I've been in the hobby since 1962. I'm 67 and I measure my painted and unpainted lead in pounds and cubic feet not numbers.
I have my likes and dislikes, which range from uncontrollable psychotic mania (18th Century and pre 2000 bc ancient) to sustained interest (Between Wars to Mid WWII, and Civil War and Renaissance). Other periods interest me about as much as root canals, like anything after 1943, Colonial, Dark Ages (the thin skin clad line has no allure for me). I have multiple armies in each of my interest period- the average of 6, and they aren't a few figures, they amount to over 500 each.
Further I'm an excellent converter and model maker, so I made my own Sailing ships. All thirty of them, one foot long. I make lots of conversions. AND!!!! I do almost exclusively Imagi-Nations so I don't have to wait for someone to come out with the Fusileer Grenadier Riflemen of the 443rd Mess kit Repair Battalion of the Old,Young, Middle, Over, under, around, and through Guard. Here, look at these Swedish line infantry- they'll do.
And I play with about a dozen guys who are just like me.
I know EVERY dealer in the dealer hall, and I know EVERY miniature they have. I've memorized their catalogs.
So why do I even have to go down there. As I said before, almost NO ONE makes anything new, and I'm NOT going to do the same thing I have in 28mm in another scale.
I don't buy rules, I write my own. They turn out MUCH better than the +100/+100 horrors (over 100 pages and over $100 USD rule books which are just pewter porn) people put out with their dozens of card decks. Whenever I see these things my mind just goes "pure crap" and moves on.
So the dealer area is going to see a breeze through where I'll buy about a $1,000 USD of stuff from three vendors who will ship it to me. Then I go to the flea-market where the REAL treasures are to be found! Stuff you can't get any more, lines that you have to find fill outs to, games you didn't take care of as a kid and are now trying to re-acquire.
That's the point
Let me reach over here and pull out my "Lil and Fred" and page through it ,
Here we go, first color plate, page 9 France, The King's Hosuehold Bodyguard. no one makes figures of those. Bot a bajillion people making figures of Frenchies in the French and Indian Wars, lots of French infantry but any of those really ornate guys… Nope. How about the Swiss hundreds.. in those strange semi-Renaissance uniform… nope! Old Glory can make those bags of fat figures looking every which way, scowling spitting with their heads all askew and out of step but something classy like the Swiss Guard.. Nope.
Kettle drummers, and field drummers ahores, trumpeters, how bout a full mounted band… nope. How about a full band for the infantry-- buzz off.
Let's skip ahead to the Brits. Page 99, figure 3, anyone ever make any figures in that pose which is like-- the standard one from the manual of arms or in that pose where they are at carry arms, standing like palisades in a fence with the right foot forward a bit at the slow march-- nope, hit the road otto! We got em in advancing, high porte, charging, thrusting, guarding, carrying, jazz dancing, but at attention standing still-- NAAH… no need for that. We can make them looking to the side, picking their nose, pirouetting and doing the pas-de-deux, but in a pose that might ACTUALLY be realistic-- nope.
Page 125, figures 6,7 and 10. I'd pay big bucks to get a few hundred of those!
Lets move on to the Prussians, Page 133 figure 7. Does anyone make a real figure of a Giant grenadier? Nope! A few say they do, but they are no bigger than a normal man, and they usually are a Fredrickean one, not one from Freddie's father.
While we're there, lets ask how many makers have figures to do a three rank firing line? Kneeling ready to fire, standing firing, and a third rank loading ? The Willies figures have them. Anyone else- you know suff that would be historically accurate??? Go scratch.
Vol II page 13. Figure 4, Regiment Bourbon Bourbon Busset en manteaux. That means with the cavalry cloak on. Would be nice to have a regiment or three this way in case it rains…
Page 47 figures 10 and 11, English officers, one taking a pinch of snuff and the other mincing along with swagger stick in parade dress. Would love to have these .
Moving on to the continental gentlemen page 71 figure 7, Prussian dragoon in the fusilier cap. Anyone make these?
Page 115 the Galician Guard Lancers and the Noble Guards?
Let's move on to the Wild Wild East. Page 131 figures 6 and 7 the Preobrashinski and Ismailovski guards from 1742 in those plumed grenadier mitres or those Bat Wing helmeted Chevalier guards from the War of the Polish Succession? Or the Swedes in those 1788 plumed and feathered top hats.
One can find even more in the other periods.
Not much interesting in the dealer area because there's not much new in the dealer area.