"28mm plastic" Topic

I realize this is all new, and I commend the people who are makeing this availible.
However, I have an extremely limited space and am not a big fan of skirmish games.

So what I would like to know, is if there are any plans somewhere down the line to come up with 15mm figures?

My second question is, how long will these pieces last?

I still have some of the original airfix confederates (you can tell they are original because they are a much darker grey). As early as 15 years ago, they became extremely brittle to the point where too much handleling would snap them off at the ankles or thier guns would break off. So how long will this new plastic last?

A long time. I have GW plastics from 12 years or more ago that are doing just fine.

These are not your airfix confederates.

PVC plastics and polyethylene plastics age quite quickly.

The new plastic figures are polystyrene. This does not suffer as badly.

My own thought is that, given the costs involved, there might well be no point in doing 15mm plastics. The manufacturer has to sell an awful lot of plastic figures to cover start-up expenses.

My guess is that there are a lot of people interested in 28mm plastics. Most good quality metal figures are currently $2-3 each in the US, and with the best will in the world, it's hard to justify building a large army at that price. That's why people are willing to pay Old Glory $50 USD upfront to get a wholesale discount for a year. Being able to do so at plastics prices is attractive to a lot of people.

15mm metal figures are much, much cheaper. Anyone who can't afford a large 15mm metal army is unlikely to spend very much on buying plastic figures. There's no point in marketing to the poorest guys in the hobby.

That being said, I'd think that company-sized boxes of 15mm WWII, with infantry that don't have grotsque heads, might have some commercial appeal.

I agree with Jack.
Company size is the way to go.
Anything smaller would have to be as expensive as metal, with the packaging, store stocking, overhead, etc.
The cost of the raw material in this case would be irrelevant.

Anyone suggesting that the platic be sold unpackaged just has no grasp or grip in what is involved.

********************

Hey! *I* would buy 15mm plastic Finnish flamethrowers! But only in Winter War smocks. I would buy at least …5 of them! Maybe 6, but no more, and only if they are a third of the cost of metal.

After somebody corners the market on 15mm plastics, I bet somebody will make 20mm plastic figures as well.

LLC aka Ron

Too true MJS.

The cost involved in making a 15mm plastics mould at $20,000 for the mould vs. spin casting them in metal at $100 USD for the mould would be ridiculous.

I'm low-balling here but say you could get 30-metal figures out of each cast and a mould lasts 2,000-casts before the mould burns out which yields 60,000 models at a cost of maybe $3,000 which includes raw materials and labor. Say 200 figures in an army, roughly, that's 300 armies sold at $0.25/figure so $15,000 gross to the manufacturer. Just to make up the cost of making a metal mould one would have to sell roughly 130,000 plastic figures or 650 armies at $0.15/figure(you couldn't sell them at the same price as metal since there's this perception that plastic should be cheaper).

So, is it cost effective to make 15mm plastics as long as cheap metal is available? No way. I doubt you'll see them in the near future.

Oh and Mick is right, hard polystyrene won't break down nearly as quickly as softer plastics. I've got some GW figures from 1987 that are as good today as they were when I putchased them, and some even older Tamaya figures that will probably out live me.

It is my impression that prices are rising on 15mm figures in metal. A store owner at Little Wars noted that for him to stock some 15mm lines, he would have to price the figures btween .80 cents to $1.50 USD per figure.

You're correct as far as store owners go Mini'ships, they would have to charge that much. But because it's such a niche market, most 15mm are sold direct from the manufacturer, as such the manufacturer can charge what they'd have to charge the distributors to their customers and avoid most of the retail markup.

Some companies do sell to retail, usually via a games distributor. The advantage being a potentially wider audience, the disadvantage is lower margin and/or higher prices to the consumer.