thevampiredio

I'm most impressed by companies whose products supplement and blend in well among the existing Citadel models. That's actually harder to do than making a better sculpt: you have to do something new and fantastic, but without straying too far from the well-known design styles of the game.

I'd happily buy the exact same stuff from Games Workshop or an affiliate instead if the bastards would just make it, and keep making it.  It doesn't help they've begun releasing new stuff so often it's a constant struggle these days to keep your army and Codex up to date.  They're out of control now; each force mysteriously possesses completely new powerful units pulled out of their asses every few months to upend game balance.  Codexes and core rule editions come out at a faster pace to accommodate this fact, and everything gets more expensive by the year.

Back in my day you had to plan strategy more, because those units that can eat five tanks in one turn simply weren't around. I wasn't any good at it... but now any punk can just buy a win with a few uber-unit kits.

Some of the companies I'm interested in should stay viable, because they have enough minis based on non-GW stuff.  And some of the GW-like stuff can't reasonably be proven is a rip-off, like the characters I want so bad.

One company has off-brand versions of: Inquisitor Quixos and the members of Inquisitor Eisenhorn's retinue; Inquisitor Ravenor; Ciaphas Cain with his aide Jurgen; and the Blood Pact from Gaunt's Ghosts novels.  I have no idea how many of those names mean anything to you.  But although the resemblance is clear, nothing beyond suspicious coincidence can be proven.

It also has some generally useful models, that were clearly intended for Warhammer players but go nowhere near a copyright violation.  They just have looks that blend in well with the overall aesthetic!

(If you're interested in the company that had all those characters, let me know.  I'll drop a Note, so your friend can't see the site or company name.)