1/32 HäT Blog

Have seen recently multipose figures in hard plastic of Vitrix.

I remember that the HaT War Elephants were up on the list to be released for over 3 years.
Nothing for 3 years was produced. Then all the Punic war sets followed closely by the Napoleonics.
I would like to know the back story on why the Elephants took so long to hit the shops?
With the cost of Plastic these days is there any likely-hood of a re run?

1/32 Prussian Landwehr Command and Russian Infantry Command test shots are now posted on the website. They are scheduled to be released in E22, sometime next year after E21.

I think Brunswick Avant Garde was the 1st set I brought , but it appears the Zouaves were the 1st set made. which is correct and can someone tell me the year of release? Included in the picture is the 2nd Zouave set which came with head swaps. Above the 2nd set of Zouaves (red bases) are painted as Turks . I was not really sure what to do with head swaps at the time, now days I feel let down if there not included.

Re: Rahway's post below, 9009 French Dragoons are not available in Europe due to high shipping costs to dealers, but are available to individual buyers. E-mail hatpic-72@yahoo.com if anyone wants some. Still available in different colors.

What was HaT thinking??
The Brunswick were a totally new subject to me. They also stood in for Oldenburg fusiliers,Swedes and I did some as Austrian Territorial Reserves..
I like the back of the box better than todays boxes. The front art work is now much better. I still would like a commander for this set. The price on that box is $19.95 Aust . The US dollar was much stronger then. What year did this box come out ? I pay less today . Yeah was Peter Nathan ripping me off ..LOL
What where your thoughts when you saw this release?

Well maybe not great because of his uniform colour choices. Good news to hear that E21 and E22 have some Great 1/32 sets heading our way.

Put these 7 year war Prussians in the cupboard.
HaTs hat swops are so versatile. They fit well and really change the charactor of the figure.
I'm going to do some of my rough paint jobs of some of the many Prussian units. Then maybe some convertions. I will have to buy some more boxs to do all the Troops.
I now want Austrians.  After them, then HaT can think about stopping production!!

@All, we have loose sprues of 1/32 Russians, marching and action without boxes or damaged boxes or just loose sprues. E-mail for price and availability.

What do you use as accessories for your 1/32 scale figures. Many playsets offer great accessories but how much is out there in true 1/32 scale already made? Do you use 1/35 scale accessories for models? Or do you prefer self-made accessories and buildings? Ideas and tips are welcome.

Quote from Jay from the HaT forum:

"I would suspect that many 1/32 toy soldier collectors barely know that these are out. I've rarely seen them discussed on any of the boards, or showcased in the few magazines that are out."

I don't really know of any other boards that are out there other than the Hobby Bunker or the Tree Frog one or any magazines other than the two British ones, so what are these mysterious boards and magazines that Jay referenced to?

Here's a chance to swap stories: What is your best memory regarding toy soldiers? Was it a particular set you received? A memorable battle fought with the little guys? Or... use your imagination (just keep it to a PG please ;-) ).

When Rick Conte came out with his "Warlord" and "Zulu" sets back in the early 90s he rocked the 1/32 scale figure collecting world on its heels with his larger "true 1/32" (his words) figures. There was much howling and protest on the part of many of us "boomers" in the US over the fact his figures made dwarves of our cherished toy soldiers from our childhood. By the same token, the new guys weren't 60mm either so you couldn't really mix them well with those guys either.

But they were beautiful sculpts and we snatched them up. In a few years other makers were making their figures compatable with Conte's new scale - a larger 1/32.

With HaT plunging into 1/32 in such a big way I find most of their figures tend to bridge the gap between the "old" 1/32 and the "new" 1/32 quite well. As of now, we haven't seen any of the "new' scale in Napoleonics (except perhaps Conte's Alamo Mexicans and these guys are large even for Conte).

So the question is (yes, there is a question and subject for comment here), how much difference can you tolerate in figures? Do you mix and match varous companies figures in spite of slight differences in size? How about mixing/matching 1/32 scale with 60mm figures?

Or is style of sculpting more important?

Okay, I'm going to borrow a subject for a thread. We've already discussed this over on the Forum so I thought it might be fun to do here with some modification (folks had so much trouble just choosing ONE figure):

What is your favorite pose from given eras or wars? (this allows you to choose more than just one); I know this is still a tough one because as I write this I can think of several various poses from the same sets that come to mind. We can even entertain different sides or armies from the same war if you're only into a certain period/era or two (say WWII German pose, WWII US, WWII Russian, British, etc.)

Maybe an explanation of why this one or that one is your favorite. Who knows? It might give our friends at HaT some ideas when developing their own figures (not that it appears they need much help in the idea department) as to what we collectors like in our guys.

Over the years I had placed several obstacles to painting my 1/32 guys, even though I've been painting my 1/72 guys for over twenty-five years.

At first there was the idea of paint chipping and peeling off the plastic. That's been overcome with new acrylics and paints, learning about sealants, as well as new types of plastics that seem to hold the paint better.

One objection prevails (though I admit, it doesn't seem as great as perhaps it once was) was the sheer imagination of playing with the little plastic guys. Growing up before we had all this variety of sets I remember "making do" with what we had.

