For most of my wargaming career metal elephants were looked on as being very expensive and not really needed when Britain's baby elephant would do the job, especially as Minifigs were quite happy to sell the elephant riders separately. Some of those Britain's elephants are long gone, including the pink and white ones, but others are still around.
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| These four are still nominally available for action. |
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| I did two Seleucid elephants, this one belongs to the general. |
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| Late Alexandrian/early Successor with converted Garrison crew. |
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| Thought I'd do a Carthaginian general in an elephant but then didn't do the Carthaginian army to go with it! |
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| This lot were around four years ago, not sure where they are now.... Minifigs crew, go back a few years. From 14th February 2016. |
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| Some quite ancient ones from an army I made for my son... it won the odd victory against me :( From 18th February 2015 |
Lovely to see your elephants. They are so old school and so effective. I particularly like the Indian ones with flowers/ designs on their skin. I think Britains made a baby camel years ago ,did you ever utilise that?
ReplyDeleteNo, but at one time I did have some converted Airfix camels from the Arab set.
DeleteThe classic Wargame Elephant!
ReplyDeleteI remember someone at school had a Minifigs Elephant (they seemed very expensive at the time) - people came from miles around to look at it!
I seem to recall seeing one or two, usually at conventions!
DeleteOne of my wargaming school chums had at least four of them with cardboard howdah's, not painted of course but they gave my Airfix Romans a run for their money supported by Robin Hoods men with drawing pin shields - happy days! I wonder if the sales dept at Britains ever wondered why they sold so many of them?
ReplyDeleteAirfix were a good source of conversion material - Macedonian phalangites from Romans, cataphracts using loo roll, Persian archers from the Ancient Brits... and the Robin Hood set for everything!
DeleteI think that over here, Britain's elephants were rarer and more expensive than Minifgs USA elephants!
ReplyDeleteOver here, I think much missed - the current toy zoo animal ranges are nowhere near as useful.
DeleteNice work Rob. Never seen these before?
ReplyDeleteThey were certainly common in the 70s. No idea when they went out of production.
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