I though I had a good grasp of Japanese
myths, but John – a real expert with the ability to turn myth into
tabletop reality.
As you've seen, I'm on the verge of a
campaign so I thought it was time to dip me toes in and stock up.
Plus, I haven't seen an independent
review of this second range.
I am so impressed – many of the tops
will fit and stay in the bottoms without glue! That screams Quality
to me!
I had 2 specific units I wanted to
build. First, bull-headed spiders. Yes, that's right. I want to
give my “evil” side a nasty beast – we've never used animals.
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| All the girls together |
To match them, 2 spider-ladies. There
are 2 female torso's so a large spider body for each, added a sheath
to the sword wielder and a full sword set to the naginata user. The
bigger body is noticeably bigger and a human torso looks great. With
the spider I've already got (from guess where?) and there is a nice
spidery army!
First impressions. The bull head & small spider body are
perfect, the head has a much smaller attachment meaning that they are
easy to position. With a human torso they look like a “low rider”
spider centaur. I need another head to make a proper Minotaur, now.
Here's my suggestions (p63):
Q4, C2, 15, Animal -2, Greedy (stopping to wrap prey in web) -3
Labyrinth (web) +10 = 20
Q4 C3, 23, Animal -2 Dashing+ 4 = 25
After playtesting I'm thinking Q4, C2, 15 Animal-2 Greedy-3 Dashing+4
=14.
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| The Boys |
Size-wise, the priests match up well to my Two Dragons and
Eureka. The 2-parters are a little “beefier”, but bridge the gap
between the ranges above and the larger Museum Miniatures. In fact,
if you want to make a later Ikko Ikki army, these would be an
excellent match.
Rokurokubi. Long necked demon, at
she's certainly that! This sounds silly, but this is the perfect
model for a head-swap. So you could make a goddess or possessed
person or angry ghost.
8 Brigands, Ronin or similar. A
naginata (bending each spear head slightly) using rag-tag bunch of
nasties. I got 4 of each leg type and 6 of the spearmen and 1 woman.
There's a sword-wielder to break them up. I decided to use each leg type as front & back rank.
Placing each leg slightly different on the base then working with
that it's easy to make what could be 6 identical figures pop. I used
some of the armour and sword sheaths to customise.
Careful! The metal is very brittle. I
snapped the hand off one trying to bend the arm. But every wotsits a
thingy, and I had another spare spear torso, so I chopped a grey
pompom in half and made 2 Gaki angry ghosts emerging from cloudform.
I glued the halves onto a (2p) coin with superglue, in hindsight I
should have used a regular bostic/uhu type glue or no more nails.
I'd have also mounted the torsos on beads and wrapped the pom pom
around it. I may redo if they fall apart. Still, 2 Legends for
under £1.
An ensorcered hero. I used a female
top for the long hair, basing this one on either Tomoe Gozen or from
the book series. Adding a sword sheath set and a bit of armour. On
impulse (I like to make heroes on bigger bases) I added a monk to the
base. Again, pressing the 2 halves together they stayed!
I bought a pack of Maidens and Monks,
to pad out my monks, peasants and to provide alternate Shugenja. I
went a bit mad here, using 2 or 3 figures on the base I made 3
different Shugenja's. They have a great manga look, with some nice
poses.
This isn't the last you'll see of this
range, I'm already thinking of a swarm for the giant centipede,
better than a plastic toy.
The weapons pack is good, the armour
useful, there were a few bandits who looked a bit off, this could have been easily corrected but I used a bit of armour. Some of my
goblins will get upgrades,. The back banner is a lot better than the
one supplied with the corporate Ashigaru and will be turned into
banners.
Do I want more? Yes, of course!
A running leg
A kneeling leg
An armoured leg
An archer torso
An open handed torso, to make
townsfolk, peasants, workers.
An upright spear/naginata torso
Undead version or range like the
goblins.
No-one does a decent, multi-part,
preferably part resin big oriental dragon. If the head and
tail fix like these figures you'd have another unique product.
Curiously, I've also found some help
in the SHU SF range (not the fantasy-)
In Tomoe Gozen, the Golden Naginata (a
martial nun, plus) there is a goblin adopted by the Yamabushy. So I
bought a Tofar Longwanderer to fill this roll. This fellow is great,
a shade taller but a log thicker, the staff is perfect. I've decided
he's going to be the first of my armoured monks.
You may be aware that I already pad my
Goblins with a “command” made from a Baruka crimelord as Baron
Greenbaku-sama, the Phreek bystander as his bodyguard Stiletto and
the Avarep cobra as their pet caterpillar.
My next upgrade will be some shrubbery,
then some different monks and peasants from Museum Miniatures. Then
there's Splintered Light's Chinese selection-.
Hopefully Andrea will have finished the
larger battle fantasy rules-.
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