The Comanches have been described as the Lords of the Southern Plains, and with good reason. During the 17th century they had migrated south to the area they would come to dominate, located in what today is southern Kansas and Colorado, eastern New Mexico, much of Oklahoma and northern Texas. They expelled most of the natives already there, and were quickly recognised as one of the most warlike of tribes, with an exceptional prowess in handling horses and raiding. The early Spanish settlers they found to the south of their lands were easy prey for their raids, but during the early 19th century they increasingly came across other settlers to the east of their lands, with a paler skin but much better armed and much better able to defend themselves. These new American settlers organised groups like the Texas Rangers to protect their communities and punish Comanche raids, and as time went by, the natives suffered increasing losses at the hands of these men, with their new weaponry, greater mobility, and even new diseases for which the Indians had no defence. In their struggle with Texas, and later with the growing United States, the Comanches could not prevail and protect their way of life, but their raids were a constant fear of those on the furthest edges of the new republic, and they were amongst the most dangerous obstacles to the westward expansion of the United States.

The Comanche mastery of the horse is one of their most important characteristics, and naturally they hunted and went to war mounted at every opportunity, so it is a great surprise to find a set for these warriors where everyone is on foot. This would not have been our choice, and can hardly be described as showing them in typical fashion, but of course at times they would have to dismount to continue a fight. The Comanches were familiar with muskets, though they much preferred the bow as it could loose many arrows in the time it took an enemy to reload a musket, and bows could be used on horseback whereas muskets could not, so having over half the poses here using a musket is another big surprise. It would seem unlikely that they would take these weapons on a raid, so we struggle to think of many situations in which they would prefer a musket to a bow. The musket poses here are reasonable given the nature of the weapon (although those firing upwards are not easy to explain – defending against a mounted ranger perhaps?), but we were not happy to find so many such poses. The bow was the traditional weapon, and in the first half of the 19th century also the logical choice for hunting and raiding, when mobility, ease of use on horseback, and high rate of fire all made it superior. The three archer poses here are not bad, although the two in our bottom row are not good examples of the type in our view. The two spearmen are better, but the warrior with the tomahawk is rather flat and awkward, so overall we were not impressed by the poses in this set. No one is using a knife, which is fine for a battle scene as knives were more tools than weapons, but one figure with knife in hand, perhaps preparing to remove a scalp, would have made a lot of sense, particularly as it would help explain why he was not on his horse.

The sculpting of these figures is not particularly good either. The proportions are not too bad, and this is not a set that makes great demands on fine detail, but the figures are not particularly pleasing to look at, and features like faces, hands and feet are not great. The clothing is quite hard to make out, and while this is not as important as it would be on neatly uniformed figures, it still looks a bit too messy in places. The look is not helped by the quite significant amounts of flash on all the seams, and some excess plastic in places, so there is a lot of work required to present these figures at their best. One figure has a separate bow (third man in bottom row, holding it horizontally) which fits well enough.

As in all societies, clothing performed many functions apart from keeping the wearer warm. The war shirt might be decorated very specifically to show the wears rank, his medicine (supernatural protective charms) and his previous successes in battles. Such things were the decoration rather than the style of the shirt, and while much would have been designs painted on, it could also include hair fringes that might represent previous coups, and be decorated with beads and other ornaments, but there is very little of that here. Most wear a long-sleeved war shirt, and all wear the usual breechcloth. Those with a shirt also wear either trousers or leggings – in some cases it is evident which is worn, but some are too indistinct to be sure. Most have one or two feathers in their hair – again symbolic – but one man in our bottom row wears a horned headdress, which has been sculpted at a ridiculous 45 degree angle to his face (which is, however, square to the mould, hence the reason). The last pictured figure has a full-feathered war bonnet, so presumably a leader of some renown. Apart from the spiritual medicine, the only ‘protection’ on show here is the bone breastplate a few wear. All this is reasonable, but warriors mostly hunted and made war in the summer months, when the grass was lush and both buffalo and horses could feed easily. In the warm months, braves went out in just a breechcloth, which is how we find a few of these figures dressed. This makes for something of a contrast, as some of the figures are dressed for the cold and the rest for warm temperatures, but as most such action took place in the spring and summer, we would have much preferred to see more figures in the minimal costume, rather than the winter costume so many have here.

All the muskets held by these figures are flintlocks, so clearly date the set to perhaps up until the mid 1840s, by which time the Comanche had acquired the same revolvers and repeating rifles as the settlers. The bows look reasonable, as do the spears and tomahawks, so the weapons themselves are properly done. The few shields here are round and quite fat, which is a good representation of their robust makeup. They all have interesting designs and decoration/trophies attached, and are therefore a good sample of the type actually carried by these men. Some of the figures have pouches and powder horns to match their muskets, but surprisingly few have any visible knife, since all warriors would have had such an item on their person at all times, and especially during a fight. Several carry a tomahawk, which is good, but the archer with the horned headdress has a long hollow tube-type thing down his left leg. Definitely not a quiver for his arrows, but we have no idea what this is, and highly doubt its authenticity.

When someone says they will be making a set of Comanche for the early 19th century, we imagine a party of warriors on fast-moving horses armed with bows and spears bearing down on their prey, human or animal, and dressed for the hot Texas summer. This set is very far from that image, and that presents us with a conundrum. Individually, each figure here is possible, with few particularly obvious accuracy problems, but as a group we find it very hard to imagine a raiding party looking like this as they descended on a remote farmstead or rival campsite. So, accurate, yes – more or less, but typical - we really do not think so. Even when surprised, as in a raid on their village or the Council House Fight, their instinct was to grab a bow and find a horse, not meet their foe with a flintlock musket. As a result, we really cannot think of a situation where someone would find a use for these figures, and the disappointing quality of the sculpting and mould only add to an easily forgotten collection.