One of the anticpated figure lines at OTS were the TSSD Romans and Barbarians. TSSD had originally planned to do Revolutionary War but stopped when Barzso Collectibles had informed them that they were doing Revolutionary War as well. TSSD then went to do Romans and Barbarians weathering all kinds of problems of trying new sources for production, trying to do resin and health issues of one of the owners Nick Versteeg. Despite all theses problems TSSD was able to produced their figures and playset.
In this article we will look at the TSSD Romans. First of I was happy to see no wild poses that have graced the previous sets from TSSD. You have eight different poses of Romans. The eight poses are good action poses including an archer. TSSD did the Romans with their shields in various postions to attempt to do the Roman turtle. Sadly it does not work. The figures are nicely detailed, but various collectors feel the figures should be more detailed. Collectors also feel the poses are stiff and are taller than they should be. Despite the compliants I would reccomend these figures for anyone collecting anicents. They will work well with many of the figures out there in the 60mm area.
I saw these at OTSN and was disappointed. Sculpting IS good as you say, but, like Barzo’s Robin Hood/Sheriff and Conte’s Spartans, they are 60mm.
What’s with this making 60mm stuff? If it was a mistake, why are they all still being billed as 54mm or just leaving the scale unstated; to be assumed to be “normal”? They are NOT.
The international language is English, no longer French, and the “normal” scale is 54mm, not 60. You don’t sell a TV here unless it takes NTSC, but do any TV boxes state it? We have unstated standards that we have a right to assume under “common practice and usage”. If something is not 54mm, the scale should be stated – not only on a box but on all advertising.
There are production reasons why some figures are a bit large or small; running “hot” or using a type of LDPE (or styrene, ABS, HDPE, PP, etc.) that has a higher/lower shrinkage factor. There are limits to this. I don’t think a 60mm cavity could be made to produce a non-distorted 54mm figure. I like to think that the Airfix 54mm German Infantry could be shot hot, and with a high shrinkage plastic, so they’d come our right, finally. Conversely, let their 8th Army run cool and try to get those Scottish Boys a little size, fer cryin’ out loud.