C is for Centaurs!

I've been wanting to track these Merten oddities down for the longest time, and eventually bought a mixed lot of ex-factory stuff off the German eBayer who seems to have inherited a shed-load of them! 

 

As far as I know there's only the three, and they must be quite a late thing as they don't appear to be in the early catalogues, but they are rather fine! The spear is a seperate moulding, for a ring-hand, and for now I've left the excess runner pieces and flashing in-situ. I think the dirt may be a combination of long-storage somewhere dusty, and mould-release agent 'going off'?

I do have one factory finished one, and the debate is do I try to paint the others to match, or do something more home-custom on them? That rather typical Merten-pink is a bit too bright for my liking, Mediterranean God's offspring would have been olive-tanned I feel!

 

From the 40mm range, and with no other fantasy figures I know of from Merten, I guess they were to be fielded against the medievals, to do battle with the many arm-variations of them and seduce the equally numerous medieval maidens which are another favourite of mine from Merten!

 

Comparison between the two like-poses. The runner remnant might be an actual 'sprue' it's quite solid-looking and cone-like, but the cone is facing the wrong way for a typical sprue, and one would assume all three would be on one still smallish tool?