When European immigrants in the form of Spanish settlers first began encroaching on Apache territory, they were treated much like any other interloper, and in an effort to keep the peace the colonial administration set up the Presidio system, which used a network of fortified outposts to try and protect their colonists, control the natives and perhaps convert them too. When Mexico gained independence from Spain, they could not afford to maintain this arrangement, which had had some success, so the result was a growing saga of conflicts and outrages by both sides, including at one stage the setting of a bounty by some Mexican authorities for any Apache scalp. When the US annexed much of Northern Mexico in 1848, the Apaches became their problem too, but the result was the same, a series of periods of peace followed by ones of violence, particularly as European settlers encroached further into Apache territories. This period of instability and unpredictable violence made life hard for all concerned, but it is not one that has attracted much attention from the hobby up to now.
This collection of Apache warriors shows all of them in combat, or at least hunting. All are very active, using or at least holding weapons, and these are quite varied. The bow was of course the classic Indian weapon, and we see two men using this here, while others carry one on their back. Both archers are aiming very high, which would give better range but severely reduce accuracy, so whether aiming at game or humans, this seems like a fairly random approach which only really works when you are aiming at a very large, closely-packed body of men, as ancient or medieval archers might do. This would hardly apply for the Apaches, who would in any case almost certainly have only a very limited number of arrows to hand whilst on a raid or hunt, so were in no position to waste them in this way. The other main weapon was the lance, and again two of these poses have these. One holds it while actually striking with a tomahawk or axe, and the other, in the second row, holds it over his head, directly over the centre point, with his arm held behind his shoulder. This is impossible for any human to achieve, so while it is a common pose in many sets of spearman, it is just as impossible here as elsewhere, and looks painful too.
Contact with the European settlers also introduced the musket to the Apache, and they were quick to see the advantages it offered and use it for their own purposes. No less than eight of the poses in this set hold one, with many loading or firing it. All are either flintlocks or percussion locks (detail is not good enough to tell), and there are no breech-loading weapons, but all are being handled reasonably well here. The third man in our top row caused us to pause as he appears to be placing his mouth over the muzzle, so we assume this is spitting a ball down the barrel. While this is not a recommended way of using a musket, it did happen, and the Indians were often not expert at its use, but we were still surprised that someone decided this was a useful pose to model.
In the past many toy manufacturers such as Timpo have made Apaches wearing a shirt, drawers, breechclout and moccasins, plus a band in the hair. This is probably because there are many photographs of Apaches dressed this way, and eight of the poses here are also dressed in this manner. However, the truth is Apaches posing for such photos were usually either on official business or deliberately dressing in their best clothes for the camera, so while they did appear like this, when going into combat they would normally discard all but the breechclout, moccasins and head band. Clearly all of these figures are in a fight, yet only four of them have this fighting rig, so for the rest the costume is authentic but largely inappropriate for battle. Of course, if they were surprised by an attack then they may have no time to shed unnecessary clothing, but to our mind we would have preferred to see all of them dressed for battle, since a likely scenario would be depicting them on a raid for which they would have prepared.
The kit these men carry all looks reasonable, with some having visible knives, bags, powder horns and tomahawks. Of the two men using the bow, one (the last figure in the second row) has his quiver with arrows accessible under his left arm (the ‘battle’ position), but the other, kneeling in the first row, has his behind his right shoulder, in the ‘march’ position, which is not how it would appear when in combat. One man also carries a shield, which is fine but becoming less common as firearms became ever more prevalent.
The sculpting is fair but not particularly elegant, and there are areas that we could not interpret. Some extra bits of plastic are a mystery; none bigger than that under the quiver of the standing bowman, which we completely failed to identify. The detail is not too bad, but things can get a bit vague in places, and the figure in the bottom row with tomahawk raised is quite a mess, with his arm merging horribly with his head. Flash is very variable, with both clean seams and some quite pronounced areas of flash, and there are a couple of areas filled in between arm and weapon. There is no assembly required here, even for the lances, so that at least will be welcomed by many.
Among the features that we liked are the moccasins, some reaching to the knee and with turndowns at the top, and the man wearing a hat (second row) is a nice touch of variety. The hanging decoration added to some of the muskets is a nice element too, but we would have liked to see every man with a visible knife on his belt, since every warrior actually had such an essential tool. Overall this is a fair set with adequate but not attractive sculpting, some unfortunate and awkward poses, and costume choices that would be exceptional at best. The range of weapons dates this set to the period up to roughly the conclusion of the American Civil War, after which breech-loading weapons and repeating rifles began to be obtained by the Indians, though older muskets and more traditional weapons took a very long time to disappear entirely, so there is some scope for use in the later part of the 19th century. Ultimately the lifestyle and dominance of the Apaches in their own lands was never going to be maintained, despite the many small victories they achieved with their guerilla tactics, against the sheer numbers and resources of the new settlers and the national armies of the US and Mexico. In depicting that struggle this set is not ideal, but it does at least recognise the conflicts that the Apache people had in the decades before the more famous Indian Wars of the later part of the century.