C is for Comansi Confederate Cavalry

Bit of an odd one, bit of a box-ticker, and Spanish, so here goes nothing! I'm a bit perplexed by these, on one level they are marked; Comansi and obviously; Confederate cavalry, but closer inspection reveals they may not be what they seem on the latter front.

So most of the group, they were four quid from a non-figure toy dealer at Sandown Park, and being marked Comansi looked a bargain with a unit-price at less than 50p each. But they were current around the mid-1990's and probably only retailed at around 50p then, so not a really big bargain, however; they do tick a box.

The other thing about them is the paint, which may not be 'factory', some of it's flaky, some sticky and the five on the left seem to be US/Union figures (blue plastic) painted-up as Confederates, while the two on the right are Confederates (grey plastic) with the trousers painted to match the 'Union' figures?

Also some of them have black boots, some of them have brown boots, the bugler has black paint over brown, while the two with very dark brown boots have their belt-buckles carefully left unpainted? They are a bit of a curate's egg, and while I wouldn't be surprised to learn they are home-painted/re-painted . . .

. . . I suspect they are factory painted, with the additional work done to make them match after different out-painters and/or different plastic-colour batches left them looking less uniform. The painting could be down to a mix-up of batch, or end-of-batch to match for a 'job' completion scenario, and possibly they're still out there somewhere; Comansi are still going, and still have a Wild West line, but these aren't up to the quality of the current issues.

Here we see a black boot Union and a brown boot Confederate (who's sticky paint has picked-up half a carpet!). If all the paint is home./re-, then why the two colours on the boots? Yet, if the grey shirts were added to the blue figures, all the white - on all the figures - must have been added later as it's over the grey paint on the blue figures. The same 'vis-à-vis' quandary is true of the glossy blue paint on the two grey figures with regards to the brown belts.

I should add they are a softish PVC substitute; in fact, they resemble some bendy Cowboys & Indians I have somewhere, but without the wire armature. And at 80-odd millimetres, sized to compete or go with the whole modern ouvre of Bully, ELC, Papo, Plastoy and Schleich et al.

Only some of the figures have numbers on the other sole, and with all three flags missing (I didn't photograph all of them), one of the best clues as to their original purpose is absent! Anyway, they are Confederate rebels now, and will remain so until further notice!

Still; they ARE also Spanish, so I'm sure TJF and his cock-wacking monkey lizard will have plenty to say on them after they've consulted their bookie-wook! Fancy not recognising Airfix commando poses or the Stalwart amphibious ammunition-carrier; he's a 'knowledge-base' legend you know . . . in his own lunch-time!