Martian Metals was founded in 1976 by Forest Brown to provide metal miniatures to the burgeoning fantasy role-playing game industry. Miniatures produced by the company had a distinctive six-sided base designed to fit the standard hex grid map used in many miniatures games. Martian Metals rapidly became one of the premier miniatures companies in the RPG industry, winning several awards.

Martian Metals went out of business in the mid-1980s. Brown would later start up another miniatures company, Deimos Design Studio, that was active until his death in 2010.