Annual Production of 1/72 (22mm) scale plastic soldiers, 1958-2025

Summary

It is often said that this hobby is currently going through a 'Golden Age', with new sets appearing all the time and a record number of manufacturers satisfying demand. So we thought it would be interesting to actually quantify that, and let the statistics show just how the hobby has fared over the few decades that it has existed. Below is a breakdown of the number of sets released each year. The figures are taken from the reviews to be found on this site, which we believe to represent all the important sets ever produced. At certain times both in the past and today, poor quality figures, usually copies, have been produced by various manufacturers such as Giant. Since we do not include these on this site they are not part of these statistics. Also note that the statistics only include 'soft' plastic sets, not hard plastic or resin, and also exclude reissues such as those from Nexus or Italeri. During the 1960s, Airfix were the only major producer, but released three or four sets a year. In 1972, Atlantic came on the scene, producing many sets, and in 1976 Matchbox also began their range, causing the peak we see during the seventies. By the end of the 1970s the market was in serious decline, with the last new Atlantic figure set in 1978 and both Airfix and Matchbox slowing down - both had made their last set by 1983. Luckily Esci began producing their first soft plastic set in 1982, and are solely responsible for virtually all production during the 1980s, maintaining a pretty steady rate. Esci production stopped suddenly in 1989, but again a new company was to come along to keep things going - this time it was Revell. They produced around six sets a year for the first few years, and were joined by Accurate in 1991 and IMEX in 1993, both producing small quantities each year. In 1995 Italeri started making sets in small numbers, and the following year HaT released their first set. All these companies continued to produce new sets, with HaT quickly getting into their st...