One of the surprises at the OTS last month was the Heritage Toy Robin Hood Peasant Army. I had been made aware by Don Ducotte of Heritage Toy that he was planing on making Robin Hood figures in his Swappable line. The Swappable line is an attempt to capture the flavor of Timpo multi piece figures. I clued a friend who was going to the show as he is a big fan of Robin Hood. He tried to get some of the figures at the show but was unable to get any as Heritage Toy was sold out of the small supply they had at the show. I contacted Don on hearing this and ordered eight of the Robin Hood figures right away.
I had an astonishing 58 different figures to select from but let the selection up to Don. What I recieved the figures in the mail I was very pleased with. The figures are 54mm and nicely detail. The poses are a nice mix of fighting and standing poses. My favorite so far has been the figure kneeling with the sword. My least favorite is one with the pitch fork which can also be used to unseat a rider. The only figure I have had a problem with is the figure kneeling firing the bow in cap, he does not want to stay connected to the body. The figures will work well with your other 54mm Robin Hood figures especially the Marx 54mm.
The figures are not cheap $8.00 each. This is because they are a hand made intensive production. Heritage Toy will take checks from U.S. banks, U.S. Postal money orders and International money orders in U.S.funds. They do not take credit cards or PayPal. If you are a Robin Hood Collector then you need to add these figures to your collection.
Nice photos, Paul. Good lighting and background.
I see the Fork figure has one hand not put on the handle, and (still in the top photo,) the rightmost figure (squatting archer) needs his right arm rotated up to normal release position like the rightmost figure in the lower photo.
Sorry about the one figure giving you trouble. Is the waist too loose?
Thank you for noting that they are not chunked out by the hundreds. I would love to have them mass produced and lower the price to $1 each or something, but so far I have not encountered any such opportunities. If Mattel bought HTF like they just did the interest in Thomas Trains, they could probably have the RH figures on the shelves of Toys-R-Us next month. I’d go for that.
The 58 poses is just this month’s limit. I can’t manufacture enough to support any more than that right now, but the actual number of different poses (and how different must one be to be a new pose?) is probably in the hundreds or thousands, depending on your definition of a pose. Then, there are the rest of the sculpted parts I still have yet to make molds of.
I also would like to say that the medium green (which is like the old clay color) I used was ok, but in the next run I intend to go to a more olive green. I’ll keep the dark green. As said on the website, other colors will be run, such as greys, dirty whitish, tans/browns, and yellow and red.
I also intend to make a different Hayfork mold where the tool has a thinner handle.
The squatting pose was originally SUPPOSED to be fixed to a base like all figures. My wife noted that, if the figure used HTF’s plug-in kneeling base, the figure could be set in trees and among branches WITHOUT the base. There are some Squatters that were already sold as fixed, but I changed to utilize this strategy ASAP. Hope that note is useful to all customers who have the later ones.
Don
Thanks for the information. I know you want tp put your figures cheaper, but the cost and how many figures you can run are not there. The collectiong market is not as large as we like and with this economy it is a battle with theother more pressing needs. Your wife had a good idea in not making the squatting figure permanent. I will be getting more in the near future.
The figures look pretty good to me, I’d sure like to get a closer at them. I’m not into Robin Hood, but I’d like to know if you are going to explore other lines as well.
Ed
Don has also done 1812 figures and knights. Check his web site out.
I would be interested in placing an order for a set. The hardest figures to find are peasants and medieval females that look normal. (They don’t look like burlesque queens.)
Carl E. Ramsey
Carl
Here is Heritage address and email.
Heritage Toy Figures, Inc.
422 SW Colgate Loop
Ft. White, FL 32038 (USA)
HTFtoys@hotmail.com
The owner Don Ducotte does not do credit cards or paypal . Don will be at OTS and hackensack. On OTS Don will not be at the show Sunday, but should have a room. I would find him and buy early as he sells out quickly.