"What is the best range of figures you have ever seen?" Topic

We need to balance out all that harsh critique from the OFM's last poll. I'm going to stick to historical ranges, but let fly with whatever:

- The Foundry Copplestone Darkest Africa range

- Artizan Design's Screaming Eagles

- The Perry AWI range (especially the Hessians!)

- Empress's Zulu War range

- Conquest Mini's FIW

- Boot Hill's Alamo range (for sheer personality)

Xyston's 15mm Ancients.

GW's Warmaster 10mm Fantasy.

Critical Mass Games' 15mm Sci Fi

Quite of few come to mind – but one range which I have little or no hesitation on acquiring figures from would be Foundry's World of the Greeks range – particularly the AtG/Successor range(s) – replacement of some shields notwithstanding. Also, Redoubt's Trojan War range. There are many great ranges out that if time & money were not an issue, I'd already have.

Heritage 15mm Napoleonettes!!!!
They'd still be top of the market today if they came back.

Blood Bowl, 2nd Edition range figures, 28mm.

Corvus Belli, 15mm ancients & medieval, especially Hundred Years War.

15mm strip minifig greeks and persians

- AB 15mm Napoleonics. Sublime, in every sense of the word.
- Khurasan 15mm, especially the SciFi and historical lines.
- Merliton 15mm, and Venexia 15mm, are the best in my view for Medieval and Renaissance historical figures. Venexia produce excellent Louis XIV era miniatures as well.
- Testudo for 15mm TYW miniatures.
- Hallmark for 15mm early modern guns and accessories.

Finally, all of the above played on Hotz mats, with Wizard Kraft roads and rivers, Crescent Root buildings and Baueda terrain pieces.

My $0.02…

Zombiesmith Quar
Several of the Darksword lines
Anything that Dragonblood cranked out that was reptilian
Kev Adam's Goblins
Pretty much all of Void 1.1 except for a few characters
The Chronopia Dwarves

Depends on a lot of factors

The Asterix/Obelsik stuff was tops for its time.

Ral Partha stuff was also quite good.

You have to like Peter Guilder's stuff

I also think the Calpe Napoleonics deserve a mention.

I could go on all night here.

mjc

Battlefield Evolution

;)

Copplestone's Back of Beyond

Eureka's modern FFL, closely followee by their various 18th C offerings, especially the French revolutionary ranges.

"Battlefield Evolution

;)"

Because they are painted to a degree better than 90% of those used by most players????

Wow! So many great ranges out there now. Off the top of my head:

Bolt Action Airborne: Brit Paras and Yanks are excellent! Mr. Hicks has some talent.

18mm AB Napoleonics: Hell to paint, but awesome sculpts. In many ways they're more detailed than many 28's I've seen.

Otherworld Miniatures: D&D the way it oughta be!

Perry Samurai: see 18mm AB above.

Front Rank WSS: with the exception of the "bazooka" muskets they're what I have always looked for as far as this period goes.

EDIT: Add the Perry Twins' WoTR Range. Never before has a set allowed for so many variations among individual figures, and each new release only expands the possibilities. Brilliant!

Artizan have many good ranges – especially WW2 and Dark Ages.

Copplestone Future Wars

Crusader also have nice ranges. I like the Dark Ages and the Republican Romans.

Empress Moderns are fantastic.

Perry have so many good ranges that I struggle to pick one. I do like the Crusades and Orleans ranges.

Mick

Grymn by hasslefreeminiatures.co.uk

x42

1) Pax Limpopo from Eureka for sheer inventiveness
2) Blue Moon 15mm Pirates or Wild West for bringing a new dynamism to 15s
3) West Wind's Vampire Wars for making character drive their aesthetic

Anything by Perry (posing), Front Rank (painter friendliness) and Minden (anatomy).

Calpe Prussians

GW's Lord of the Rings

GW's Lord of the Rings
--> probably true. They are excellent. I have hundreds – far more than any other range. I have been buying these for 5 years and still keep on adding more. (The official retail prices are very high but you can often get them cheap on Ebay)
Mick

Hallmark/Figurehead 1:6000 scale ships. I don't have any of the post-WWII/moderns but I have all the Pre-Dread through WWII ships. Beautiful miniatures.

C-in-C 1:4800 ships. Only available for German and British WWII, but still wonderful.

Citadel 1982-vintage 15mm Traveller figures. I think the early GW logo might have been on the boxes, but it was a year or so before the first Warhammer, when Citadel did figures for other peoples' games.

Most of the late 1970's, early 1980's Ral Partha 25mm fantasy miniatures, even though they tended to be a lot smaller than everybody else's.

They weren't really the greatest minis, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Superior MAATAC sci fi miniatures, mostly because I enjoyed the rules so much.

The list goes on.

Redoubt American Civil War.

many good stuff, but the one that never fails to impress me is still AB 15mm Napoleonics

Empress Moderns 28mm
Elheim Moderns 20mm
Khurasan 15mm sci fi
GW LOTR 25mm

Wow tough call. The Perry Napoleonic French are superb as are the Foundry Napoleonic Russians (the original ones which I think are theirs too).

