What figures / kit / model would you buy if you had a time machine.

[willz]

As a follow on from “your favorite 18th century” post thought I would ask this as a general question.  Not sure if it should be in the science fiction section.

If I had a time machine.  (Mine is powered by a potato).  The only trouble is going back buying these items, if I bought something somebody else has now will they still have them???????? or will I create a split in time and destroy the universe.  All this for a few plastic toys

Think I would go back to 1980 and buy a shed load of plastic “Spencer Smiths”, Airfix, Matchbox kits and figures.

[General Slade]

I’d go back and get lots of Minifigs Valley of the Four Winds figures (everything except the Swamp Lords – I always thought they looked like something out of Dr Who rather than a fantasy game).

And if the machine could take me far enough back I would un-buy those Peter Laing Carthaginians that I ordered sight unseen. Boy was I disappointed when those dropped onto the doormat.

[Paul]

Definitely West End Games Star Wars miniatures, and 25mm Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (can’t remember offhand who made the turtles).
In historical, I feel well-served with the ranges available today.

Those are brave men knocking at our door. Let's go kill them!

[Iannick]

A lot of stuff! Everything Marauder Miniatures from the last 80s, really, especially their Dwarfs, Goblins and Chaos. I was too poor as a lad to afford more than a few

Historically, nothing. We live in the golden age.

 

http://murawskiminiatures.com

http://maraudersandcitadels.blogspot.ca

http://parlabouchedemescanons.blogspot.ca/

http://www.clashofempires.ca/

[religon]

Some of the old Citadel Medieval villagers and maybe to last gasps of the LOTR range in metal.

You know, fightin' in a basement offers a lot of difficulties. Number one being, you're fightin' in a basement! --Lt. Aldo Raine

[Piyan Glupak]

I would get some more 15mm North European Bronze Age figures that I think were done by Falcon Figures.  I did buy a DBA army (although with not all options) when they were produced by Chariot Miniatures.  That was my first 15mm army, so I have a lot of affection for it.  I wouldn’t mind getting the missing options, and perhaps another similar army to paint slightly differently to act as another act as another opponent for them.

Previously, all my armies were 6mm, with some 25mm figures that I used for skirmishing.

[willz]

General Slade “wrote” And if the machine could take me far enough back I would un-buy those Peter Laing Carthaginians that I ordered sight unseen. Boy was I disappointed when those dropped onto the doormat.   

That’s what e-bay was invented for to get rid of disappointments.

religon “wrote” Some of the old Citadel Medieval villagers.  

I forgot about the Citadel medieval range only ever bought 60 odd, by the time I wanted several hundred they had stopped producing them.  I have just remembered Lamming miniatures (yes I know they are back in production but its a  price thing, though I suppose the cost of building a time machine would out weigh that). 

[General Slade]

willz wrote:

That’s what e-bay was invented for to get rid of disappointments.  

eBay is quite good for unloading stuff you regret buying but even eBay cannot erase the memory of the disappointment I felt when I opened the long-anticipated package and found I had wasted my pocket money on some mis-shapen blobs that looked like 3D representations of cave paintings.

For those of you unfamiliar with the figures, this is a fairly representative example:

The weird thing is that looking at them again I actually feel a bit nostalgic about them and feel half-tempted to rummage through the loft and see if I can find them  . . .

 

[Rick Inhoff]

I would go to 1962 and buy up all the Elastolin figures I could find. They were 1DM a figure then.

[Howard Whitehouse]

This is slightly boring in that I’d go back to the distant past of the early nineties and buy those  of the Copplestone barbarians from Grenadier that I’m having a hard time finding. While I am at it I will work to make sure Justin Bieber’s parents never meet,  and buy stock in selected tiny tech companies who might just do well two decades from now.

I do all my own stunts.

