What the heck does "Preslotta" mean? • Collecting General

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What the heck does "Preslotta" mean?
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lucyjoyce
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:22 am

In researching mini ids I see Citadel "preslotta" all the time. Of course if one googles "preslotta", all you get are ebay auctions selling preslotta items. Are newer Citadel figures made to fit in slots or something? Thanks for your help!

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faro
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:34 am

lucyjoyce wrote:In researching mini ids I see Citadel "preslotta" all the time. Of course if one googles "preslotta", all you get are ebay auctions selling preslotta items. Are newer Citadel figures made to fit in slots or something? Thanks for your help!

*nods* Slotted bases first used around 1986(?): before which bases were integrated into the molding (hence, pre-slotta).

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lucyjoyce
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 8:06 am

Thanks for the info!

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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 12:22 pm

Slotted bases are the way to go, by the way. A very nice innovation.

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IttyBitty
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:32 pm

MShipley88 wrote:Slotted bases are the way to go, by the way. A very nice innovation.

Call me old fashion but, slotted bases?

ICK! ICK! ICK!

otherworld
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 7:19 pm

faro wrote:
*nods* Slotted bases first used around 1986(?): before which bases were integrated into the molding (hence, pre-slotta).

1985!

JohnGaunt
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:38 am

IttyBitty wrote:Call me old fashion but, slotted bases?

ICK! ICK! ICK!

No, the really icky bases were the pegged bases that some Ral Partha minis briefly had.

Picture a mini of a horse. The bottom of each hoof has a peg. The base is a cavalry-sized base with a pattern of holes. None of that is a problem. The problem is that the spacing of the pegs does not match the spacing of the holes.

Slots are a lot harder to screw up.

rmeints
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:48 am

Slotted or "slotta" bases have a lot of advantages, especially if you use your minis for miniatures based wargames. Because the slot is fairly standard in length and placement, Citadel/GW minis could easily be put onto circular or haxagonal bases. Instead of the traditional solid base, it's easy to just include a bunch of plastic bases that can be used with any of the slotted minis. They are also easily replaced if lost or damaged.

I also like the fact that the name of the miniature is usually far more legible on the metal strip at the base of the slotta mini. They are usually labelled with raised type. Pre-slotta minis were minimally labelled, if at all. That's why you see far more "can someone identify this mini" requests from collectors for pre-slotta minis.

The Stuff of Legends website, www.solegends.com has loads of examples and info on this topic. The Collecting Citadel Miniatures yahoo group is where most of the Citadel collectors seem to exchange info.

Hope that helps,
Rick Meints

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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:06 pm

JohnGaunt wrote:No, the really icky bases were the pegged bases that some Ral Partha minis briefly had.

Picture a mini of a horse. The bottom of each hoof has a peg. The base is a cavalry-sized base with a pattern of holes. None of that is a problem. The problem is that the spacing of the pegs does not match the spacing of the holes.

Slots are a lot harder to screw up.

Yes, the pegged bases were worse....

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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 10:07 pm

IttyBitty wrote:

Call me old fashion but, slotted bases?

ICK! ICK! ICK!

I don't like them either...

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lucyjoyce
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:22 pm

faro wrote:
*nods* Slotted bases first used around 1986(?): before which bases were integrated into the molding (hence, pre-slotta).

otherworld adds "1985" as start date. I have several Grenadier minis that are dated 1986 and are preslotta. So did they make both kinds that year? I don't have any of the slotted kinds, so I can't weigh in on that, except that I would love to have the names printed on these old ones. It is quite a hunt to find the ids. I'm depending on the kindness of strangers quite a bit these days...particularly here. Thanks, folks!

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IttyBitty
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Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 9:37 pm

lucyjoyce wrote:
otherworld adds "1985" as start date. I have several Grenadier minis that are dated 1986 and are preslotta. So did they make both kinds that year? I don't have any of the slotted kinds, so I can't weigh in on that, except that I would love to have the names printed on these old ones. It is quite a hunt to find the ids. I'm depending on the kindness of strangers quite a bit these days...particularly here. Thanks, folks!

Not all companies switched over to slotted minis and stayed 'preslotta'.

In my experience (and I am not an expert) when I think of slotted miniatures, I think of Games Workshop.

Others went slotted, but I cannot think of which ones.

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Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 10:14 pm

lucyjoyce wrote:
otherworld adds "1985" as start date. I have several Grenadier minis that are dated 1986 and are preslotta. So did they make both kinds that year?

Citadel was the first company to go slotta -- they ran full page ads in game magazines bragging about what a great innovation slotta bases were. Other companies took longer to switch over. Ral Partha, for example, stayed with "integral bases" for most lines well into the 1990s.

Nowadays, it's almost a secret code: Figures with sold with integral bases are meant for roleplaying while most figures with slotta bases are for wargaming. Except for the "slotta or die!" companies like GW (who, of course, used to be Citadel).

I'm not Grenadier ever did slotta bases. I think they produced all integral bases until the bitter end.

(Put me in the camp that prefers pre-slotta, by the way. Slotta bases always look big and clunky to me.)

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Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:36 pm

Grenadier didn't adopt slotted bases at any point AFAIK.

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Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 3:28 am

After a short time you don't even see the slotta bases.

I would think that slotta bases would be practically the only way to use miniatures for D&D

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Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 12:17 pm

I dug into the "Grenadier slotta" subject a little. It looks like they had one slotta-based line: Future Warriors, a sci-fi line designed for skirmish/war games. That line was originally released in the UK, where slotta bases were (and still are, from what I see) more popular than in North America.

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Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:27 pm

Thanks for the link to the Future Warriors line. I have a bunch of these and I used them for the Warhamer 40,000 spin-off game, Necromunda. They make great gang members and sci-fi warriors.

I'd love to collect more in the line.

Mark

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Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 1:42 pm

In that case, you should probably look at Mark Copplestone's new company. His Future Wars line is pretty obviously a continuation of his "Future Warriors" work.

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