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Sunday, 14 September 2025

Phoenix Models 25mm Ancients - 1973

 

I managed to find these in one of my old boxes... still surprisingly pristeen after these years.

The info snippet below is c/o John Cunningham at http://www.vintagewargamingfigures.info/rblack/

Mettoy mentioned in the text was an old toy company based in Northampton;

https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/Category:Mettoy

‘A new Ancient range of Persians and Greeks was also produced, designed by Steve Farmer another Mettoy denizen ("They didn’t pay much at Mettoy," Marlow recalls, "and designing the figures to go with the James Bond Aston Martin wasn’t exactly a challenge. I think everyone was desperate to get out"). This latter range was released in January 1973 and made up of Greeks and Persians.’

The Ancient World (500-320 BC)

All figures designed by Steve Farmer.

AW/1 Greek javelinman [this figure is actually a spear armed hoplite]

AW/2 Greek warrior with short sword [Hoplite with cloak]

AW/3 Thracian Peltast [with oval shield and rhomphaia]

AW/4 Cretan archer

AW/5 Greek cavalryman with sword

AW/6 Persian archer

AW/7 Persian infantryman (Cardaces)

AW/8 Persian slinger

AW/9 Persian Anatolian spearman

AW/10 Dahae horse archer

(Javelins and spears were not included with packs)

The baggies below are in Phoenix attire, I have some of the earlier Les Higgins pike and shot era historicals which I'll post at some point if there is interest.




A nice old ad from either Military Modelling or Model World... I was reading both last night so could have been from either.


Phoenix Miniatures became Phoenix Model Developments Ltd at some point and had a short lived slightly larger scaled ancient range featuring the Roman Imperial Army. I've never seen these in the flesh unfortunately and would love to get some examples... hint hint!


Please leave comments below or, if you've any trade goods give me a shout of enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

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3 comments:

  1. Donnie McGibbon14 September 2025 at 14:52

    They are rather nice figures, very decent. I have seen some Phoenix on ebay but not too often.

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  2. Big Andy16 September 2025 at 13:26

    I have a few Phoenix/Les Higgins 25mm Colonials and a few more 25mm Napoleonics a single 30mm Greek and quite a bundle of the 30mm 'Jason' ECW designed by Les Higgins plus a small number of the Marlburians from the same Jason range. PMD deleted the range a couple of years after Les Higgins died- they were gone before the end of the 1970s so are quite hard to come by now.

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  3. Rob Young16 September 2025 at 20:17

    Phoenix took over when Les Higgins died. As far as I was aware the Les Higgins Ancient figures were 20mm and the only 25mm figures were Napoleonics. Certainly the Les Higgins Ancients I've got are all the same size as Airfix and are listed as 20mm in the catalogue. Of course, it's possible Phoenix resized the figures - I'm guessing that, if measured, those 25mm figures are just the old 20mm ones with a new name...

    ReplyDelete