French Line Infantry Available for Order (1 Viewer)

[FirstLegion]

The French Line infantry catalog is now up on our website and we're taking orders. The new codes are NAP0031-NAP0043 and NAP0045-NAP0060. Originally, we had intended on shipping NAP0031-NAP0043 first and then shipping NAP0045-NAP0060 a few weeks later, but we've decided to just ship them all at once on June 20th as most folks will buy figures from both groups.

Here are just a few images of the figures as shown in our catalog...

NAP0033 - 61st Line Infantry Fusilier Advancing

NAP0036 - 61st Line Fusilier NCO

Fusilier NCO of the 61st Line in Full dress with raised fist to encourage the troops

NAP0040 - 61st Line Standard Bearer

Standard bearer advancing with his sword drawn.

NAP0043 - 61st Line Infantry Drummer

Drummer of the 61st Line Infantry. Very detailed uniform with the red cross pattern up the arms.

NAP0048 - 57th Line Infantry Sapper

With his sword drawn and a brace of pistols, this guy is all business.

NAP0054 - 61st Line Infanty Voltigeur NCO

NAP0055 - 85th Line Infantry Voltigeur Firing

Standing Firing Voltigeur of the 85th Line

NAP0059 - 61st Line Grenadier Advancing in Full Dress

These are just eight of the 29 different figures that are part of the release. The rest of them can be seen in the catalog on our website. As always, please don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have or to contact me offline via email.

Best,

Matt
First Legion Ltd

 

[Dickbuttons]

Thank you for posting the figures. They look really nice.

Dick

 

[kilted vampire]

Boy all of these really nice figures. Where does one begin?

 

[Spitfrnd]

Boy all of these really nice figures. Where does one begin?

Good question, they are very inviting.

 

[mk26gmls]

I put one on pre-order today. I am looking forward to receiving it in late June and checking out the quality. The pictures really do look good.

 

[Spitfrnd]

I put one on pre-order today. I am looking forward to receiving it in late June and checking out the quality. The pictures really do look good.

I am going to do the same tomorrow. I want to compare it first hand with a K&C and Britain.

 

[FirstLegion]

Here is an image that I took of some of the figures to show how they are intended to be displayed. This image shows 20 of the 29 different figures available in this release (as many as i could fit in my small little lightbox!). There are no duplicates figures in the photo and this should give you some ideas to help answer the question "Where I do I start?".

As our figures are designed to be displayed as historic Napoleonic units, I think the ideal display for them is to build a unit based on the Napoleonic battalion organization. So, for example, a historic Napoleonic battalion of the period had 6 companies totalling 720 men with a grenadier company, a voltigeur company, and 4 fusilier companies. Thus, one way to go is to select a "scale" and organize figures based on that scale. I personally am going to collect our figures in a 1:20 scale (where each figure represents 20 real men) by raising a 36 figure battalion(s) using 6 grenadiers, 6 voltigeurs, and 24 fusiliers and command. Each 6 figure company will have an NCO, an officer, and four soldiers except for the "command" company which will have the Sapper, Drummer (maybe 2), and standard bearer. Once we release the Mounted French Infantry Colonel, I'll put one of those in the dead center of the battalion. The whole thing will be displayed as a French Line infantry battalion in line formation with 18 figures across, two figures deep. This type of display, while not entirely historical of course, does provide an excellent representative view of what a French Line infantry battlion would have looked like in line formation. It also highlights why we've used the square bases on the figures. Of course, you can get the same effect by collecting a 24 figure battalion or even smaller. I will then supplement the core close order formation with the firing and charging figures out in front as skirmishers or a company that has broken ranks and is charging.

Because of the pose variations, there are a lot of different ways to make up a lot of different combinations. In the photo above, I've used a mix of poses to represent the unit advancing. It is possible to only use the march attack poses to have a full unit in march attack. You can also buy many multiples of the voltigeurs firing with some command figures and create a voltigeur company deployed in line to issue volley fire. Also the figures could be displayed in attack column with 2 companies in front and 3 companies deep (each company being 3 figures front by 2 deep). This would result in a 6 figure frontage 6 figures deep for a 36 figure battalion or 4 in front 6 deep for a 24 figure battalion (or 4 x 4 for 16 figures etc...).

We intend on putting on a BIG show display in 2009 once we have more figures released and without going into too much detail of the contents of that display, a part of it will be all five battalions, each of 36 figures, of the 61st Line Infantry regiment in l'ordre mixte formation. This will only be a small part of the display which I have planned for over 500 figures. I'm very excited about it, but it's still a long way off as we have many many figures to release before I can complete it.

