"Minifigs US and Minifigs UK 15mm Napoleonic ranges" Topic

Are the 15mm Napoleonic ranges from Minifigs US and Minifigs UK the same? I've been looking at the figures on the UK website and though the infantry look good I'm not keen on the horses. They don't look anywhere near as good as the old Minifigs horses so I was wondering if these are available in the US range?

I think all the horses in the Naps range were replaced in the 1990s, so probably the same in both countries. Shame, as I agree with you that the older (2nd Generation) horses were much more accurate anatomically and also more pleasing visually in terms of pose.

It's a shame they decided to do that. I've got a couple of old Minifigs catalogues and the old 15mm line looks really good. The newer horses look quite odd to me. I've got some 15mm ACW figures and they look like they are mounted on big dogs.

Now that I think about, 'mounted on big dogs' is about right!

The anatomy is off, and I'm not keen on the pose and the tail. The second gen horses are much more attractive and useful on the table, as cavalry usually sits more than it gallops.

I wish Tom, who does so many wonderful things with these (and his other acquisitions) would seriously think about re-doing the mounts!

I've had a look through the catalogue at the second gen infantry and compared them with the photos on the current UK website and I think the infantry are in better poses as well. It's a really good-looking range of figures. It's a shame it's not still available.

I was never a fan of the 2nd generation Minifigs (too wooden poses for me), though I will admit to not having seen any 3rd generation ones, if they exist for the Napoleonic period.

IMO there are multiple ranges of figures out there of better quality. YMMV depending on your personal tastes of course.

I much prefer the 3rd Generation horses with the wavy bases than the 2nd Gen rectangle bases. The detail on the horses are a lot better.

lebooge,

I suspect you might have the same view of the current range as there is no variation in any one pose – although there are now four poses (standing/kneeling firing, marching and advancing) for most infantry types, which allows you to build firing units/skirmishers. The cavalry poses are a little more versatile as the extended sword arm can be bent into a range of charging positions. However, the horses really are poor – the riders actually sit on them in such a way that they bisect the animal's spine.

They have same problem with their ECW/TYW range – a few really nice figures (some excellent charging pikes in morions, hats and wolly bonnets) spoiled by other pikemen in a running pose waving their pikes in the air (those that don't break in the pack rapidly become spaghetti), and cavalry looking and firing their pistols sideways.

On the other hand, their Marlburian range is quite nice and a perfect example of the one thing I would always praise about Minifigs 15mm, even the new (3rd) generation: a lot of thought and imagination goes into their command and artillery packs, including the Napoleonic ones. These have some great poses for vignettes and for adding command and variety to units of figures from other makers.

(Just for the record, I've never ordered from the guy in the US, but from people who have I have never heard anything but praise for his excellent service and advice – he posts on here quite regularly.)

I lament the passing of the 2nd Gen M-Fs, especially the ECW and TYW lines. In fact, I prefer the 1st generation to the present lines of figures.

HI, Guys. Regarding the horses: Go find a top-down view of a horse. Guess what? The rear of the horse is wider than the center! So are ours! Their anatomony is probably the most accurate out there! (I, too, being a "City Slicker" had to personally verify those allegations and was surprised to discover that Dave Higg's reputation for being a stickler for anatomical proportions remains intact!)

Same range as UK's. We just have not made/remade molds for all the nationalities. The 2D range only offered one pose for horses. The 3D range has two, in equal numbers for the GFI versions. (Hoofs together and hoofs apart. Valises are separate, too.) As mentioned, the troopers have their sword arms cast in a manner to allow repositioning by the customer. (The arms will not break off unless you reanimate the same guy a lot!) Leaving the sword arm in the "cast" position looks wooden! Animate that arm between your thunb and forefinger.

There are a few "Super Detail" (second generation) figures I might bring back, but will not go into details at this time. The third generation was in response to customer comments: horses don't march in step- we offer packs with two strides; more poses= we offer March Attack (rifle straight up; most used position in real life; Standing and kneeling firing- in same pack where available (most all); the classic wargame pose-Advancing; and the arty crews in poses serving the guns.

If you do not like our horses, fair dinkum! By all means, you are entitled to your likes and dislikes and "I" sure am not going to change your mind. For me, if "I" am going to spend hundreds of hours building an historical army, I want my minis to start out looking like the real thing as much as possible! That's why "I" (as a fellow gamer) prefer these Minifigs for most of my armies. Sure, I use other companies figures as well, but keep going back to Minifigs as my mainstay. Why do you think we jumped at the chance to put the quality back into the castings after seeing the masters?

There are many other fine makers of 15 (in some cases, 18mm?) Naps out there. We can be thankful we HAVE a choice like we do in this size!

Best Regards,
Tom Dye
GFI

I Love Minifigs! Not so much their cavalry figs but their Napoleonic Infantry are great! I'm not sure which gen I have but I like them.

