"Miniature company in White Plains NY?" Topic

Inquiring of the TMP Collective Consciousness here: 40 + years ago there was a miniature manufacturer in White Plains, New York. Anyone know/recall the name?

Thank you.

MiniFigs?

Minifigs indeed.

Yep, the Minifigs US plant. Long gone sadly.

I was 13 when my stepfather took me there. I recall it being one of the most amazing places I'd ever been: this big dark warehouse with steel shelves and cardboard bins filled with freshly cast toy soldiers. Thousands of Hussars and Grenadiers and 12-pounders and Byzantine Heavy Cavalry…

We were the only customers there that day and I remember the man who met us being happy. (which was not an emotion I associated with adults) He told me he and his friends had rented out a school gymnasium over the summer and re-fought the battle of Waterloo in 25mm.

I left some 25mm AWI figs – my first ones.

My parents gave me a side room in the basement for my painting desk and table. I had model RR trees and made houses from cardboard and fences from matchsticks.

One time I set up every AWI fig I had, shut the door, turned out the lights, and set the farmhouses on fire with matches I stole from my Mom. I was simulating a British night raid on an Colonial town and I got down eye-level and looked from every angle I could until the smoke got to be too much. I got in so much trouble.

But it looked awesome for ten minutes.

Steve Carpenter and Minifigs were in Pine Plains NY.

I remember ordering Minifigs from White Plains, NY

Dadster has it right. It was Pine Plains, NY.

link

All these years I thought it was White Plains. Certainly could have been Pine Plains tho.

The mailing address for Minifigs was:
Box P
Pine Plains, NY
I placed a number of orders with them back in the day. <Sigh>

Grelber
Source of all manner of useless information.

I think I still have an old catalog somewhere. My nostalgia is for Heritage; loved my Prussians and still have them parade dress and all😉

Ah, good times. Got all my Crusaders from their 15mm line. Best Christmas in my adult life.

Still have those figs I ordered back as a teenage. Should have bought more but cars and girls seemed more important at the time. I saw that they are about $1 USD per fig if ordered from the catalog now. And then there's shipping from the UK..

I still have some of the minifig Napoleonics I ordered back then.
I also remember mailing away for them and waiting a month for the little black, white and gray boxes to arrive with figures crammed inside them.

I cannot recall the name but there was a distributor
in NY state about 40-45 years ago who handled SAE
miniatures. That firm may have morphed into Minifigs,
I don't know.

I do know that I bought several boxes of SAE AWI figures
with hand-written descriptor labels for about $5 USD/box
and a sole box of Confederates, a band. These were
the original orange/black/white SAE boxes with about
20 infantry/box, usually also with an officer and col0r.

Again, don't know if it's the same outfit which became
Minifigs USA.

Wasn't Greenfield Garrison in that area

I originally got my SAE figures from Polks Department Store in NYC but later, got many of those orange/white/black boxes of ACW figures from
Military Cast
125 Ann Street
Valley Stream L.I. N.Y.

note, before ZIP codes, so earlier than 1963.

I do not think this company is related to Steve's MinFig company

Did Minifigs in Texas (1972) come before or after NY Minifigs

Yeah. Minifigs were the first metal miniatures I bought, back in 1974. Macedonian pikemen in 25mm.

The local game store owner had drawers full of those little boxes. You'd come into the shop and tell him what period and nationality you wanted to look at. He'd pull out the drawer and set it on the counter.

Then I'd spend a long time looking at the ends of the boxes, pulling one out, examining the figures and then either putting it back or putting it aside. Then, depending on how much money I had from allowance and additional chores, gleefully buy the ones I could afford and then home to look at them, clean them, prime, and start painting.

Fun memories.

My first minifigs were the 15mm strip, 1st edition, in 1977.
Before that I had bought Hincliffe or Der akriegspiers 22-25mm in 1975.hated painting eyes so I shifted to 15mm.
I was in Texas buying minis but do not remember the Dallas company.

Did Minifigs have a Texas importer and Carpenter imported until he made them?

Minifigs in Texas was first, founded by Jim Oden and Cleve Burton in the Fall of 1971. They imported Minifigs. They were never able to keep up with the demand and closed, but customer outcry brought them back and they opened a full time shop. Skip Nicholson was brought on to manage the shop and Frank Ehrle, an attorney, was brought in for additional capital.

Steve Carpenter and George Scott manufactured under license in 1973.

Bobgnar is correct – those old SAEs were from Valley
Stream, LI, NY. Sorry for the confusion.

I believe that SAE figures were made in South Africa by a group called Swedish African Engineers. They apparently obtained some of the molds from Authenticast who were in Ireland. At one time I had a large number of their ACW and WW2 figures purchased by my Dad. I recall at one point my father writing to the company when he could no longer find the figures here in the States. Sadly, he was informed that they had gone out of business.

Remember getting Der Kriegspielers from The Soldier Shop on Madison Ave? Laid out on top of the drum.

My first figures were from Jack Scruby in 1966. Russian Infantry for Crimean war – packed in a small wooden box filled with sawdust! What a thrill it was – paid for it myself at age 12 and it was great. The figures, and the smell of the sawdust when I opened the box!