A funny thing happened to me on the way to write this review. I asked Vendel Miniatures, the UK company known more for its fantasy designs than historical, to send me Greeks to look over. I got Successors. Well, OK, I guess you could argue that Successors are Hellenes, but I needed ancient Greeks of the 400s, particularly Peltasts. "No problem," I was told. And I get a package of Peltasts that are eight nude hoplites! Ah, the fun of organizing a theme issue.

However, while the package label does say "Peltasts" these are Hoplites. I thought is was a packaging mistake but I went to their website, and saw that indeed Vendel markets these chaps as Peltasts! Equipped with aspisis no less! (I'll bet Vendel is wishing right now they bought an ad with us.) All kidding aside, I like the figures. These are nicely proportioned robust figures 28-29 mm tall. Swap heads with the hoplites and you would have great Gauls.

You may or may not aspire to the belief in nude hoplites, (I don't) but the first hoplite (left to right) wears the "J" crest, on his Corinthian helm and he is in the over hand thrusting position. The next has a beautiful sculpted Corinthian with the standard box crest. He is in the "sloped spear" pose. The last has his Corinthian helmet with boxed crest pushed back. However he is also in the overhand thrust pose. The last two should be reversed. The aspis is a little small for the period, but with this figure you are ready to fight a heroic individual battle. A large lead spear comes with each. Another use for these guys would be Gauls in Early Italy, wearing captured Etruscan equipment.

The next figure is a Successor officer from their officer pack, but I think he makes a great Spartan officer with that huge cloak of his. Spartan cloaks were large enough to wrap oneself in, to stay warm at night. The sculpting is crisp, and if you remove the Makedonian star from the shield, and replace it with a lambda, you have a late Spartan from the Leuktra period. The helmet? A Thrakian, but I would hope by now that all of you don't believe all Spartans wore pilos helmets.

The last figure, also from the officer pack, is that of a Makedonian officer circa 300s. It is a good action figure, the officer has thrown his cloak back and his drawing his weapon. Sculpting is good with plenty of raised detail for ease of painting. I just don't like the cloak. Way too sizable to be an officers' chalmys. Looks Spartan instead. I'm going to use mine as Xanthippos, the Spartan commander of the Carthaginian Army at Brogadas.

Figures may be ordered at Vendel Miniatures 5 Fen Road, Pakenham, Bury St. Edmund, England. IP32 2LT or in the US at Brookhurst Hobbies 12188 Brookhurst St., Garden Grove, CA 92840 USA