About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Saturday, August 13, 2022

A is for Ancient Wars, C is for Castle . . .

. . . except they are medievals, not ancients and there's no castle! These are the latest iteration of figures from Supreme, previously carried-by Toy Major and supplied to various others, they are currently being hawked by dozens of phantom brands and jobbing jobbers all over Amazon, evilBay and Alibaba.

57006238; Ancient Wars; Ballista; Castle; Catapult; Knights In Armour; Made in China; Medieval Knights; Medieval Toy Figures; Mounted Knights; Polyethylene Toy Knights; Siege Engine; Siege Engines; Siege Weapons; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; SP Castle; SP Knights; SP Toys; STK0157006239; Supreme; Supreme Ancient Wars; Supreme Castle; Supreme Industrial Co.; Supreme Knights; Supreme Medievals; Supreme Toys;
I'm sure you've seen them and will instantly recognise them, and if you shop around you can get good deals, these cost me less than a tenner, delivered, I think (it was a while ago, this is another one which has been in the queue for over a year!), and to be fair to the premise of the title, there are many, many retail variations of these, from small bags such as these here, to huge castle play-sets with multiples of siege weapons and scores of figures.

57006238; Ancient Wars; Ballista; Castle; Catapult; Knights In Armour; Made in China; Medieval Knights; Medieval Toy Figures; Mounted Knights; Polyethylene Toy Knights; Siege Engine; Siege Engines; Siege Weapons; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; SP Castle; SP Knights; SP Toys; STK0157006239; Supreme; Supreme Ancient Wars; Supreme Castle; Supreme Industrial Co.; Supreme Knights; Supreme Medievals; Supreme Toys;
The foot figures, I would describe these as Eastern European in overall look, the Livonian Crusades or the wars with the fledgling Russia, but painted-up they can slide into a late Dark Age; Norman, Anglo-Saxon or early medieval/Middle Age army, they all had a few 'spangen-helms' or Asiatic-looking pointy-pointy head-protector anointies!

57006238; Ancient Wars; Ballista; Castle; Catapult; Knights In Armour; Made in China; Medieval Knights; Medieval Toy Figures; Mounted Knights; Polyethylene Toy Knights; Siege Engine; Siege Engines; Siege Weapons; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; SP Castle; SP Knights; SP Toys; STK0157006239; Supreme; Supreme Ancient Wars; Supreme Castle; Supreme Industrial Co.; Supreme Knights; Supreme Medievals; Supreme Toys;
Some pretty crude siege engines of the interactive hand/eye co-ordination infant learning type are included in the 'infantry' bag, nothing like other Supreme stuff, they may be bought-in, but I suspect just aiming at a different unit-price for a different price-bracket, as I've hinted, some of the all but anonymous sellers are practically giving the stuff away . . . changed priorities in China . . . in the end it's all politics!

57006238; Ancient Wars; Ballista; Castle; Catapult; Knights In Armour; Made in China; Medieval Knights; Medieval Toy Figures; Mounted Knights; Polyethylene Toy Knights; Siege Engine; Siege Engines; Siege Weapons; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; SP Castle; SP Knights; SP Toys; STK0157006239; Supreme; Supreme Ancient Wars; Supreme Castle; Supreme Industrial Co.; Supreme Knights; Supreme Medievals; Supreme Toys;
The horses; three variations of the same basic sculpt and another rearing beast, all bearing a resemblance to other Supreme horse-production. Riders plug-in and also come as multiples of four different sculpts, but with only two colours each (more on that in the next post) the idea is to keep black-off-black, which limits the combinations slightly, especially with a small sample.

57006238; Ancient Wars; Ballista; Castle; Catapult; Knights In Armour; Made in China; Medieval Knights; Medieval Toy Figures; Mounted Knights; Polyethylene Toy Knights; Siege Engine; Siege Engines; Siege Weapons; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; SP Castle; SP Knights; SP Toys; STK0157006239; Supreme; Supreme Ancient Wars; Supreme Castle; Supreme Industrial Co.; Supreme Knights; Supreme Medievals; Supreme Toys;
The locating hole in the horse, the ammunition basket/sled for the balista, the catapult fires a witch's broom! And the batch in the 'cavalry' pack were a much glossier plastic (two right hand figures) than the ones in the 'infantry' pack.

57006238; Ancient Wars; Ballista; Castle; Catapult; Knights In Armour; Made in China; Medieval Knights; Medieval Toy Figures; Mounted Knights; Polyethylene Toy Knights; Siege Engine; Siege Engines; Siege Weapons; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; SP Castle; SP Knights; SP Toys; STK0157006239; Supreme; Supreme Ancient Wars; Supreme Castle; Supreme Industrial Co.; Supreme Knights; Supreme Medievals; Supreme Toys;
The back of the 'cavalry' pack's header card actually shows the older, painted, PVC version (the figures in this post are all polyethylene with - probably - polypropylene horses and siege equipment) as supplied to various end-users by Toy Major (among others) more on this in the next - and final - post in this sequence.

2 comments:

Dan said...

These knights do have an eastern vibe. They also resemble some western knights of the mid-14th century - take a look at the effigy of the Black Prince.

Hugh Walter said...

Yes Dan, the Princes helmet had to take a coronet though, the 'spangen-helm' was disappearing in general use this way (especially for a whole army), but I get your point, and poorer guys from the shires might well have had Grandad's helmet!

There is a very good map/graphic of all medieval helmets which I downloaded a decade or so ago and could post here, but I suspect it's copyright and still up on the internet somewhere . . . I'll try to find it again and post a link.

H