"Sergeant, Begin Dialling Sequence"

Another box full of unpainted metal goodness showed up at the post office for me yesterday. After getting it home and dumping it all on the table (then cleaning up the resultant mess of green packing peanuts) here's what I found.

What you see there is an assortment of the officially-produced 28mm Stargate miniatures by Phoenix Icons in (or around) 2007 or 2008. I ordered them from Cold War Miniatures in the UK and they arrived two weeks to the day after. They had quick service, nicely packed and shipped, and there was also a friendly little handwritten note inside saying thanks.

In case you can't tell by looking at the full-size image here's a run down of what I picked up:

• 2x Stargate & DHD
• 1x Jaffa First Prime
• 2x Skull-capped Jaffa 4-pack
• 2x Serpent Guard Jaffa 4-pack
• 2x Hawk Guard Jaffa 4-pack
• 2x Jaffa Heavy Cannon w/ gunner
• 1x SG-1 Team (O'Neill, Teal'c, Jackson, Carter and Mitchell)
• 1x SG-9 Team (5 generic SGC dudes armed w/ P90s)

In addition, a very kind fellow over on Lead Adventure has sent me a figure to use for my Go'a'uld system lord, which I'm eagerly awaiting. So what the heck am I going to do with all of these you might ask? It's a longish story that I'll try to shorten up a bit in the interest of well, typing less.

Stargate SG-1 was a show that I enjoyed when it was on TV but didn't watch religiously or even regularly. I had enjoyed the original movie a lot, and would catch the show when I could. I knew it ran for a long time and I enjoyed the overall concept, but passing interest was about all I really gave it. Fast forward from 1997~1998 to autumn 2012...the show popped up in my list of recommendations on Netflix, so I thought "what the hell, let's give it another look."

While there are some pretty goofy episodes (what sci-fi series doesn't have those?) overall I've really enjoyed it. I'm down to the last half-dozen episodes of the original series and am over halfway through the first season of Stargate Atlantis. Now, why the gaming/figures?

Since April or May of this year I have been madly working away at various miniature projects. Everything from 1920s pulp horror to superheroes to gothic sci-fi, pretty much whatever catches my fancy. Looking around a short while back for some rules to play 'weird' WW2 stuff someone suggested Ganesha Games fantasy rules. I bought those, liked them, and ended up grabbing a few more of their books...one of which was Flying Lead.

Near the back of that book there are two pages of ideas for doing a "Star Portal" near-future sci-fi series of games. It's very obviously Stargate-without-the-license and just sounded like a ton of fun. I mean, that's part of the beauty of the Stargate, almost anything could be on the other side of that event horizon.

As for the gates/DHDs, I bought two thinking that I could do one in red like the one at Stargate command in the SG-1 series, and another in blue like the Atlantis gate. Even though they were a little pricey I think that plan will work out well. After seeing the figures I do feel it's a bit of a shame that Phoenix Icons didn't continue producing them. The only complaint I had with them was that a lot of the staff weapons were pretty seriously bent from being in the package...but that was easily solved with some hot water and a little bit of careful patience.

Bringing things back around to the actual purchase decision, I think it was simply a confluence of mostly-unrelated events leading up to an idea that sounded like fun. Initially I'll be doing up the Jaffa and planning some games or even a campaign around them getting pummelled by SG-1 and their friends. I'll also be using the Jaffa as cultists in games of Strange Aeons and Kulten; maybe James and I can have a Jaffa vs. Cobra battle royale!

If inspiration stays with me, I can find the models, and people are interested in playing further, I will put together similar armies of figures to represent the Ori and the Wraith. If possible I'd also like to find figures to do up an Atlantis team with McKay, Ronen etc. 

It should be fun, so stay tuned!