A is for 'Ancient Siege Machines'

Every time I buy a mixed lot of plastic toy soldiers there seems to be at least one of these in the lot! They must have been one of the best sellers of Britains output and for the longest time.

The publicity graphics changed every couple of years with the images changing from coloured line drawings to photographs as printing techniques improved or got cheaper. The crew are given quite generic helmets in order to allow their use with both ancients and medievals.

Positioned with the Swoppet knights in early catalogues, they gravitated toward the Herald knights and Trojans in the mid 1970's and then went off to the artillery pages.

Looking at them in alphabetical order - the Ballista crew come first! Common/early or longer running colours to the left, later figures to the right. The nose protector rather places them in the 1066-crusades era.

Catapult crew with an unpainted ex-outworker's example in the middle of the lower line-up. Someone (I think in Plastic Warrior years ago) compared all the rock-holders/throwers in the Toy Soldier world once, and there are dozens of them!

Ammunition!