Last year I put up a few pics of my old Skytrex spaceships - or rather what was left of these old cosmic warriors. You can check those out by following the 'spaceships' label if you wish. At the time I was messing about with a set of spaceship rules, which led me to dig out my rather eclectic fleets of models made by a variety of manufacturers over the years. That game is actually in production at the moment and will be released by the end of 2024 if all goes to plan, and to help out I've been photographing some of the newer models, as well as a few old classics. Whilst I was at it I thought I'd take a few pics of this very early Minifigs range. Many of my generation will remember these, and believe it or not they are still available from Miniature Figurines at Caliver Books, although for some reason the names of all the ships differ from the originals. As such, these are hardly rare, but they are 'of their time' and I remember them fondly.
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| Sp.1 Earth Federation Depot/Battleship |
This chunky fella is the Earth Federation Depot/Battleship, the largest and most expensive model in the range at all of 15p - about twice the price of a standard foot figure at the time.
For scale referrence - the base I've used for these photos is 40mm diameter.
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| Sp. 2 Earth Federation Cruiser |
The Cruiser version of the Earth Federation fleet was a more modest 10p. All the Earth Federation ships follow the same aesthetic with broad wing-like rear decks.
As with all the other models in this post, I've angled these over to show the broad shape. They are all quite two dimensional and cast as a single piece.
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Sp. 3 Earth Federation Destroyer
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The smallest of the Earth Federation Vessels is the Destroyer at a modest 8p.
This is a home made stand, which I've used to pose the ships. They all sit quite well on the tabeltop without a stand, but Minifigs sold a separate 'flight stand' for another 8p. The Minifigs flight stand appears to be made out of a mould stud! If I ever had any (which I'm sure I did) they got melted down and contributed to my early experiments in home casting.
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| Sp. 6 Terresti Depot/Battleship |
I collected the Terresti fleet - and also the Terresti 25mm SF figures. My friend and gaming nemesis Richard Halliwell collected the Earth Federation ranges and a third friend the Cehan. Between us we managed to amass three fairly substantial fleets. Writing our own rules, coming up with a campaign system, and inventing backstories for our games was all part of the appeal. All good experience for what would later turn into a job!
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| Sp. 5 Terresti Cruiser |
The Terresti ships all have a 'golden age' SF vibe - like something off the cover of Amazing Stories of the 40s and 50s. Of course spaceships need wings!
The Miniature Figurines Catalogue for 1975 has this model and the previous one at 10p each despite the size difference.
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Sp. 7 Terresti Destroyer
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The Terresti Destroyer is but a wee version of the Cruiser and a mere 5p into the bargain.
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| Sp. 8 Cehan Depot/Battleship |
Cehan Depot/Battleship - I think! It's a bit hard to tell which of the two Cehan capital ships is which. Both are more or less the same size and both go for 10p
The Cehan models manage to fill quite a bit of space with not much metal - which must have come as a relief to the accountant at Minifigs after the extremely weighty Earth Federation range.
You have to admire the way Minifigs managed to cover three entire factions with but three ships apiece, with the depot and battleships conflated into a single model. In those days, if you wanted variety you had to get the hacksaw and araldite out.
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| Sp. 9 Cehan Cruiser |
The other Cehan ship - which I'm assuming is the Cruiser. If anyone knows better please shout out!
The Cehan design are a little bit more outre and must have been a challenge to cast. I rather like this one even if it is rather hard to tell which direction it's facing in.
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| Sp. 10 Cehan Destroyer |
This is my favourite model in the whole range - the Cehan Destoyer. Not a great paint job on this one, but I'm sure you get the idea. Quite a small model and it could have been yours for all of 5p (and can still can be had even if the price has risen to £1.55 at the time of posting).
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| Sp. 4 Vertos Cruiser |
Minifigs only made one model for the Vertos line: the Vertos Cruiser. It's a distinctive shape and looks like someone raided their meccano box for the body of the thing.
It's a pity we never had the battleship or destroyer versions of this design as I'm sure they would have proven popular. Alas, it was not to be, and soon other manufacturers were churning out rivals that would capture our imaginations.
Still - I don't think we ever had quite so much fun as we did with these simple fleets, swooping over the dining room carpet, laser beams flashing and missiles zipping across space to wreak destruction upon our foes.
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| From the 75 Catalogue . |
This is the illustated page form the 75 catalogue which shows some of the spaceships as well as the S.F range of figures.
Looks like I was right about the Cehan Depot/Battleship - they have it down as number 8.
I've scanned and uploaded various early Minfigs catalogues and updates in the Pages section (to the right in web view) under 'Catalogues'.
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| From the 75 Catalogue |
This is the catalogue page listing the range and prices, along with the contemporary Science Fiction and Mythical Earth figure ranges.
