Talk:Furnishings (Fantascenes)

No idea who sculpted these, but noting that the human figures look very similar in style to the Soldiers & Swords knights (see Soldiers of the Rivian Empire). --Thegrouch

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RE: Comments like "Compare with: Minifigs' MIF1-07 The Armorer's Workshop."

Where did you find reference information for these codes? -TheGrouch

I discovered the connection by comparing the pics from Game Figures Inc. website (which is now not in service) with the information and pics on the nobleknight.com website given under a search for "Minifigs", where one might find (outside of NK's pc's) GFI and Minifigs codes as well. Ignoring the NK codes, there were GFI codes and one other coding that contained M_F... (three types of codes). Fantascenes is an old product line of minis, whereas Fantascene is a UK manufacturer of mostly resin scenery. But - the TMP website states on their GFI entry that GFI is the "Manufacturer of Minifigs and Fantascenes products in the Western Hemisphere." - implying that "Fantascenes" is an Eastern Hemisphere manufacturer. And so it is still possible that these are old Fantascene codes for minis which GFI bought, or perhaps someone doesn't know how to use an apostrophe and the confusion comes from a typo that should have been "Fantascene's." Nevertheless, I bought some of the minis listed here as "Fantascenes" (according to GFI) way back in the early 80's - from Minifigs USA. There was no Fantascene or Fantascenes booth at the conventions I attended. TMP has manufacturer listings for both names, so perhaps Fantascenes licenced out to Minifigs USA even back then, and then sold out to them their complete line before going under. And now it looks like it's GFI's turn to jump into the abyss:

http://www.johnphythyon.com/metalshortage.htm metal shortage

http://theminiaturespage.com/news/talk/msg.mv?id=875438 Tom Dye sold GFI
--Mysticat 23:07, 22 May 2011 (CDT)

• http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=221161-TheGrouch

Ah, I see the connection you made with the codes on the Noble Knight listings. I found a couple of recent ebay auctions with Fantascenes blister packs in the style I was remembering, check these out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/380327841111

http://cgi.ebay.com/270718956074

The first one is more interesting as it shows the card backs. Couple of things of note. The codes are the same style as the MIFxxx ones you dug up on the noble knight site (e.g. 1-07). Annoying that text on card back is half covered up with a sticker, but the part that is visible at least reads as if the company name was Fantascenes, and has a New York address. The second one is interesting in that it shows that the GFI 'Revolting Peasants' etc. figures were also associated with this Fantascenes, I believe that GFI may have listed these under 'Classic Fantasy' or somesuch. I'm guessing that none of this has anything to do with the current UK based Fantascene, and that that is just a coincidence of names. Thegrouch 02:26, 23 May 2011 (CDT)

Okay, so I accept that the codes I found are the original USA Fantascenes company codes that predate the GFI codes we have listed here. The problem is, there's no photo evidence that we can definitively use to link the different codes to each other (which is why I put the ones I couldn't link in the "Other Minifigs Fantascenes Awaiting Re-release" section. However, it seems unfair to credit GFI as the originator of these figs, so I think I'll have to redo the page with the original Fantascenes codes first, and the GFI re-releases as a second section, with suspiciously-similar sections tied to each other by links. When (or should I say If?) we get both pics in, then we can start melding the info together.--Mysticat 08:59, 23 May 2011 (CDT)

• For the "Scenery (Fantascenes)" page; "Currently, the rights to Fantascenes miniatures are owned by Game Figures, Inc". You don't know that for certain, all you know is that some GFI appears to have acquired *some* of the Fantascenes figures. All I would say here is that these sets appear to be by the same Fantascenes company as the 1-xx packs and that it is unknown if GFI also acquired the scenery sets as well.-TheGrouch

I remember reading (was it on TMP?) that GFI had acquired Fantascenes in its entirety.--Mysticat 13:04, 24 May 2011 (CDT)

• The title Furnishings is a bit off since there were packs of figures in there as well ...-TheGrouch

You're right on that, and I will change it when I hear more from GFI.--Mysticat 13:04, 24 May 2011 (CDT)

Some comment on the pages setup:

• The structure of the Furnishing page feels very cluttered to me.
  • The top section should just use the simple 1-xx codes seen on the Fantascenes packs without the MIF prefix.
  • I wouldn't bother with a separate section for each code, and I would't pre-reserve an image slot for each separate part (e.g. the six slots for #25990002 Library). I'm guessing somebody isn't going to come along with separate photos for all these pieces and parts, and that the page is just going to be left most empty. Even if photos do come available I think the a single photo of each set would be just fine (e.g. the photos of the sets that were on the GFI site would be great here, we don't need a separate photo for every discreet part).
  • The 'Compare with' comments feel superfluous to me. They are just an educated guess at this point, and the range is so small that you really wouldn't need to explicitly tie the codes together like that.
  • I think I would make one page called 'Fantascenes (GFI)' and put the known GFI data there, and then just put the incomplete listing of Fantascenes codes on the Fantascenes category page just as a textual listing until images become available.
  • -TheGrouch

I haven't been able to get an address for Fantascenes other than the PO box on that blister back from the link you posted above. This is very sad. I wish manufacturers would realize this place could be all that's left of them one day... There should be a copyright exception to archiving places like this. Catalogs aren't even printed anymore, and websites get updated and disappear overnight. And it really bugs me that I should have to tease out this stuff from sources like Noble Knight instead of from the horse's mouth. The info is out there. Perhaps it's embarrassment/guilt about losing a company that prevents them - I chalk that up to the stupid notion that Americans have that only winners count.--Mysticat 08:59, 23 May 2011 (CDT)

I think it safe to assume that they have no idea that this site even exists, much less that they should feel compelled to sign up an contribue something. It takes time and energy to contribute content to something like this (as you know) whether it would be on this site or something like it elsewhere, and I think that most people just don't care enough and/or have more pressing demands on their time to spend their energy on this sort of thing (as opposed to some sort of feeling of shame). Winning! -TheGrouch

There's no way for so few editors to keep up on this bleed of information into the void. Colin, if you're reading... maybe submit this site to the Wayback Machine. Johnny Lauck of Mega has told me that he's making a point of informing us of where his moulds are being sold off to, and he's going to be encouraging the buyers to join this site to contribute. Yet Colin deserves some financial support for his effort here. I still think he could make money by having the coding and uploading of manufacturer pics done for them.--Mysticat 08:59, 23 May 2011 (CDT)

Trying to get manfacturer's to pay this site for something would likely change the tone/nature of the site and I can't see it being a good idea. An active manufacturer is already going to have a website where they show the pictures that they care about. I see no reason that they would pay a site like this to host their photos in a situation where they don't fully control the content. Regarding financial support for hosting costs, I would suggest paypal contribution type link on the main page. I'm sure that there are enough people out there that would make a modest contribution, enough so to cover the costs. -TheGrouch

TheGrouch... I'm taking your suggestions into account and I'll redo the page(s) when I've thought some more on it. For now, feel free to edit in what you like, not changing the proven material of course. As for the pics, I do have some, but my camera is still requiring repair. I hope to get Noble Knight on board, too. There was only one opportunity for me to have purchased these outside of my premarital binge time (late 70's-early 80's), and that was in the summer of 1999 at Historicon, but I do remember the Minifigs (GFI?) people selling (distributing?) them. I've been online since then, and none of that has been Fantascenes.--Mysticat 11:16, 24 May 2011 (CDT)

I've contacted GFI just now to acquire whatever information they will send our way. Hopefully they'll find the time to indulge us before the information seriously begins to disappear. :S--Mysticat 13:04, 24 May 2011 (CDT)