ALL72012

As with the companion set of Light Warriors of the Dead, we are assuming that this set primarily references the Army of the Dead from the Tolkien books. These were human warriors who were cursed to exist forever as undead, with rotted bodies and clothing, living in a sort of eternal limbo from which they dearly wished to escape. So these figures are decomposed humans wearing battle array, and on the face of it you might imagine they would have little use in any other role. However where flesh is visible, which is in very few places, it looks either perfectly normal or at worst somewhat malnourished. True a couple of the hands are particularly skeletal, but others are pretty normal, and we think painting them in normal flesh colours would adequately hide this feature for most people. The faces might be more skull, but as most are side-on to the mould and/or partly covered by a helmet, again a bit of flesh painting would make them look largely normal, particularly at any distance. So the undead aspect of these figures is no barrier to their use as historical fighters, but their clothing and kit is more of a problem. The general tone of these is early medieval, but it is an odd mix, and there are many elements like the bare wooden shields and the fantastical weapons which make them more like the fantasy figures that they are. The armour is of all varieties, some of it not historical at all, and the clothing, while more credible, is ragged and full of holes. However such poor repair would be by no means unheard of in the real world, so that seems like no impediment.

The wide assortment of weapons include blade and impact types, and in general the poses are reasonably good. There is a good amount of action here, and although a few of the poses are particularly flat (such as the first figure in the second row), we would say they are perfectly usable for a battle scene. The sculpting is quite good, and these are figures that call for a lot of detail which is nicely done here. Yes some of the weapons are enormous, and some of the shields are just plain weird, but you can afford such fun with fantasy figures. Sadly there is a good deal of flash on these, which nobody wants on fantasy or historical figures, so there are issues here, but with some work this set has potential beyond the simple depiction of the Army of the Dead.