Talk about being slow off the mark, this is already the second week of January and this will be my first post of the month. Back in December First Legion sent out a mega newsletter to all of their dealers and collectors and what follows is an extract from it. As ever, further details of all the figures previewed here can be found by visiting the company website
Greetings First Legion collectors new and old! I can’t believe 2012 is about to be relegated to the history books, the close of our fifth full year of making our figures. So a few days ago, we just officially turned five years old. On the one hand, I feel as if the time goes by so quickly, while on the other it feels like we’ve been doing this for much longer than five years. In this time we’ve launched some 12 figure ranges and produced almost 900 different sets of figures/vehicles/terrain pieces and my hair has become a bit more gray than it was we when started. We’ve experienced some growing pains along the way but we’ve also had our share of success as well over this short period. We’d like to think that over the past five years, through a combination of hard work and the loyalty, patronage, and valuable feedback of our customers, we’ve built the finest and fastest growing toy soldier brand in the world. We certainly hope you agree!
We thought we’d close our fifth year with a bang and this “mega” newsletter will announce some 68 new sets spanning Napoleon’s Europe, the Crusades, American Civil War, DAK, Glory of Rome, and the Seven Years War. Many of these sets have been on our website in pre-order for a few weeks now and will be shipping to customers and dealers next week while others are officially being announced today for shipment in early January 2013. Oh, and we’re also announcing our latest figure range today, the fourth promised range for 2012. So I would say this qualifies as a “mega” newsletter!
First up, for Napoleon’s Europe we are very pleased to bring to a close what we’ve been calling the “Year of the French” with a few final groups of releases. Sets NAP0379-NAP0388 French 1st Light Infantry add the Carabinier and Voltigeur companies to our coverage of the regiment. I’m sure this doesn’t come as any surprise to anyone that we wouldn’t simply produce the center companies and leave it at that. Set NAP0388 is a first for us in that it contains the first female figure we’ve ever done. We are pleased with how it came out and have another in the works. In addition to the Light infantry, collectors have repeatedly asked me when we’d replace the long sold out NAP0019 French Artillery set with a new artillery offering. Well, we’re very pleased to do so with our latest release of NAP0401-NAP0406 French Guard Horse Artillery and 6lb Gun. These are lovely figures and we’ve decided to make them available individually rather than in a large set to provide as much flexibility as possible and to allow collectors to add them at a pace with which they are comfortable.
And finally, to round out our Napoleon’s Europe releases we have four new mounted personalities. Sets NAP0365 and 0366 add our first Prussian personalities in the form of Field Marshal Blucher and the ever present Prussian Chief of Staff Gneisenau. These sets will be shipping early next week around the 18th or so. But in addition, we’re also pleased to start the pre-order on sets NAP0407 Prince Poniatowski and NAP0408 General Lasalle. These two stunning figures will be shipping early January 2013. So across these personalities, something for Waterloo, Borodino, and something for Aspern-Essling collectors! And of course, as our most highly produced figure range, we have plenty more coming in 2013!
Moving along to our other ranges, for Glory of Rome we’ve created sets ROM041-ROM049 Roman Praetorian Guard in marching poses. These will also be shipping early next week. We determined to do these figures marching because of the flexibility they provide in that they can be present out on campaign or marching the streets of Rome.
For the Crusades range we have sets CRU054-CRU064 additional foot crusaders including crossbowmen, King Henry of Jerusalem, a Warrior Bishop, and a few extremely flexible monks which can be used for a wide variety of different periods of history. We have also just started the pre-order of sets CRU065-CRU067. These last sets add 2 stunning Mamluk Warriors along with a downed Hospitaller knight, adding additional flexibility and interest to your Crusades dioramas. So what has otherwise been a pretty slow year for the Crusades range has certainly ended with a bang!
For the American Civil War we’ve created sets ACW063-ACW069 Union Artillery Crew and 3 Inch Ordnance Gun. Like our new Napoleonic artillery, we’ve again packaged these as singles for added flexibility and we’ve also included an officer. So Buford and his boys now have some firepower to help them hold back the Confederates at Gettysburg!
For our DAK range we’re extremely pleased to release sets DAK018-DAK021 covering DAK Artillery. There is the sFH 18 150mm Howitzer with Limber, two different 2 figure sets of DAK Artillerists at rest, and our DAK SdKfz 7 8 Ton Prime mover to tow the gun or carry around our various seated DAK figures. Loaded up with 7 different passengers plus the driver as shown on our website, it absolutely looks the part!
For our Battle of Normandy WWII sub-range, we’re pleased to start the pre-order on set NOR012 US Airborne .30 cal MG Team. This is a striking two figure set which will add some much needed firepower to the US Paras. As those who have looked on our workbench will know, they’re going to need all the help they can get when the German SS take to the field in early 2013!
And last but not least, we have our initial release of our Seven Years War figure range, SYW001-SYW013 Prussian 7th Line Infantry Regiment Braunschweig-Bevern. These highly anticipated figures will be shipping to customers next week and we will follow them up in early 2013 with the next release for this range. So all in all a little something for just about everyone!
Our “Sneak Peek” in this edition of our newsletter is the preview of our upcoming figure range, The World of the Greeks! As many of you predicted, we are turning our talents to Ancient Greece and we only hope that it will be as well received as our Romans. We’ve also put another sneak peek in for good measure.
Happy hunting!
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