I'm planning on a Russian GNW army that's gonna be comprised of almost all Minifigs.

and replacing my Essex SYW British with mainly Minifigs.

Otto
noizehive.blogspot.com

Mr Dye,

As a 40-year customer of Minifigs, I've got some comments on the development of the 15mm ranges and your response above (by no means all negative). Rather than hijack the thread, I'll post them to you via your website.

Hopefully they will be helpful – or at least of interest.

Thanks.

One thing I tried on my latest batch, and I think it helps a great deal is instead of using superglue to put the rider on the horse use some green stuff where the saddle would go. The problem isn't so much the anatomy of the horse but that the rider sits too low.
Phil

Thanks, Otto and Superkillious Maximus. The comments are useful and have replied.

Not all sit low in the saddle, but the use of green stuff (like Valmy92 suggests) should work just fine for those you deem necessary.

Best
Tom Dye
GFI

My original Napoleonic armies were all Minifigs; they were sold a long time ago.

Sadly, Minifigs no longer do it for me; there are other ranges which have much better animation, are better sculpted, and have multiple variations within each figure pose. If comparing a unit of Minifigs French Napoleonic infantry with a similar unit by AB or CGM I will always prefer one of the latter two.

As to the horses; yes, horses are wider at the back than in the middle, but not that much wider!

Just my view,

Colin

Personally, I prefer the 2d horses over the 3d horses. Both look good, so far as anatomy are concerned (not that I'm an expert), but I prefer the walking poses to the running/galloping. Having two poses in a unit can be good, but not if the two are not similar (as in one trotting and one running).

Here is a general on a 3d gen. horse: picture

Looks good, but takes up a LOT of room.

Here's a couple of officers on more sedate 3d horses:
picture

Here is a unit of 2d gen. cavalry:
picture

Here's another:
picture

You can click on the pictures to make the larger.

I wasn't meaning to be critical of Minifigs in general. They're my favourite manufacturer. Always have been and I suspect always will be. But I guess I prefer the 2d range because they look more like the 25mm range than the 3d range does.

Anyway, thanks for the information. I had been toying with the idea of starting to do Napoleonics in 15mm but I've decided to order some of Minifigs' 25mm British infantry instead.

Seems that that old 25mm Napoleonic range remains popular in the UK! We sell quite a few here in the USA, but in spurts. When we do get orders for them, they are usually quite large. (And none appear on our site! We only have had about 80% of the range in molds here for the last 4 years and despite not being "advertised", we still get (and fill) orders for them.)

!5mm Naps remains our best selling range of 15's, closely followed by WWI.

Tom Dye
GFI

I am an avid fan of Eureka/AB Napoleonic 15mms, but I dont like their artillery, as a purely subjective opinion. In my opinion MINIFIGS artillery is the best out there. Its slightly smaller scale than AB, but looks fine with a stepped up base. So I get a lot of their limbers, and the horses look fine to me, and are much easier to paint than AB ones!

I also like their skirmisher poses (kneeling shooting and standing shooting)but their advancing poses seem a bit too lively for me!

My all time favorites will probably always be Minifigs.

all of my 14,000 or so troops are minifigs and i hope that tom dye at gfi get their 25mm up soon????

robert

I agree with Sparker and Supercilious Maximus, the Minifigs 15mm skirmisher, command and artillery sets are really beautiful sculpts. I'm basically into Minifigs and Garrison 25mm figures but I keep getting tempted to move into Minifigs 15s because some of the figures look so good. Their sets of British and French sailors are particularly fine and I may well end up buying some even though I have no idea what I would do with them!

However, I find the poses of the majority of Minifigs' Napoleonic and ACW 15s a little frustrating. They either seem to be charging – which makes it hard to mount them more than one rank deep – or else they are marching, parade ground fashion – which makes them look a bit too formal for my taste. I prefer figures to be advancing with the musket held across the body. It may not be historically accurate but somehow it looks right on the wargames table.

And I just wanted to say to Don Lowry, I really like the paint job on your figures. Very nice work.

Among the Minifigs, I prefer the 2nd gen 1980's variants, both for horses and men. The new figures are interesting, but the infantry appear to be vigorously thrusting with sharpened telephone poles while leaping headlong at the enemy and the horse's posteriors are indeed waaaay too big.

* blush *

I have hundreds of Minifigs both 25mm and 15mm and think that the current crop of 15mm mix ok on the table top with my ABs. They aren't the same size but when you've hundreds a mm difference is neither here nor there. AB's are worth every penny but MF offer excellent value in 15mm.

I do however much prefer the AB artillery although the French guns need slight modification. The MF versions are too small IMHO and the wheels very, very thick. That written I will be adding more MF 25mm to my collection at some point although they are now feeling a bit expensive atm given that they are old figures @£0.80 against £1.00 GBP for a recent Perry.

