A bit of background would be helpful . . .
these two sets were among the first of the 'new' sets to appear, heralding the
current renaissance we are still enjoying, indeed, it's more of a 'new normal' these
days; watching the steady stream of new issues on Dave Kean's site, some makers
taking a breather, others churning out sets, smaller companies disappearing as
others tentatively issue their first set, but that is now, and these which were then
. . .
. . . which was about 1997/98 . . . the
Internet was something only 'some people' had, or that lucky people got to play
with at work, eBay was garnering headlines but no one had heard of Google, Nokia
- the most popular mobile 'phones - still had monochrome screens and a
character limit of 140 on text messages . . . when first rumours and then fuzzy
black-&-white (I seem to recall) images, finally; examples of unknown
small-scale figures started to emanate from the newly (well, newish; ten years
earlier) liberated East.
If one ignores the minor-makes, the history
of plastic small scale had been pretty simple, Airfix dominated for 30 years, then Esci stepped-in to cover the 1980's with Revell (working with a couple of smaller, newer names) introducing
their range at the tail-end of the '80's, while Atlantic had burned brightly in the middle of Airfix's dominance.
Looking at the picture today with dozens of
makers large and small, all working on esoteric sets we never thought we'd see
in plastic, it's hard to picture how hobby shops had only one or two brands on
the shelves - for many years.
But as HäT, Italeri and then
Zvezda began to expand the market,
these little chaps started appearing, their first moments of newsworthiness used
to be found on the HäT site, but I looked for them in Everything
Toy Soldiers (ETS) the other day and couldn't find them, so they must have been
notifications on long-gone forum threads?
But,
it was about 1997/98 or thereabouts. I first obtained them from Peter Bergner's
PB Toys at that time, from the Plastic Warrior show at Richmond, where
he was carrying them in his own packaging with his own codes, but Peter only located/packed
the first three sets to appear (the Samurai and first two ancient sets), which
weren't the ones I'm covering here!
This is the problem set as far as PSR is
concerned, but to me they are Kervella,
and are stored as such. Yves Kervella was clearly the lynch-pin with the
Eastern makers, and from the marking on the hub of the runner; "FRANCE
98", we can deduce that as well as importing the early output of the -
still not really fully-understood - Eastern operators (some became the more
professional operators; Strelets*R, Orion/Dark Dream and the later Mars) he was also commissioning figures
or at least supplying master-sculpts/instrumental in the 'ideas' process.
As proof of how easy it is to lose even
recent history if you don't keep good records, I obtained these on two
occasions, once as the whole runner, but previously as four figures (the four
lose on the right of the left shot), but I can't remember if I only had four
because there were only four, or if I split them with someone like Paul
at PW, which did happen with the
later pirate set, I listed them as a four, and coming before the eight, so that
must be how they came-in, I just can't remember why/if it had any significance!
I can't argue with PSR's designations
vis-à-vis the identities of the separate sculpts, but equally would agree with
them that several are open to interpretation and - as far as war gamers are
concerned - paint and context will help make them pretty much anyone you need
at the front! The saluting Nazi (PSR's 'Himmler') could be any German General
of medium-build and stature - for instance, while Hitler isn't that clear and
could be Himmler!
As given in the above link, but from the
standard bearer - clockwise;
- SA
Standard-Bearer
- Churchill
- Ernst
Röhm
- Himmler
- Mussolini
- Auxiliary
-
Hitler
- Rommel
But . . . Kervella - France!
Although, there's no denying that PSR's set
is not one I've encountered yet, physically, and HYTTY listed them both as
single figures (mixed with the figures below), and a pair briefly; 001 - Hitler and Mussolini.
The 'Mussolini' is a suitably arrogant-looking,
'who ate all the pies' fat-bass'tud!
Another of the sets that crept-out of the cyber-space/ether
of the early Internet was this one, which would go on to have several
incarnations, with three makers/brands including rather pointless - risible even
- 'limited editions'. Its line-up also changed from time to time, but as far as
I can tell, the tool/runner was never altered and the full shot is still to be
found occasionally.
