"Need a guide for 25mm Minifigs" Topic

I've been inspired by 25mm Minifig Napoleonics and am thinking of collecting them. This range has a long history as well as being rather vast so anyone with some experience would be greatly appreciated. Questions at hand are: To buy from Caliver? Ebay? Look at convention flea markets? Also, any poses/figure codes to avoid? Some of the examples I see on ebay look quite flash laden, etc.

I would buy unpainted figures off ebay if the prices were good and the figures looked okay. If prices are relatively high, I would just order from the factory directly as I could be confident that they haven't been sitting in someone's moldy basement for the last 25 years. Sometimes you can pick up painted Minifigs for a dollar or so apiece, so it is up to you to determine how much work they will require to meet your expectations. Same for convention flea markets. Sometimes you can get great deals on old figures.

You can still buy Minifigs??

I love Minifigs!
I have thousands of Napoleonics and twice as much unpainted. I even have S range Napoleonics.
Classic figures, love 'em.

What are S range?

What are S range?

Seems you have an awful lot to learn about Minifigs.

S range are a range of Minifigs that are closer to 22mm. They were produced early on in the beginning of Minifigs. They are lovely little castings.

In 1968 Dick Higgs began work on the �S� range (S stood for �special�) of figures, now considered by many to be the first �true� 25mm figures � though they are actually nearer the 24mm mark. Thicker set than their predecessors, but by no means as chunky as the later 25mm figures, the ECW range is shown off to good effect in the photo section of Charles Wesencraft�s �With Pike And Musket�. The first figures, ancient and medieval subjects, appeared in May 1968. At first cavalry were one-piece castings but this was changed in 1971 when a new �dismountable� series was introduced.

Extract from:

link

Early ones are similar in height to Scrubys, but as Jim says, thicker. That made them better proportioned in my view. Certainly better detail. Early range lances are over-scale like telephone poles, giving them a certain old school charm.

I also am a fan, and have several thousand of them, some from each era.

When the newer casts came out. then seemed much bigger and chunkier, but that was all before scale creep set in with other manufacturers. I mix mine freely, without issue. I really like the Currier and Ives look to the cavalry horses, too.

I have used all the sources listed above for purchase successfully.

Rick

Thanks all, I read the history of the company link and they seem pretty epic. People near me are talking about "Vintage Wargaming" which entails a throwback approach of felt cloth, simpler terrain, and more miniatures on the table with less minis per base or even singly based figures. I will look around and see what can be foraged from various places! Something about the horses are so charming as well as the sculpting which is somehow realistic in a different way than modern sculpts that exaggerate all the detail. They do retain a stylized anatomy something in line with toy solider poses, especially the commonly seen advancing with musket at 45 degrees.

One last thought: when I put those units on a table with units of the modern heroic-sized figures, no one complains. They all fight just as well, and most of my guard units and cavalry are Minifigs.

Rick

They were produced early on in the beginning of Minifigs

Hardly early. I've got 20mm Minifigs Brunswickers (in the long coat – gorgeous) and Austrians, both of which were available years before the S range. The Austrians are all pre-painted; ahead of their time in that respect and only 1/- each….!

A bit off topic since the post is about 25mm Minifigs but without the 20mm range, the 25s would probably never have happened.

DBDD

Very interesting, is there or was there ever a list of these smaller sized figures?

Here you go:

minifigssrange.blogspot.com

There is a list for the 20mm figures at the top of the "Listings" tab on the link that Jim sent.

The 20mm are a fair bit rarer on eBay than the S range and they in turn are less common than the current range. They are very similar in build to Hinton Hunt. Here's a link to a website on them and the S range. Sadly the creator of these blogs, Clive Smithers, passed away last year. The S range cavalry are largely complete but not the infantry.

link

minifigssrange.blogspot.com

When Minifigs introduced the S range, they had a policy of updating the figures but the codes were not changed. A code number may refer to 4 or 5 different sculpts from 20mm to the current range but all will be described as say, a British line infantryman advancing. As far as I know, the current range has not been changed since the late 1970s. Not all the poses were updated, a friend thinks that only the best selling were resculpted as the moulds wore out.

I'm not a fan of the proportions of the current range- broad in the beam is the politest description. The best are the later versions of the S range which have the proportions of more normal men.

So, not to cause a ripple in the waters of this discussion, but there now seems to be three ranges. The later/recent 25mm sized figures, the S range which is about 23-24mm, and the 20mm?

My dad still has the molds of the original 30mm Minifig Napoleonic that he bought along with Wally Simon for Fusilier Miniatures. I can try to find a catalog for them. They are a little taller than most Perry miniatures, but I fit them in together since I used to cast them up relatively cheaply. The 30s fit right in beside many of the modern heroic figures but are definitely Minifigs.