I must say some very nice images of Minifigs. I will have to rethink my feelings on them. There are some really nice 3rd generation figures out there. Just goes to show you can teach an old dog some new tricks.
VR
James Mattes

I like the 2nd generation infantry better than the third. The muskets are far to obtrusive for basing on the 3rd generation figures. I do like the animated appearance of the 3rd generation horses but for gaming purposes I still prefer the 2nd generation.

I wish GFI would get the website and phone system operational again, I haven't been able to place an order for awhile. Not sure what the problem is but I'm sure it will get resolved.

Since originally posting this question last year I have now started building armies of 2nd gen 15mm Minifigs, mainly through purchases made on eBay. I still find it astonishing that Minifigs chose to junk the whole of the 2d range. It must have involved an enormous amount of work re-sculpting the hundreds (thousands?) of figures involved. If people were demanding figures in more active poses then surely it would have made more sense to add these to the existing line than start again from scratch?

Well I still have loads of em! They paint up really easily and look fine on the table for a mid price figure. Their artillery pieces were especially good, and very affordable.

But yes, I stopped buying the cavalry. It wasn't the width of the rump, but the way the tails were flying out at the back. A unit of a dozen cavalry all with tails a flying made it look odd, as if there was about to be a mass dung drop… and I had problems sticking down the irregular & skinny shaped cavalry bases on my cardboard figure bases.

I went for Tabletop Games cavalry after that for a while (where are they now I wonder!?) but although they were clean castings,even easier to paint, and had unbreakable lances etc moulded into the side of the horse, they were a bit chunkier than the Minifigs elegance, and had weak ankles!

I go for Essex cav now. Decidely bigger, but not in a way that is out of sorts with the army. Those units of puny Minifigs Cuissasiers have therefore been beefed up with units that look much more the part!

Most all of my 15mm Napoleonic figures are 2nd gen Minifigs. I resently bought some 3rd generation Minifig Russian and Austrian generals. I was struck by the increase in the size of the horses. However, I do like these 3rd gen Minifig general officer's horses. Here is a photo that shows the difference between 2nd gen horses and 3rd gen horses.

picture

I think the horses and the sit of the rider on them looks good.
They look like the real thing and not like dwarfs on elephants, where the legs end mid body of the horse.

I like the new-style Russian officer's horse but I don't much like the Austrian officer's horse on the right of the picture. It looks more like a dog than a horse to me.

Incidentally, in answer to the question I posed at the start of this thread, it turns out that Minifigs in the US does carry some figures that are not currently available in the UK. GFI/Minifigs sells British and French sappers in marching poses that aren't listed on the Caliver website. I've got a few of the British ones and they make a very nice addition to command stands.

I like the quality of the castings of the current MF figures (the pewter gives a cleaner figure). But the problem I have is with many of the advancing poses. The angle of the extended muskets make it very hard to mount the figures so that you can line the stands in columns. If the muskets were closer to 45 degrees (from straight up) or what would be called high port this would be easier. I've had to go to cuttung off the bayonets (at least with the lights- British and Bavarians) to reduce this problem.
There are also some French figures from the 80s (2nd Gen?) that I would love to get. These were the French infantry in Bicorns (not the Revolutionary Wars version) which work well for for the 1805-07 time frame;and, the light infantry with the plume on the side of the shako. Anyone know where I can find any of these?

I get round the problem of the extended muskets by mounting my figures in staggered lines – placing the figures so they are not directly behind each other. I have also found with some Minifigs sculpts it is possible to bend the arms slightly so that the musket is moved into a more upright position.

The figures you refer to are no longer in production and don't seem to turn up on eBay very often. I've managed to get hold of a few of the French infantry in bicornes but have never seen the light infantry with the side plume.

As an alternative to the former there is a nice figure in the current Revolutionary Wars range (46F). The figure is advancing with the musket held high across the chest and I think looks fine for the 1805-07 period:
link

Thanks for the tip SJD. Is 45F (with gaiters) in the same pose? I have some Guard Gren I could use for the Gren Co, but how are the Legere/chasseurs in that series?

I have several Regts of the Bicorne Ln and side plume legere that I used for Augereaus 7th Cps and some of Lannes 5th. I also have some of the first Revolutionary figures in the mix too. But I prefer the later ones.

I'll try the arm bending to see how that works out. I do that with the cavalry, so why not with the inf.

I'm afraid I don't have any of the other figures from the range. I mainly collect 2nd gen figures and just ended up getting the 46F figures as part of a job lot on eBay.

It is very frustrating that neither Minifigs in the UK or the US have any pictures of the range. I don't know how they expect to sell figures when they don't show you what they look like.

Besides the rare appearance on ebay do you know of any other sites/stores where there may be some older MF available?

I don't know of anyone that still sells them. They have been out of production for a long time now. However, there were probably more Minifigs made than figures by any other manufacturer so there are a lot of them out there and prices aren't generally too high when they do appear on eBay.