Plastic Figures in Traveller

[Timerover51]

Has anyone ever used plastic figures to run a Traveller game? I know one forum member built a really nice Scout ship out or Legos, and if nothing else, Legos has a lot of science fiction stuff courtesy of its Star Wars line. That would be one possibility. I was also thinking of some of the tubes of plastic figurines put out by Safari Limited, along with some of the various military miniatures put out by various companies, along with the ones from Axis and Allies, and the mythology figures from Eagle Games.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I haven't used them in a Traveller game, but I did look into it. I'm not a very good miniatures painter, but I'll do searches on things like Plastic Spacemen or somesuch just to see what's out there. I've always wanted to put together a miniatures team for a starship crew or a mercenary unit.

 

[Enoki]

I've never seriously considered it, but given that I've made literally hundreds of 1/35th figures for WW 2 wargaming it shouldn't be too hard to make a reasonable set for a Traveller crew.

 

[gchuck]

I have used figures in the games I have run, but, they were just 'space' takers for combat.

Maybe I'm just to picky, because I could never find any that I liked.

 

[Reigate]

Has anyone ever used plastic figures to run a Traveller game? I know one forum member built a really nice Scout ship out or Legos, and if nothing else, Legos has a lot of science fiction stuff courtesy of its Star Wars line. That would be one possibility. I was also thinking of some of the tubes of plastic figurines put out by Safari Limited, along with some of the various military miniatures put out by various companies, along with the ones from Axis and Allies, and the mythology figures from Eagle Games.

I did manage to acquire quite a few sci-fi minis, but they're all metal, I'm afraid. You can get pre-painted plastic minis for D&D by the truckload but I've never seen sci-fi ones. Having said that, I never went out of my way to look for them.

Metal ones can definitely be obtained but aren't all that cheap. Most modern ones are pewter now, although I have plenty of lead ones (worth also noting that I got most of mine in the early 1990s).

I've got some official Traveller (and Space: 1889) ones, Denizens, Star Wars, Shadowrun, cyberpunk, aliens, starship troopers, various misc. Ral Partha ones and a handful of others. There are quite a few outfits selling them on the interwebs; a little google-fu should readily turn up result.

As for plastic ones, I can really only suggest web searches. There might be some out there. A little searching picks up a game called Star Wars Legion that has minis. It's not specific about whether they are plastic or metal, but says not suitable under 36 months - that suggests the minis are probably plastic. A little more google-fu turns up stuff that looks like it's probably plastic, so I guess there must be at least some out there.

 

[Timerover51]

I was thinking about checking with Hobby Lobby and couple of other hobby shops in the area that carry a wide range of stuff to start with. The Abler Planetarium in Chicago does sell a variety of astronaut figures that are not armed, but otherwise would be good for space holders during a combat period.

Legos are pretty much ubiquitous nowadays.

 

[ffilz]

I did manage to acquire quite a few sci-fi minis, but they're all metal, I'm afraid. You can get pre-painted plastic minis for D&D by the truckload but I've never seen sci-fi ones. Having said that, I never went out of my way to look for them.

Metal ones can definitely be obtained but aren't all that cheap. Most modern ones are pewter now, although I have plenty of lead ones (worth also noting that I got most of mine in the early 1990s).

I've got some official Traveller (and Space: 1889) ones, Denizens, Star Wars, Shadowrun, cyberpunk, aliens, starship troopers, various misc. Ral Partha ones and a handful of others. There are quite a few outfits selling them on the interwebs; a little google-fu should readily turn up result.

As for plastic ones, I can really only suggest web searches. There might be some out there. A little searching picks up a game called Star Wars Legion that has minis. It's not specific about whether they are plastic or metal, but says not suitable under 36 months - that suggests the minis are probably plastic. A little more google-fu turns up stuff that looks like it's probably plastic, so I guess there must be at least some out there.

There was a Wizards of the Coast Star Wars miniatures game that used the same kind of figures as the D&D miniatures game. Of course most (all?) of them were too recognizable. I had thought about picking up some cheap commons for Traveller at the time, but never got around to it.

I've also thought about using Lego, but now that all my Traveller gaming is online (play by post or Roll20), miniatures aren't of very much use...

