Minifigs 5mm "Miniminifigs" Ancients

      I have done very little in regards to wargaming this last month. However, there was a lot of Minifigs 5mm block ancients on Ebay a couple of weeks ago.

      I was interested in the 5mm blocks from the first time I read of them.  Jon Meech sent me some photos of is figures, and eventually I managed to get several samples from him. As I already had been using Irregular 2mm blocks, I put the idea for trying to find the Minifigs out of my mind. Any search for them before came up empty.

     Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, somehow I came across this lot. This is the first time I've came across a lot of these figures for sale. After resisting for a day, I finally purchased them. It was advertised as Ancients with some Napoleonic Cavalry. The infantry have shields; however, I can't tell the difference between the cavalry.

   I don't have any immediate plans for them or how to use them. Perhaps they will be painted generically to be used for any age period. For now they will end up in a "future projects" drawer.

The collection of Minifigs 5mm blocks.

The infantry figures of the lot.

The cavalry figures, along with several chariots.

5mm Minifigs Blocks: Part 2

      Jon Meech kindly sent me more photos of Minifigs 5mm blocks, some which are still unfinished.  Here's the information that Jon knows of the line of figures. He believes that they were launched in 1972 as "MiniMinifigs" and were included in the 1972/73 catalog. They sat alongside the 25mm (S) range and equally short lived 30mm range. They were discontinued sometime before 1976. The reason given by NevilleDickinson was that he was having trouble finding a reliable sculptor in this scale.

     Jon has excess of 200 blocks, of which he says all are poor casting. Could this be one reason they were discontinued? In the blocks in the raw, they can seen to be less than well cast. However, I believe a war-game battlefield filled with these figures would be an impressive sight.

    Once again I want to thank Jon Meech for sharing the photographs and history of these figures. I asked Jon that in the future he could send me pictures of them in action; if he does I will share them with you.

Nicely painted cavalry.

One unit of infantry painted as Zouaves.

2 Two rank infantry units. It can be seen that some of the heads aren't complete.

The corners of the blocks aren't complete.

The cavalry bases, with the same problem of not filling in completely. Jon says this is common with the blocks. Perhaps that is the reason Minifigs discontinued them. Whatever the cause, it is a loss to the wargaming community.

5 mm Minifigs Blocks

In my last posting, I featured Irregular Miniatures 2mm blocks. In the comments section Jon Meech mentioned that he played games with Minifigs 5mm Block units. I have tried to find out more about them in the past; Jon kindly sent me some photos and some information about them. Below is a tease of the photos he sent. He has mentioned that he will try to send more shortly. Hopefully I will have some more info and pictures to post soon.  I want to thank Jon for forwarding the pictures to me. I am sure there are other people interested in seeing these forgotten troops.