ALL72060

When we first saw the box for this set we thought it might be inspired by the Assassins Creed game, although the actual figures look less like those characters. Since so many of this series have been thinly-disguised representations of elements in the Lord of the Rings universe, it seems appropriate to note that there is a 'Southern Kingdom' in that story, called Gondor. The symbol for that kingdom is a white tree, and four of the poses in this set have just such a symbol on their shields, while the last pictured figure has the same on both his chest and his cloak. The clothing of these men is a wide variety of coats, many padded in different ways, and an equally varied array of boots. Some seem to have a mail hauberk, and of course others may have something similar but hidden beneath other clothing. A couple look to have some articulated armour on the shoulders, such as the medieval spaulder, which would be an unusual choice for an archer. Two thirds of the poses also wear a rather narrow hooded cloak which does not look like it could be wrapped round the body, and so not particularly realistic to our eye. The last pose, which we assume is some sort of commander, has vambraces on his arms and greaves on his legs, plus possible cuisses for the knee and upper legs, and there is the possibility that he also wears plate armour on the torso, though this is not clear. In any event, he is much more heavily armoured than the rest, carries a large, two-handed sword, and he is pointing at something, which is always code for someone in charge.

Clearly the dominant weapon here is the longbow, and eight of the 12 poses are using one. Arrows are being carried in a quiver mounted either on the back or from the waist. The remaining four have swords, but all 12 poses are armed with one, and most have a visible dagger too. Some of these swords are very large, including two-handers, which seems surprising for scouts and rangers, which we would imagine tended to be more lightly equipped. Still, many fantasy worlds are painted as being slight variations on the real medieval period, and that is what seems to be going on here too.

All the archer poses seem pretty good to us, and the swordsmen are also fine, if somewhat on the flat side as such figures often are. The sculpting is attractive as always, with good detail and plenty of it. The mould-making is absolutely first rate, with no suggestion of flash or a mould line anywhere, which is always good to see. The choice of poses has avoided excess plastic in hard-to-reach places, so these are very well presented and ready to go straight out of the box. Another very appealing set of figures providing a particularly good number of archers for your fantasy army.