Ok. True story:

The loose rule I used to have for all consumer shows was that if you had travelled XXX miles to talk to someone from Games Workshop the least we could do was try to give you 5-10 minutes of time to ask questions, show off your miniatures, etc. A lot of times it was "When is _____ army book coming out?" or "Why don't you release ______ again." Sometimes it was "This is my goblin!" when what you saw was a lump of putty that looked like a dreadnaught.

In 1996 I was working the booth at Gencon when a short, quiet, mustached guy walks up and wants to talk to someone about the studio. He has a codex he's been working on for a number of years and he wants it forwarded to the Studio.

The Codex: Furz.

Otters. In space.

For 15 minutes I hear all about the necessity of having otters in Warhammer 40,000. How there's a niche that Rick Priestly has clearly left for them. How they will work with/fight alongside the forces of the Imperium. Why they hate Chaos. Why they love Eldar. How Mustelid's will eventually help drive Chaos away. On and on and on and on... My favorite sentence: "This will be the Codex that brings Warhammer 40,000 to every dinner table in every house in America."

I tried to be polite. I remember suggesting that he mail it to the studio directly and his becoming loud and insistant that I hand deliver (?) a copy instead. Dutifully I took his manuscript, roughly 200 pages, after he left gave it to whoever was our guest from the Studio at Gencon that year. (I can't remember who but it might have been Andy Chambers.) They gleefully stuck it into their bag and promised to follow up.

Gencon 1997. First day. Within an hour of the doors opening who walks in with the same green shoulderbag but Codex: Furz guy. He makes a beeline for the booth and immediately starts to have the same conversation. Same Codex: Furz, same Otters, same urgent request. This time I had a few of the Studio business cards with me. I went through what we were supposed to say: "Items sent in are unsolicited and become property of Games Workshop." I explained that I wasn't able to take his Codex: Furz but he was welcome to mail it over which he didn't want to do. Instead he wanted to go through the whole thing again and argued with me why wouldn't I just take it. This went on and on and finally I just politely said I had to go.

sigh

Gencon 1998. Day one. I'm working the booth when in walks our favorite otter lover.

"I have a Codex that needs to be hand delivered to the studio."

"Let me guess. It's the Codex: Furz?"

"How did you know?"

"Because I'm the same guy you've talked about this with for three years running. Did you do anything that I told you that you needed to do last year?"

"No."

"Then I'm sorry. I just can't help you. If you want the Studio to look at it you'll need to mail it to them."

awkward pause

"Do you have a stamp?"

So the short answer is we didn't have Battle Toads and we didn't have Otters. It wasn't for the lack of someone trying.