Frank

 

[aramis]

There are Several lines of plastic minis for Star Wars that have come out...

FFG's got two lines of figures for two different games: Star Wars: Imperial Assault and Star Wars: Legion

 

[Beerfume]

There is a toy/collectible store near me that I go to a couple times a year. I've purchased a couple dozen used Star Wars Micro Machine figures dirt cheap. They seem to be right in the middle between 15mm and 25mm scales. I've also purchased a bucket of Terra miniature dinosaurs from Target - relatively inexpensive at about $8.00 - for animal encounters and beasts of burden. I bought them with the lofty intent of using Sculpey and paint to make them more alien, but then reality set in.

I would love to find a good sci fi set of 15mm, pre-painted plastic minis.

 

[kilemall]

Hero Forge miniatures allows for custom creation of plastic or steel/brass figures even. I've done a series where I put my friends in my interpretation of who they would be in scifi RPG as gifts. Expensive per figure, but if you have a regular character you can strongly visualize, they can be quite useful.

 

[Kilgs]

Watch Ebay... people will eventually put sci-fi ones up there. I also managed to hit FFG's closeout sale for AT-41 and have a few boxes.

There's one great company unfortunately they only produce two sets or so. I'll dig through my minis and see if I can figure the name again. It was a while ago.

And I think we may see some more with Starfinder being popular although they're pushing the cardboard stand-ups which is irritating.

You might want to look on boards for some of the new popular games:

-Fragged Empire is a sci-fi miniature/RPG and is huge. (And it's awesome too!).

-Infinity is a miniature game that just produced an RPG.

-Also, don't neglect Post-Apocalyptic miniatures since they're often very similar and many sets have futuristic police/enforcers at least.

 

[aramis]

And I think we may see some more with Starfinder being popular although they're pushing the cardboard stand-ups which is irritating.

Have you actually see PF Pawns in use? They are not the thin card of SJG's Cardboard Heroes... they are good thick chipboard, well punched, using plastic bases.

 

[Kilgs]

Yeah, I actually bought the Antagonist box for use with Fragged Empire.

They're decent but they look kinda sad next to real minis

 

[giant.robot]

There is a toy/collectible store near me that I go to a couple times a year. I've purchased a couple dozen used Star Wars Micro Machine figures dirt cheap. They seem to be right in the middle between 15mm and 25mm scales. I've also purchased a bucket of Terra miniature dinosaurs from Target - relatively inexpensive at about $8.00 - for animal encounters and beasts of burden. I bought them with the lofty intent of using Sculpey and paint to make them more alien, but then reality set in.

I would love to find a good sci fi set of 15mm, pre-painted plastic minis.

Micro Machines had two series of Star Wars miniatures, I used them extensively in D6 SWRPG games way back when. The best ones were the ones you describe that had integral bases and no articulation. The much crappier ones in later sets (after Phantom Menace IIRC) had a single point of articulation at the waist and many didn't have integral stands.

You can find them NIB and some random open figures on eBay. The NIB ones are expensive. However Micro Machines also had a series of modern day military figures in the same style as the Star Wars ones. These you can find more readily in bulk for cheap. They are much more generic than the Star Wars ones which use either iconic characters or obvious character designs like Stormtroopers.

WotC also had official 28mm Star Wars that aramis mentioned. When WotC lost the Star Wars license they put them on a super steep discount in places like Target and Walmart. Anymore you can find either singles or blind boxes of them at Noble Knight and Miniatures Market.

Another option for plastic minis are HeroClix. The miniatures are 28mm scale but the bases are made for HeroClix maps. Many of the minis can be removed easily from their bases and rebased onto 28mm bases. There's a lot of common generic minis for the Marvel and DC games (police, SWAT-ish, soldier-ish) and the Call of Cthulhu. There's lots of theme games for HeroClix so look around.

 

[giant.robot]

Another cool set of sci-fi minis is the now out-of-print AT-43 game. The game was produced by Rackham which always makes amazing minis. Not only are the sculps awesome but they're pre-painted and done extremely well. The UNA and Red Blok armies have human soldier minis and even some really cool power armor. I've never played the miniatures game but I bought a boxed set on sale for use in sci-fi games.

