"Figures you would buy that no one else would want" Topic

READ MY PREMISE BEFORE SUGGESTING!

Let's face it. "We" are eccentrics. We are all different, and that makes us hard to predict.
"We" are also always proposing ranges and figures that figure manufacturers MUST produce.
However, "We" are also realistic, or at least I hope so.
Are these just wish lists, or are "we" actually so deluded that "we" think these ranges and/or figures would actually sell?

I am always proposing that Eureka or Perry "should" add to their AWI ranges. Specifically, I propose a Washington Crossing the Delaware piece, based on the Leutze painting, all 13 figures in a Durham boat.
Yeah, I would buy one. ONE. That is a real thriving market, hainna? Would anyone else? Maybe 20 others MIGHT. Stop the molds! Make room!
So, go ahead and sculpt and cast these, but don't blame me when it tanks. I will have bought my ONE set.

So, let's be honest. What would you REALLY buy that you know in your heart of hearts that practically no one else would. Something you have even requested (OK, DEMANDED) on TMP, but really, seriously, know is a loser.

I know that this will very quickly be diluted with silly suggestions, like the War of Jenkins ear Barvarian Horse Grenadiers (left handed), and it's useless to try to keep them out of this topic. But, I am just asking for a little bit of honesty here. You know you can do it!

I would like all kinds of casualty figures.

There was an account of the Battle of Ferozeshah (I think) that included people getting all kinds of mangled by cannon balls. Of horses plodding along with their entrails hanging out and getting tangled around their feet. Of men with their heads smashed and clipped off by cannon balls.

These would be useful and decorative I think. I use casualty figures for many of my games now and I need more of them.

Specifically for the Anglo-Sikh War.

Also in 15mm for Eastern ren stuff, they would actually be more useful to me because I have other casualty figures I can use for the 28mm stuff I do, but none for this period.

Swedish troops from the 1780's and 1790's with their oddball comic opera uniforms!

Continuing my AWI theme, I would also buy a single set of the Spirit of '76 vignette.

I would also buy elderly AWI militia. All the ones I see now are young and fit! I want ot see some grim elderly old farts in the firing line.

I would also buy … 6?… mounted jaegers.

And, suppose the Bennington raid had been successful. we could now mount the dismounted Brunswick dragoons! I'm sorry. SYW Prussian dragoons would not be appropriate, since they wear boots, and not the mattress ticking overalls.
I MIGHT buy … 6.

And how about VERY early war AWI Continental grenadiers in mitre caps? Heck, I might buy … not that many.

Fusiliers in bearskin caps! I might buy 24!!!!!

See? I'm serious!
Would anyone else shell out for these? I would be very surprised if the molds ever showed any signs of wear and tear.
Even I am not delusional enough to suggest they be plastic.

Oh. 28mm, of course. Compatible with Eureka and Perry.

The cast of the farscape tv show. I doubt many others would want them, but I do.

Halfling Mamelukes, Dwarf Boers, the Conte "Warlord" figures and terrain in 28mm.

10mm WWII personality figures for well known Soviet (hey, they might sell 2) and (for small values of well-known) Canadian generals. Some German generals you can already get.

Penthesilia and Memnon – I mean even if folks do buy them – you only need one each. Okay Eureka and now Foundry have made some Amazon types that could be Penthesilia, so I guess those are spoken for.

6mm horror range. I would LOVE to do some sort of mass battle with ravaging HORDES of werewolves or undead vs Victorian heroes.

American M2 medium tank. Whoever makes this in 15mm might sell 12 of them, unless Battlefront does Guadalcanal.
I would buy 3, so someone else has to take up the slack for the other 9.

Lost in Space TV series figures and accessories to go with the Jupiter II kit from Polar Lights, in 1/72nd scale.

M-6 Heavy Tank, in HO 1/87th scale to go with my Roco collection. I would buy a battalion, but no one else would.

1/72nd scale Pentomic Army US Infantry 1959, with M-14 rifle. I would like hundreds of them.

