"Demand for Britain" Topic

I am setting my priorities for the 2009 convention season.
One of my distributors can now get the britain range.
I will not be bringing Britains to Fall-In (but I will have the catalog with me) and I am debating about how much to stock or mainly do special orders.

These are 1:32 scale which is close to 40mm???

A number of the individual castings are very expensive but pre-painted for specific characters. A number of the sets covering WW1, ACW, WW2 and others are 48 foot piece sets or 18 mounted piece sets for reasonable costs for pre-painted.

What is the demand for these in the gaming community?

Thanks for your input.

Isn't it closer to 54mm?

I really do not know. 54mm maybe right.

Yep – 1/32 is 54mm; maybe it's different in the USA, but I can't recall the last time I saw 54mm down at the wargames club….

I thought 1/35th was 54mm.

Those of us who grew up with collecting them even before becoming addicted to wargames figures would probably be very vulnerable to impulse purchases if encountering them at a show. I know I would.

I'm not seeing big sets like those you describe on the William Britain's site. Do you know if they are the Super Detail Plastics?

Another thing to consider is that in their current business model, sets seem to constantly be retired. It may be difficult to keep up with special orders if customers' selections suddenly become unavailable.

We used to stop in at a little shop in Woodstock, VT when we were on vacation, and my folks would let me pick out a boxed set or two. If there were a place within driving distance that actually stocked Britain's, and you could pick them up right there (especially if they had the old-fashioned "vintage" range)--well, I'd go broke. It's that simple.

There are shops in London that I simply have to stay out of when I'm there.

And yes, I have all my old Britain's, including ones from the 1890s and (pre-WWI) 1900s which I inherited. Don't come a-knocking. They're even more safely secured than my firearms.

Allen

Oh, and they are 2 1/4"/54mm. There are people who game in 54mm, but apart from those lunatics that still play "Little Wars" with real Britain's and projectile-firing cannon, I would imagine most would be going for the plastic playsets: Marx clones, Baraso, the Toy Soldier company, etc.

Allen

Most Britains figures are considered to be collectors figures as opposed to gamers figures, except the super deetail range of course. I doubt there'd be too much interest from the majority of wargamers, though I used to use them for western gunfight games.

Thanks for the input. The super deetail sets intrigued me the most.

Jeez, I hadn't thought of Britains in decades until this thread. I remember having a nice collection of plastic WWII Americans and Germans back in the day, as well as a few modern Brit paratroopers (with cool mottled plastic…not a lick of paint on them!)

Damon.

A few years ago, I played in a 54mm game based on the Charlton Heston movie "The Warlord." The infantry were mostly plastic, and some may have been Britains--I don't remember. The Major General's website mentions somebody doing several of his colonial scenarios in 54mm.

They make an impressive game, and would be great for conventions.

Allen, my first Britain's plastic figures came from the toy shop at Cinderella's Castle at Disneyland. They were eventually joined by others that came mail order from Polk's Hobby Department Store in New York. Sigh.

Grelber

Wish ah had any of the horde of britains figures from me childhood There used to be a toy store in the Farmers Market (helLA) back in the 50's that carried them. <sigh>

I think a 6' man in 1/35th scale is 50mm high, while in 1/32nd he's 54mm. Doesnt sound much but it shows if you compare say, a Tamiya G.I. with an Arfix multipose G.I.

It might be fine for gaming but, it would look odd in a diorama IMHO.

Tamiya figures tend to be on the small side for 1/35, so the differences are much more pronounced (I scaled out a Tamiya TC once and he came out to be 5'4", well within human variation, especially for WWII, but compares poorly to a Warrior 1/35 German TC that came in at almost 6'5")…

Damon.

I'm one who games in 54mm. I use Britian, King and Country and John Jenkins. My preference is Jenkins from a collecting and gaming stand point. I find Britian for the money to be of a lower quality than King and Country and John Jenkins figures.

Yeah Garand, in the plastic modelling world Warriors and Verlinden are notorious for their oversized 1/35 scale figures. In fact, early Verlinden GI figures just had Airfix multi-pose M1 Garands cast in resin.

What can I say, 54mm wargaming is ATKM's bread and butter.

link

You know us well, Rudy, and we're often at the same shows together. Maybe we could create some synergy between our stuff and any Britains that you carry. I am looking at carrying some of their 18th/19thC terrain pieces, but not the figures. They carry some nice officer and general figures, especially for the AWI…

Ken

I've bought a handful of the super-deetail plastics WWII range for my sons and I to skirmish game. They're of a nice size and feel and there are plastic tanks available from a few online vendors…Shermans, Pzkw IVs. The bases are of course die-cast metal, so they don't topple very easily, which is sometimes a problem with other plastic soldiers.

They're of a relatively poor quality paint job…they're fine representations, but won't win any painting contests. On the wargame table, though, they're up to the job.

The range is very limited. For example, of the 5 or so German poses, one is an officer with a map which is of limited utility, and one is a fellow running with an LMG. I could have wished for a rifleman moving forward with his rifle level at his waist or some other more reasonable pose.

Nevertheless, for about $2 USD a piece for painted figs that can be tossed in a bag, they're pretty darned cool.

I like them for what I do; I doubt any collector would be interested.

Jim

Pre-painted figures in 54mm are rather costly to do whole armies from, but a number of gamers in this scale use them for skirmishes, ie fewer figures on a 1:1 basis, or as specials in larger games eg officers. I too have the John Jenkins Winter sets, and we ran some Battle On Snowshoes with them at Historicon this year and at the December K&C Toy Soldier show in London.

I think the new Britain's figures are now as good as any on the market [IMHO fully recovered from the previous owners attempts to get sculpting done in China, resulting in grotesques I wont put on the table!]. The new stuff we used alternating on the snow covered table at Historicon doing a battle of the Bulge game, with Forces of Valor tanks etc.

As to the Super Deetail [correct spelling, a Trademark] pre-painted plastics, they are very good value. We fill in the gaps in the equipment in each army with conversions – the plastic cuts cleanly and sticks with superglue. The basic paint job is fine, IMHO, perfectly adequate for wargaming as Jim says, and if you want they can be shaded too as the paint used seams to exactly match Valejo. We have Japanese and British Indian forces from them for Burma games using A Corner Of Hell. Our Americans are mostly Conte, who do a superb range of poses [they are the same figures as they do in prepainted metal]with some other makes, including Britain's Deetail, mixed in. Our Pacific game, 'Bloody Kaiten', using them won the WI Trophy Best Demo game at Colours last year.

Scales: 54mm is 1/32nd scale, the original toy soldier size. Newer plastic kits are 50mm, 1/35th scale. The latest development is a 'bigging up', with 60mm, 1/30th scale, which is what many pre-painted metals are now, especially King & Country and John Jenkins.