 

[aramis]

Micro Machines had two series of Star Wars miniatures, I used them extensively in D6 SWRPG games way back when. The best ones were the ones you describe that had integral bases and no articulation. The much crappier ones in later sets (after Phantom Menace IIRC) had a single point of articulation at the waist and many didn't have integral stands.

You can find them NIB and some random open figures on eBay. The NIB ones are expensive. However Micro Machines also had a series of modern day military figures in the same style as the Star Wars ones. These you can find more readily in bulk for cheap. They are much more generic than the Star Wars ones which use either iconic characters or obvious character designs like Stormtroopers.

WotC also had official 28mm Star Wars that aramis mentioned. When WotC lost the Star Wars license they put them on a super steep discount in places like Target and Walmart. Anymore you can find either singles or blind boxes of them at Noble Knight and Miniatures Market.

Another option for plastic minis are HeroClix. The miniatures are 28mm scale but the bases are made for HeroClix maps. Many of the minis can be removed easily from their bases and rebased onto 28mm bases. There's a lot of common generic minis for the Marvel and DC games (police, SWAT-ish, soldier-ish) and the Call of Cthulhu. There's lots of theme games for HeroClix so look around.

Another set of figs was chunky 15-20mm tall ones. Peter had a bunch. GREAT for Star Wars, passable for Traveller. I cannot remember the line name. Really chunky... as in, they barely fit on the .75x.75 tracks from WFRP3...

 

[nobby-w]

These minis are plastic - Anvil Industry. They're a bit pricey, though.

http://anvilindustry.co.uk/

Reaper miniatures also make plastic figures in some sci-fi-ish lines (note that not all are plastic):

https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/SavageWorlds

Zealot Miniatures make some resin scifi minis - a bit pricey though, and the female ones are pretty fanservice-ish.

http://zealotminiatures.com/

 

[Qstor2]

I used the WotC Star Wars minis for a game of MgT1, one time. The players were all used to 3.5e D&D and the leap to MgT and a "grid" wasn't too far.

The Star Wars figures can be used for generic humans. The old metal figures like for Hiver and K'Kree don't really scale with the 25mm WotC minis unfortunately.

Heroforge makes custom plastic RPG minis including for Sci Fi games. If you clink on fantasy there's Lion and Wolf "people" that you could use for Aslan and Vargr.

 

[Timerover51]

Looking at the Eagle-Gryphon Games website, there are some interesting possibilities for figures, primarily D&D, but also some steampunk and sci-fi plastics as well. You might have to do some painting if you are picky. I may have to put an order in.

Courtesy of a trip to Hobby Lobby, I am now set for a pretty wide range of animals for D&D and also Traveller/Cepheus Engine wilderness encounters, both land and sea. I will have to go through the rest of my stockpile and start making a list so that for Cepheus Engine, those creatures for which I have plastic miniatures go to the head of the list for a Bestiary.

A nice Giant Squid, Megalodon (big white shark), a Giant Octopus, and a terrific Giant Crab are courtesy of Wild Republic, and these will definitely cause fear and trepidation on the adventurers encountering them. Then Safari Limited supplied a nice number of more normal sized creatures. I have to decide about springing for some of the larger dinosaurs and other types that would nicely dwarf the average adventurer miniature. Perhaps I can trigger a few Monty Python "Run Away, Run Away" from then.

 

[infojunky]

Has anyone ever used plastic figures to run a Traveller game?

I am assuming that you are asking about 1/72 scale plastic army men and the like that are often carried in model shops. If those, then Yes i did years and years ago. When I was young I play a fair amount of Napoleonics using them and they got used for traveller a Bit.

Not as many years ago I went looking for some figures to play traveller with, after a frustrating flirtation with 25mm i.e. the Grenadier figures came and went as well as the Space Lords figures I settled on various Cardboard Heroes for a number of years. (Note I mounted said cardboard heroes on 1/8th inch foamcore and glued the resultant standee to a 3/4 inch (20mm) base)

Then I discovered 15mm, well and there was not going back, the Citadel/Rafm box sets picked up cheap on Ebay hooked me in solid. Solid to point of bugging every manufacture or former manufacture of 15mm Science Fiction miniatures to produce more. And well now there is quite the Selection of character figures in 15mm alongside armies and vehicles and other assorted goodness.