Thursday 24 March 2011

It Pays to Advertise


Mil Mod was a fairly broad church in the 1970s and 80s - so there was usually something of interest each month - but even if there wasn't you could rely on the regular Hinchliffe ad. to fire the imagination (even though i could rarely afford the new products featured, and wouldn't have known what to do with most of them anyway).

This ad. from October '77 features one of Hinchliffe's best equipment sets - EG19 Landsknecht Baggage Wagon - you got everything (including the kitchen sink...and 'company shoe carrier'...?!) with this one. Renaissance wargamers were spoiled rotten by the Hinchliffe equipment range - i wish the AWI or SYW had received similar treatment.

This also reminds me that at its peak Hinchliffe Models was close to the complete toy soldier company - producing a vast range of products in everything from 12 to 150mm. I can't think of anyone (with the possible exception of Tradition - which may or may not be a coincidence given Frank Hinchliffe's early involvement with Tradition) who has come close to that level of coverage before or since.

All of which reminds me that that article on Frank Hinchliffe is woefully overdue.

6 comments:

Mike Siggins said...

That is a good point. Hinchliffe covered the 'model soldier' end as well as they did the wargames stuff. My enduring memory from that period is the big Samurai. And they had that special skill with artillery. Much missed.

Bloggerator said...

That ECW Falconette looks very much like the one in the Tradition Catalogue for the TYW. I wonder if they were modelled from the same information?

Greg

taio said...

interesant

Benjamin of Wight said...

That samurai (Daisho?) goes for tons of dosh on ebay. I loved the whole Hinchliffe range and not only because they were a West Riding company. Didn't Frank Hinchliffe on the selling of Hinchliffe start Bicorne Miniatures? What ever happened to the larger scale figures, do Skytrex still have the molds? Questions, questions...

DC said...

Ben,
You're not the first to ask those questions...briefly..yes (and in partnership with Doug Mason apparently), and no one seems to know for sure - we are told FH sold everything to Skytrex, but everything other than the core 25mm and 20mm WW2 ranges seems to have disappeared at that point. A real waste if true...
cheers.

David Wood said...

The 25mm molds have gone to Hinds Fgiures (March 2008)

http://www.hinchliffe.co.uk/home.htm

My dad bought my the Daisho for Xmas when I was about 13 and we had to send it back due to the casting issues......strong memories of complete frustration trying to put it together as a very novice modeller.

The EG19 Landsknecht Baggage Wagon was one I fell in love with when it was released - did New Hope Design have something similar at the time - I am having a senior moment with this as I remember getting the wagon and then seeing it was released with followers etc - New Hope Design ring a big bell????