ALL72043

Corsairs were, of course, real individuals in the history of the sea. They were privateers, seamen given a licence by a country to prey on the ships of countries with which it was at war. The name derives from the French lettre de course, which was the licence given by the French government for such activities, although in time it would apply to corsairs of all nationalities. Naturally the differences between such men and pirates were often vague or even non-existent, especially when there was no convenient war, and their activities declined with pirates in general. There have been computer games concerning corsairs, and there are even ones in Middle Earth, which may be the inspiration for this set and the one that followed it. Generally it is pirates that feature in works of fiction, from Peter Pan to the Pirates of the Caribbean films, but the look is much the same, whether corsair or pirate, so this set is suitable for all forms of sea-bound criminality.

Although the golden age of piracy tends to give us our image of the pirate (roughly the 17th and 18th centuries), this set does not match that image, but is rather a broad mix of styles which it is hard to categorise. The clothing is extremely diverse, including many jackets of various designs and also some mail and scale armour. Legwear tends to be breeches and either stockings or wrappings round the lower leg, and all wear shoes rather than bare feet. All are bare-headed, displaying an array of hairstyles from bald to top-knots, but it is their armoury that is the most exotic. Many have swords - generally scimitar-like curved affairs - but there are also quite a few axes of different types, and even a polearm. No less than three of the poses are handling a boat hook, and one man holds a serrated spear while about to swing a grappling hook. The large mace carried by the man in the top row is also a surprise, and of course the boat hooks help to give a nautical flavour to these figures, but otherwise the theme is mainly medieval in terms of weaponry. One man carries a small round shield, but yes, your eyes do not deceive, in the bottom row there is a man with a sword and carrying a large leaf as protection. That would not have been our first choice either, although perhaps this is a particularly sturdy leaf, but the only alternative that we can think of - carving or forging a wood/metal shield to look like a leaf - seems equally implausible. That is the joy of fantasy - nothing can be exactly wrong, just a bit weird!

Whether they carry foliage or not, the poses in this set are fairly conventional for the types of weapon they hold. There is lots of the usual holding-weapon-to-the-side, but actually most of the poses are pretty reasonable, and all give the impression of immediate combat. They are quite lively, and although a couple have the sort of pose where you think to yourself 'what exactly is going to be his next move?' (take a bow man with spiked mace), there is nothing too terrible here. The sculpting too is very nice, especially all that flowing hair, but the often intricate clothing is well done too. As a rule the seams are completely clean, but on our example there were some areas with significant amounts of flash too, so a good job but not a great one.