Elanti
The Quest for the Stones

About Elanti - The Quest for the Stones

History

Elanti Fantasy Figurines were first developed in 1988 by Cipher Ltd., distributed by Willitts Designs in Petumla California. They started producing whimsical fantasy figurines that appeared to be based on a fantasy book that was never published: "Elanti The Quest for the Stones".   My best guess is that Gayle Middleton wrote the fantasy book and most, if not all, of the characters in the book were sculpted by Mark Newman.  These were then produced in the Kingdom of Taiwan and subsequently sent back to the States to sell to collectible stores. 

Cipher Ltd. was forced to shut down the line shortly after starting production due to some business infringement put forth by Panton International who was producing the Krystonia line of whimsical fantasy figurines based on a book.  Mark Newman actually sculpted the first batch of Krystonia figurines and was let go (or left) Panton for brighter pastures.

The Elanti line was ordered to stop all production and collectible stores were mandated to send their stock back for destruction.  On very rare occasions, some will be listed on ebay or other sites.  Very few of these survived and there is still aspects of the history of the line that are a mystery.