A day or so later Chris sent me a link to
some on feebleBay, and I started watching it, in the end I watched it for two,
possibly three cycles before I felt I had the funds/excuse to bid, put in the
minimum bid required crossed my fingers and stopped watching it (fatal if you
keep watching, that's how you get in bidding wars!), a couple of days later I
had a 'please pay' message in Yahoo, and Bob's yer' uncle - they were on their
way!
These are they and they seem to be A) a
complete sample of one of each, of eight poses, in B) two colours, with C) four
more-military looking types and three who are closer to gladiators in general costume/equipment, with one who's a bit Bi!*. But
I stress, there could be more poses and/or more colours, however - I haven't
seen them!
As to the origins? They have features,
'signature' features even, in-common with the smaller sized pirate or Ninja output
of RedBox (HGL in the UK), Toy Major
and/or Dollar General (or Dollar Tree?), or even those Imperial 'vs' paired sets and are very
similar to a set of nights currently under dozens of phantom brands on Alibaba and Amazon, in various configurations, with and/or without (or only)
mounted company, and/or siege equipment. Ironically the knights are sometimes
called Roman Soldiers!
and
But I have been unable to find these as
current, or in any packaging just the odd lose one? They could just as easily
have come from Funtastic, Funrise, Peterkin, Ja-Ru, Playwrite, Unique or any other import 'jobber' who
issues bi-coloured sets of protagonists, cheaply manufactured in the Far East as rack-toys or party-favours?
* Shield-wise they could all be Gladiators, and I have searched as hard under that moniker and 'Toy Romans' or 'Roman Soldiers'? I shall call them Etruscan's!
In the searching for info on them I found
these all over the place as un-packaged generics; buy the cheapest you can find
with free postage is my advice, all-in with postage they vary from the £6.18p I paid, up to 40+quid!! There's one born every minute - don't let it be you!
He's in the style of the 'antiqued' novelty
pencil sharpeners which have been a staple of museum and touristy gift-shops
and stationers since the 1960's, but a larger piece, and modern, Chinese-made -
obviously! He's in a die-cast alloy and carries no clue to manufacturer either
in person or on the sales sites, but ticks a box and makes an excellent statue
for smaller figures!
Playing in Picasa!
A quick sketch I managed to fire-off out of
the bus window as we went through a village with an unpronounceable name somewhere
near Rimini! Do you have a brand for the little plastic ones?
Both Peter E and Mark the 'Man of Tin' confirm Funtastic - Phew, at least I had them in the long-list! See comments.
Both Peter E and Mark the 'Man of Tin' confirm Funtastic - Phew, at least I had them in the long-list! See comments.
Omnium Rerum Principia Parva Sunt
ReplyDeleteThey were by Funtastic sold in poundland around 2017 as knights of legend, two sets in both colours and a wild west wagon. A £1 a bag !
ReplyDeleteI've seen them asking silly prices on Ebay
Jan - Ita quidem! (They liked their 'Q's those Romans!)
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter - They obviously didn't send any to Basingrad, as that would be about the same time I was getting the multi-coloured unicorns and the skeletons? Nice to know anyway, and I can label them up!
Cheers both.
H
Here they are from Funtastic - bought for me as a gift in the SE - https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2016/10/31/funtastic-caballeros-or-knights/
ReplyDeleteHi Mark, thanks for that, I missed it at the time, but I only found you a couple of years ago I think? You must have done something to your SEO as you're very 'visible' now, but weren't then?
ReplyDeleteYeah! "Almost Romans"!! I'm sticking with Etruscans!
H