The Citadel Giant Saga- Part III: Survival, Scarcity, and Why You Rarely See Them

My giant and reproduction box!

There has been a lot of discussion over the years about how rare the Citadel Giant actually is. 

With me being lucky enough to acquire one as I've noted here and here, my min turned to scarcity and actually how many of these still exist. 

Rather than relying on vague statements like “very rare” or “hard to find,” it is possible to build a structured model that explains both how many were likely produced and how many still exist today. This is not about claiming exact numbers. It is about building a model that matches what we actually see in the hobby.

The accepted starting point is that roughly 1,000 Citadel Giants were produced. There is no surviving ledger or official production record, but this number aligns with long standing collector consensus and is a reasonable baseline.

From there, the real story is attrition. Over more than forty years, these models were not preserved with future collectors in mind. They were used, broken, discarded, and in some cases intentionally destroyed.

Attrition Buckets (40+ years)

• Melted for scrap or recasting: approximately 150 to 300
  Large metal models had real scrap value, and hobbyists also melted miniatures for home casting projects
• Catastrophic damage (unrecoverable): approximately 100 to 150
  Snapped ankles, failed joints, corrosion, and early adhesive failures often rendered examples unusable
• Lost or discarded (moves, cleanouts): approximately 150 to 250
  Entire collections were thrown out or abandoned, especially during the 1990s when early Citadel models were not valued
• Unknown or inaccessible (attics, estates): approximately 75 to 150
  Not destroyed, but effectively removed from circulation

When these categories are combined, the result is a surviving population of approximately 150 to 300 Citadel Giants in any condition worldwide. This is the core number that matters.

From that pool, further filtering is required. Not all survivors are meaningful to collectors. Many are fragments, incomplete, or heavily damaged. When those are removed, the number of recognizable Giants falls to roughly 120 to 200. From there, collector grade or restorable examples likely fall in the range of 50 to 100.

High completeness examples are rarer still. These are models retaining most of their interchangeable components and structural integrity. That group likely numbers between 20 and 40 worldwide.

At this point it becomes useful to break things down into tiers.

Tier I – NITB (Museum Tier)

• Original box
• Complete contents
• Untouched
• Estimated: 0 to 10 worldwide, likely closer to 0 to 5

Tier II – Full Component Survivor

• All five heads
• All three right hands
• All three victims
• Estimated: approximately 10 to 20 worldwide
• North America: approximately 3 to 8

Tier III – High Completeness

• Four or more heads
• Partial hands
• Most victims
• Estimated: approximately 20 to 40 worldwide

Tier IV – Standard Survivor

• One to three heads
• Limited parts
• Estimated: approximately 60 to 120 worldwide

Tier V – Fragment or Wreck

• Broken
• Partial
• Parts only
• Estimated: remainder of the surviving population

Geography introduces another layer of scarcity. By the time Warhammer began to gain traction in the United States, the Citadel Giant had already been out of production for nearly a decade. This created a structural imbalance that still exists today.

In the United Kingdom, the Giant was part of the original ecosystem. It was produced, sold, and used there. In North America, it was largely absent. Very few were imported during its production run, and most examples seen today arrived later through secondary market transfers.

As a result, North America likely has only 40 to 65 surviving examples across all tiers. When broken down further, the number of high completeness or full component examples becomes extremely small. It is realistic to estimate that only a handful of top tier examples exist across the entire continent.

There is also a simple way to validate this model. If more examples existed in circulation, we would see them. There would be more listings, more restoration threads, more parts trading, and more casual mentions. Instead, each appearance is an event. Years can pass between meaningful sightings. The same examples are recognized when they reappear. There is no steady market, only intermittent visibility.

That absence of chatter is not coincidence. It is evidence.

Of approximately 1,000 Citadel Giants produced, it is likely that only 150 to 300 survive in any condition today. Of those, perhaps 10 to 20 retain full component completeness, with only a small number located in North America. This is not a claim of precision. It is a model that fits what collectors actually observe.

And that is what matters.

(More details on my quest for the giant can be found here and here on Oldhammer.org.)