"Minifigs availability" Topic

Once again I turn to enormous combined knowledge of the TMP membership to help me find some Minifig 15mm SYW figures. Apparently Minifigs USA went all "teats up" in my 12 year hiatus from the hobby and I sit here with my Frenchies half completed with Minifig. I currently use FreiKorps for my Prussians & Austrians and would like to at least maintain some semblance of continuity with the new additions to my French. Is there still any distributors for Minifig 15s here in the colonies?

Nope, you need to order direct. They are owned by Caliver Books now.

Aww well, C'est la guerre!

Order direct. You won't be sorry, Caliver are first rate.

Is vonS going to run into a 2nd Gen/3rd Gen problem? I think 3rd gen is more than 12 years old, but I'm not certain.

I have some 2nd Gen/3rd Gen Minifigs 15 mm figures or maybe they are 1st Gen/2nd Gen figures. I've had them so long unpainted I can't remember.

They are not identical but quite compatible.

Yeah I was reading up on this little curfuffle regarding Generation 1, 2, 3 or X. Hell, I don't know what generation they are, I don't even know what generation I am anymore (seem to recall something bout sex, drugs, and rock n roll, did I mention drugs?).
Anyway, I did a little side by side with my new and old FK and my older French Minifigs and aside from appearing to be better fed, my FK was actually not noticeably larger, or smaller than the Minifigs. Also, Scale Creep, in the US, has a really nice selection and wide variety of FK figures.

Check eBay! ByrniSteve (?) has a ton of 15mm Minifigs to sell stateside. He might have what you seek.

I just ordered from Caliver this past week and already have my figures in Wisconsin. Well cast figures too! MUCH better than the old flash-covered bases that took hours to file down flat. I highly recommend them!

Here is how you can tell the different generations of 15mm Minifigs SYW:

1st (Strips of 5 inf or 3 cav. cast facing the same way. Cav are one piece castings.

2nd Generation: Infantry individually cast; rectangular bases; Cav horses have rounded-off, oval bases; horses and riders separate; horses cast with valises cast on; one pose per cav "type". GFI retired those old "whupped-well used" SYW range until we could remold with the 3rd generation.

3rd Generation: (Designed by Dave Higgs) Infantry now on octangular bases; Cav comes with two horse poses (legs together- Legs apart) on shadow bases; Again, horse and riders separate. With GFI, we left the code numbered sprues between the rider's legs to give you something to hold on to while painting; UK cut them off.

Hope that helps someone.

v/r
Tom Dye
Ex-GFI

Side note. Tom, you ran a top notch service with top notch quality miniatures. The demise of GFI is still very much regretted!

Thank you, Adolpho! It's nice to be remembered for what GFI tried to do to ensure the quality of the Minifig designs. Still holding out hope that one day it may make a return.

Thank you Mr. Dye, yes, that was helpful. However, I am still unable to locate a US distributor. I had one a number of years ago and I believe he obtained his from the UK. I unfortunately cannot, however, recall the name of his distributorship.

No US distributor after the much lamented closing of GFI (Tom Dye's US cast figures were tough as nails, great pewter mix by the way!) You will be able to find Minifigs Napoleonic French on ebay both Gen 2 and 3. Some sellers are asking a lot, others are pretty good deals. I prefer Gen 3 Minifigs but that's just me. What French figs were you looking for?

From the listings I have seen byrnisteve can be quite high on pricing.

His figure descriptions are also often incorrect.

Know what you are looking for.

Of course that applies to many of the listings on ebay…

Gallocelt, thank you for your help, I was just going to get the last two battalions of Grenadiers de France, I already have two (2) so that the entire unit was the same figs. No matter, my FK and Minifig were so close in size and scale it is insignificant, my older FK are a little beefier, all that struedel and beer.

As I recall, Battle Honors make pretty nice French Guard Grenadiers. They mix well with Minifigs (Gen 3).

Ooops! Sorry, you were talking about SYW, not Napoleonics. My bad. Well, recently I purchased some SYW Prussian Fusiliers from byrnisteve. I think about $10.00 USD for 24 figs (GfI I believe) delivered promptly. I plan to use the Prussians for AWI Hessians/Germans.