ALL72053

Anubis was originally the Egyptian lord of the underworld, god of death and of related aspects such as embalming. He is depicted either as a canine (dog or wolf, sometimes erroneously called a jackal), or as a man with a canine head. The creatures in this set bear some resemblance to this latter image, but they also have animal legs and paws, and a fairly short tail. As far as we can tell such creatures, and the concept of an army for Anubis, are inventions of the film 'The Mummy Returns' (2001), so a very recent addition to the world of fantasy. However these models seem to be a good representation of them, and they certainly make for some dramatic warriors. Each stands about 29 mm tall, and most have just an ornate collar and a kilt for costume. One creature seems to have some form of headdress, and the last figure in our third row has both a headdress and some form of corset, possible armoured, around his abdomen. Some of the creatures also have a sort of anklet on their lower legs, but presumably this is just decorative. There is much variety of detail here, so the collars have different engraved patterns on them, and the stiffened fabric 'apron' over the groin also comes in several shapes and designs.

Several different weapons are on show here, ranging from the huge khopesh sword (one being held upside down like a dagger!) to the fanciful long staff with a semi-circular fan at each end, looking like a double-headed standard but carried here as if as a weapon. A couple carry shields, but most have either two-handed weapons or else a weapon in each hand. We liked the poses here, particularly the unusual one in the middle of the bottom row, which is nicely done and not at all flat. It is noticeable that most have their eye-line straight ahead, which means they must be battling something of similar height to themselves, as otherwise their eyes would be looking down if they were fighting men, for example. As usual the sculpting is very nice, and while the costume is fairly simple the decorative elements are nicely done, and the expressive heads and faces are particularly pleasing. It must be said that these strange creatures are very cool, and make for some lovely models which almost leave us wishing that such things were indeed real.