Another Mini Review - Dark Ages and Lance & Laser

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_sierratel.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2002 16:46:24 -0800


Minis review - Lance and Laser, and Dark Ages. Roderick Robertson

Well, yesterday was a wonderful day. Not only did I go see a midnight+1 minute showing of The Two Towers (mixed feelings - good overall, but Eomer and Faramir was robbed, and we had about ½ hour of gratuitous Arwen), but a box arrived with more lead goodness.

Dark Ages
The old archive figures. This is half the second offering (I reviewed the first half a while back).

The first figure is the Water Wyrm (GLO-011). This is a large multi-piece casting consisting of head, chest, back, tail two wings, horns and base. It is curled up something like a Seahorse, so exact size is hard to determine
(plus I haven't glued it together.), but it stands approximately 100mm to
the top of his head. (four times the height of a typical human figure). It has no arms or legs, but does have a barbed tail. The head is huge - about 40mm front to back, and 20mm from bottom of the jaw to the top of the head, and another 5mm or so for the horns. Its mouth is slightly open, and the forked tongue is out tasting the air. There is a horn between the nostrils, which are covered with some weird growth, or maybe foam or flame, it's hard to tell. The wings are crepe-like in texture, with prominent ridges of bone
(which look more like bamboo, frankly). The body has prominent ridged
scales, which makes filing mold lines more difficult. The barb on the tail is a similar crepe texture, which might be hair, or might be something else.

The casting is the typical rough Archive style, and from my initial inspection it looks like there will need to be a lot of filler and carving of joint areas to make the thing fit together. Mold lines are evident on just about all pieces, and requires filing before assembly. The back piece and chest piece do not match up - the chest is slightly wider than the back at the join. The entire beast is supported by a single peg running from the bottom of the tail into the base, except that mine doesn't fit well.

I give this piece a 3 out of 10 - it's not quite a fishing weight, but there are many other draconic beasties available from other manufacturers that are better made, have better fit between pieces and look superb.

Next up is GLO-015, Centaur with axe. He stands 35mm Hoof to Eye, but only about 22mm to his withers. The human body is too large for the horse (or pony) body, in my opinion. He is armed with a strange axe and a ornate crescent shield. His upper body is armored with a banded leather breastplate modeled somewhat on a Greek linothorax. His (human) belly and chest are exposed by the armor though, so I'm not sure what use it is (for some reason his back is better armored than his front). His face is badly molded, looking almost like a gorilla-centaur (his arms only add to the impression). The mold lines on this figure are pretty much confined to the base and the inside of the legs (a common problem with modeling horses). 4 out of 10. Again, there are better centaurs out there.

Grazelander Shaman (GLO-019) is next. This guy is pretty short - 23mm sole to eye, with a horned and fanged horse-head headdress that takes him up to 35mm, and his axe/mace and coup stick make him a full 45mm tall. He is rather American-Indian in motif, with fringed leggings, what looks like a beaded shirt or quill breastplate (hard to tell with the quality of the casting). In his right hand is a heavily-feathered coup stick (those shepherd crooks carried by the plans Indians), while his left holds up a mace/axe weapon thingy (basically, a ball with two bladed spikes coming out of it - one straight up for thrusting, one at an angle for swings). A quirt
(riding crop) hangs from his left wrist. His belt supports a horse-tail at
the back.

Well, better overall modeling than the previous two figures, but still rough. A lot of vent tags need to be removed (especially from the coup stick) but mold lines are much less evident. 5 out of 10, maybe 6.

Finally we have Ironhoof the Centaur Hero (GLO-020). Again, the human body seems too big for the horse body. He stands 36mm Hoof to eye, 44mm to the top of the crest on his helmet, and 50mm to the tip of his mace. Besides his mace (which looks rather like a stylized torch), he has a medium sized shield with the old Chaosium Wyrm on it. His armor consists of a breastplate with pteruges, a Greek-style helmet with a stuff crest and horns, and a thickly furred cloak flowing all the way to his tail. His right forearm has a heavy bracelet - more jewelry than armor. The definition of the arms and hands is poor.
4 out of 10.

Lance and Laser

First up is a Yanafal Tarnils warrior (03027). He stands about 29mm S-E. He is armored in a brigantine back-and-breast (leather or fabric covering metal plates with the rivets showing through), shoulder pads, a riveted leather strip apron covering his essentials, bronze vambraces (forearm armor) and a crestless Greek helmet. He wears shirt and trousers under his armor, and cavalry boots. His ensemble is finished by a calf-length cloak hanging from the back of his shoulder pads. He carries no shield, but is ready to draw his sword if he needs it. His sword is straight, and looks like it is probably single edged (at least from the scabbard). As the definitive "Lunar Warrior", it would have been nice to give him a scimitar or other curved sword instead of a straight one. As an aside, he wears his sword on his right side, rather than the left, making his draw rather awkward (the Romans wore their shortswords on the right, but there is a big difference between a 20 inch blade and a 30 0r 36 inch one when trying to draw it.). His left hand is out either patting a child on the head, or making a "forward" motion to his squadmates.

He has light mold lines and a small bit of flash, but the texture is smooth. The details of his armor and equipment are well picked out, and should be easy to paint up (unlike the Archive minis.).

