"Old Minifigs 2nd Generation Catalog" Topic

Does anyone have a old 2nd generation Minifigs Catalog. Someone sent me a link to a PDF copy and I downloaded it. I had to reinstall my OS, so I lost the download. If anyone has a link to one, please send it to me again.

Thank you.

Hi Reggie,

You can find it here: link

Glad to see you are still into 2nd gen Minifigs

All the best

Stephen

Thanks so much,Stephen.

My thanks, too. Most of my figures for Napoleonics are 2nd Gen MF.

Hi Kevin,

Apart from a few 3rd gen officers and standard bearers all of my Napoleonics are 2nd gen Minifigs. It's such a great range of figures that it amazes me Minifigs decided to completely replace it. I still hope that one day it will be brought back into production.

I agree this has some of my favorite figures. Occasionally some will pop up on Ebay for sale.
It would be nice to be able to get Generals too.

I love the old ECW and ACW ranges as well. It's a mystery to me why Minifigs abandoned their 2nd gen ranges. I've seen it suggested that they decided to change because people felt the poses were too static but I can't understand why they didn't add more variation to the existing ranges instead of starting again from the beginning.

I remember these fantastic Minifigs Napoleonic armies from the 70s and 80s. I wonder where they all are now?

Oh, how I remember studying that catalog Stephen.

Built the bulk of my Napoleonic armies from 15mm 2nd Gen MiniFigs.

Thank you!

God bless,
John T.

Hi John,

I'm lucky enough to have a hard copy of the catalogue and I find I can spend hours looking at the pictures. I was just admiring your figures on the Smells of Battle thread. Those are some impressive armies you have got there.

Happy New Year

Stephen

Wish they were back too. Or even compatible figures. Remember when these were the big scale creep figures that towered over real 15's? Now these too are dwarved by the whimpy 20's that are sold as 15/18's : P

They sure are dwarfed by the 20mm figs, but they are hobbits compared to my Connoisseur, Front Rank and Elite infantry.

I am a little ignorant in this department. What are late 70's early 80's Mini Figs called? I remember about the time Old Glory came out in the 90's, Mini Figs released a new line of 15mm that made my orginial ones look like red headed step children! Had to be 18mm. Any ideas?

We talk about 2nd Generation Minifigs (late 1970's and 1980's) and 3rd Generation Minifigs (1990's to present).

Davout1972, the 15mm figures in the catalog that Stephen provided are considered 2nd Generation Minifigs. 3rd Generation Minifigs are generally more animated, slightly larger, and the advancing infantry figs seem to have an exaggerated leaning forward pose. 3rd Gen cavalry have bigger horses that are running as opposed to the 2nd Gen horses that are walking. 2nd Gen cavalry troopers have the swords at the shoulder ready, whereas, the 3rd Gen cavalry figures generally have arms down and swords preparing to strike.

Hope that helps.

God bless,
John T.

As John says 3rd Gen Minifigs are slightly bigger than the 2nd Gen but I find they will mix happily within the same unit. I regularly use 3rd Gen officers, drummers and standard bearers with my 2nd Gen units.

The 1st Gen 15mm line were the ones that came in strips of 5. They are considerably smaller than the ranges that succeeded them. They are also rather cruder in sculpting style (but still have a charm all their own)

For me, the 2nd Gen Napoleonic line was the best range of figures ever produced. I find the current, 3rd Gen, range frustrating. The figures are well-proportioned and very nicely sculpted but I dislike the poses of the advancing and marching figures. However, the officers, firing figures and artillery crews are excellent.

Thanks for that update. I remember when the 3rd generation came in, I mixed and matched them with my 2nd generation, to break up the obvious size difference. That worked out fine.

I really liked the charging horses in the 3rd Generation, compared to the standing ones of the 2nd. This prompted me to bend the cuirrassier arms forward and the hussars above their heads, just to increase the animation of the charge.

Thank you for making me smarter about all this pewter I have been lugging around for years!

2nd generation Minifigs form the bulk of my 15mm armies as well, I painted a huge amount just before the first child came along and finding time became more difficult. I remmember starting to mix things up with units from Battle Honours and them OG. I think that at the time these new emerging figures seemed, and this is a purely personal view, more detailed than the minifigs. This altering of figures led to trying different approaches to painting, and before I knew it some of the old passion for painting had subsided. Should have stuck with the usual figures and the tried and tested techniques! I got some 5rd generation but never took to them.
Still have hundreds of minifigs in bags somewhere…maybe someday!!

Hello ColonelToffeeApple, I love seeing your blog. I can't believe how many figures you have. Your 6mm figures must be in the tens of thousands. Do you have any battle pics of them, is because all I ever see is pics of them on trays. How manr 15mm Napoleonic figures to yo think you have. All of you guys should see ColonelToffeeApple's blog. Your jaw will hit the floor when you all see the number of his figures.

ColonelToffeeApple, if you have any unpainted Minifig 2nd generation French Cuirassiers and Chasseurs a Cheval, I would love to buy them from you. I have 16 cuirassier figures and I need 16 more to complete a regiment, plus I need more CaC.

My e-mail address is rsampson1@att.net

Thanks

Reggie

Email sent.

