The origins of World War One are many and complex, and are still the object of learned discussion to this day. What is not in doubt is that from their initial invasion of France and Belgium in 1914, the German army was the mainstay of the forces of the Central Powers, and since MIR have produced a number of Great War sets it was only natural that the German army would be covered at some point.

One of the major innovations of the First World War was the reintroduction of the metal helmet, discarded centuries before by all armies along with the rest of their armour (except for a few skull caps and the cuirass for some cavalry). When the German armies went to war in 1914 they wore the pickelhaube, which despite its appearance was normally made of boiled leather, and offered almost no protection. Nonetheless it was usually worn on the march and always when the troops went into action or were expecting to be assaulted. The men also had a field cap, the feldmütze, but this would not be worn in combat, and was not worn in the front line at all after the first year of the war. All of which leaves the question of why every single man in this set is wearing his cap, yet is clearly in battle. Presumably this would occur if they were taken by surprise, but it would have been very rare for the surprise to be so total that the men did not have time to reach for their pickelhaube.

In other respects it is difficult to comment on the accuracy of the uniform as little of it is apparent. All the men are either partly or completely covering the front of their tunic, and the detail is not sufficient to make much out where it can be seen.

As is apparent from the above scans, all the poses are lying on the ground, as is usual for MIR. The four on the top row are very similar, with the main difference being the weapon each man carries. Both these and the other figures are in reasonable poses, but we do not understand the point of a set that is nothing else but such figures. However realistic they might be, without some corresponding standing poses their use is very restricted.

As we have said, detail is not good. Though not as poor as some MIR sets, it is still often difficult to make out the precise nature of some areas. Extra globules of resin and some areas where the resin did not fill make these unattractive and really quite crude compared to other manufacturers, particularly the World War I German infantry sets from Airfix and Revell. Giving all the men caps means this set depicts an exceptional circumstance, and the poor quality sculpting, poor mould-filling and an array of poses which are all on the ground leaves it with curiosity value only.