As promised, here is a message that originally appeared on the F
ine Scale Modeller Forum in 2007
"My name is Toby Barrett and I own and operate Thoroughbred Figures at
www.thoroughbredmodels.com
I used to work for Ron Hinote many years ago and knew him when I lived in the Leavenworth, KS area. Ron lived and worked out of his house in Kansas City.
A few years ago I acquired the copyrights to Ron's collection of Little Generals masters, prototype molds and production molds and have them here in Portsmouth, VA. All three areas of Ron's work listed above is in various stages of condition. Some of the masters are OK, most of the prototype molds are semi-serviceable, but many of the production molds are long burned out. It is my longterm goal to bring back as many as I can of Ron's figures. (Please note none of the items Ron did for Franklin mint, Danbury mint or some other special projects he did for other companies are in this grouping that I now have.) But it's going to be a labor of love and will probably take me a long time to have any reissued in any kind of numbers. Currently I'm sampling some of the molds and surveying what has to be done in order to resurrect most of the figures. Some, sadly, may never see the marketplace again as the master is too far gone or damaged. Some of these may be able to be brought back by recasting some from the prototype molds and making new production molds in vulcanized rubber.
Ron died a few years ago and the collection was in the hands of two other individuals before me. Most of the time the collection of items was in storage in several locations.....one being in the wilds of the Ozarks in an unconditioned/unheated trailer. Many of the figures were reissued by an individual in Missourri who really didn't know what he was doing --- to put it as politely as I can. He used a very cheap casting metal and was unable to resurrect the masters properly in order to put quality kits out there again as is my plan.
Contact me thru my web site if you have any knawing questions and I'll try to be as helpful as I can. In the least you can make yourself a note to check my web site starting this fall to see if I've been able to release some of Ron's figures in kit format. All I can promise is that anything I'm able to resurrect and 'put out there' again will be as best quality as my molding and casting skills can achieve.
Best Regards, Toby Barrett"
I wrote to Toby Barrett recently and received a friendly and informative response, part of which is below:
"Two things happened soon after I wrote that 2007 response - I have some recall that it was in answer to someone on that forum about the Little Generals. First the economy tanked pretty much worldwide, but the second event put the brakes on any plans to widely market the figures again and that was the huge jump in alloy prices. What used to cost about $3.50 USD per pound jumped to over $15 and briefly touched $16 a little over a year ago. Years ago I took some finished ACW figures of Ron's to the MFCA show and only had one inquiry about offering one of them as a kit. I also put some on Ebay and the results were less than promising. This is obviously a niche production line of figures and the niche market must be sought out in the right way I guess.
The molds and resulting figures vary in condition. Some will never see the light of day again as resurrecting a new figure from the master thru the prototyping and production would not be cost effective for some of the more obscure titles Ron did.
If anyone is looking for anything in particular they should probably contact me direct with their questions/wants and we can possibly move on from there.
Toby Barrett Thoroughbred Figures 757-686-1048"
Seems that obtaining a particular kit, depending which one, may not be
completely out of the question if you contacted Toby Barrett
![Hussard [7th] de l'Empire - Claude Thierry's 3D figure](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/planetfigure/data/attachments/513/513277-cbad2e657208564bdc8e0b50d58c8d2c.jpg){kind=small}
