It is the end of February, but the temperature is in the 70s. Getting those spring fever blues and I'd rather be in a hammock than sitting here in the shop. The two problems with that are: 1. I can't make money sleeping in a hammock 2. I ain't got a hammock So back to work ... The first thing on the list are the new figures from MINIFIGS. Those of you who have been in the hobby for a while will remember that in the beginning, MINIFIGS was one of the first lines of figures that were available on this side of the pond. They were rather stocky, big headed little chaps in 25mm that (in my opinion) were that best on the market. The line had its ups and downs and eventually disappeared from the market here in the states. Well they are back with a vengeance in the 15mm Napoleonic/War of 1812 era. There are literally hundreds of packs of figures for this era in their line. Also they have a good selection of Marlburians/Great Northern War and are starting to produce Ancients, beginning with Mexandrians. They scale out at a pleasing 15M on the Barrett scale and are in a variety of poses. The price is reasonable too with the infantry at $11.95 for 50, the cav at $8.95 for 12, and 6 guns with 24 gunners for $11.95. The down side to these figures is that the casting is not a sharp as on a Dixon or Old Glory figure. Also the cav figure we looked at comes in three parts: horse, rider, and blanket roll. I'm not sure that I like that. but some might. Also new from MINIFIG is their new 12mm World War II line. Why 12mm? Because it is perfect N scale. Buildings, trees. and accessories are readily available from any model railroad shop. And the figures and vehicles are NICE. The casting on the Sherman was a work of art right down to the rivets on the boogies. Very clean with no flash or parting lines. The infantry figures arc pretty good as well, but suffer from a lack of detail that I guess would be pretty tough to put on a figure that small. The price is right as well with the vehicles and artillery with crew costing $2.95 and a 36 man infantry platoon at $6.95. If I were going to play CD III, this is the scale I would go with. We have also seen the 25mm Spanish Civil War figures and vehicles from FAA. I really wish that I had an interest in this era as these arc some of the nicest 25s I've seen in a long time. There are 12 packs of infantry with Moroccan Regulars in Turbans to Nationalist in German style helmets. The vehicles so far are a T-26B, a PZFKW Mark I B, a Renault FT, a Bilbao armored car, and three different armored lorries. Also there is a very nice French M 1898 75mm with Nationalist crew. The figures scale out at 27M and are well cast and animated. The prices are $ 7.98 to $10.98 for the infantry, $13.25 for the artillery, and $17.50 to $21.98 for the vehicles. If this is an era or a scale that interests you, you owe it to yourself to check 'em out. The last new item in are the new Dixon 25mm Han Chinese, So far, the figums that have been released are the basic infantry figures with officer. Mostly pole arms, archers, crossbowmen, and swords. They Scale out at 25M/H on the Barrett Scale and the castings are up to the usually high Dixon standards. The downside is that they have taken a page from the Foundry book and are charging extra for the shields. This brings the price on a standard figure to $1.65 each, which seems to me to be a little high priced. However, this is the first effort for Dixon into the ancient era. Hopefully they will finish this line as well as bring out others as ancients seem to be gaining popularity again thanks to Warhammer Ancient Battles. Thanks again for reading, and, as always, give us a shout if you have any questions or comments. Back to Dispatch Mar 2000 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com