Here's a catalogue for the 30mm range.

link

Wealdmaster,

Definitely 3 ranges (20mm, S range and current range) and possibly 4. I say 4 because some people feel that the figures produced in the mid 1970s (before the current range was issued) are not really part of the S range and are called the Intermediates. As I said before, I feel that these are the nicest figures. As far as I can see, there are some British, French, Prussians and Austrians in this style- mostly infantry although there are some artillery and cavalry particularly command. Here is a little more in the link below. My understanding is that Minifigs did not differentiate between S and Intermediate. Some of the higher numbered codes were only available in the Intermediate style.

link

I think that the S range and Intermediates can be mixed in the same unit but the other ranges can't.

I bought minifigs from Caliver to fill the gaps in the hoard I already had in my cupboard. Service was good, a bit slow as they had to manufacture some of the models….Figs are good.

Wow, I'm getting an education here. Few other manufacturers can come close to this level of depth and history. I'm just going to beware of lead rot when buying older figures.

The factory (foundry?) was only a couple of miles from me – in an ordinary terraced street near the Southampton RLD! Used to buy my 15mm Napoleonics direct. The atmosphere at the retail counter was very distinctive.

Neville Dickinson, the founder and owner of Minifigs, retired some years ago but is still an active and enthusiastic gamer. I haven't seen him for a couple of years, since I retired from running my show stand but we used to have a chat at some of the shows in the south of England at which he was a regular attendee as a punter.

DBDD

This has got expensive. This thread prompted me to search out the Minifigs range again (after 30+ years) and put in an order to Caliver. The aspect that always delighted me was the large number of "supernumerary" figures that add interest and variety to a collection.

I have quite a lot of old Minifigs 20mm and S range and I haven't seen any rot. I bought a few of the current range a few years ago and they are well cast but to me, they now seem relatively expensive.

Good discussion and a few comments from a raw recruit just now discovering this rich Minifig heritage.

The range is totally unique and that is a great thing.

It has character and charm even if there are not many pose variations.

The look of a battalion in line with individual variation can be gotten by staggering the figures slightly as well as rotating a little. Placing enough supernumeraries in the right places will make the illusion complete.

I think we all need to live in a new world of metal miniatures prices that just "are what they are".

Vintage wargaming will continue to increase:) Especially in the wake of the Ridley Scott film.

Vintage wargaming will continue to increase:) Especially in the wake of the Ridley Scott film.

Which film is that?

I don't normally do films. I gave up after the last Connery Bond film.

Ridley Scott is making a film called possibly Exile and the pre trailer seems to show Napoleon on Elba, then they use footage from the Duelist to fill out the rest of the trailer. If you have seen the duelist, and they try to emulate that, then we are in for an epic treat. The entire world is, in fact, given the Duelist was heralded as one of the best pieces of film ever created.

They were produced early on in the beginning of Minifigs

Hardly early. I've got 20mm Minifigs Brunswickers (in the long coat – gorgeous) and Austrians, both of which were available years before the S range. The Austrians are all pre-painted; ahead of their time in that respect and only 1/- each….!

DBDD

Correlated to this thread is my question about the 25mm Minifigs French Rev. range, or lack thereof. They have 1 photo of the entire range on the Caliver site. Was there ever more than this in existence? Those photos are a bit zoomed out so does anyone have a comment on the figure quality?

@ Wealdmaster

Ridley Scott is making a film called possibly Exile and the pre trailer seems to show Napoleon on Elba…we are in for an epic treat.

Well, unless Sir Diddly Squat pays as much attention to history as he did with Gladiator, in which case we're in a for a total stinker.

My Minifigs order from Caliver has arrived – excellent service. They are lovely castings but I'd forgotten quite how much "scale creep" has affected figure design. They are genuine 25mm figures but they definitely look "undernourished" compared to the likes of even Perry, let alone Front Rank.

Back in the day the Prince August 25mm homecasts always reminded me of Minifigs – the heft, style and detail level of the cavalry especially. ISTR the Minifigs RHA guns and teams were pretty nice.

Scale creep – yes, in the late 70s Hinchliffe put out diorama kits of French and British guns and (rather the odd one out) the Spanish army. These figures were billed as 30mm and were incompatibly larger than their 25mm figures, themselves larger than Minifigs'. Now, they are bang on for modern "28mm".

I really don't know why we've gone down this route. A Hinchliffe 25mm cavalryman is £2.70 GBP, a 25mm Minifigs cavalryman is £4.05 GBP, and a 28mm piece from Eureka is now nearly £5.00 GBP Meanwhile, a 20mm cavalryman from someone like Newline is £1.10 GBP. You'd have thought they'd be shrinking the figures, not making them bigger….