"Where do all the old and vintage 15mm wargames minis go?" Topic

I have been away from wargaming for over 15 years and looking back with nostalgia. I wondered where do the old wargames miniatures go for example old 15mm Minifigs strip armies, Mikes Models? Also old miniatures replaced by sexier new figures. I used to have many Mikes Model armies, and strip Minifigs armies, my favourite was Selucid. I have long since sold them as I needed the money at the time. Just wondering do wargamers have unloved armies stuck away in attics? Do the suppliers just destroy the moulds or are they lost over time.

Are there any gamers still using 15mm old Minifig strip armies or Mikes Model ancients. Essex I think have some of the Renaissance range.

I would be interested in hearing what others think.

I've got a good load of strip Romans and sassanids and a few Gauls and Numidians. But I always try and get more, however as you say they are getting harder to find, and then the price is usually very high.

I just love the little s.

Ebay?

I sold all that I had except my Napoleonics which I still paint a few of now and again.

The strip figs are starting to be collectable. There must be thousands lurking in collections and not being used.

Db

I have a collection of old 15mm Heritage ACW's that I get out and play with Fire and Fury from time to time. Brings back a lot of good memories!

I have a few of both the Minifigs and Mike's Models figures, mostly bought as samples. They seem too few to bother trying to sell off, and they sit quietly in boxes hidden away from me. Reading this thread, perhaps I should put them up for sale.

Grelber

Still have a bunch of 30 plus year old ACW – still use 'em, too

I still use my Peter Laing medieval DBA armies from time to time.

Still use them

I still use my Peter Laing Normans and Marlburians.
I also have painted ECW Minifigs strips and medieval Mike's Model.
I love them and I would never sell them.
Marco

I still have my minifigs strips from 1964 and following. The Austrian auxiliary force at Kunersdorf, and the British Army at Culloden. (Never got around to painting their opponents.) Despite their being toylike, I still think they are great, and perhaps like them even more than the large 18th century armies of later and "better" figures I purchased over the years.
Why is that? Nostalgia for the past? A simplicity of form that the eye more easily recognizes?
Yes, I still have a cigar box of mini-strips and still paint some to augment my Editions Brokaw armies from time to time.

I have been told the Mike's Models molds were deliberately destroyed, which seems a pity. Mostly, of course, molds just wear out, and molds and master figures migrate to the garage/basement/storage locker of someone who's "going to do something with them someday." It's not a problem limited to 15mm castings, or ancients.

Minifigs strip range moulds were destroyed too apparently. Unfortunate as I was tempted to see if they were for sale at the time. Lovely figures with a real troy soldier charm that you probably don't appreciate until you get older yourself.

GildasFacit;
"Perter Lang Medievals" How can you tell that they are supposed to be Mdievals? The paint, ahhhh yes, the paint.

I sold all of mine off in order to fund other projects, but I never sold off "old" figures to buy "new" figures of the same type. My brother still has thousands of them. I still see them at conventions or on TMP postings, so they are being used. Mike's Models went in to the melting pot to be reincarnated as 25mm Dervish.

Say it ain't so, Joe! Oh, the humanity! Melting down those beautiful little stumpy Mikes Models to cast something else. Turning gold into lead!
I have several thousand Mikes Models figures that comprise my Baltic Crusades collection and form the basis of my Colonial Sudan, Anglo-Zulu War and Afghan armies. They're my favorite figures. Play with them all the time.
I used to haunt the flea markets at conventions hoping to pick up unwanted Mikes figures (think the Island of Misfit Toys from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer ) but never managed to find many. They come up infrequently on eBay.

I sold my Mike's Models Dacians 20 years ago, and never looked back.

Recently, I've been painting a lot of late '70's lead for a retro project. Frankly, I'm not enjoying it much – it isn't fun to paint, and the effort that you have to put into a unit to make it look decent is way out of proportion to what you get.

After the first flush of nostalgia, it really is a grind.

Marshal Saxe : 15mm Minifigs were not produced until 1974 or 75.

Actually Skipper John, the medieval ranges were not bad at all for the time and the Normans, which were a bit earlier, can't be mistaken for anything else.

Some of the Ancients ranges were a bit rough though.

As noted above, retro wargaming is a big of a sub genre in itself. It is certainly still possible to get hold of old stuff (although personally I don't regard anything made after the late 1980s as 'old'), but it involves a degree of expense and inconvenience.

Which is why it is way more fun than buying some boring boxed army off the shelf:)

I happen to have a couple of Minifig strip Armies from the late 70s that I need to sell. Anyone interested?

My Heritage Acw figs were stolen. I still have my heritage Punic Wars armies though. I love em!

I have a boat load of the Mike's Cossacks that I may be unloading someday as I have so many other periods that I need to work on.

There are also Romans, Han, Koreans, Franks, and others that are either painted and based or in the queue to at some point be painted and based to be used.

Same with the strip Minifigs.

I also have some old Stone Mountain Chariot Middle Kingdom Egyptians that I would like to expand to a full second DBA Army.

And then there are the Ral Partha Elves that were listed on Ebay as various Medieval infantry or Barbarians.

A lot of the old Tabletop and Asgard figures are still in production, so I have expanded armies with those figures and will continue to do so.

I have two very large ACW Ral Partha 15mm armies based to Johnny Reb/ Fire and Fury. Still look good on the table although I haven't played ACW in a while.

Always looking for old mini fig strip figures, ancient Greek, thracian, Macedonian, Persian, successor, Sassanids

I got rid of masses of unpainted Peter Laing Mahdists many years ago, but still have a big tub full of assorted colonials, including (I think) Fuzzy Wuzzies. There are certainly plenty of Imperial figures in there. I'm not sure where the Zulus are hiding, though.

Greiber and others, I beseech you to put back into circulation any toys you're not going to use. There's a difference between having a reserve to paint and hoarding.

I don't get the nostalgia. I remember those strip 15mm MiniFig Napoleonics. At the time they were great. Today, the are crude bumps. I imagine many were thrown in the garbage when AB figures and such became common. I remember picking up Garrison 25mm ancients in the late 1970s. They were so much better than anything else out there. Today, I can't imagine pinning for them when there is Aventine miniatures and such available. To me it is like longing for the Commodore 64.

As I said, retro gaming is an acquired taste and not for everyone.

@dbf1676 – what period are the strips? If Ancient I'd be interested,

Cheers
Jon

Korsun.

Seven Years War.

There's a difference between having a reserve to paint and hoarding.

There is…?

Uh, oh.

I have an awful lot of "vintage" miniatures in collections I've acquired cheaply at flea markets and "getting out of this period" sell-offs. Since I'm not nostalgic about them, they're just bad figures I would rather not keep (or paint!), so I've taken to selling them off in/with lots at very low prices.

- Ix

Last night I finished painting some Peter Laing Persians I found on eBay. I had to paint them in a style I haven't used in 30 years to make them fit in with the rest of the army.

@dbf1676 – thanks mate. Can you flick me an email at (tmp username) at yahoo dot com dot au?

Cheers
Jon