"What’s the most popular Historical range ever?" Topic

e.g. " Joe's Figure's War of Jenkin's Ear Scottish Rebel's"

What do you think?

No idea, but I think Heritage's Confederettes and Napoleonettes have to be towards the top of the list, as well as Der Kriegspeilers. For more modern manufacturers, I'd say Battle Front Germans are a good guess.

Airfix ACW? The range which launched a thousand Wargames and which were endlessly convertible into other things.

I'm thinking Battlefronts metal German figures.

Scruby 30mm Napoleonics. A lot more of us were buying figures then.

Old Glory's $15 USD 100 figure bags. ACW and Napoloeonics

15mm Old Glory ACW. Changed the game when they were introduced

Probably Airfix, sold around the world in toy shops for nearly 60 years

I'll join with the Airfix ACW line, at lease until my generation passes.

The historically accurate Army Men, by many miles. Not all Army Men figures are historical, but most are reasonable facsimiles. They outsell every other toy figure, in the world. Cheers!

Airfix

Do you actually know the answer?

Is there actually an answer?

Considering that no manufacturer tends to share their production or sales data, the question is probably impossible to answer.

If you tried hard enough, you might be able to get from some manufacturer estimate as to what they think is their most popular range.

That said, how do you even define "most popular"? Is it the range with:
- The largest number of individual customers buying at least single product?
- The largest monetary value of purchases (inflation adjusted)?
- The largest number of individual figures sold (regardless of scale)?
- The largest total weight of figures sold (plastic and metal ranges to be considered separately)?
- Something else?

By the number of purchasers or figures, Airfix WWII range might score pretty high. By the criteria of weight or total monetary value, I have no idea.

Plastic army men certainly are popular, but are they really organised into "ranges"?

I think Airfix. Most of our generation started with them. Cheap and relatively easy to find.

Another possibility is Perry's first plastic ACW box. It proved that the concept of 28mm plastic figures was viable and has since spawned numerous other ranges and competitors.

Griefbringer, I've seen plastic Army Men lines representing WW II British, American, Japanese and German troops. I've seen other Army Men figures which might be other nationalities, but I'm not certain. I would say that these different lines of 54mm-60mm plastic figures would be considerable as "historic" figures, and thus usable for historical games.

I don't use them for gaming historical scenarios. I just use them for fantasy games, typically Tan versus Green, with Gray's thrown in as mercenaries supporting one side, or the other. I have also seen some 'terrorist'/'jihadist' Middle-Eastern figures which I consider "Army Men" figures: not a lot of detail, not expensive, either, in the 54mm-60mm sizes. ;-) Cheers!

Could Peter Laing's figures be in the running? Some of us remember them as a starting point in 15mm.

Sgt Slag. You're too young. Marx used to make French and Soviet WWII as well as those mentioned. On a good day, you could buy Marx soldiers by nationality in bags of 100 in dime stores.

But Griefbringer beat me to the question(s). Let me add another: must the figures be used for "proper" wargames? Does use solely by children as toy soldiers count? And is this a "lifetime achievement?" What does one make of ranges hugely popular and influential, but no longer widespread and perhaps not even produced?

I think something by Airfix is a good guess.

Maybe a range (guardsmen in busbys?) from W Britain could be up there? In the early 1930s Britains were making 20 million models a year and they would have had a big share of the market from the 1890s up to the advent of plastic toys (1950s?).

Battlefront's Flames of War, by a large margin. The rules may have lost their way, but the sheer breadth and depth of their minis, and their availability, is impressive.

I wonder what the sales are for GHQ's micro-armor lines? They've been going strong for more than 40 years.

Airfix ACW must be way up there.

Now that it is mentioned, Airfix. Started with them in 1968

Another vote for Airfix – spent countless hours as a lad playing battles from Ancients to World War II. Great fun and memories.

I have to back up Aegis for GHQ microarmour. I kind of have to with my handle.

I could never wrap my head around 1/32 scale Russian infantry rendered in metallic blue (?!)

Another vote for Airfix. I watched a local Napoleonic group (Western Washington Wargamers) play at the American Eagle in Seattle; couldn't afford the cool metal miniatures they played with, but Airfix Nappies were just the ticket. Painted hundreds fo them w/Testors enamels, starting probably in 1970.

Seeing as how none of this has any statistical backing I would also proffer Airfix by a factor of 27 over any other historical range.

I would also expect that UK manufacturing would have outdone US manufacturing by a factor of 13 in the early days (1968-1979) of wargaming.

Makers such as Minifigs and Hinchliffe sold more into the US than the other direction? No Heritage, Scruby etc seen much at all in UK.

Jacklex and those 30mm marching men?

all good fun

martin

I don't know how worldwide Airfix was, but here in the UK I started with ACW and WW2, later Napoleonics. Almost 60 years ago!

The minifigs ranges duplicating the WRG Armies of… books were pretty popular.

Let me add another: must the figures be used for "proper" wargames?

Well, there is nothing in the original post to suggest that they should, or that they should even be marketted as wargaming figures. That said, what the original poster had in mind might differ from what he actually wrote.

Furthermore, obtaining real world data about the actual usage of figures (wargaming, modelling, collecting, use as toys etc.) would actually require tracking and polling every customer out there. Pure manufacturing/sales volume data per range is at least theoretically obtainable from a single source (if manufacturer has done sufficiently detailed book-keeping).

Another bet for GHQ. Most of the other choices were certainly widespread in defined intervals, but GHQ has been consistently churning out metal since 1969.

They are the Rolling Stones of miniatures.

If longevity is a factor, then anything designed by the Perries, in their own company or in their earlier incarnations.

Green plastic army men

In the last 30 years Old Glory has used close to 400,000 TONS (Yes, that is tons) of metal, that does not include Old Glory 15s in Michigan.
That is alot of little army man's -- so someone finds them popular for whatever reason ?

Russ Dunaway

That is plenty of tin and lead, Russ, but how do they divide between all your different ranges?

No idea.

Russ Dunaway

The above is based on the fact that the last 33 years we have been on "auto ship"for 1 ton a month from out metal supplier.
Many, many months and even some particularly years we had to double that?
Once again, this does not count Old Glory 15s up in Michigan.
What molds it get poured into after this -- I have no idea.
This does not count approximately
200 gallons of resin a year!!

Russ Dunaway

Airfix ACW. Aixfix kick-started wargaming for the masses. Of course they had several historical ranges, but probably the ACW sets were the most used. Back then there was limited choice of manufacturers, and so Airfix had a virtual monopoly of cheap and readily available figures. Sold in Woolworths, they could be got in any High street. Is there anybody around in the 1960 and 70s who never had any ?