The Foundry Darkest Africa Sikhs are fantastic – they even got the facial details of people of the Punjab spot on.

The metal Victrix Russians are also fantastic.

I would also throw in the Artizan German Fallschirmjaegers.

Although it's subjective, I'm a big fan of Front Rank's WSS and SYW ranges, and (many will disagree) I'm a big fan of Old Glory's ACW, Napoleonics, and NW Frontier Colonials. They may not look that great in natural form, but they paint up darn good.

Oh, and anything by the Perry Brothers.

I find myself really intimidated by the Helldorado, Malifaux(sp?), and Wyrd miniatures. Some of these figures are so awesome and twisted that I've never bothered to buy any because I know the paint job I'd slap on them wouldn't do them justice.

Mongo

For me, it's hands down, Minden Miniatures. Top to bottom it is the best line of miniatures I've ever seen.

Others are:
Critical Mass 15mm
Testudo TYW/ECW 15mm

Anything by Thunderbolt Miniatures

There are just so many and off the top of my head, here are some:

Battle Honours 25mm WW2
Galloping Major FIW range
Bob Murch
Foundry
Perry
Copplestone
Artizan
Crusader
Boot Hill
Eureka
Hasslefree
Shadowforge
Bolt Action
Brigade Games Ranges
Early Black Tree Design
Bluemoon
Cavalcade
Empress

Keep in mind that some of these I like to paint more than others but they, for me , are very nice sculpts.

Remember this is off the top of my head.

My top three are Eureka's Wars of the french Revolution, Conquest's F&I stuff, and Sash and Saber's…well, pretty much all Sash and Saber.

Ancients: Eureka/AB Sassanians, Mirliton, and Alain Touller.

Fantasy: Tom Meier's Elves.

WWII: AB 20mm.

Sci-fi: I love virtually all GZG ship ranges, both new and old.

There's this small 20mm Colonials range. I think they're called RSM95.

Toys: Tradition of London. Not that I can afford them.

Bobby Jackson's 'Thugz'.

Been chuffed with all the figures I have aquired from hasslefree.
On my desk currently are the GW metal fellowship and I must say they are very good too.
Just finished some excellent foundry vikings too,they are very good too.
My boy has just reminded me about the cool copplestone cavemen we have been using.
I will have to Abstain from choosing now as I can not decide.

EDIT – sat back and decided on the GW 40K Eldar range around the 90's onwards.They had staying power in a company that likes to evole the ranges as much as possible and the space adventuring early traders are all time favourites of mine.

My favourites are:

- Minden Miniatures

- Red Star Russians and Chechens

- Empress Miniatures, SAS and US Special Forces.

- Perry Miniatures, the new plastic Hussars.

Redoubt Trojan War.

Eureka Ragged Continentals.

Foundry Sea Peoples.

My top two.

Heritage 15mm ACW
GHQ 10mm ACW (the best artillery any scale)

And one that I am the only one in the world
who likes..
Mikes Models 15mm SYW

I keep coming back to Pulp Figures and Artizan's Thrilling Tales. Reaper continues to put out real winners, especially in the Chronoscope line, but I can't advocate it as a whole.

Artizan WW2 Germans.
Freebooter's Fate range.
Tale of War's Ron and Bones range.
Helldorado
Crimson Skies planes

Aww… hell… ANYTHING from Werner Klocke… ANYTHING!

Other than a lot of the great ranges already mentioned, I'll throw in a vote for Musketeer Miniatures' Interwar/VBCW range. A ton of character and (IMHO) Mr Hick's best work.

Classic Ral Partha Colonials

Cutting Edge Miniatures Early Bronze Age

Sight unseen, anything by the Perry's, Paul Hicks, or Todd Harris (?…sculptor for Conquest).

Wow, this is tough.

Aww… hell… ANYTHING from Werner Klocke… ANYTHING!

I agree completely

-Void 1.1 was 75% amazing (Kev White)
-Almost anything from Hasslefree (Kev White)
-Anything Heresy produced in the last 2-3 years (early stuff wasn't as strong) (Andy Foster)
-Anything from Mark Copplestone
-In a couple years Whiffwaff will be on this list

The OFM cited two of my favs

Redoubt Trojan War.
Foundry Sea Peoples.

To which I'll add Various and Sundry (Sultry?) Kevin White females, including Artemis (40 and 25mm) and his many Libbys and Alices.

And Foundry's Northern European Bronze Age

Perry Carlist wars
Gripping Beast Arthurians
Freebooter Brotherhood

Of all of them I'd say the Foundry Caesarian Romans.

Before I ruin them with paint…

Front Rank Napoleonic French

Empress Miniatures British in Zululand

T.A.G's renaissance range.
Valiant's plastic W.W.2 Rang
Perry Miniatures.
A.B

Hands down it has to be Eureka gendarmes!

All for 15mm

AB for Napoleonics (followed closely by Campaign Game Miniatures)
Legio Heroica for Moslems/Crusaders
Khurasan for Tang Chinese and Nikephorian Byzantines
Xyston for Greeks & Persians
Essex for Huns (such variety)
Corvus Belli for Imperial Romans