I is for Itlerpud - Part Four; Small Scale Scurvy Scallywags

I don't know how these guys have evaded their 'fifteen minutes' for the first eight years of ITLAPD, but time's winged chariot caught them in time for this year's, and then it's back to the relative obscurity they've enjoyed thus far!

We'll be looking at the sets 72001 Sea Warriors English Pirates 18th Century from Orion and set 31 Pirates by LW.

According to PSR's entry the LW set is supposed to contain 16 figures in various singles and pairs along with a two-man gun-crew and two-part gun, however; mine has one each of the pirate poses, two each of the gun crew and two guns (four parts), this disparity will not be a surprise to anyone who has bought multiples of LW or the other brandings in that stable (EVO[lution], HYTTY, Kervella, or Odemars) and I'm sure the boxed re-pack of the same figures; Set 2014 Buccaneers is subject to an equal variety of contents? As a small set it has also been issued as EVO set EVF 016

Two quarters of the Orion set, some (many!) of the figures may look familiar, because they are scale-downs of larger figures from Marx's Warriors of the World, as a result it's a half-reasonable set, given a lot of that early (1997,8,9) Eastern European stuff was a tad . . . err . . . crude - You can shoot the messenger but it doesn't change the message!

The other runner has another 12 figure poses, and to prove the point re. the copies being superior, a skeleton, semi-flat; depicts a man who in life stood about nine-foot-six in his stocking, which look like they were pulled over size 26 feet! Good for 28mm D&D gaming!

Above the left runner we see a couple of the clone-donors for comparison, changes are slight; the oar has been angled the other way, the shovel turned to face the front. Above the right-hand sextet are the LW figures, made from a plastic which is more glass than grey and a bugger to photograph, indeed, they don't show much detail to the naked-eye, but are actually quite nice figures; certainly equal to the Orion sculpts.

Back of the pack for Orion finds them all titled by runner-number, the pick of the 'new' poses has to be the chap with a blow-pipe (16); very different! And both the female figures are nice, one heavily armed and looking for trouble (15) and the other (8) described as "Resisting Pirate", but could as easily be scolding her 'old man' in a dockside- pub, or with a scrap of super-glued tissue - waving-off her beau, hair blowing in the onshore-breeze, rather than being pulled by 7 as is intended - if they are assembled together as a vignette!

In the Legion of Nightmare (set PF12, bottom-left) from Odemars we get three passable pirates, passable that is, in a universe where everyone has been stripped back to an empty-socket, eyeless-skull! Set them to looking for their nine-foot skeletal mate!

On the left is a chap looking more like a Venetian cut-purse or Medici's assassin, a proper pirate geezer in the middle has a proper wooden-leg and everything proper piratey (no parrot, or monkey though!) while the guy on the right is really a French pre-revolution musketeer, but is suitably attired for a bit of pirating.

Is there such a thing? I think Pirates indulge in piracy, but go a'pirating? There's probably a degree-course in there somewhere! For people who haven't got enough B's and C's for Meeja Studies or 'The Comic as a Cultural Phenomena in the 20th Century' - who am I to scoff; I collect plastic toys!

The other two shots are the respective gun-crews, who can combine to create a landing force of some power . . .

 . . . which is why it's an absolute, 22-carat pure gold fact, that my pirates have a gun-line which is 100% more effective than my British Grenadiers gun-line!

Why did Airfix never do AWI artillery? Especially as they had the really useful chap carrying a powder-barrel! Because of the way he's sculpted you can't see his cross-straps as you can with the rest of the two AWI sets' figures, so he makes a very passable pirate, while his officer (both from the Washington's Army set, there are no suitable Grenadiers) with his open flapping coat feels/looks equally at home under the Jolly Roger!

Which is not to say there's no place for Airfix's Grenadiers - someone has to provide 'revenue men' or the pirates will take over and not just on TLAP Day "Aa'haarr!"