"Still using your Minifigs?" Topic

I cut my teeth on 25MM Napoleonics in the 70's. Foolishly, I replaced them with 'better' figures. Dumb move, and I wish I had them backk. However, I kept wagons, French and British engineer/sapper figures, a vivanderie, mules seige/garrison artillery,and some others. In the early 90's the local Newspaper did an article on my gaming, and most were Minifigs.

On hindsight, they were great figures, easy to paint. I have no idea of their relative cost now. And I have some great memories of my units' exploits. No way I'm going to part with those still in my collection.

i have around 12,000 in minifigs troops and i'm still buying.if anyone come's across saxons in the bi-corn that are for sell i need about 260 troops.thats about 4 reg's worth.i use to get some from tom dye (gfi)you know i should have bought the molds when i had the chance??
robert

i forgot spydr122@yahoo.com here is my e-mail

robert

Hi Robert,

I think the only Saxons in bicornes that Minifigs have made are the ones in the current 15mm range. They are still available from Caliver in the UK: link

i have already talked to caliver.the guy who made the molds retired so as far as i know there won't be any new mold for minifigs when the ones they have know go bad. and i use 25mm ones.

robert

I didn't know Minifigs had ever made any 25mm Saxons. Do you know what the code is for the figures you want? It is usually stamped onto the base.

i just dug out my saxon box and took a look and the number is sn13 i alway thought that they did make the saxon different.i was wrong.since i can order them from caliver i'll just have to save some money.

robert

15mm Minifig strip figures (5 infantry to a strip)

Minifigs used here too at a recent convention in Southern Ontario:
link

(With a French general filling in for a mounted British officer.)

They look nice – nostalgic but nice :-)

Must resist painting mine up and buying more………

andygamer:

Nice pictures but….. Internal combustion engined "cars", and "trucks" put down two tire paths on roadways. Grass grows up in between.

Most horse-drawn vehicles had a horse or two horses (with 4 front and 4 rear hooves) pulling them. Roads were wider because it allowed the vehicle to avoid ruts and potholes in the road. Roads were more level because the horse did not like to walk/trott on a slanted crown in the middle of the road. The grass in the middle of the road got trampled by the hooves. The roads did not havea green stripe down the middle.

I like Minifigs.

I've just bought some more today for about a tenth of their current retail price.

Does anyone still use the orginal 15mm Minifigs? In re-basing some 8,000+ Napoleonics collected over the past 30 years I'm pulling these old orginal, 1st generation figs out, leaving the OG, 3rd generation Minifigs,Napoleonettes,AB, Eureka, etc out…..big step as I remember painting these while in college. Does anyone still use these in games? 15mm figs sure have come a long way.

"Does anyone still use the orginal 15mm Minifigs? In re-basing some 8,000+ Napoleonics collected over the past 30 years I'm pulling these old orginal, 1st generation figs out, leaving the OG, 3rd generation Minifigs,Napoleonettes,AB, Eureka, etc out…..big step as I remember painting these while in college. Does anyone still use these in games? 15mm figs sure have come a long way."

Sounds like my army. The strip figures are nostalgic for me. I have TTG, Mike's Models and RAFM figures as well.

What year did 1st Gens end and 2nd Gens start? A very large portion of mine are 2nd Gens from 1980 -84

MiniFigs still have a certain pull factor, I have a few hundred. On wether you should use them in public, hell yes you should & let any detractors be damned.
And ooh, nice photos, good to see & appreciated.

Yup, that's it--the strips. I actually find , for some reason, the French Chasseurs blend in ok with the Napoleonettes, but none of the other cavalry work.
I probably have a thousand of these figs and played Empire1
on weekends in the student union game room. They were top of the line back in the late 70's!

