Spent two weeks researching a strange question about gaming #miniatures, then found the answer was sitting unread in my gaming collection.
The question: Why do so many gamers insist miniatures scales (like 25mm) are measured to the height of a characters eyes?
When I started collecting #TTRPG miniatures in the 1980s, we were all clear on two things: A 25mm mini was supposed to be 25mm *tall* but most miniatures were actually a little taller than that.
We accepted this.
For example, it's the default answer to scale questions on #Reddit, confidently stated without any citations.
https://www.reddit.com/r/wargaming/s/SkswBNHfG6
Of course, "confidently stated by gamers on Reddit without citations" is usually a sign the information is wrong, so I had to dig into this.
It's not just Reddit. The Miniatures Page has been pushing the "eye height" scale since 1998, and that's probably influenced all the other questionable references, like incoherent #Wikipedia articles and Google's stupid #AI summary.
Garbage in, garbage out!
That 1998 date is important, but let's backtrack to 1959, when Jack Scruby defined #miniatures scales as "from the top of the head to the feet" in "All About Wargames."
https://pdfcoffee.com/all-about-war-games-by-jack-scruby-5-pdf-free.html
Why is Scruby important to this discussion? Because he INVENTED the 25mm gaming scale.
First, we have to realize that early gaming scales were retroactive: Wargamers measured their toy soldiers, guestimated the average height of a soldier, and called that a scale.
The classic 54mm scale, for example, is based on Britain Ltd toy soldiers. https://www.wbritain.com/
Anyway, after Jack Scruby founded the first company explicitly manufacturing *gaming* miniatures, new scales were decided. Best I can tell, 20mm happened between 1959 and 1962. (I'm still researching!)
"True 20mm" was already a term by 1967. https://fourcats.co.uk/mags/files/WGN-065-Aug-67-OCR.pdf
Note the mention of 25mm!
Scruby created 25mm in 1965 as a reaction to certain manufacturers making their 20mm #miniatures too tall.
In 1972, Scruby discussed what #miniatures gamers now call "scale creep" -- His philosophy seemed to be that 2-3 mm creep was OK, but if you're 5mm over scale, it's time to admit you're working in a new scale. That's how we got 25mm scale!
So that's where we in the 1980s. Most #TTRPG gamers used 25mm #miniatures which were really 27-28mm miniatures, and life was fine, because who were we to argue with the nice old man who invented 25mm miniatures?
Jack Scruby died in 1988.
So, where did "miniatures are measured to eye height" begin? My recollection was it began in the 1990s, possibly as an explanation for scale creep?
Web searches didn't give me much, but I have a secret weapon for exploring the 1990s geek zeitgeist: The USENET archive hidden in Google Groups!
The earliest online reference to eye-height #miniatures scales I can confirm was in 1993.
https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.miniatures/c/pjf8c9VhCIA
USENET archives also reminded me that Citadel was the first to call their miniatures 28mm, which might be important, too.
Note also, the disagreement about average height!
Judging by other searches, scaling to eye-height (why gamers didn't say "eye level," I don't know) was common by the end of the 1990s. I still didn't know when or where it began, though.
I also read a lot of old #wargaming newsletters, in case you couldn't tell.
I have a sizable collection of 1970s-1990s #TTRPG magazines, so I checked if any of them acknowledged the shift. Nothing there.
Then I remembered: I bought a box full of "The Courier" (a magazine of historical #miniatures gaming) about 20 years back!
https://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=The_Courier
My oldest copy of The Courier described #miniatures according to their nominal scales. The newest issue used "The Toby Barrett Measurement System," which measured to eye height.
Finally, something that sort of has a citation!
So I started as the beginning again, issue by issue to find exactly when The Courier changed it description standard. I didn't just find the transition, I found the founder's manifesto!
A two-page article in 1990 advocating a new standard for measuring gaming #miniatures!
If you want to read the whole article, you can buy a PDF of that issue from Wargames Vault, a subsidiary of @drivethrurpg
Within three issues, The Courier was using the Barrett Measurement Scale in every product review.
https://www.wargamevault.com/en/product/98837/the-courier-vol-9-no-5
The cultural shift is beginning to make sense here: An influential magazine started using a new system in 1990, #wargamers started using it, and by the end of the decade, everyone convinced themselves the original system didn't exist! Gamers have pliable minds.
Also, a lot of companies are advertising their #miniatures as 28mm by the end of the decade, too. I suspect having two simultaneous shifts in how we measure miniatures broke everyone's brains a little.
By the 2000s, #miniatures scales were (and still are) a mess. Some sources reclassify 80s #GrenadierModels and #RalPartha as 28mm (fair-ish enough) while other sources classify "true 28mm" as 28mm to the eye. All the attempts at making it easier to compare different miniature lines have made it worse! (Don't get me started on "Heroic Scale.")
Sometimes, I take rulers to game conventions. I have shopping rulers!
Back to Mr Barrett. At various points, The Courier called him "Toby," "Tony," or "Tobey." I think "Toby" is correct. Armed with a name, I went back to Google searches.
Most of the USENET references were about about HMGS drama. (No shade there; I've had my share of game club drama, too.)
Barrett apparently owns a #miniatures company that only makes minis of Civil War ships? Slightly ironic he was so focused on human figure scales.
https://tbfigures.square.site/about
And one of his customers in the 1990s was the owner of The Miniatures Page!
https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.miniatures.historical/c/2lUzog_thyo
So, in semi-conclusion: The two most important names in the history of #miniatures scales are Jack Scruby and Toby Barrett, no #TTRPG players (and few young #wargamers) know that, and anybody who tells you miniatures scales are easy and logical is lying to you.
I said "semi-conclusion" because there are details I still need to nitpick!
In both his letter and his article, Barrett claims the eye-height measurement is an old #toysoldier standard that he's re-introducing. In the MWAN letter, he even claims "This was a universally accepted method and was ignored by only a small minority of manufacturers."
What was he talking about?
I can only give you unsupported vague memories here, but I recall the "eye height" thing from my miniatures painting days, which were mostly over by 1990.
@radiofreelunch, do you recall anything about this?
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