Being out in the country has a lot of advantages, but sometimes there are disadvantages too - like UPS not wanting to deliver down 5 miles of mountain dirt road. So our neighbor who works in the valley often acts as delivery man. Of course, since we're out in the country, if no-one is home he'll leave packages inside (where the dogs and peacocks can't get to them). The bad part is that he uses the door that we normally don't, so a package may sit down at the far end of the room for days before someone notices it.
A package full of lead goodness from Issaries may have been waiting for me for several days, we only found it yesterday.
New Hero Wars miniatures from Lance & Laser - mostly Dragonewts, but a few others as well.
First up - Trollkin Specialists 03014
More awful-looking Lortz trolls, unfortunately. All are about 23mm sole to
eye, and wear mid-thigh length tunics split up to their hips on the sides.
They also wear hoods with shoulder-length collars. Arms and legs are bare.
Their faces are the same fat crocodilian faces as the other Lortz trolls.
You get four trollkin: One leans on a spear, two carry heavy loads of
"stuff", and one is either declaiming, dancing, or suffering acute
appendicitis - his head is thrown back, one hand in the air, the other
clutching his belly.
As they are all dressed the same, you could paint these up as the personal
trollkin of a great Uz lord in some uniform - a bit.civilized for trolls,
but there you are. It is nice to have the two trollkin carrying bundles -
most other trollkin (or trollkin proxies) that you find are warrior trollkin
rather than worker (or food).
03023 - Bryan of the Volsaxi
Sculpted by Jim Johnson, the same artist that brought us most of the other
Human figures in this range. Brian suffers from Jim's inability to pose a
figure so that his shield is useful - Brian is in the same "displayed" pose
as Broyan, Argrath, Gunda, et al.
Broyan stands 30mm tall, with his axe raised over his head for a total
height of 50mm. He wears a scale or ring-mail shirt covering his chest, with
a heavy belt or stomacher protecting his abdomen. Leather ptetureges hang
from his belt to protect his groin and display his incredibly muscled,
speed-skater thighs. He has a cloak slung over his left shoulder and under
his left arm - threatening to slide down and foul his shield if he lowers
it. A pair of fringed boots completes his wardrobe. His arms are bare except
for wide bracelets on both wrists, and his legs are bare except for the
boots. He wears a cloth loincloth in front, but fur behind.
His weaponry is limited to an axe and his shield, unless there is a knife
hiding under his cloak. His head is bare, and is the nicest part of the
figure. The expression is of battle, with long Celtic mustachios framing his
open mouth and hanging below his jawline. His hair is long, and looks like
it is stiffened a bit with lime - not enough to spike it, but to make it
stand up a bit before cascading down his back (okay, he has Big Hair
syndrome, I'm trying to be nice here!)
A nice, though not great, figure. He makes a good leader-of-barbarians,
taller than the average man.
03030 - Dragonewt Command
Steve Lortz should stay away from Trollkin and focus on what he does best. I
like his Dragonewts. This pack consists of three 'newts - an officer,
standard bearer, and musician. All stand 35mm or so (or would, if they stood
up straighten). The officer has a prominent crest around the back of his
head and another down his back like a stegosaurus, and crests running down
the back of his upper arms. He gestures with a ceremonial mace or wand in
his left hand while his right hand holds a chipped-flint knife low by his
thigh.
The standard bearer carries a feather standard that looks like it was
closely modeled on the one carried by the Dark Ages "Dragonewt King" figure.
While smaller, the arrangement of the long plumes is almost exactly the
same. The 'newt carries the standard on his right shoulder, holding it with
both hands in a grip that looks like he's ready to prove that a four foot
staff topped with a metal weight is still a weapon even if it has four long
plume coming out of it. This fellow only has a crest on the back part of his
head.
The Musician carries a small gong in his left hand, beating it with a stick
in his right. He has a back-of-the-head crest.
Like all Lortz's dragonewts, these guys are left handed, with two fingers
and a thumb, and three-clawed feet. The skin is mainly scaled, with
prominent caudal scales (the wide belly scales).
03028 - Dragonewt Scouts.
The smallest and youngest (or at least, most immature) type of dragonewt.
These guys stand about 26mm sole to eye, making them slightly smaller than
most humans in the range. You get four scouts - two with slings and shields,
two with chipped-flint knives and shields, all with small crests on the top
of their heads. The first slinger is getting ready to release his sling
stone, though his pose is rather awkward - sort of a "throwing like a girl"
pose with the elbow low, close to the body and forward of the hand. The
second slinger has his shield on his shoulder while he readies his sling.
The fist knife 'newt is slashing aggressively, left arm extended while the
right guards his chest with his shield. The second is more defensive, with
his shield forward and knife held back by his thigh. A useful group, you'd
probably need a lot of this pack to make up a proper 'newt raiding or
hunting party, especially with the number of other 'newts available. Flash
and mold lines were more prominent on these guys than on the others in this
review. Lance and Laser usually has pretty clean casting.
03029 - Dragonewt Fighters
Three aggressive lizards! They stand approximately 37mm sole to eye. Two
wield Klanth and shield, while the third fires a short bow. All three only
have crests on the top of their heads.
The first sword-newt holds his shield close to his chest while he attacks
with his klanth. The second is more aggressive, with his shield low while he
slashes with the klanth. The bownewt has a short bow, looking like a Mongol
horsebow more than the Dragonewt Longbow we remember from Runequest. He has
a quiver suspended low on his left hip, and is reaching back to pull an
arrow from it. On my casting his bow did not get a good fill of lead, so is
truncated on the lower limb. Also, a large tab runs from the bow to his
thigh, and looks like it will require some cutting and filing to eliminate
the blemish it will leave when removed.
03039 - Jack o' Bear II
Why do we need *two* Jack O' Bears? This guy comes in two pieces - the main
body and a separate head on a peg that fits into a large cavity on the body.
The shoulders of the "bear are hunched forward, making it very difficult for
the 'Bear to look straight forward - the back of his head runs into the
hunched shoulder. I suggest positioning the head so that it looks to one
side or the other - it will look much more natural.
The chest of the bear looks much more like a gorilla's, with bare pectoral
patches and belly, but the legs and arms don't support that theory. On the
other hand, they don't look that much like a bear's legs either. Good thing
this is a chaos beasty! The points of its shoulder and the shoulder blades
are bare of fur, with some sort of wart or sores on them. It has
human-looking hands and feet. The face is the best part - depending on how
you position it on the body, it can look angry, scared or surprised. The
mouth is mouth is open, and it has prominent ridges surrounding the eye
sockets. It stands about 37mm Sole to eye, but is in a slightly crouched and
bow-legged pose, so probably would stand a bit taller.
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