If anybody interested I have approx 4000 25mm miniature figurines for sale

Napoleonic:
main armies:
French, British, Prussian, Austrian, Russian, Ottoman
smaller armies:
Westphalian, Saxon, Bavarian, Wurtenburg, Spanish, Poland, Brunswick, Danish, Swedish,

Ancient:
Roman, Carthaginian, Greek, Persian, Celto/Germanic

some 5mm WW2 allies & German

Too bad they are not 15mm. I am always looking for 15mm Napoleonic 2nd gen Minifigs.

to the OP, I think you'd be crazy not to use your minifigs, it's always been interesting to me that wargamers fuss about the relative height of their miniatures. People out in the world aren't in scale with one another by these standards.

My rule of thumb; if I am providing all the miniatures and rules and the scenario for other people to enjoy and any of them get nitpicky about uniforms or the miniatures themselves then the only reasonable response is a swift smack in the back of the head.

Fair enough mate!

Reggie – drop me a line at reagan"dot"kevin"at"yahoo"dot"com. I recently picked up in an ebay sale a package of MF15mm mounted infantry colonels (french), of which I have plenty. Happy to talk about finding a useful home for this package.

Gesith – I am interested in your 25mm figures. Please drop me a line at pboxall@ualberta.ca. I need details and manufacturers.

I don't do Napoleonics, wouldn't touch them unless "sanitized" by being converted for an 18th Century army, but I do have some knowledge on this problem from my 18th century armies. My armies are all in 30mm, though most of them are Surens and staddens (really 33mm) and I have a lot of some DPC 28mm figures in there, I also have SAE's which are a little shy of 30mm, and a little slim, also some Greenwood and Ball, Some HIchcliffe, and -- yes-- some Scrubyis. Also yes a few minifigs. Lots of other things home-casts, specially created one of a kinds, lots of conversions etc. So I've got everything in there.

Now… I mount my figures on big stands, 3.5 to 4" by 8 to 9 inches, 36 of them on a stand. I don't mix makers on the same stand, except when I really need something, and when you put the stands on the table top, even a minifig next to a majestic Suren- the difference is only barely noticeable, and once the game begins, no one notices.

I've shied away from Front Rank, the figures look too much like war gamers for my taste, but the rest all work together. Try it, you may be surprised.

Still using? or still painting?, re-painting Prussian artillery figures after stripping down to bare metal.

Yes, Im still using them!

Our club regularly uses 25mm Minifigs and 28mm Perry/Foundry/Victrix/Warlord et al in the same games. Doesn't detract from the games in any way.

link

link

link

Just how many generations of 15mm Minifgs have their been?
Posters to this thread seem to be allowing for three, but it seems to me there have been four: strips, the first incarnation of super detail, second super detail, and the final, more slender releases of the last years.

I recall marvelling at the difference in sculpting quality between the original super detail Renaissance figures and their replacements, although the realistically thin hose-clad ankles, and cast-on pikes etc. of the latter, in combination with the soft metal used, was a major problem.

I didn't buy any figures from the fourth generation, and I don't think it extended beyond Napoleonics and ACW (the ones with separate backpacks); third generation soldiering on for other periods.

Just how many generations of 15mm Minifgs have their been?
Posters to this thread seem to be allowing for three, but it seems to me there have been four: strips, the first incarnation of super detail, second super detail, and the final, more slender releases of the last years.

I recall marveling at the difference in sculpting quality between the original super detail Renaissance figures and their replacements, although the realistically thin hose-clad ankles, and cast-on pikes etc. of the latter, in combination with the soft metal used, was a major problem.

I didn't buy any figures from the fourth generation, and I don't think it extended beyond Napoleonics and ACW (the ones with separate backpacks); third generation soldiering on for other periods.

Just how many generations of 15mm Minifgs have there been?
Posters to this thread seem to be allowing for three, but it seems to me there have been four: strips, the first incarnation of super detail, second super detail, and the final, more slender releases of the last years.

I recall marveling at the difference in sculpting quality between the original super detail Renaissance figures and their replacements, although the realistically thin hose-clad ankles, and cast-on pikes etc. of the latter, in combination with the soft metal used, was a major problem.

