I don't know how these guys have evaded
their 'fifteen minutes' for the first eight years of ITLAPD, but time's winged
chariot caught them in time for this year's, and then it's back to the relative
obscurity they've enjoyed thus far!
We'll be looking at the sets 72001 Sea Warriors English Pirates 18th
Century from Orion and set 31 Pirates by LW.
According to PSR's entry the LW set is supposed to contain 16 figures
in various singles and pairs along with a two-man gun-crew and two-part gun,
however; mine has one each of the pirate poses, two each of the gun crew and
two guns (four parts), this disparity will not be a surprise to anyone who has
bought multiples of LW or the other
brandings in that stable (EVO[lution], HYTTY, Kervella, or Odemars) and I'm sure the boxed re-pack
of the same figures; Set 2014 Buccaneers
is subject to an equal variety of contents? As a small set it has also been
issued as EVO set EVF 016
Two quarters of the Orion set, some (many!) of the figures may look familiar, because
they are scale-downs of larger figures from Marx's
Warriors of the World, as a result it's a half-reasonable set, given a lot
of that early (1997,8,9) Eastern European stuff was a tad . . . err . . . crude
- You can shoot the messenger but it doesn't change the message!
The other runner has another 12 figure poses,
and to prove the point re. the copies being superior, a skeleton, semi-flat;
depicts a man who in life stood about nine-foot-six in his stocking, which look
like they were pulled over size 26 feet! Good for 28mm D&D gaming!
Above the left runner we see a couple of
the clone-donors for comparison, changes are slight; the oar has been angled
the other way, the shovel turned to face the front. Above the right-hand sextet
are the LW figures, made from a
plastic which is more glass than grey and a bugger to photograph, indeed, they
don't show much detail to the naked-eye, but are actually quite nice figures;
certainly equal to the Orion sculpts.
Back of the pack for Orion finds them all titled by runner-number, the pick of the 'new'
poses has to be the chap with a blow-pipe (16); very different! And both the
female figures are nice, one heavily armed and looking for trouble (15) and the
other (8) described as "Resisting Pirate", but could as easily be
scolding her 'old man' in a dockside- pub, or with a scrap of super-glued
tissue - waving-off her beau, hair blowing in the onshore-breeze, rather than
being pulled by 7 as is intended - if they are assembled together as a
vignette!
In the Legion
of Nightmare (set PF12,
bottom-left) from Odemars we get three
passable pirates, passable that is, in a universe where everyone has been
stripped back to an empty-socket, eyeless-skull! Set them to looking for their nine-foot
skeletal mate!
On the left is a chap looking more like a
Venetian cut-purse or Medici's assassin, a proper pirate geezer in the middle
has a proper wooden-leg and everything proper piratey (no parrot, or monkey
though!) while the guy on the right is really a French pre-revolution
musketeer, but is suitably attired for a bit of pirating.
Is there such a thing? I think Pirates
indulge in piracy, but go a'pirating? There's probably a degree-course in there
somewhere! For people who haven't got enough B's and C's for Meeja Studies or
'The Comic as a Cultural Phenomena in the 20th Century' - who am I to scoff; I
collect plastic toys!
The other two shots are the respective
gun-crews, who can combine to create a landing force of some power . . .
. .
. which is why it's an absolute, 22-carat pure gold fact, that my pirates have
a gun-line which is 100% more effective than my British Grenadiers gun-line!
Why did Airfix
never do AWI artillery? Especially as they had the really useful chap carrying
a powder-barrel! Because of the way he's sculpted you can't see his
cross-straps as you can with the rest of the two AWI sets' figures, so he makes
a very passable pirate, while his officer (both from the Washington's Army set, there are no suitable Grenadiers) with his open flapping coat feels/looks equally at home
under the Jolly Roger!
Which is not to say there's no place for Airfix's Grenadiers - someone has to
provide 'revenue men' or the pirates will take over and not just on TLAP Day
"Aa'haarr!"
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