Take a look at the Plastic Soldier Review. Pretty much anything that’s ever been made in plastic with photos of the figures. Brilliant resource to check before you buy.
Airfix figures were introduced in 1:76 scale, 4mm to the foot in model railway terms, as an extension of their OO scale model railway accessories but the scale caught on. I make up sets to give away to less well off folks, I have found the best scales are 1:32 (for youngsters) and 1:76-72 (for kids older than 7), the reason being those are the cheapest readily available. The prices you quote seem on the high side, in the UK I buy boxes of smaller figures for around £8, so about $16 Aus or $10 US. I supply sets for imaginative play, so they include some civilians, medical personnel, stores and supplies and a lot of terrain (cardboard, glue and dried tea leaves mostly, coated/sealed with acrylic sealant). Look out for the Airfix Battle of Waterloo set, you get a farmhouse (actually about 1/3rd the size of the prototype but it has served many people well) and one box of all the Napoleonics Airfix did (artillery, cavalry and infantry for the British and French with Prussian infantry) and a set of limited edition extras such as a couple of carts (civilian) with drivers and some stores with a very large two piece vacuum formed base. From my own excursion into Naps I would say you need at least two boxes each of the infantry and cavalry to get the look of mass but for wargaming you can just assign values to individual figures (saving a lot of painting time). Some kids have taken to wargaming, about 20% to date, I lend them a couple of books (such as Featherstone's famous tome) to get them started with simple rules and they can go on from there. As Samb2052 said check out Plastic Soldier Review for details of the various 1:76-72 ranges. Ancients are well catered for, as are medievals and various conflicts from history, world wars one and two are ridiculously well covered, but Sci-Fi is definitely a poor relation in both scales.
Take a look at the Plastic Soldier Review. Pretty much anything that’s ever been made in plastic with photos of the figures. Brilliant resource to check before you buy.
Airfix figures were introduced in 1:76 scale, 4mm to the foot in model railway terms, as an extension of their OO scale model railway accessories but the scale caught on. I make up sets to give away to less well off folks, I have found the best scales are 1:32 (for youngsters) and 1:76-72 (for kids older than 7), the reason being those are the cheapest readily available.
The prices you quote seem on the high side, in the UK I buy boxes of smaller figures for around £8, so about $16 Aus or $10 US.
I supply sets for imaginative play, so they include some civilians, medical personnel, stores and supplies and a lot of terrain (cardboard, glue and dried tea leaves mostly, coated/sealed with acrylic sealant).
Look out for the Airfix Battle of Waterloo set, you get a farmhouse (actually about 1/3rd the size of the prototype but it has served many people well) and one box of all the Napoleonics Airfix did (artillery, cavalry and infantry for the British and French with Prussian infantry) and a set of limited edition extras such as a couple of carts (civilian) with drivers and some stores with a very large two piece vacuum formed base.
From my own excursion into Naps I would say you need at least two boxes each of the infantry and cavalry to get the look of mass but for wargaming you can just assign values to individual figures (saving a lot of painting time).
Some kids have taken to wargaming, about 20% to date, I lend them a couple of books (such as Featherstone's famous tome) to get them started with simple rules and they can go on from there. As Samb2052 said check out Plastic Soldier Review for details of the various 1:76-72 ranges. Ancients are well catered for, as are medievals and various conflicts from history, world wars one and two are ridiculously well covered, but Sci-Fi is definitely a poor relation in both scales.