ColonelToffeeApple if you have any 2nd Gen Minifigs left over once you have finished your dealings with Reggie (who is a fine fellow I have traded with in the past) then drop me a line at stephenprentice at aol.com. I'm always on the look out for more figures.

Stephen, I knew that you are SJDonovan, but I did not know that YOU are the same Stephen, that sent me figures a couple of years back. Thanks for the kind words, the catalog link, and the figures. You are a prince.

It was my pleasure Reggie. Always happy to help out a fellow 2nd gen enthusiast.

Hello guys.

I hope some who contributed to this original thread might see my new post?

I absolutely LOVE 2nd gen. Minifigs. They are the figures that composed my childhood French army. I even persuaded some school-friends to buy British, Austrian and Russian forces! How I wish I hadn't sold them…

For the sake of nostalgia I'm trying to locate and buy some of these venerable aulde troops. Any leads – there's a pun in there somewhere – much appreciated.

Also, in a related vein: can anyone tell me who designed & sculpted the Minifigs 2nd gen. ranges? Were several people involved, or are all the different figures and nationalities all the work of one person?

Thanks in advance.

Sebastian

Hi Sebastian,

I buy most of my figures on eBay, where they turn up fairly regularly. A huge amount of 2nd gen Minifigs were produced back in the day so there are an awful lot of them still out there and so long as you don't get caught up in a bidding war prices generally aren't too bad. I buy a lot of figures from the US where they were produced under licence. However, quality control on the US 2nd gen Minifigs back in the 80s wasn't always what it might be and you may find they come with a lot of flash.

I think all the ranges were designed by brothers Dick and Dave Higgs but I don't know whether they were responsible for all the sculpting. I feel that they probably were because the style across the range is remarkably consistent. (The only figures I can think of that feel like they may have been sculpted by another hand are the Austrian artillerymen who are quite chunky compared to other Minifigs)

I hope that's some help. And feel free to ask any questions. I'm something of a 2nd gen Minifigs obsessive and always happy to discuss them.

Best wishes

Stephen

Hi

'And feel free to ask any questions. I'm something of a 2nd gen Minifigs obsessive and always happy to discuss them.'

Just curious really – what do you think happened to the 2nd generation moulds?

IMO they probably ended up in a skip (what a shame..).

I read somewhere (probably here on TMP) that the moulds were destroyed because of lack of storage space, which does seem a terrible shame. Mind you the US licensee must have had moulds as well and I don't know whether those were destroyed too (this would have been the company that had the license before GFI/Minifigs. I think GFI only did 3rd gen figures).

Of course, it is the masters not the moulds that really matter so you could hope that they still exists somewhere. After all, the whole lot would if in a suitcase . . .

Thanks guys. I don't do eBay. Perhaps I'll have to? It would be so much better if they came back into production tho', IMHO. Who knows, perhaps moulds and/or masters are still out there somewhere? Cheers, Seb

@ Sebastian/SJ Donovan,

I believe Dick Higgs was responsible for the vast majority of the 2G H&M ranges; at some point he was replaced by his brother David, not least due to Dick becoming seriously ill, I believe. This was around the time that many of the ranges were "re-designed" (eg I think Dick did the British Grenadier r&f pack in the AWI range, but someone else took over and did all of the other packs).

Having checked with Dave Ryan (Caliver) some time ago, I'm afraid the moulds themselves were destroyed when the new ranges came in during the 1980s. What happened to the masters I couldn't tell you, but I never cease to be surprised at how many sculptors either can't find masters (even from current ranges), or have throw them away because of storage issues.

Hard though it is to admit, I'm afraid eBay is probably your friend on this one, although "flea markets" at shows will throw up the occasional army, or the sweepings of older wargamers' attics and basements. Anyone in the US could try contacting Tom Dye, who I believe was Minifigs' agent/distributor in N America during the relevant period, and is a pretty decent chap on answering queries.

Thanks Super Max,

It never ceases to amaze me how careless artists can be with their creations and over the years Minifigs seem to have been more careless than most. Mind you, I suppose when you are producing huge volumes of figures, as they did back in their heyday, it probably doesn't occur to you that the figures may one day become relatively scarce and collectible.

I might be wrong, but I don't think Tom Dye would have distributed 2nd gen Minifigs. I think the transition to 3rd gen was already taking place when Minifigs America was run from Pine Plains, New York (when the figures were distributed in blisters with yellow card backing)

Even so, I think Tom would still be a good starting point for any investigation as to surviving masters/moulds in the US.

Not to raise any false hopes but years ago I did ask Tom Dye about the possibility of some 2nd generation figures being brought back to the GFI catalog. Specifically some pre-1812 French infantry to counterbalance the 3rd Gen Waterloo sculpts.

I recall that his response was positive but I didn't pursue it any further. So who knows? Maybe they are all there waiting for a kick-starter campaign to bring hem back to life!

Most of the 2nd gen French line infantry are actually in rather curious uniforms. The have got over-the-knee gaiters and waistcoats so from the front they look like they are wearing a pre-Bardin uniform but then the coat tails are very short so from the back they seem to be in a Bardin-style jackets.

The figures in campaign dress are an exception to this and they are in pre-Bardin uniforms, front and back.