I remember making a makeshift Alamo church out of an empty shoe box and using my Civil War guys and cowboys as defenders and attackers. My ACW guys with kepis were the Mexicans and my guys with floppy or felt hats were the Texians. It worked in my imagination.

I suppose this goes today as well, I could use any of my blue colored shakoed Napoleonic figures be they French or Prussian to reinforce Santa Anna's Army with a little imagination they work. But once painted realism intrudes its ugly head. A French Line Infantryman is a French Line Infantryman, the facings and epaulets - not to mention colors of pants and other items are all wrong.

This even goes within a conflict and the same army. How about early war US GIs in their khaki drab/brown uniforms as opposed to later war uniforms? Unpainted who cares if the other details are all right (no M-16s, please)? Even unit patches. My World War II paratroopers can serve as any airborne unit in the war, if I paint them, they will have to become either 82nd, 101st, or even 17th Airborne. Then I wont be able to use them in a Pacific battle unless I give them the 11th Airborne patch. Of course, the solution is to buy more figures so I have enough guys to fill all needs, right?

But what say you all? True, painting can enhance the realism of our little guys, but is the price the joy and wonder we used to have playing with our unpainted guys and imagining them to be whatever it was we wanted them to be?

For the moment, I am busy with one of my medium term projects.

@All, Sentai Distributors in California is no longer in business. Anyone in California who has trouble buying our figures can contact us and we'll see what we can do.

What are your views on HaT venturing into a different era for they 1/32nd figures?
Without going into what other manufacturers make or have made I would like to start the ball rolling by suggesting something Colonial.
Prehaps on the lines of the forthcoming Zulu War British.

The outlook for 1/32 scale plastics (and I’m talking about across the board – not necessarily HaT products) is dimming. Gone are the days of large toy companies like Marx, Airfix, or even MPC, most 1/32 scale plastic producers are what we call “Mom and Pop” organizations owned by individuals who are making the toy soldiers they wanted when they were kids. This means that their operations are limited by their capital to small scale output. The norm for guys in the field has been a set of figures every six months or so and often they have a hard time keeping up with that due to the various problems involved with production.

Think about it, aside from getting a single figure from the planning stage (a gleam in the eye of the producer) to a finished figure one has to deal with a number of problems – not the least of which is the fact that most high pressure injection molding in plastic is done in China. A complaint I hear from many figure producers is the fact that even though it usually requires a minimum order of 200,000 or so pieces to justify setting a mold to be cast, this number is “small potatoes” to the companies who do the molding; therefore our toys soldiers usually take a back seat in line to other, larger orders.

Now there is the increase in the price of plastic due partially to the increase in the price of oil – a prime ingredient in plastic. There is also the added cost of inspection of ALL plastic toy products from China in the USA (including each toy soldier) due to some problems in the past.

Of course, we also have the problem of a worsening world economy.

As a result of this several producers are looking for alternatives to injection molded plastic, moving into various resins and one is even experimenting with metal figures.

Up to now, the average for the typical toy soldier producer has been one or two sets of figures a year – averaging one every six months. Or one set a year.

Those who do playsets usually produce around the time of OTSN at the end of September, early October so they can unleash their new product at the big show and in time for Christmas. At the same time the San Antonio Show at the end of May has become a place to showcase new figure sets, though several companies were unable to get their stuff in time for the show this year due to problems inherent with international production and shipping.

Here is hoping HaT can continue with its impressive output in light of these facts.

@All, anyone wanting to be a co-author on this blog to post news, events and interesting matters, please e-mail me. I think we need more new threads on this blog than I'm able to provide myself.

We have Prussian Landwehr Command and Russian Infantry Command test shots for sale plus a few older ones. E-mail us for details..

@All, I've now changed the settings for posting. If you still have trouble posting, please e-mail me at the HaT address and I'll try something else,
@Hatblogger

@All,

We've been spending a lot of time working on the design stage of that one and it might not happen. Despite the fact that there are only 6 figures in that set, each figure has one backpack and more than one head. So we're not just looking at 6 figures, but 21 separate pieces to be cut per sprue, and due to the complexity of the parts, there are to be 5 sliding pieces in the mold. Each sliding piece increases the price.

A 6 piece sprue vs. a 21 piece sprue with 5 sliding parts, that's a huge difference in cost. At this time, this huge difference in cost is insurmountable so it cannot be done, unless the the number of parts is cut down, that's the direct quote from the factory.

So right now, the Austrian Infantry set is in limbo unless some decision can be made to cut down the number of figures and heads. We have already considered attaching the backpack to the figure, but that cannot be done. We can attach one head/hat to the figure and that will cut the number of pieces down by 6, so that's something that can be looked into as well.

Your thoughts?

@All, sorry for the lack of updates but we have been terribly busy over here working on the next two releases. A lot of work has gone into fine tuning and tweaking the sets, fixing problems with the molds, working on the boxes, readying the sets for production, printing the boxes, production, packing and shipping.

The Landwehr sprue contains Landwehr drummer, hornist, officer and standard bearer. It also contains a shakoed officer and flutist. Landwehr regiments contained officers who continued to wear their regular infantry uniforms.

