HaT Industries

[eques]

Does anyone know if the above 1/72 Manufacturer has gone out of business?  Seems difficult to track down their stuff these days.

[Patrick Waterson]

They seem to be still active but mainly concentrating upon Napoleonics and later.

[Mark G]

Isn't there a forum for plastic 20mm?

That would know

[Erpingham]

There's

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com

Not sure it has a forum section, though.

[aligern]

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Index.aspx

I think
Roy

[Duncan Head]

My understanding from odd references in TMP and elsewhere is that the original owners lost control of HaT and it ended up being owned by - I think - the Chinese firm that had been doing the actual manufacturing. They may still be going through a transition period, but have recently launched some crowdfunding exercises to pay for a couple of new Napoleonic sets.

[willb]

My understanding from odd references in TMP and elsewhere is that the original owners lost control of HaT and it ended up being owned by - I think - the Chinese firm that had been doing the actual manufacturing. They may still be going through a transition period, but have recently launched some crowdfunding exercises to pay for a couple of new Napoleonic sets.

Sounds similar to what happened to Wargames Factory.

[Sharur]

HäT Industrie continues to be active, although there have been a number of problems over the past two years. Check their website, or their mirror site - as the main site is currently (January 2017) under migration elsewhere, so may not be available at times this month - via the Links page on the Plastic Soldier Review site (address link in Roy's posting from Jan 12).

Plastic Soldier Review indeed doesn't have a Forum, but it is an exceptionally useful site for historical 20mm (ish) plastic figures, primarily because of its regular updates from the manufacturers, and it shows clear images of the actual castings you'll be getting, plus their numbers per box, so planning armies is really easy (and for ancients, invaluable, as you can often find figures in a box you'd never have thought of otherwise, perhaps, which can be reused in a quite different army - light troops especially).

HäT have their own BraveNet forum, here, which isn't the easiest to use, but this topic is a helpful, and more or less ongoing one, to check through, as it has some coverage (including a very brief official note) of what's been happening with HäT lately. It's also about the, sadly, continued lack of new ancient figure sets expected from HäT this year.

Is there something specific you've been looking for Harry? I ask, as I too have been digging around the 1/72 scale plastic ancients online in recent months, although so far the only ones I've had difficulties sourcing have been from Caesar Miniatures (and that too over the past couple of years, I gather). HäT's figures seem pretty well readily available in Britain, at least for what I've been researching (Biblical to Alexander).

Incidentally, while I can't comment on other places in the world, the UK suppliers list on the Plastic Soldier Review Links page has been an excellent way to find availabilities and prices for what I was interested in seeing. And continuing the aside, prices can be very variable, with differences up to 45% for the same item in different places, so do shop around, if possible.

One last thought on pricing. This is probably as good a time as any to buy, if that's your intention and you're in Britain, as plastic, like metal and resin, castings are rising in price already, thanks to Sterling's continued falls since last June. The weekly e-update from model supplier Hannants yesterday announced the Strelets range prices will increase in February, for instance. So this could be the best time to pick-up any of the newly-arrived Anglo-Saxon and Stamford Bridge sets in the 1066 output from Strelets (almost literally just arrived, as they apeared in online shops in the UK only in the last few days of 2016 December). Although you might want to try places other than Hannants if you're on a tight budget

[eques]

Hi Alastair

Most recently, I was looking for out of period stuff (Colonials/Mahdists etc)

Previously I was trying to get hold of some El Cid troops for Lion Rampant (some of the troop types seemed widely available on E-Bay, others were just impossible to find!)  In the end I went with 100YW stuff from Italeri and Zvezda instead.

Never had a problem finding Caesar Miniatures on E-Bay, I must say, apart from some of their fun fantasy ranges.

[Duncan Head]

This is interesting - http://historyin172.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/hat-spartans.html

The HaT Spartans set, never produced in plastic (http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=444273 says the moulds were lost by the factory) is now to be made in 1/72 metal by Fritz figures (http://www.hagen-miniatures.de/index.php/en/component/jshopping/category/view/7).

[Dave Beatty]

HaT has a ton of stuff on eBay in the US, I have quite a bit of their WWII stuff. My local hobby shop was able to order some for me a year or two ago although it took about a month to get it and I have no idea where they got it from.

Also, here is a good website for them: http://www.hat.com/ and you can buy directly from them.

Michigan Toy Soldier company stocks a lot as well at reasonable prices: https://www.michtoy.com/vendors-Hat%20Industrie%20-%20Plastic%20Figures.html but I don't know about shipping to the UK.

Cheers,

Dave Beatty