I didn't buy any figures from the fourth generation, and I don't think it extended beyond Napoleonics and ACW (the ones with separate backpacks); third generation soldiering on for other periods.

Just how many generations of 15mm Minifgs have there been?

Despite being a Minifigs obsessive I'm not sure of the answer to this. There have been three distinct sculpting styles, which I would refer to as 1st, 2nd and 3rd gen. I have seen people refer to 2.5 gen but these figures look like 3rd gen to me – the only difference being that they are on thin rectangular bases rather than the polygonal bases of the 3rd gen figures.

The current line still includes many 2nd gen figures. Many of the ancients are still 2nd gen (though the horses may have been replaced by 3rd gen sculpts) and the Colonial range is 2nd gen.

There have definitely only been 3 generations of Napoleonics and ACW.

For my money, the 2nd gen is when they got it right. The third gen figures are well proportioned and beautifully sculpted but the poses are often overly exaggerated.

I second everything SJDonovan has just said. Still looking for more 15mm Minifigs 2nd gen to add to my collection, so if anybody is selling, please let me know. I am definitely interested in unpainted figures, but if your figures are painted, my ratio is 1:20.

Just in the middle of refurbishing my 15mm Minifigs WWI,
I am pleased with them and most are over 30 years old, and they do not look it!
I have ordered up some new to pad out my old armies, it's the horses that will not mix and look out of place with the older stuff.

Over all the years I have been wargaming it's the historical clangers I remember, the one that stands out is in there 25mm ECW range, the Roundhead musketeers and pikemen ALL having a triple bar lobster helmets, back and breast with tassets, and a left handed pikeman.

O happy days.

The third gen horses are a problem. No one seems very keen on them (though I quite like them for my SYW armies because they look like horses from C18th paintings)

I have no idea what Minifigs' 15mm sales are like these days but my impression is that they are no longer a market leader and are generally considered to be old-fashioned. There doesn't seem to be a huge amount of affection for the current Napoleonic, ACW or ECW ranges so maybe it would be in their interests to bring the 2nd gen back into production (he said hopefully!).

Impossible, I'm afraid SJD – they threw away all the older moulds because the premises in Southampton were too small to accommodate the storage.

You're right about the 3rdGen horses though – dog-like creatures whose spines are often bisected by the riders. Those 2ndGen horses – especially the walking Napoleonic and ECW ones – were anatomical beauties (probably a LOT better looking than the real thing!).

I think the confusion over the 2.5 Generation is when they brought out the Saxon and Westphalian Napoleonics and went for some slightly more "dynamic" horse poses – which were actually very good, as well. Otherwise, 1stGen was the original strips, 2ndGen late '70s to early '80s, and 3rdGen is the current range.

I have examples of second and third generation Indian Wars figures: US cavalry, Plains Indians, Apaches, scouts etc. Second generation were quite good, if not quite as fine and nuanced as third. The latter were the ones sold in larger quantities in blisters.

I don't think this period was ever done in strips, and even had Minifigs had time to get around to it before the company was wound up, it would probably have been insufficiently popular to warrant the fourth generation treatment.

Hi SM,

The 2nd gen Saxon and Westphalian figures were very nice figures. They still fit nicely with the rest of the range but I think the sculpting has improved and the poses are better than the earliest figures in the range (French line infantry for example). And you are right about the horses. I've got some of the 2nd gen Saxon cuirassiers and they are on very handsome beasts.

Can you make new moulds from existing figures? Because I possess a copy of virtually every 2nd gen Napoleonic figure they made and I would be more than happy to provide them with an example if they would start manufacturing them again.

@ Henry,

Some periods/sub-ranges were only made for the US Market – I think perhaps this is why you imagine there are four generations, rather than three.

@ SJD,

It may be technically possible to use figures to make new moulds, but bear in mind that any new figures produced from them would be smaller due to shrinkage in the mould-making process (an original master would normally be a bit bigger than the figures eventually produced from it).

