Some New Information on Austin Miniatures

Posted on October 27, 2013 by admin

Our good friend Brian Johnson received a email from Austin Miniatures detailing some future figures. Austin said that they have three more western figures done; a Mexican bandit, a Texas Ranger and an Indian Scout. They also have three of the eight U.S. Marines done. We thank Brian for passing along this information.

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24 Responses to Some New Information on Austin Miniatures

  1. Gary Kuepfert says:
    October 27, 2013 at 5:06 PM

    I seen 2 of the Marine proto sculps at OTSN they were excellent.
    Let,s just hope what happened to Cunningham does not happen to Austin!
    Gary

    Reply
  2. Don Perkins says:
    October 27, 2013 at 7:18 PM

    What exactly happened to Cunningham?

    Reply
    • Beau Cunnyngham says:
      October 28, 2013 at 8:20 AM

      I can answer that! What happened to us was that we just couldn’t justify the large expense of plastic production. Too much upfront, with no assurance of ever making it back. We released our Confederates in 2009, and it took near 3 years to make our money back. With a new baby arriving in 2010, the idea of spending near $12,000 on a new set of figures, when I still had boxes and boxes of the old set, seemed unwise.

      We tried going the Kickstarter route, but it didn’t pan out. We still have a sculptor working on some WWII U.S. Marines, inspired by the stories from my great uncle who served in the 2nd Mar Div. Metal, as opposed to plastic, has a much smaller financial risk tied to it, so that’s the direction we plan to go. We’ll probably only sell a few dozen, but it’s something that I’ll enjoy doing!

      Austin has some great sculpts, and seem to be great people. I’ve got a set on order from a dealer, and can’t wait to get my hands on them. Best of luck to them! We always need more, new plastic.

      Reply
      • Ed Borris says:
        October 28, 2013 at 11:54 AM

        That would have been my guess, afterall isn’t money the root of all evil? Or is it if I have money I get evil, I forget.

        Reply
        • Christian Aldo says:
          October 28, 2013 at 4:00 PM

          You know, $10000 does not seem that bad to have a six cavity mold made and figures produced. For some cool WWII Germans, I’d throw in.

          Reply
          • Tom Black says:
            October 28, 2013 at 7:06 PM

            Should we all form a “plastic toy soldier manufacturing commune/corporation “with equal yearly dues and equal voting rights on what historical period gets manufactured? I’d be for it!

          • Ed Borris says:
            October 29, 2013 at 10:10 AM

            In essence I think that’s what Beau tried to do with Kickstarter. However , as he told you they came up short of what was needed. If you could fix a subject that everyome was interested it may work, but the trouble is there are many areas of interest, if Civil War failed which has to rank in the top 2, then most if not all others would seem to be doomed to failure too.

  3. Don Perkins says:
    October 28, 2013 at 9:30 AM

    Thank you for the explanation, Beau. Any one of us can understand that situation completely. I know that Nick and Deanna of TSSD think quite highly of you, and I have the utmost respect for anyone who risks their own funds in this hobby.

    You don’t know me, but I’ve met you several times at the Indianapolis Show when I stopped by your table. I expect to see you at the next show in March, and will introduce myself to you so you can attach a face to a name.

    Best of luck on your U.S. Marine project.

    Reply
  4. Don Perkins says:
    October 30, 2013 at 1:09 PM

    I heard Gregg Haun (of Stone Castle Hobbies) say once that of all the Marx reissues that his company released (which was all of them) the Civil War figures outsold every other time period by at least 10 to 1.

    Reply
    • Don Perkins says:
      October 30, 2013 at 1:22 PM

      Incidently, does anyone know what happened to Gregg Haun (spelling ?) and his Stone Castle Hobbies in Louisville, Kentucky? Gregg was always a major dealer at OTSN and always had a staff of 2-3 persons there assisting him. He published excellent annual toy soldier catalogs, and his hobby store in Louisville was very large and well-stocked. Just to the south, in Bardstown, he had his Stone Castle Museum, which had a huge collection of vintage Marx playsets on display. Many years ago I planned a family vacation around Louisville so I could see Gregg’s store, museum, Lincoln’s birthplace, Stephen Foster’s original Old Kentucky Home, and Monmouth Caverns all at the same time in the same trip. Now you don’t ever see or hear from Gregg anymore. He was a major player in all the early Marx, Timpo, and Charbens reissues, and ran them all in multiple colors. For each set, you got 50 reissue figures in a nice box for $25.00. Where is he? What is he doing? Inquiring minds want to know.

