There are, to my knowledge, nine or ten manufacturers currently producing 15mm miniatures covering the early medieval period. The latest line is by Essex Miniatures and it promises to be the best. I ordered one pack of each of the new Vikings series, and recieved the figures from England in about three weeks; they were packed well, with only a couple of minor breakages of swords blades, etc. From previous experience of Essex' 25mm's I had expected nicely sculpted, "clean" figures with a distinctly "robust" stature, and vaguely wandered whether they world be as tall as my old Airfix figures! In fact, the new Vikings - Essex' first venture in the smaller scale - are bona-fide 15's, a shade taller than the current fashion, but compatible with any of the other ranges available. The casting is of a high standard with no "flash", and the detail is beautiful; each figure has a great deal of character, and each has a vigorous Nordic quality, by which I mean that most are in action poses of great energy. I have only two minor criticisms; firstly, the mounted figures seem to be a little "flat" appearing rather like the old "Rondo-Bosse" figures of the C19th, and secondly, that, while most of the packs are "assorted", some are better asserted than others - my pack of eight "axeman" had two one particular pose, one of another, and uh, five of the third type, which was, of course, my least favorite of the three. Still, real dark ages buffs convert every third figure to something else anyway, and, compared to those companies who present us with 24 matching archers/slingers/spearman or whatever (c'mon, there never were 24 Vikings who looked and acted alike!), I have no cause to be mean! The range consists of - VA 1 Command pack, mounted (3 different figures); VA 2 Command pack, foot (6 figs), VA 3 Assorted Huscarls (8), VA 4 Assorted Bondi spearmen (8), VA 5 Assorted Bondi axmen (8), VA 6 Bondi Archers firing (8), VA 7 Bondi Archers, assorted (8), VA 8 Berserks, assorted (8), VA 9 Mounted Huscarls (4), VA 10 Mounted Bondi (4). Each pack is 75 pence each, plus 60% airmail; actually Essex credited me with overpayment on the P&P, taking only the actual cost of postage. This means that actual cost of mailing is something like 30%, which encourages me to buy from them again. Since I'm impressed with the product, and have a credit left with a couple of packs, and they are promising Franks, Saxons, Mormons, Britons, Lombards and Welsh next, I expect that Essex will be seeing more of my money! To make parting with my hard-earned cash even easier, they accept Visa, Mastercharge, Access, and American Express payment so no need to mass about with bank drafts. Address is: Essex Miniatures, Unit 1, Shannon Centre, Shannon Square, Thanes Estuary Estate, Canvey Island, Essex, U.K. Back to MWAN # 20 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1986 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com