Transferring animation clips

Hey guys,

I have multiple characters, all the same proportions but with different weapons, hats, textures etc. Theyre animated only with geometry (like lego men) so they have no joints.

What I'm looking to do is animate only one of them in Maya and import it to Unity, then swap in and out each part and apply the same animation to the part. This has to be directedly copied to the part as I cant parent a new hat, for example to the character.

So If i copy an animation clip from one piece and paste it into another hierarchy would that work? Does it just work off position, or object name or what?

Bonus points: is there any advantage to doing this or will 30 characters with 3 unique animation clips each all in the one scene be completely fine to run? As a ballpark I mean. Any help would be great!