I realize that collecting the figures in such a manner may seem daunting, but like everything else, you can do it slowly over time. Hence why they call it collecting. By doing it this way, you'll get the maximum visualization of the figures by displaying them the way they're meant to be displayed and can really assemble some amazing layouts that will look like a real Napoleonic battle.

Of course, you could also just collect the individual figures that you like, such as the standard bearer, sappers, drummers, charging figures, etc and just display them by themselves as individual pieces or supplements to an existing collection. Its your collection, so do as you like. I'm just sharing with you all one way to collect them, the way I personally will do so, to help answer the question of "Where do I start?"

Best,

Matt
First Legion Ltd

 

[Spitfrnd]

Here is an image that I took of some of the figures to show how they are intended to be displayed. This image shows 20 of the 29 different figures available in this release (as many as i could fit in my small little lightbox!). There are no duplicates figures in the photo and this should give you some ideas to help answer the question "Where I do I start?".
First Legion Ltd

Thanks Matt, I found your display and explanation very informative and helpful. Now about the cavalry.......?

 

[FirstLegion]

Thanks Matt, I found your display and explanation very informative and helpful. Now about the cavalry.......?

I knew it would only be another post or two before the cavalry came up again!!!

The cavalry are coming...in DROVES actually. Before you see them, however, you'll see The Napoleon and Staff Set (finally), The Old Guard (finally), Murat and the Wurttemburg Jaegers, and The British Guards and British Artillery. THEN comes cavalry, more cavalry, and...wait for it....MORE cavalry.

 

[Spitfrnd]

I knew it would only be another post or two before the cavalry came up again!!!

The cavalry are coming...in DROVES actually. Before you see them, however, you'll see The Napoleon and Staff Set (finally), The Old Guard (finally), Murat and the Wurttemburg Jaegers, and The British Guards and British Artillery. THEN comes cavalry, more cavalry, and...wait for it....MORE cavalry.

What can I say, you shouldn't have made them look so nice. That is the pain (and hopefully pleasure) of previewing such an eagarly sought after line. The waiting will be hard but seemingly well worth it. I shall endeavor to only ask about the cavalry once after each new availability announcement that proceeds it.

 

[FirstLegion]

What can I say, you shouldn't have made them look so nice. That is the pain (and hopefully pleasure) of previewing such an eagarly sought after line. The waiting will be hard but seemingly well worth it. I shall endeavor to only ask about the cavalry once after each new availability announcement that proceeds it.

Alas, we want to get them to you as much if not more than you want to buy them! The one promise I'll make is that they won't be "seemingly" worth the wait, they absolutely WILL be worth the wait. Trust me on this, there won't be anything else out there that compares to them in anything close to their price range. Like I said, once we get these next few releases turned out, we're going to focus on cavalry for quite awhile. Most likely four straight releases of cavalry, save for some Russian infantry thrown in, with one cavalry release in particular being something I know you'll be happy with (though I think you'll be happy with all of them!).

 

[Spitfrnd]

Alas, we want to get them to you as much if not more than you want to buy them! The one promise I'll make is that they won't be "seemingly" worth the wait, they absolutely WILL be worth the wait. Trust me on this, there won't be anything else out there that compares to them in anything close to their price range. Like I said, once we get these next few releases turned out, we're going to focus on cavalry for quite awhile. Most likely four straight releases of cavalry, save for some Russian infantry thrown in, with one cavalry release in particular being something I know you'll be happy with (though I think you'll be happy with all of them!).

I am sure you do and I am thrilled to hear your promise and even more thrilled to learn of the FOUR straigth cavalry releases and the "ONE" in particular. The only reason I said seemingly was that I don't yet have them in MY hands. Guess I will have to content my self in the meantime with some groundpounders; ordered a Barvarian today to get started. Thanks much for your updates and good humor.

 

[King's Man]

Matt,

I agree that collecting a battalion of figures, costing $35 each, even at 1:20 scale can take time. However, your website clearly states that all these new infantry figures are as you have stated it:

“Extremely Limited Edition”​

This doesn’t sound like it will give us much time to buy them. I am reluctant to start buying now, only to see them unavailable before I can complete my collection. Can you be a little clearer about the numbers and how long you are committed to having these figures available?

Thank you. I think your figures are looking very promising.

King’s Man

 

[FirstLegion]

Matt,

I agree that collecting a battalion of figures, costing $35 each, even at 1:20 scale can take time. However, your website clearly states that all these new infantry figures are as you have stated it:

“Extremely Limited Edition”​

This doesn’t sound like it will give us much time to buy them. I am reluctant to start buying now, only to see them unavailable before I can complete my collection. Can you be a little clearer about the numbers and how long you are committed to having these figures available?

