http://www.modiphius.com/airfix.html
(Thanks to the 'Numbers, Wargames & Arsing About' Blog for this)
Of course, in the real world, the company's troubled past, combined with a general distancing from what took decades to really become an industry, would probably have meant that they would never really have entered the traditional wargame market with any real intent, until recent years. But, the fact that any British 'kid' in their 40s would have started here is testament to the staying power of these cheap plastic figures and the battles we used to have - without those pesky rules getting in the way.
I do somehow dream of an alternate reality where Airfix did this in 1977, then got the license for importing American style RPGs and hex'n'chit wargames, and the UK wargames market flourished, and they took control, and a certain fledgling Games Workshop went in a completely different direction, and...*SHOCK*...Warhammer never happened.
(No, I'm teasing...no really...I think).
Actually, they did! There was a Waterloo game back in the 1970s, but it didn't have much publicity - or I would have bought one then, not on ebay three years ago! - which had a soft plastic battlemat printed with the road net and individual figures mounted on bases to portray formations. I suspect it could not compete with the popularity of metal figures and the wider range of the latter.
ReplyDeleteYou're quite correct Arthur. I do still have the rolled up vinyl mat and the hard plastic figures somewhere. I'd forgotten about that.
DeleteTo echo my sentiments, I do wish that had been more of a success. If anyone could have handled wargames back in the day, I think it could have been airfix. Oh. what a different industry it would be now? (Cue nostalgia moment and rose tinted spectacles :))