Tiger Hobbies is for Supreme Toys!

Box-ticking some modern production Romans today, with the slightly floppy PVC-substitute Roman toy soldiers from Supreme / SP Toys, they are rather good, for what they are - rack toys - but toward the larger size in the 54mm bracket, not so much in height but 'chunky-monkey'ness'!

As they are found, supplied in the UK by Tiger Hobbies, who informed the hobby they were carrying Supreme which is why - despite the past witterings of Erwin on TJF's site - we know Supreme are an entity!

Elsewhere they would have been carried by other sellers, possibly Simba in Europe (I don't know for sure), possibly Schilling in the 'States, but not Sunjade who were a jobbing shipper back in Hong Kong - we've looked at all this before!

Three skirmishing spearmen with separate, plug-in piliums . . . pilii? An Asiatic mercenary/ethnic archer (thanks Airfix via blandford!) and a command group including a horn player (Cornicen), a Signifier and an officer/NCO 'Centurion' type.

The shields are glued-on in the factory, sometimes with the lower-arm as part of the sculpt, but two of mine had come lose/broken off in transit, so needed a blob of plumber's sealant to get them fit to fight again!

The teeth-arms are provided by a wobbly shield-wall of five; four legionaries and another Centurion looking-chap! The most notable thing about them is how bloody happy they all look, it's like they are on a day's training and someone just said Biggus Dickus after being told not to! In fact; several of them look like Michael Palin!

And if twelve separate posed large'ish figures weren't enough, we get four mounted soldiers, of whom one is clearly roman and carrying rank, a legate or something, there's almost too many 'officers' in this set!

His cloak however leaves a lot to be desired, having not been designed to take the high rim of his saddle into account, so he doesn't sit well - and I tried him with all four horses!

The other three seem to have been recruited from the Atlantic Trojan school of toy soldiering though! If you were to add a flowing horse-hair mane to that high, curved metalwork, they might make nice Arthurian cavalry? However they have to a certain extent had their cloak-tails designed to fit the saddles, although you do need to try them on different horses to get the best fit.

All four mounted figures (like Schleich or Papo) can fight dismounted and stand-up well, even on a furry surface. The guy in a breast-plate/cuirass is carrying a rolled scroll, not a dagger! Another 'officer'!

The horses are the 'standard' medieval hoses we have seen here at Small Scale World several times and in several sizes, the two with asymmetrical bases seeming the commoner, both from Supreme and the various pirates, than the two with oblong bases.

There was an issue in silver polymer with gold paint, from the flesh paint on the legs (lacking in the red set) there's a suggestion they were an earlier issue, but the card says both were contiguous? That's it, Supreme's Romans!

2nd April the same year - Nice to see the PSTSM were collectively following things here!