Thank you. I think your figures are looking very promising.

King’s Man

We categorize our releases as limited edition collectibles with three separate categories.

Limited Edition: No more than 1,000 produced.
Extremely Limited Edition: No more than 500 produced.
Special Collector's Set: No more than 200 produced.

This is described on the Limited Edition page of our website.

I wish I could say that I agree with you that you won't have time to collect them properly, but King and Country we're not. We're a small boutique company only 6 months old. It will be quite some time before we sell 14,500 of these figures (years). And, what's more, we haven't produced every sculpt we have for 1812 French Infantry, only a subset of them (less than half), and do intend on releasing other specific regiments in the future. Thus, my guess is that you'll see us release additional French Line infantry before these are sold out. Remember, in addition to being toy soldier collectors, the First Legion partners are wargamers as well. That being said, we have no intention of running out of figures to collect!

I hope this answers your question.

Best,

Matt

 

[King's Man]

Thank you. I found your answer very reassuring.

King's Man

 

[Spitfrnd]

One question occurs to me after studying the great photos on the FL site. I don't see any casualty poses apart from the Cuirassiers; are there going to be any?

 

[FirstLegion]

One question occurs to me after studying the great photos on the FL site. I don't see any casualty poses apart from the Cuirassiers; are there going to be any?

Yes, that's something that's on our radar. We figure it's more important to first get the fighting figures released and then do some casualties. But the answer to your question is most assuredly that there will be. In fact, we have one particular casualty vignette that is being sculpted next month that will be coming out early next year that is a 3 piece vignette that we're pretty excited about as it fits in very well with our overall release plan over the next six months. Too early to announce any specifics yet unfortunately.

 

[FirstLegion]

One question occurs to me after studying the great photos on the FL site. I don't see any casualty poses apart from the Cuirassiers; are there going to be any?

I completely forgot, have you seen the Wurttemberg wounded officer that will ship with Murat? I guess he will be our first official casualty release. As shown in the image below, he's sitting on the ground holding a cloth over his wound. This should give you an idea of the type of casualties we'll release. Yes, we'll do the stone dead as well, but I find casualty figures like this to be much more interesting.

This figure, along with Murat and 3 other Wurttemberg Jaegers (which can be seen in our gallery) will be out in August sometime.

Best,

Matt
First Legion Ltd

 

[damian]

I realize that collecting the figures in such a manner may seem daunting, but like everything else, you can do it slowly over time. Hence why they call it collecting. By doing it this way, you'll get the maximum visualization of the figures by displaying them the way they're meant to be displayed and can really assemble some amazing layouts that will look like a real Napoleonic battle.

Well Matt
I trust you will not be retiring these firgues every 18 months then. Not retiring will allow for a gradual approach, but retiring tends to put pressure on people.
Regards
Damian

 

[FirstLegion]

I trust you will not be retiring these firgues every 18 months then. Not retiring will allow for a gradual approach, but retiring tends to put pressure on people.

Well, I'll say a few things about this and I'll speak frankly.

First, that unlike many manufacturers, we have a very strong focus on Napoleonics to the exclusion of other periods. Thus, even when these French are taken out of prodution, there will be additional French infantry put into production. The same holds true of other major Nationalities. In all, over the next five years for example, we may do upwards of 100+ different french line infantry figures. Different poses, different regiments, different periods/uniforms, etc. So it's not really a situation where suddenly you can't get any French and won't be able to get them again. They may just be a little different than the original french we are offering now.

Second, as I said before, we're a small company and it will take us a long time to build up our customer base and sell out of stock.

Third and finally, remember, we are a business first and foremost. As such, putting a little pressure on people to buy "limited edition" sets isn't necessarily a bad thing from our perspective. If there's no pressure on you as the buyer, then the pressure is all on us holding the inventory! Remember, as a direct sales company without a traditional distribution chain, it's not that the inventory is sold to dealers and we have been paid and can wash our hands of it. We hold the inventory and collect nothing until you guys, the end collectors, buy it and we don't share any risk with anyone else. On the contrary, of course, taking figures out of production which are still in high demand isn't exactly a good business move either.

Thus, like everything else in the world of capitalism and supply and demand, it will be the market response - ie. your collective response as buyers - that will be the final determining factor in how long a product stays around or how quickly a similar or complimentary alternative is put out on offer. If 18 months from now we're only selling a handful of French Line infantry sporadically, then there would be no impetus for us to continue producing the figures even if we haven't produced and sold up to the number we've allowed ourselves for total production of a given set.

I hope this answers your question.

Best,

Matt
First Legion Ltd