Next we have a sample of Dragonnewts.
Two demibirds with riders - first is 03032 - Demibird Rider with Spear. This is a two part figure, with the Demibird and the d'newt's legs in one figure, and the upper body in the other. The Demibird stands 43mm S-E, and the d' newt's eyes are about 50mm off the ground (he stands approx. 31mm tall). He carries a flint-tipped spear and a unadorned round shield, otherwise he is naked. At least he has a saddle on the demibird. The second is 03033 Demibird Rider with Bow. The demibird is the same figure as in the previous pack, while this rider fires a short recurve bow. Both d'newts have prominent crests and lightly scaled skin.

A pack of three "Dragonewt Nobles" (03034). The first stands 31mm S-E, 35mm to the tip of his nose-horn. In his left hand he carries an egg (or egg-shaped object), while in his right is a chipped-flint knife. Hi crest flairs back from his head, like a bald man's hair. He also has a heavy ruff around his shoulders and fleshy wattles under his chin. His arms are crested from shoulder to wrist along the back side of the arm. Noble number two stands 32mm S-E, 37mm to the top of his erect crest. His crest runs from his nose to the nape of his neck, where it blends into his spinal ridge. He also has a ruff around his shoulders. Only his forearms have the crest. He carries a Klanth in his left hand while he attacks with a chipped-flint knife in his right.
Noble three stand 32mm S-E, 37mm to the top of his crest. His crest only runs from his eye ridges to his back, and his cheeks have crest-like flaps extending back. Completing the set of arm crests, his are only on his upper arms. He holds a flint knife in his right hand low by his hip, and attacks with a decorated bone or wooden club in his left.

All dragonewts are three-clawed on both hands and feet, have a tail that would come down to the ground if it wasn't curled up slightly (the riders have a special cutout in the saddle to accommodate the tail). Steve Lortz has made better d'newts than those horrid trolls of his.

A monster is next - 03041 Paludal (Shark-Frog). I'm not sure where this thing came from - it's not in Anaxial's and I don't remember it from anything else (but hey, I was up until 3pm last night watching a movie.). This is a big sucker, hunched over it is about 35mm S-E, but it is bigger in proportion than a human. The most prominent feature is its head and especially its wrap-around mouth. The head is wider than a sharks, but certainly reminiscent of one. It has no neck - the head just connects straight to the shoulders. I'm not sure if the arms and legs are supposed to be scaled, or if rocks have adhered to the flesh to create a type of armor. The creature has a tail that is certainly not that of a shark, it is symmetrical top and bottom, but has several lobes or protuberances on the flukes. There are no gills evident. Interestingly, the skin looks like it could be painted as an "undead" monster, as there are several places where it looks like there are holes in the skin where muscle can be seen (if painted that way.). This guy will probably end up in my chaos hordes. 03042 Elf Archer definitely looks like he is Meat rather than Plant. He's your basic humanoid (28mm S-E), with pointed ears and hair. His armor is a scale cuirass with leather pterureges at the shoulder and front and back of the waist, leaving his thighs bare. He is firing a bow (which looks like it is supposed to be twisted wood) and carries a short sword and shield for back-up. He has calf-high boots that look like they could be painted as leaves. His left forearm has a heavy vambrace, while his right wrist has a wide bracelet. This is basically a typical fantasy elf, rather than an Aldryami.

Finally, we have two gals from Darsen - a swordswoman and an archer.

03043 is the archer. Her pose is awkward - her left arm with the bow is farther back than normal, making it look like she just loosed her arrow through her head. Also, she isn't looking where she is shooting. Basically, it is more of the "displayed" style of L&L figures, where the molds are made as flat as possible. IN this case, it isn't even possible to bend the left arm, as it is attached firmly to the shield on her back. Her armor is typical fantasy stuff, and doesn't cover what really needs to be covered
(like her chest below the throat, or her midriff). She wears a scale
midriff-baring top cut low over her breasts, shoulder armor, a leather strip skirt with armored rear panel (hey, it was sculpted by a man). Her left forearm is protected by a bow guard, and her right by an unadorned bracelet. She wears no helmet or leg coverings, but does have soft leather boots tied on. She has a long sword and shield as backup weapons. She suffers from "Big hair" which should be getting in her face, because it isn't tied back in any way. Maybe they don't have wind in Darsen.

03044 is the swordswoman. At least her armor covers more. It still leaves her bare from the top of her breasts to her throat, but the rest of her torso is covered by plate armor. Her left leg has a heavy greave with a flair above the knee, while her right leg has a smaller greave and strip thigh armor. On second thought, her left leg may just have an above-the-knee boot. Which would be silly, as you ant to armor the left (forward) leg rather than the right one normally. Her right arm has either a heavily-decorated vambrace, or a chain mail one. Her skirt looks like fabric panels front and back, with three thin strips (of leather?) on either thigh. Her left arm is unarmored, but is behind her shield, so doesn't need it as much. Again, no helmet, but at least her hair is restrained by a headband.

Both gals stand approx 26-27mm S-E.

All the L&L figures were reasonably well cast, with some faint mold lines and flash, but nothing figure-wrecking. All get a 7 or 8 out of 10.

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