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The story begins in 1990, when four friends, all for modelling, decide to launch "Lama Project", whose purpose was to produce new high-quality modular elements of the setting, suitable for both static modelling and for railway models and wargames.
Regrettably, times are very tough at the beginning: trials on material and models are very time-consuming and the feedback from the market is not encouraging… after several years the company splits up.
One out of four friends does not give up: Lorenzo Marchetto, confident that the project will pull through, founds ManorHouse Workshop. He changes materials (and switches to Atoplast resin), sets up a different range of products, devises them differently... and his efforts finally start to pay off.
As time goes by his product range keeps growing, he includes different characters, other scopes of application and more model scales.
In 2001 Manorhouse opens its first website and across the borders people get to know the quality of its products. It does not take long before private individuals start making orders, as do stores and distributors around the world, including Switzerland, United States, Canada and Germany.
From 2001 and 2003 ManorHouse Workshop cooperates various times with different firms and publishing companies (including Rackham, Games Workshop, Disney Channel, RAI (Italian public TV Channels), Hobby & Work, Wizards of the Coast and more), when it produces models and settings for photo shoots, television advertisements, shows and tournaments.
By the end of 2003 Manorhouse Workshop activities are well-established and it supplies its products to an assorted group of customers worldwide. As a new business incentive, and considering that the wargaming sector is ever-growing, a new "trade mark" about wargames and miniatures comes to life: Lorenzo Marchetto joins a new partner and they give life to ManorHouse Miniatures. All the work concerned, from concept to production, is Italian.
After only 8 months in the making, during Lucca Comics & Games 2004 the skirmish wargame Mindstalkers™ is presented with its innovative rules and high quality 40mm scale miniatures. The whole game can be downloaded for free from the website purposely created. The first set of miniatures is about the Italian and European Middle Ages.
Considering the rise in requests for elements of the setting, outsourcing production of them is the best way to provide a much quicker production speed. Now instead of Atoplast we use a polyurethane resin that still guarantees the same product quality along with higher sturdiness. Furthermore, we now use moulds closed on all sides (which allow the items to be cast on every side), instead of the "open-side" ones that the previous casting procedure required (where one side was left undone).
After one year of inevitable adjustments, the final release of the Mindstalkers™ rule book is distributed in July 2005. The set of miniatures for the middle ages now counts 40 models, and we set out to work on the series for the science fiction setting. Distribution in the United States and Canada officially started in September 2005 and these distributors join England and Spain, where distribution had started earlier.
| ManorHouse Colors & Accessories! |
Manorhouse activities increase at an ever-growing rate: in November 2005, during the Lucca Games 2005 show, we start marketing the new range of colors ManorHouse Colors, in an exclusive polyurethane-acrylic compound exclusively studied for miniatures and elements of the setting. Simultaneously, we introduced ManorHouse Accessories products, which include a set of garments that are based on the Mindstalkers background tales, and a number of gadgets for wargamers, such as the i DiceHolders™, the elegant and fancy keyholders and necklaces from which you grab your dice.
- The sets of Workshop kits will keep growing and several science fiction settings will join the series.
- Mindstalkers™ will keep growing: the range of miniatures of the middle ages never stops growing and we will soon introduce the science fiction series. In addition we are studying a new kind of cardboard packaging for the game sets (along with the standard blisters), and a printed version of the Core Rulebook, Markers and Playing Tables.
- The Colors range will include new colours as well as a range of very high-quality modelling paintbrushes, accessories and tools.
- In the Accessories range we have new products just around the corner… keep your eyes on the website!
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