Falcon continues to produce figures of the highest quality as exemplified by the new turn-of-the-Century Russian and Japanese troops. There are seven releases to date. The Russians consist of two infantry and an officer; the Japanese have two infantry, an officer and a cavalryman. These can be used for Boxer Uprising games through the Russo-Japanese War and even WWI. All are nicely detailed and well sculpted but with a minimum of equipment. To my mind wargame figures do not need full packs; it takes longer to paint and must add to the expense of production. Each nationality has a firing and an advancing figure but all are in a somewhat different pose. I have a large Photographic History of the Russo-Japanese War with hundreds of photos of the troops involved. These figures seem quite authentic. One note, however, in very few of the pictures do the troops have fixed bayonets. The Russian one is very thin so if you decide to leave the bayonets on the figures you might want to trim the Russian one a bit. The Russian officer is brandishing a sword while the Japanese officer is crouching, firing a pistol. Either could be converted to artillery crews until such time as Falcon expands the range to include such. The Japanese trooper is waving a sword and has a rifle slung over his back. He looks just like a number of pictures I've seen of Japanese cavalry charging Boxers. Now my one complaint. The Japanese horse is much too big. Falcon has a tendency to make big horses. This one seems extra hefty. My understanding of the period leads me to believe that the Japanese were mounted on animals which we would call ponies they were so small. Before these go into mass distribution I hope the folks will redo the horse to be about 75% of its current size. More Reviews Thistle and The Rose 15mm Dark Ages and Medieval Connoisseur 25mm Early Renaissance/Late Middle Ages Falcon Miniatures Russo-Japanese War Falcon Miniatures 15mm ACW Additions Roundway Figures 15mm Marlborough Period 1700-1720 Alliance Miniatures 15mm Ottoman Turks Napoleonic Uniform Plates Swedish Colors and Standards of the Great Northern War The Army of James II: Uniforms and Organization Corps Commander/OMG Raider Games 15mm Seven Years War Flagsheets Knighthood and the Middle Ages Medieval Rules The Barrett Scale for Reviews Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. VIII No. 2 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1988 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com