Duke Seifried

Bruce "Duke" Seifried (August 19, 1935 in Janesville, Wisconsin – September 29, 2018) was a maker of Miniature models for games.

Career

Duke Seifried started crafting "Der Kriegspielers" Napoleonic figures to sell them for retail beginning in 1971, and then started the company Custom Cast in February 1972 in Dayton, Ohio. Seifried released a line of fantasy figures starting in 1974 called the '' Fantastiques'', which were among the earliest 25mm scale fantasy figures made commercially in the United States. Shannon Appelcline noted that "Seifried requires a bit of additional attention, as he's one of the most influential people in the early hobbyist miniatures market. He created the idea of blister packs, to sell sets of infantry rather than individual figures, and later came up with the idea of including figures with slightly different poses in those packs. More importantly for the RPG industry, he came up with the phrase 'adventure gaming' — which was used to differentiate RPGs from 'wargaming' in the earliest days of the hobby."

Jim Oden of Heritage Models and Seifried both experienced cashflow problems with their companies in January 1977, so they agreed to merge Custom Cast and The Royal Guardsman retail store which Oden founded in 1974, into Heritage Models, and Seifried moved to Dallas in support of the newly merged company. Seifried and Jerry Campbell of Military Model Distributors were talking in a restaurant about how Seifried needed more cash for his company after continued financial hurdles in 1979; millionaire Ray Stockman was in the restaurant and overhead them was convinced by the arguments Seifried made to buy out the share of the company owned by Jim Oden, so Heritage Models became Heritage USA as a division under Heritage International.

Seifried left Heritage in early 1982 and went to work for TSR, which wanted to start their own miniatures manufacturing. Seifried was put in charge of their new Toys, Hobby & Gift Division, which TSR announced at the Hobby Industries of America Show that was held in late January 1983. TSR was reorganized in June 1983 and laid off more than 70 employees, including Seifried; Shannon Appelcline suggested that "Seifried's layoff was probably the most stunning, as he was in charge of TSR's new miniatures manufacturing — and was someone who really knew the business. Some suggested the reason was political, as Seifried had been among Gary Gygax's top supporters."

Duke Seifried became part of the Origins Hall of Fame as of 2005.

Duke Seifried died on September 29, 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seifried, Duke
1935 births
2018 deaths
People from Janesville, Wisconsin