Mike "Bunkermeister" Creek

bunkermeister.blogspot.com
sgtsays.blogspot.com

There are stagnant, incomplete ranges I would love to see finished, such as Rezolution and Star Mogul.

Raggedy "Turkish" Egyptians for the Sudan. Not sure if anyone else would want them.

People who "might buy" don't encourage manufacturers.

A tip for OFM: use gray paint and green stuff (to make bellies) to convert into
"war geezers." Adding crutches might be hard.

I'm surprised that Black Powder players don't demand casualty figures for markers.

Chinese infantry in Stahhelms

American infantry in pickelhaubes

I'll throw in with Samulus on the Farscape character figures. Add in some Charrids and Scarrans and Peacekeeper goons as well.

I'll raise you "Inhabitants of the LEXX and their enemies". Roll to see who 790 is infatuated with this season!

Samulus I would love to have the full Farscape crew in 15mm inc Moya, peacekeepers and scarrans. And aas many of the other aliens as possible.

A Caroline Munro 28mm figure collection…her in the various costumes she wore( what little there was in some cases)in all her movies and rum ads.
A "City of Sogo" figure series…come on who wouldn't want a "Great Tyrant" figure, let alone all the other cast members.

South African infantry for East Africa: distinctive "polo" sun helmets and cartridge carriers for the 37 web gear, with the odd basic pouch scattered around. Untucked bush shirts and a mix of KD trousers and shorts.

While I'm at it, East African troops for the same theater, bush hats and Bombay Bloomers.

South African light tank Mk. IIs.

All in 28mm, naturally.

I'd buy the GW on the Delaware model. Maybe more than one to paint and give as gifts. Not for gaming, obviously.

From the standpoint of miniatures companies -- or at least from the standpoint of small operations like Splintered Light who do not do their own sculpting nor casting -- the economics are tricky. A character figure -- that a buyer may have ONE of in an army -- costs as much to sculpt as a line trooper that will appear multiple times in large units, perhaps dozens of copies in an army. So the company must make back that investment over far fewer sales.

Also, and just as important, we pay by the spin for casting. And of course a mold has a number of figures in it. The smart set-up is to put everything you are going to SELL together in the same mold to PRODUCE together. But that is tricky when special characters and exotics are involved. So again, the price has to be a good bit higher unless the company uses the figures as advertising or incentives or prizes or such -- as we do with the Archer Collection minis.

And that is also one big reason why our first question about a possible new mini is "Do WE want that?" Just in case that's the only one we sell! :)

15mm Space 1889 High Martians

6mm Martians

6mm Lizardmen

15mm Parrotmen

6mm Parrotmen

Ruumeet Breehr (sp?) from Space: 1889 in 15mm, 25mm, and 6mm

I know there are more.

American M2 medium tank. Whoever makes this in 15mm might sell 12 of them, unless Battlefront does Guadalcanal.

The tanks at Guadalcanal were M2A4 light tanks. The M2 Medium was an entirely more obscure vehicle. I might buy one as a curiosity…but I would buy a few M2A4 lights however!

I'd want to see '70s era US infantry in either 15mm or 28mm (ideally both!). No, you can't just use Vietnam era figures for this either…

Damon.

Thanks for the clarification, Damon.
So, we are now up to 6 models?

Miniatures based on the Manga/Anime series Gintama.

Danish and Norwegians in 15mm for WW2.

A full cast for Monkey & The Water Margins in 28mm

AWI British L.I. with captured Pennsylvania rifles (for "what if" games)

Never say never. Who'd a thunk this photo would spawn a successful miniatures line?

For me, I'd like British Dragoon Guards in Home-Service uniform, circa 1890 (wait for it…)

…skirmishing dismounted.

20mm Columbian paramlitary and drug lord figures and make it….soft plastic. That'll scare em away.

28mm multi-part Plastic Old West gun fighters
28mm multi-part Plastic Roman Gladiators

They would probably sell lots of single boxes, but not a lot of huge orders. Probably not enough to make any money off of.
I know I want them… but don't have use for more then a couple dozen figures of each.