      Reply
      • admin says:
        October 31, 2013 at 10:47 PM

        Don
        Greg is up on EBay selling his items. the user id is a variation of Stone Castle Imports. Greg dealt directly with Mexico and got the figures in odd colors redcoats in yellow. He also had the Civil War bridge run.

        Reply
    • admin says:
      October 31, 2013 at 10:50 PM

      Don
      Civil War is one of the best sellers, the problem when doing figures is the molds which are more expensive than metal molds. With costs of $10,000.00 to $20,000.00 you have to produce enough figures pay for the molds. The problem is demand which has gone down as the younger generation are in to computers and action figures.

      Reply
      • Ed Borris says:
        November 1, 2013 at 10:22 AM

        After my recent observations at Toy shows, I don’t think the hobby will actually ever die, it will just evolve. The TSSD’s, Barzso’s, Paragon’s, Conte’s and maybe even BMC will be the collectibles of the future. Eventually the demand and attraction of Marx will almost vanish completely though and they will be the the pieces in the 1.00 boxes of loose figures.

        Reply
        • admin says:
          November 1, 2013 at 1:01 PM

          Ed
          The hobby will not die, but it will not have growth. Take a look at Dime Store figures. The collectors or them are in the 70’s, 80’s and up. The interest in common items is very poor. It has been interesting to see the growth of plastic at shows as an after thought to being all over the place. I will be doing two shows this weekend one a toy show the other toy soldier show.

          Reply
  5. Don Perkins says:
    November 1, 2013 at 10:56 AM

    I love Marx, but you may be right. A few years ago, an internet blogger argued that Marx figures were and always have been the best, bar none, including the new plastic figures Conte himself was rapidly introducing into the market in playset after playset. Richard Conte responded on his website, “We will always be indebted to Marx, but you can’t be serious. You’ve got to be kidding!” Look at much of today’s plastic from Conte, CTS, TSSD, & Paragon. The sculpting, detail, historicity, level of 3-dimension, type of plastic, and even the expanded size of the bases, is unsurpassed, even by Marx, which I will always love. Marx playsets we’re beautiful. Ideal and Auburn offered some great plastic too, but Marx beat everyone by virtue of the vast range of it’s playsets. The modern producers don’t have the nostalgia of Marx, but when you compare one of the modern figures side by side with a Marx figure, it’s easy to see a qualitative difference.

    Reply
    • Ed Borris says:
      November 1, 2013 at 12:37 PM

      I still have to give to to Marx, they were way ahead of their time and for a mass produced product they were very good. Marx cranked out thousands and thousands of sets, the new guys produce maybe 300. I admit that their historical accuracy wasn’t all that good and some of the poses were a bit strange, but when compared to what was available at the time they were miles ahead of everyone else. If they were still around today with todays technology I’m sure they’d be at the top. Remember when they were around they were producing for kids, todays manufacturers produce for us old guys/collectors/historians. One more thing we could buy an entire boxed playset for $5.95, what do you get for that today?

      Reply
    • admin says:
      November 1, 2013 at 12:57 PM

      Don
      The reason the new figures do not have the nostalgia is we did not grow up with them. The new stuff is wish fulfillment, these items we wished Marx had done. Marx was the king on playsets.

      Reply
  6. Mathias Berthoux says:
    November 3, 2013 at 5:05 AM

    Hello all,
    you can see the two Marines prototype on Playset Addict website, here: http://playsetaddict.com/otsn_2013.html
    Best regards from France

    Reply
  7. John says:
    December 3, 2013 at 5:28 PM

    I’ll bet their new figures look fantastic.
    I am really impressed with their work.

    Reply
  8. Dan Beidelschies says:
    October 10, 2014 at 7:36 AM

    hello everyone, Dan Beidelschies here, I just posted some new pictures on my website of some upcoming figures. I hope you all like them as much as I do.

    Reply
    • admin says:
      October 10, 2014 at 8:31 AM

      Dan
      Thank you for the update. I just have been over at the site and the Japanese and gangster look fabulous. I will have to pick up the gangsters even if you do them in metal.

      Reply

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