Hi: Here are the Russian test shots, please feel free to comment. It has 6 figures, drummer, 2 X NCO, foot officer, standard bearer and a mounted officer without horse. It will be made in the same color as the Russian foot sets. There is one extra grenadier head with plume, which is all that could be fit on the sprue. Both officers have plug in arms which means that they can be swiveled into different positions.

@All, this question was asked on the regular forum but as it pertains to 1/32 figures I thought it would be more appropriate to answer it here:

"What I would like to ask you and hopefully get a reassuring answer to is there any chance you might be ready to start producing something new and different in the 1/32 scale ?"

To steal a phrase from Mrs. Jones, "anything is possible." I mean that it really depends on you, the customers, it depends on market forces. The bottom line is that if sales of 1/32 figures are healthy, then it means that there is reason to make more 1/32 figures. This isn't true just for 1/32 figures but just any consumer items on the market, be it cars, food, soap, widgets, etc.

E19 has two sets: Prussian Infantry Marching and in Action.

For E20 and beyond we have 4 sets: 7YW Prussian Infantry Marching, Action and Command, and the Bavarian Infantry Command set. All already finished and just waiting for release.

Up next after that are the Napoleonic Austrians where we're finalizing the make up of the set, deciding how many shakos, helmets and bearskins to have. These are the only set past stage 5 in the 1/32 range for now.

Meanwhile, we're taking a long look at the posted Greek Hoplites, Balearic slingers and others with an eye to either re-doing them or not at all. The only ancient era we have right now is the Punic War so the only possible usage we have for the Greek Hoplites would be inclusion in Xanthippus's army. Another Carthaginian set being sculpted right now is the Sacred Band, which might be a little early for our Punic Wars but could be an opponent for the Greek hoplites in Syracuse.

Next up would be any of the Napoleonic masters already finished:
Pre-Bardin French marching and command
Post-Bardin French marching and command
Spanish (all sets)
These sets are all at stage 5 already and therefore could be put into tooling queue immediately.

Or we could go with the Byzantines masters, which are all already finished, but lack opponents.

And we haven't forgotten the requests for Napoleonic cavalry and artillery.

@All, just heard back from the production crew. Looks like they can only fit on 9 types of headwear instead of the 18 we had planned. Part of that is sprue space and part of that is injection molds don't like a lot of little objects. Little spaces means increased pressure and that can lead to flash, etc.

So that means we have choose between shakoes(S), helmets(H) and bearskins(B). I'm leaning towards 6S - 2H - 1B for the reason that Italeri already makes helmeted Austrians and Grenadiers are in the minority. Keep in mind that this set was supposed to be one set of Austrian Infantry and that any extra headwear should just be considered extra. The idea to allow many choices was a good one, but the production guys shot it down.

Still, that means a box of 3 sprues would have 9 extra hats (6H and 3B), and anyone buying two boxes (eg. a box of marching and one of action) would have 12H and 6B extra.

Another idea is to have that combination for the marching set, and something different for the action set like 6H - 2S - 1B, so someone buying 2 sets (1 marching and 1 action) would end up with a total of 24S - 24H - 6B or 54 hats to fit 36 heads. But that's assuming people would buy equal quantities of each set. That could end up pretty messy.

A 3rd idea would be 3S - 3H - 3B (equal numbers)...

So, what do you guys think, again keeping in mind that it's a set of Austrian infantry with 9 extra hats per box.

@All, sorry as I said in the previous thread, from stage 5 to stage 10, there usually aren't a lot of updates as it's just mold work. The test shot stage is usually when we do our next update, and we've already presented the test shots for the next 1-2 releases.

The 7YW Prussian sets are the ones I'm most interested in as those are the first of the 7YW. Note that on the front page of hat.com only the 28mm sets are listed. I'd like to see if we can push all 3 of the 7YW sets out plus the rest of the command sets. I think it's the Bavarian, Russian and Landwehr command sets which are left. But that means it will be a huge release of 6 sets and I don't know how many wallets can sustain such a huge release.

Some of you might have seen the new AWI work ups on the open HaT forum, but they're just planned as 1/72 right now. These figures are planned as a large playset, with both British and American figures. It'll run 20+ poses a side with maybe a couple of hundred figures. I'm sure that the playset in it's entirety will not see the light of day in 1/32 as it will just be too expensive. There are playsets currently that run a couple of hundred bucks but I'm not sure they're selling too well, you guys can correct me if I'm wrong.

Sorry about the lack of updates, but there isn't much going on during the production process when figures go from stage 5 to stage 10.

But a wrinkle has come up with the 1/32 Austrian Infantry which requires some input.

As planned, each figure will have 3 choices of head/headwear: a helmet, a shako and a bearskin. So the planned sprue would have 6 figures and 18 head/headwear. Not to mention that there will be 6 separate backpacks on the sprue.

Let's say that we can't fit on 18 separate heads/hats, but we can fit on 12. Which ones would you prefer? Or do separate backpacks make any difference? One option we are exploring is to mold the figure together with the backpack on.