R es para Romanos A Caballo

Literally translates as Romans on Horseback, means Roman cavalry! More box-ticking and we have seen one of them before here, as a late-Reamsa/re-issue moulding in unpainted silver, who commands my definitely Co-Ma, not RP (. . . or Basa!) squad of ring-hand Romans.

Having failed to get the frames square on the images in the infantry post, I got these dead square without thinking about it and didn't even think of scanning them! Also they did have the clear plastic sheet (but no film), so have stayed in their box for now.

Five mounted cavalry on two horse sculpts, there are two officer types - if you measure such things by plume size/type - but with such an eclectic set of shields and an un-armed 'trooper' doing a Caesar impersonation, in gold armour, I think they are too toy-like to get excited about on that level and are best called 'auxiliary' cavalry, late Empire!

The two horse designs are a bit chunky, and are reverse poses of each other - apart from the tails! That's it another couple of boxes-ticked, Reamsa-Gormasa Romans from the Soldis-Históricos 'big box' line.

H es para Históricos!

And so to Spain, not actually, but by way of subject matter for another box-ticker! Looking at a set of vintage Reamsa moulds which have seen some mileage now and I think these - by Gormasa - are the last major issue?

How mine came, the cellophane was ripped beyond repair but I managed to get it to behave for the scanner, which did quite a good job, possibly because of the pale backgrounds? If I try to scan say, a kit runner, flush against the black pad, all I get is fuzzy, but these did quite well?

However I needn't have bothered as there was a better, commercial image on the back of the box, alongside the cavalry set! I don't know if these had a 'Soldis' iteration, I suspect Históricos were the older (by era) version of the same Soldis line; the boxes are certainly the same?

I tried to be clever with the photography, but it's impossible to get the frame perfectly square with a hand-held pocket-camera, so it is what it is - a collage of lop-sided frames! But the figures are lovely and it's nice to have them in the stash.

The tool is unchanged from original owner and the painting on these is good enough to conjure-up the originals if not pass for them after a bit of playwear! But the material is a bit of a giveaway; the Reamsa figures were polyethylene, these are a substitute-PVC with the same rubbery qualities of other elastomers.

My sample's box was missing the ridged, clear plastic sheet which should tuck into the corners of the window, so with the wrap gone as well it was going to be a nightmare to keep it all together, thus, it went the way of all flesh, but not before I'd scanned all the useful bits for the archive! the troops have got a [clean] takeaway-tub in the main Romans box!