Again while it came from the East, the hand
of Yves Kervella is all over it, not
least in the fact that while the bulk of the figures conform vaguely to Airfix's HO-OO moniker, the recognisably-French
characters have had so much cow-muck put in their boots as kids they have
pushed themselves to the top of the 25mm spectrum!
Top left to bottom right
- Charles de Gaulle1
- Julius Caesar
- Attila the Hun
- Grant
- Lee
- Franco (PSR
have him as a 'German Officer') *
- Cleopatra2
- Mystery Figure *
- Joan of Arc
- Napoleon
- Mystery Figure *
- Joan of Arc
- Napoleon
* - The latter asterisked figure is believed by some to be the victim of
the former. With one or both being left out of several packagings of this set,
it's never clear what was happening with the two sculpts or who they are.
I favour Franco for the former - he is an obvious mid-20th century
character missing from these two sets which feature fascists quite heavily,
while the kneeling figure was also included in latter, larger sets of the
Samurais, so it may well be that was always what was intended, but that there
was no room for him on the Samurai runner, which like the earlier set above,
was arranged as a 'pin-wheel' layout.
1 - Looks like he might have been based on a Cofalu 30mm policeman!
2 - Based on an Atlantic
Egyptian courtier?
Odemars issued the set as 102 S - Character Historics, and
while the 'Franco' was supposed to be left out, you can clearly see I got one!
This also illustrates the problem of spending all that time and effort on
developing a mould for historical characters, how many identical Napoleons or
De Gaulle's do you want, or need!
Pre-production samples were sent out (by
Yves Kervella I think?) in a leery, fluorescent green polymer which is a bugger
to photograph, I've shot with and without flash to try and get across the set
as best I can!
HYTTY (wacky name - wacky company!) also gave us two of each, but managed
to filter out the Franco sculpts a little more diligently than Odemars. Note there is nothing on the
packaging to indicate a limited edition status and it's marked-up as set 1003♥ - Figures Historics.
Also, I would suggest the Cleopatra sculpt
has - from the neck-up - far more in common with the famous bust of Nefertiti,
not a Ptolemaic Pharaoh (as Cleopatra was) , but an Ancient Egyptian one, however as a
whole-sculpt; would make a better Akhenaton, the excised, male, Sun King
(celebrated by Philip Glass), husband of Nefertiti, and another ancient?
This might help? It's more likely to
confuse! The trouble with someone else's tables is - only the author knows what
he's doing! However, it's a screen-cap from a 7-page document which runs to 95
entries, listing the sets first as I encountered them in the late 1990's and
then by maker which anyone who fancies a copy can have, just eMail me at:
maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com.
Several correspondents call all these early
sets 'Russian', but as far as I know they are mostly or all Ukrainian in origin,
with a clear French connection - but no Popeye!
Yes, if you're a Trumpundbrixit bully-boy in the Donbas
militia with 'I Love Putin' tattooed on both forearms you probably call it
Russia, but if you are a friend of freedom, peace, democracy or
self-determination (true Russians have never been free; or known freedom) then
it's Ukraine, I choose to use the PC cop-out 'the East'!
We then have this appearing on HYTTY boxed sets a few years into their
short existence (HYTTY's; not the figures,
they are still around), claiming it was first and limited to 500 sets? But a
quick perusal of the previous screen-capcha reveals that HYTTY managed to issue L1, 001, 100 and 1001 to three sets, 001
twice, and while L1 was issued to this set, at one point and presumably meant
'Limited - 1'; it was also issued by two other brands, is still available and
became the unlimited №
1003! And the later Greek cavalry box was a duel HYTTY-LW branding, LW and Odemars also working
closely together.
Answering a question posed earlier in the
editing process (and therefore; higher up the post!); there's a similarity
between the Kervella-HYTTY-Odemars
Cleopatra and the figure to 'her' right in this shot, but only in passing, and
only around the front of the skirts/kilt/reed-knit sporran thing/area,
otherwise there is no direct copying from any of the Atlantic figures, which otherwise match-up well - as 'Ancient' Egyptians, that is BC/BCE.
