The Definitive List

Welcome to The Otherworld Citadel AD&D Miniatures pages, devoted to the superb Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons range of fantasy figures produced by Citadel Miniatures in the mid-1980s. This range of figures faithfully captured the feel of 'old school' 1st edition AD&D, providing players and Dungeon Masters alike with some of the best 25mm fantasy gaming miniatures ever made.

In March of 1985, in the editorial of White Dwarf magazine issue 63, Ian Livingstone announced that Citadel Miniatures were to begin the manufacture of official D&D and AD&D miniatures. The range kicked off in June 1985 with the release of the first two D&D boxed sets, with AD&D blister packs and two boxed D&D dragons following later in the year. The range steadily expanded over the subsequent eighteen months, until TSR renegotiated the official AD&D miniatures licence with Ral Partha in 1987, forcing Citadel to sell off their remaining stock of blister packs in a huge half-price sale!

The first boxed set, BDD1 - 'Dungeon Adventurers', contained a selection of typical D&D adventurers; two fighters, two elves, a dwarf, cleric, thief, magic-user and a treasure chest. The second release, BDD2 - 'Dungeon Monsters', was a good selection of low-level sword-fodder; two giant rats, a pair of fire beetles, a stirge, a kobold, a skeleton, a giant toad, an orc, a gnoll and a bugbear. The other two D&D boxed sets, BDD10 - 'Red Dragon' and BDD11 - 'Green Dragon' were also nice models, but much better was to come!

The AD&D range of figures representing player characters featured a novel concept, later copied by Ral Partha and RAFM. Blister packs contained three miniatures, each designed to represent the character at a different stage of experience, wealth and power. For example, ADD1, the Magic User, featured a mage wearing a tatty robe and a battered old hat, a modest dagger hanging from his belt. The second figure wears better quality clothes, a more ornate dagger and a couple of scroll tubes hang from his belt, and he wields a wand in his right hand. The third version of the character wears a fur-trimmed robe and cloak, carries an ornate staff and several items of jewellery, and his belt bristles with wands, scrolls and scroll tubes. Despite the differences in equipment, the facial features are sculpted to show that it's still the same character under all those trappings of fame and fortune. The 'adventure packs' which also formed part of this sub-range, featured models of the same character on foot and mounted on horseback.

The AD&D Monsters range had a definite 'UK flavour', featuring creatures from TSR UK's Fiend Folio such as Githyanki, Norkers, Meazels and Xvarts. Many of the monsters also featured an interesting concept first used in the earlier Fantasy Tribes range. To enable Dungeon Masters to collect large numbers of evil dungeon denizens, lots of the monsters were produced with subtle variations in weaponry, clothing and facial features. Some poses had 3 or 4 variants, while some may have had up to 10 or 12 different versions. This was a welcome innovation for a DM who needed 20 different Kobold models, although I'm not sure who would have a need for 6 different Liches! Very few of these variants were ever catalogued by Citadel, so it continues to be a fascinating and frustrating challenge to find them all!

As you explore this site, you will notice some gaps in the coverage of the range. The collection is still not complete, and if you have a figure which is missing, please let me know. If you can provide me with an image for the site, that would be great, but if you are prepared to swap or sell your figure, that's even better! I often have a reasonable selection of spares, and will always offer a generous deal for a missing monster variant, so please e-mail me to discuss a trade, send me a 'heads up' on an eBay auction, or just give some feedback on the pages.

This range was by no means a complete collection of figures for the AD&D game, and there were some glaring omissions! Where was the Monk player character, why only 2 Dragons, what's with 22 different zombies but only 1 skeleton, and what did Citadel have against Gnomes and Halflings?