point where we can no longer justify the expense and time. I wish I was in a position where the returns didn’t dictate the future, but in our case they have too, so its bite the bullet time.
We would like to take this opprotunity to thank our many loyal and enthusiastic customers who have kept us going over the last 4 years and the fact is, if we had not had such support many of the models would never have been made. Our exsisting store will be open for as long as it takes to clear most of the stock, so for a short while it will be business as usual, but without new models or restocks.
For the future, I can’t be sure at this stage whether we would be selling the business moulds and all, but if we do it would be done on a closed bid basis.
Finally, I intend to keep a small website open so that we can continue to display all the images of painted miniatures submitted to our our exsisting gallery and maybe even add more as time goes on. The cherry minus the cake, so to speak.
oh poopie…
Shame, damn shame.
It certainly is. I was hoping to see some more of the Scrunt Inquisitors come out
Very sad news.
I’ve been hoping for a long time to make my first order of dwarf worlds and scrunts but now I don’t know if there will be any stock left when I get some dosh :(
do you happen to know if Bob Olley is planing on selling the rights to his minis so some other mini shop can proudce and sell them.
That’s right! I was so looking forward to the jetbikes and the Inquisitors.
This calls for exceeding my minis budget this month.
Man, it’s sad to see a small mini company close its doors. His scrunts are the best space dwarfs out there right now, I think.
This is sad news - like FlyingLab says I was hoping to make an order for some of the scrunts when I had some spare cash.
Hopefully Bob can find a buyer to take the business over/buy the moulds and keep his work in circulation. Or maybe Bob could sell limited rights to another business to handle casting his work even if he doesn’t do the whole thing himself.
I haven’t bought any of their models, but always enjoyed seeing the Scrunts. Sad that I (possibly) won’t be seeing any more.
No word on future plans but one hopes that someone like Hasslefree picks the moulds up and makes them available.
… one hopes that someone like Hasslefree picks the moulds up and makes them available
That’s exactly what I was thinking :-)
Hasslefree would be great, but do they have the capital to buy the molds? Maybe Reaper? Add the Scrunts to the new Chronoscope range, and integrate the rest into DHL and Warlord?
Dammit!
I really liked the fantasy lines!
I did get 4 of the minoes. But now I’ll never get those goblins!
too sad - Bob is a great guy and has worked hard at this line (not my cup o’ tea…). Shame to see this shutting down. I hope Zac is right in his prediction :)
This is truly a shame. Bob is one of the better sculptors out there IMO, so seeing him forced to close down is a real tragedy for our hobby. :-(
I don’t normally do this but I really do encourage everyone to drop by their store and pick up a pack or two to help Bob clear out his stock. Bob has some great miniatures.
I have always loved his dwarfs. The exchange rate is a killer, plus I have many other models to paint. I sure wanted the pirates to go with my Crusader dwarf pirates.
Did I say blow the mini budget this month? Try the next six months.
As long as no other beloved manufacturters go OOP or have a fire-sale, I’ll be ok.