S is for Supreme's Swanky Swashbuckling Sea-rover's

A bit of a box ticker, but they are nice figures and need their five minutes of fame at Small Scale World!

There are six poses, each comes in two main colour ways, and there were two issues, so technically 24+ to find. These are the later version and there are four pairs of opposite paint-ways and one blunderbusieer (I think I just invented that word!), they are a bit 'smooth' in sculpting style, and the gloss finish only adds to that impression, but - as we'll see in a minute - they are actually perfectly fine figures and hold-up well against the opposition.

The other pose and more blunderbusieers! The lower two are the earlier issue, these have boot-painted bases, although, note the two blunderbusieers (lovin' it!) are different from the one in the larger sample, so if you look for these definitive things it's going to be way more than 24!

Two new and two old Supreme figures compared with four of the main rivals for toy pirate fans affections, who are clockwise from top left; Safari, Zizzle, Charbens and Marx. You can see that behind the glossy paint and smooth sculpting, they hold their own perfectly against the others and only enhance a band of brigands!

Not only is it more than 24 to find, it could be as many as 48+, as the 'other six' (I have two poses still to find)* are more fantasy figures, although all very 'Pirates of the Caribbean' I think they predate the movie franchise by a few years?

I can remember seeing these, in open shop-stock boxes in a large corner-shop/hardware store opposite a car-park in a little town on the way down to Eastbourne around 1998/9, along with the Britains Deetail-like Tiger Cowboys & Indians also accredited/ascribed to Supreme?

*There are several on evilBay, where I've been keeping an eye on them for months, but both sellers want stupid money per-figure for what are modern, PVC-shite, 50p items! And that's more than I've paid for the others, although some of them have gone-up to around a quid-each with postage, but think what the petrol would have cost; and it's still a bargain! But five-ninety-nine BIN, with three-quid postage, for one skeleton? That's a piss-take, and so's the £9.99-odd some Belgian or Dutch seller is asking, for two figures!