Some time back I came across a web page listing Poser characters both native (included with Poser versions) and after-market  -  listing descriptions, both major and minor,  who/where it was from, availability, compatabilities, free-or-commercial, release dates, etc.  I had thought it might be on WikiPedia, but I don't find anthing there but a page listing Poser versions and release notes. I had thought I would have archived it, or at least bookmarked it, but after several searches i still don't see it anywhere.

Is there such a page or did I dream it?

http://www.poserpedia.com/index.php?title=Poser_Figures

found by entering "history of Poser characters" into Google, and skipping all links to SM. halfway page 2 that was.

I have a tiny section on Poser history, and that of the Poser characters, on my site. To save you the trouble finding it, it reads:

So, the introduction of Poser 5 was a milestone in its history, and a heavy one. Next to the software and its functions, it had impact on content and future developments as well. Up till then, DAZ had created the Vicky and Mike characters (versions 1 and 2) based on the P4 female and male, which as such were Zygothe products. The turnover to Poser 5 brought some serious licensing issues between MetaCreations and DAZ, and the latter decided to go their own way.

This own way introduced the unimesh geometry, the wish to create all characters from one single mesh. Vicky and Mike 3 introduced that concept, soon to be followed by Stephanie 3 which was a real-person body scan translated to the unimesh. DAZ also had their own view on the software, which brought us Daz Studio consisting of a free base with paid plugins – just a completely different marketing concept compared to Poser. Boths DAZ views developed, and after a successful rebuild of Vick and Mike 4 using the new modo modeler, and after successfully turning Girl 4, Steph 4 and so on into morphs of Vickys mesh, DAZ launched Genesis – the new generation unimesh, with all known figures (Vick and Mike 5 included) provided as morphs of that base mesh, and including a serious Poser contender Daz Studio 4, at the turn of 2011/2012. The weight-mapping mechanisms for smoother posing forced Smith Micro into similar features for Poser 9 / Pro 2012. But mainly, the full features of the new DAZ characters could not be deployed in Poser at the fullest, you needed DS4 for that. This came as a serious chock to the Poser community. Being “Poser-compatible” was not the default anymore.

For what it's worth, but it might give you a start. And perhalps we can answer specific questions on specifuc characters.

There used to be an entry for Poser Figures on the Wikipedia, but it was removed.  Here is the final version before it was pulled...

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Poser_figures&oldid=371271922

so YOU made that 18 zetabyte backup copy from the entire Internet :)

I did recall this page but could not trace it back indeed. Mucho thanx

Quote - There used to be an entry for Poser Figures on the Wikipedia, but it was removed.  Here is the final version before it was pulled...

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Poser_figures&oldid=371271922

. . . That's the one I was thinking of - There are so many new original mesh figures popping up all the time, with there was one central up-to-date site or list to consult.

Thank!

keeping track of all of the various figure types (animals, toons, humans, humanoids, objects, tentacles, monsters, and so on/so forth) would probably be an impossible task. Consider all of the figures being created internationally and within subcultures or subgenres of Poser use.

Quote - keeping track of all of the various figure types (animals, toons, humans, humanoids, objects, tentacles, monsters, and so on/so forth) would probably be an impossible task. Consider all of the figures being created internationally and within subcultures or subgenres of Poser use.

Quite true, but I'd be happy to find a listing of commonly available (freebie or commercial) human original meshes.