[willz]

Go on General Slade have a go at painting them, I had the same disappointment with Spencer Smith miniatures when I bought a sample pack in 1978 a bag of poorly defined plastic miss-shapes turned up, “boy was I disappointed”.  Recently I got an E-bay purchase of 228 Spencer Smith cavalry  and with a little work they turn out as nice figures.  In 1978 I did not have the modelling and painting skills I have now, so in hindsight I wish I had purchased several thousand but that’s life.  After 30+ years of painting and modelling maybe we can look on older figures with more experienced eyes, oh and nostalgia.  Go on use your tried and tested painting skills it might surprise you.

[General Slade]

Hi William, it will be a case of finding them first and then painting them.  But if I do track them down I may well give it a go.  Mind you, I’m not sure my painting has improved much since I was a kid.  Back then I was a perfectionist with good eyesight, these days I’m a bit more slapdash but I figure it is okay because everything is a bit of a blur anyway.

[religon]

@Howard,

I think you can source your Copplestone Barbarians from Mirliton. I have not ordered from Italy, but they seem to have most of the range that I have. I understand the EM4 and Mirliton both claim to have the rights to some former Grenadier sculpts. I am unsure if these figures are disputed.

You know, fightin' in a basement offers a lot of difficulties. Number one being, you're fightin' in a basement! --Lt. Aldo Raine

[Howard Whitehouse]

religon wrote:

@Howard, I think you can source your Copplestone Barbarians from Mirliton. I have not ordered from Italy, but they seem to have most of the range that I have. I understand the EM4 and Mirliton both claim to have the rights to some former Grenadier sculpts. I am unsure if these figures are disputed.

I have some from EM4, and various that I’ve bought via Ebay.  I’ve not bought from Mirliton due to the excessive – I mean, really excessive – shipping charges to my house in New York. I understand there are a few figures that nobody currently offers.  As I say, it’s not the best time travel idea, but it’s all I want from the past. Although those 40mm Elastolins sound good —

I do all my own stunts.

[Mike]

Citadel 2000AD figures. Especially the Judge Dread ones. Those and the original Heavy Gear models.

[Steve Johnson]

I think some of the Matchbox WWII figures and vehicles that at the time seemed so much better than the Airfix ones, bar a few exceptions. I saw some at a show recently for £1.00 for a box of Brits and was tempted to buy them just for nostalgias sake.

[Rick Inhoff]

I still have a number of the old 40mm Elastolins along with a castle that breaks down and fits into its base. Good gravy those things are 50 plus years old. I think I’ll go have a lie down now.

[Blackhat]

Britains figures from pre WW1 so I could play Little Wars with the original figures H G Wells used…

 

[Sondergaard]

I’d only have to go back 2 or 3 years to grab the Strelets Norman foot and archers sets, Saxons and probably Vikings, about 6 boxes each. Some of the most useful 1/72 sets ever with no silly poses. All designed to be ranked up in shieldwalls.
These sold out everywhere in short order. Unfortunately, for reasons best known to Strelets, these were a limited run and are no longer available. There was talk of a re-release but nothing seems to have come of it.

Not in the face!

[willz]

Cheers for all you interesting replies, so where do we go to from here.  I can’t see a kick starter money promise working as some government agency will interfere and tax us into oblivion.

[Mike]

willz wrote:

Cheers for all you interesting replies, so where do we go to from here. I can’t see a kick starter money promise working as some government agency will interfere and tax us into oblivion.

If you are going to make a time machine on KS, then I would do more than buy some OOP figures with it for us!
I also suspect the government would want more than just taxes..

😉

[General Slade]

I find eBay works pretty well as a time machine.  All the things I wanted but couldn’t afford as a kid seem to turn up there eventually.  Mind you, sometimes it is a mistake to go back. I’ve bought a few things purely for nostalgic reasons and then thought what on earth did I do that for when the item actually arrived.

[willz]

Yes been there, done that and got the T-shirt, used to happen to me 10 minutes after I left any war-game show I attended.  Now I write a want’s list before I go and try my hardest to stick to it.  Does it work, yes 75% of the time.

The other side of the coin is I wish I had bid for that item on flea-bay or bought that thing at a war-game show / model shop, “it’s a hard life sometimes being a war-gamer” so many figures so little time.

