Frequently Asked Questions about Replicants

"How did Replicants come into being?"
(Nobody has ever asked this question very frequently.)
The headquarters of Replicants is in the basement of a big jeweller's shop (he's about 6'4") in Lewes, East Sussex. The shop is almost underneath Lewes Castle, which was built by the Normans in 1068; but Replicants' basement is older still, dating back to around 800.
However Replicants itself isn't quite that old: it was finally founded in 1996 by Peter Cole and Paul Morehead when they couldn't wait any longer; and these two still run the company after a fashion.
Peter comes from an old Lewes family. One impatient ancestor, Thomas Rickman (1776-1841), as a headstrong 18-year-old fed up with waiting for plastic to be invented, "drew and coloured 5,000 toy soldiers which he cut out and arranged in front of architectural backgrounds of military buildings." However nobody was very interested and the idea was shelved until polythene had been developed. Even then Peter and Paul hesitated, reasoning that part of Thomas Rickman's misjudgement was in starting his toy soldier venture at too young an age; so they delayed until well into middle age before they decided to make their move.
The rest is history — as opposed to the fanciful ravings of two dotards — and so we will not bore you with it here.

"What do Replicants do?"

The company exists to produce limited production toy soldiers and figures in polythene in 54mm. Up to now the enormous tooling and production costs have prohibited small batches of figures being made in this material. New mould-making techniques and scaled-down production methods have now made it possible to economically produce batches of around 1,000 mouldings in polythene. This makes it an ideal proposition for the collectors' market but sometimes means that figures may only be in production for a limited period of time.

"What are you planning to do next?"

We make it a rule never to discuss or announce what we are planning to do next or in the future.
There are two reasons for this:
  1. Superstition. Talking about what you intend to do in the future is a sure way to make it go wrong.
  2. Aren't we all fed up with manufacturers who advise what they intend to release months (even years) ahead, and then keep changing it when things don't work out? With Replicants, you have to wait and see.

"How do you decide what to make?"

It must be something that is missing from the plastics market. It might be a period that has never been done in plastic before (Nelson's Navy); or a subject within a popular period (such as the ACW camp-fire figures) that is not available nor likely to be made by anyone else; or something (like the Sheriff's men) that collectors have always asked for but other makers have largely ignored.
We are inclined towards the simple unglamorous soldier on campaign rather than ceremonial uniforms or characters of dashing heroes.
But most of all it must be something that appeals to us and captures our imaginations. When we started the company we drew up a list of all the possible subjects and we are working our way through it, and often add to it. We are always pleased to hear from collectors with their suggestions for additions to the list of figures we could do in the future. There are no guarantees, but we do like to hear your thoughts.

"Will you be making more replacement Swoppet bits?"

We intend to add to the list of spare parts as time allows, but making new figures will always be our priority.

"Can I buy Replicants figures in the USA?"

See CONTACT PAGE for details of our distributor.

 

"Why are some of your figures out of scale with the rest?"

They're not. We work to a constant 1/32 scale, re-using armatures and weapons from previous releases. All the armatures are made to a consistent scale, as are the weapons. However, real people are not all the same size and we try to reflect this in the models we make. We have made three figures armed with musketoons or blunderbusses; each time the very same weapon has been used but the three figures are very different sizes because the muscles can be made bigger or smaller and the height of a person can vary considerably within that 1/32 scale.
When Replicants make a set of six figures they are six characters, not one man in six poses.
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