"Time for a Range Refresh" Topic

How old do you think miniature models should be before they get a Range Refresh?

After 10 or 20 years technique and technology have advanced making old models look dated. When do you look start looking for a more modern version?

I think that consumers will tell you based on their buying preferences. Some will still want the original figures to add to their existing armies of like figures, others will move on to other brands of figures and/or some will stop buying your figures altogether. I can't think of very many companies that changed the look and style of their figure ranges. It wouldn't be a good business decision to offer, say, two different versions of an ACW figure range.

Front Rank had slim elegant Jacobite figures.
Then they "updated" the Jacobite range and made them the now familiar stout pudgy FR style.
I much prefer the earlier ones, rather than the "update". If I had never known about the earlier range, I would like the "new" ones. But the earlier versions were much better.

Depends. If they are older but the figures themselves are still great figures then keep making them.

I hate that refreshes often turn into scale creep.
Improvement in materials is another issue. I like it when metals get better. Another is the change in mold rubber. I remember when mold shrinkage between master and production molds was a real factor.

I made the 'mistake' once of pointing out to a manufacturer that certain of their historical figures were based on outdated info.

They updated their figures, and now my 'old style' figures don't match the new ones!

I used to avoid old miniature lines in favor of those made in the last 10 years or so. With the years gone by, I don't hold that opinion anymore. For example, Redoubt's Trojan War line is from the late 1980s (I think?) and I still think they are the best out there for the time period. Same thing with Foundry for Biblical miniatures.

Oh Bill….be careful what you ask for….hoist by your own petard maybe?

I don't. The only times that I have hit "refresh" is when what I want is not readily available, or if I eventually decide to replace an old collection that I sold off at some point in the past.

I am always happy to find a better-looking casting--accurate, well-proportioned and with suitable detail. I never want a "more modern version" which seems to mean overscale, built like Arnold Schwarzenegger, oversize head and with equipment dangling from him as though he were a Christmas tree.

Stadden and Suren gun crews serve my guns quite well, thank you.

But for any manufacturer, there is a balance of cost vs return. Do you redo old lines or do you do new periods and special units? I do not personally think there needs to be a refresh. Still purchasing figures sculpted 30+ years ago as they match our current large collections.

Out of curiosity, Louis, how long have you been at this? And do you regularly purge your armies of "dated" units?

I spent yesterday helping a friend ID and sort recent acquisitions, check and correct paint jobs, rebase, grass and such. His total 30mm Napoleonic forces are around 30,000, and I'm pretty sure some of them have been on tables since before my first game 55 years ago.

How many castings do you paint in a year, Louis? And what will your armies look like if you declare them obsolete after ten years?

some figure lines will always hold a charm to me.

Possibly it would help if Louis could point us at one of those obsolete 15 year old figures and the new model he feels we should replace it with?

Historicals only Louis. No way to judge accuracy when a "franchise" owner gets to revise the facts.

I don't understand people who want to replace their figures which are perfectly serviceable.

As a manufacturer I never considered remaking a range -technology HASN'T changed since the 1980s for metal casting, so I can't see what improvements you are going to make for metal figures except finding a better sculptor.

Personally, I am buying Minifigs 25mm Marlburians for my latest project (and that only because I can't reliably get hold of S range figures!)

You know, last week I brought home about 1,000 28/30mm figures belonging to a friend of mine--not grassed, not based, badly based, not painted. My mission is to make them table-ready. Very nice figures, most of them, and some with first-rate paint jobs. But I'm not sure I've seen a regiment of them who'd pass Louis' ten-year rule.

At least wait until we get them painted and based before we have to discard them, Louis.