 

 

[John D Salt]

Setting the dials for the past, I would grab a few boxes of the hard plastic ESCI “Red Devils” http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=754 and a few hundred boxes (because friends might need some) of the second-edition Airfix Commandos http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=386

Then, of course, I would set the dials for the future, and get a whole bunch of the 1970s British, German, Russian and American Infantry that PlastiGeek Industries will be releasing in 15mm and 2035.

All the best,

John.

[Andrew Beasley]

General Slade wrote:

I’d go back and get lots of Minifigs Valley of the Four Winds figures (everything except the Swamp Lords – I always thought they looked like something out of Dr Who rather than a fantasy game)….

Odd that, I loved those figures and was hunting some down the other day to show what ‘unusual’ figures we had in my (much) younger days – I remember them going up to 10p a figure 

As for going back:

If I was doing it for profit it would have to be a significant number of GW figures and live on eBay or possibly the Ogre miniatures (and sell just before the Kickstarter)

If I was doing it for myself then I would hunt down some animal in human form fighters etc I had till a few years ago and now cannot find on the net 

Or maybe I would tell myself not buy things as you will never get them all painted!

[Anonymous]

Der Kriegspieler Smiley Faced Orcs/Goblins.

I have several hundred dwarves from the 1970s and early 1980s to oppose them. Should have bought more of those goblins but I had several friends back then in Sacramento who fielded Goblin/Orc hordes so why did I need some? Who knew I would move all over half the freaking continent, (no farther east then the Mississippi so far,) in the interval?

Yes, they are available from ClassicMiniatures.net (I think that is the name) and have bought some but his efforts are a labor of love/”when I find time” and his personal life priorities, (which I think are the right ones,) makes Khurasan look like a full-time operation.

[James Ewins]

I’d also buy a lot of old GW for eBay, and some of the old metal magic asterix range for both eBay and personal use….

/
Chief Sarcaster at http://www.exmouthwargames.org.uk/
Assistant Dogsbody at http://legionaryshow.co.uk/
/

[willz]

Still lots of interesting posts cheers for all your input.  Building the time machine is taking time, I have the potato

[Fernando Darlington]

Paul wrote:

Definitely West End Games Star Wars miniatures, and 25mm Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (can’t remember offhand who made the turtles). In historical, I feel well-served with the ranges available today.

 

WEG Star Wars too. I still nedd some more stormtroopers.

[Secret Squirrel]

I’d buy a lot more British Telecomm floatation shares … then having sold them I could buy ANYTHING I like 😉

It's me

[venusboys3]

For minis:

Definitely the old Minifigs ‘Valley of Four Winds’ figures… I’ve got some but want more.

Lots of old GW… original Bretonnians and Slann and Chaos Thugs, Beastmen, etc.

For toys:

All of the Colorforms Outer Space Men

[willz]

“Venusboy3 wrote Definitely the old Minifigs ‘Valley of Four Winds’ figures… I’ve got some but want more.”

They were a nice range of figures I remember reading several “Michael Moorcock” at that time and the figures reminded me of the descriptions of some of the evil orcs etc..

[General Slade]

willz wrote:

“Venusboy3 wrote Definitely the old Minifigs ‘Valley of Four Winds’ figures… I’ve got some but want more.” They were a nice range of figures I remember reading several “Michael Moorcock” at that time and the figures reminded me of the descriptions of some of the evil orcs etc..

For me it was Minifigs Aureola Rococo figures that reminded me of Moorcock. This is one of the High Elves from that range:

I thought the Aureola Rococo figures were nice but not quite as inspiring as the Valley of the Four Winds figures, which for me were works of art. I think these figures deserve to be on display in art galleries around the world:

[Michael Hobbs]

James Ewins wrote:

I’d also buy a lot of old GW for eBay, and some of the old metal magic asterix range for both eBay and personal use….

 

ditto on the Metal magic Asterix minis (well the ones I’m missing anyway)

Contact me on twitter
http://twitter.com/HobbsTheGamer or hear me witter on about stuff on the Meeples and Miniatures podcast

[Author]

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