The Airfix Napoleon Kit

The fourth kit in the Airfix 1/12th scale range was the French Emperor Napoleon.

 Definitely a 'Bad Guy' as far as Britain was concerned. Oddly, this was the only Napoleonic figure in the series (until the much later French Imperial Guard Grenadier in the 1970s) - there was no Duke of Wellington or Lord Nelson to oppose him.

This was the first of the kits to be described on the header as 'One of the Airfix Series of realistic models of Historical Figures'. It was another 1959 release, meaning that about one-third of the entire Historical Figure line came out in the first year.

The kit was numbered M4F, although the paper header actually has MF4 in the upper left hand corner. It was sold in the usual plastic bag. There were just 22 parts, in white plastic, including a small textured base. The header does not actually say 1/12th scale, just 6 Inch Scale Model.

There seems to have been only one type of paper header, unlike the previous Military Figures. At least, I have only found the one style. A change was then made to cardboard boxes in the early 1960s. 

At the same time the kit was moved from Series 1 to Series 2, and re-numbered, becoming M208F. In the early 1970s it became 02508-5. There were again three styles of cardboard box, the last of which carries a copyright date of 1978 on the side.

Now we come to a rather confusing situation. In the late 1970s, Airfix began to reduce the 1/12th scale figure line, before dropping these kits entirely in the early 1980s. But not all the retired kits stayed retired - some popped up again in a later catalogue.

Napoleon was in all the Airfix catalogues up to the 14th Edition (dated 1977). He was dropped from the 15th Edition (dated 1978), but was back in the 16th Edition (dated January 1979), and gone again by the time the 17th Edition (dated December 1979) appeared.

To date, this figure has not been re-issued.

Six photographs, in three batches. From Worthpoint and planetfigure.

Paul Adams from New Zealand