Tanks and vehicles from the old Battle Isle series of computer games. Preferably 15 or 6mm.

1970's British soldiers, revolutionaries, miners, picketers …

I'd buy the GW on the Delaware model. Maybe more than one to paint and give as gifts. Not for gaming, obviously.

Oh, you would be surprised.
You just KNOW that someone would come up with the annual Christmas yacht races on the Delaware river.

Seriously, though, you are right. Absolutely no gaming utility.
Although if both Perry and Eureka made a set, I would get one of each, partially because I would feel partially responsible for them getting them on the market due to my nagging.
Then I would have two. What would be left, but races?

For the AWI period maybe a Paul Revere piece, William Dawse would be nice while we are at it.
Billy Lee would be another, he was Washingtons personal servant.

For the Plains Indians wars maybe a nice set of mules with ammunition packs and escorts for the Little Bighorn.

There was a time when I would have bought Peachy and Danny's army in The Man Who Would be King, but not any more. Too late! You missed your chance!

As for "never say never"…
I also would have laughed at the idea of 28mm personality figures for Last of the Mohicans and Zulu.

I want 1930's Chicago mafia elves led by a cigar chewing Elf in pinstripes with a Fedora and a Tommy Gun. And I want them to have some model T's to drive that are all golden and magical looking.

I'd also like some pumpkin-head knights riding leafy hedge horses created by a young child-like sorceress trying to protect her village from the forces of an evil king.

15mm NOT Dune miniatures. Based on the book and not the Lynch movie.

20mm Wolverines from Red Dawn. Not CW Soviets or civilians armed with AKs, but actual Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, et al. as they looked in the movie.

I would buy a Peachy and Danny. If they look like the movie.

What about figures for the TV series Eureka? Or Warehouse 13?

A good Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and the royal children in 15mm would be nice.

I would buy 8 (eight, count 'em) unarmed Cold War Era Soviet Submariners (ordinary seamen, or whatever the Soviets called 'em), plus 8 (eight) of the same transformed into werewolves. Separate, easily distinguished poses and/or features in all 16, thank you.

Right now I'm making do with some 1/72 WW2 German Navy figs, and looking around for roughly compatible werewolves.

How's that for specific?

All troops needed to fight battles in The General series. Who doesn't want Calvary mounted on Giant Dogs?

In "Duel for Kilimanjaro" by Leonard Mosley the writer describes an attack by the Askaris (fighting in German service), where one Askari advances with his young son on his shoulders. I would love this kind of "atmosphere" on my table… Unfortunately I am afraid there will not really be a booming market for figures like that, although I am sure more than one would be sold !

Sorry, forget to mention this: John, Washington's crossing in 28mm would be an interesting thing for a museum. Why not speak to someone who runs the museum shop ? Surely there must be several museums who would like to put up a number of these fine souvenirs ?

28mm Farscape, oh yes!

All of the characters and aliens in the old TV show, by Gerry Anderson, UFO.

Prefer 25mm/28mm, but even 15mm/18mm would be nice. Multiple poses, with and without weapons would be superb.

I suspect a few others might like them as well.

New Wave had a design-a-mini contest before their reorganization. One guy contributed a lot of funny-animal-people in power armor drawings. IIRC, two of them were *amazing*.

Yup –

Scifi Raptors With Guns

I've been shopping this idea for almost ten years.

When I decided to ttart Loud Ninja Games, my own boutique scale minis company, they seemed the obvious first subject matter.

So far, reactions to the concepts and initial test greens have been incredibly positive.

I suppose this qualifies only in the back story. But 10 years of what seemed like a singular appeal would qualify it to some degree.

-Eli

6mm scale MBT70 tank and a 6mm AH-56 Cheyenne helicopter.

But then there are a lot of "what if" and prototype vehicles that I'd love to see as miniatures.

TMNT, After The Bomb, Roadhogs inspired Post Apocalyptic minis in 15mm! And No, I am not a Furry!

Just to make a point, I would buy a model of GW crossing the Delware. I have several sets/figures etc based on famous paintings and photos.