No, Supercilius – there's no imagination involved. As I noted above, ACW and Napoleonics at the very least were redone towards the end of the company's life. The new figures were even more slender than third generation, and many of the infantry were supplied with separate knapsacks for greater adaptability.

Just as with the fourth generation, individual periods may have missed out during the third generation revamp, but it doesn't change the fact that there were four distinct and readily distinguishable iterations of the 15mm Minifig product.

It's certainly possible the blister packed Indian Wars figures were made primarily for the US market; the packaging was of a completely different style to that used for all other ranges I'm aware of, but they were available from shops here in Oz. But they're really third generation, anyway.

@SM

Would they be noticeably smaller? A while ago I bought some French cuirassiers on eBay and I had a feeling they might be recasts. They were a bit pitted and the detail was very soft (I didn't want to call they guy on it because I wasn't sure and anyway he may have been selling them in good faith). If the figures were a tiny bit smaller it wouldn't bother me. I guess the big problem is that the mould-making process is prohibitively expensive.

But who knows. Maybe one day we will be able to get them scanned and 3D printed?

@ Henry,

As far as I'm aware, there were only two sources (in terms of actual casting) for 15mm Minifigs and that was Minifigs UK (now owned by Caliver), and Dye4 Minis in the US – Aussie retailers would have bought their stock from one or t'other, more likely the US because of exchange rates and transport cost/distance.

When the rest of us on here talk about "generation" we're talking about completely different sculpting styles and format, and ranges that were available at distinctly different times (ie 2nd replaced 1st, 3rd replaced 2nd). The separate backpack figures you are describing were only ever made in the US and were variations of the same figure in the UK catalogue, sculpted in a similar style and available simultaneously. Hence they are regarded as part of the 3rd (ie current) generation.

Before Dye4 Minis had the licence in the US it was owned by a company in Pine Plains, NY. They sold their figures in blisters like these:

I think it would be fair to say they weren't big on quality control. The figures – particularly the bases of the horses – often have a huge amount of flash on them. They also didn't bother with niceties like providing the correct horses for officers in their cavalry command sets. And when the switch over to 3rd gen came they sometimes didn't even bother checking whether the horses and riders matched. I've got a set of 3rd gen dragoons where the pistol holsters are attached to the riders' legs that came with 2nd gen horses that already have pistol holsters built into the figure.

I should stress that this is only a problem with figures from the Pine Plains company. The figures I bought from Dye4 Minis were of excellent quality.

I still use my MiniFig 15s, which are about twenty years old or more,and really enjoy them. My paint jobs aint so hot but I wouldn't be ashamed of the figures.
John Miller

I do have a confession to make, here could be the best spot for it since it is about 2nd Gen's Prussian Horse Artillery to be exact. For the figures foot artillery and horse artillery there wasn't a lot of difference between, most obvious is the sword – short or cavalry sabre. In 1981 I was massing my army of Prussians and cleaned out the Norfolk Campaign Hq of foot artillery and needing more I bought the Horse and forced them into foot. In the last few years this has bothered me to no end and have slowly moved them out where I could but I'm done and still have 56 horsemen in the foot batteries.

In terms of release timing, strip figures(first gen.) were a seventies phenomenon, iteration 1 of Super Detail (second gen.) was early-mid eighties, iteration 2(third gen.) was late eighties/early nineties, and fourth generation was either late nineties or noughties.

The last mentioned were heavily advertised in Miniature Wargames, then a strictly UK publication, so I'd be very surprised if they weren't made by Minifigs UK – but I will go through my MW library to confirm.

You're relying on your knowledge of the US producer, whilst Oz was supplied from the UK, so no doubt any discrepancies in production and release schedules can be attributed to the semi-autonomous character of the two operations.

Judging by recent sales on ebay UK there is still a lot of interest in older figure ranges. There have been quite a few Heritage Napoleonettes listed in the last few months and have sold for good money. Same with series 1 Minifigs.

i have just started to get into 15mm Napoleonics and all my figures so far are minifigs, I love them full of character and look good painted up, even to my limited painting skills!