Continuing what may (or may not) become an
occasionally-regular (proper oxymoron!) series, looking - not at all their
sets, but rather - my favorite sets from Atlantic,
and today it's the Pharaoh's Court set . . . err . . . set in my sights.
The covers of the small-scale sets (this is
1801; the smallest packing option) had photo-artwork of the 1:32nd scale
figures painted-up by an - as yet -unknown artist; as far as I know?
59p! That was DM2 at the time (late 1970's)
and this was so different from the stuff Airfix
had been chucking out for the previous 20 years, you looked at it in the wire-racks
of you local model shop with genuine wonderment!
What I consider to be the most useful
figures for 'army-building', the guy on the left making a good unit commander,
overseer or senior NCO, the next guy can go straight into the ranks, either by
painting the fan-end of his staff to represent a bronze blade, or by cutting
the end off and leaving him with either a single or a double pickaxe-headed
pole-arm.
Then we have a senior or field-officer and two
general/staff officer types, both (all three?) of whom; with all their finery can be used
with other ancient/Biblical armies, and finally the guy with the fan can be cut
to have a simple spear/javelin and be used for 'receiving' enemy cavalry!
The Royal family waiting for the 'telly' to be invented! As there is a standing
and seated Pharaoh I have posed a standing lady next to the queen, but I think
she's actually just a serving girl! Given the fine surface detail of both Atlantic's
Egyptian and Greek figure-lines (the Romans were apparently sculpted by a blind
man with a steak-knife); the thrones were disappointing lumps.
Apropos the two seated figures; one of the
rarest items in my [written] archives is a pair of solid gold seated Egyptian
royalty who used to be in the first glass cabinet as you came up the stairs
from the entrance lobby at the British Museum (I don't know if they are still
on display, these things get rotated and I last saw them 24 years ago!), at an
almost perfect HO-gauge compatible size they are absolutely exquisite and
seated on far nicer thrones, they were also probably made for actual Pharaohs,
not pocket-money, pester-power!
The servant's or scribes; the lowly people
paid shite to keep the whole society ticking over, the 'you and me' of ancient
Egypt! The guy on the left can be militarised with the addition of a weapon and
shield, the other two are really only good for the baggage train.
Atlantic spent almost as much of the set's
budget on the afterlife as the ancient Egyptians did of theirs! Lovely toys,
but no use at all in war-gaming, even war-gaming at the rolling marbles level,
there was a Curse of the Revenge of the Mummy
Returns II element - if you were familiar with that Hollywood trope; at the
age you might have been owning these first-time-round I supose, but really,
dead-weight (geddit!) in the box!
Pharaoh contemplates his future through his
predecessors immediate present; top right, and - as you can see for the first
image in this post - the whole painted-up well in the larger 1:32nd scale.
Guarding
the casket!
Colour-your-own artwork on the back of the
box, or; it could be if you want it to be! And - that's them done, tagged, away!
4 comments:
Great stuff!
Cheers Jan _ I will do a few more as I work through my favourites, but PSR has got the nuts & bolts covered!
H
Hi there. These are great. I used to have them when I was a kid and I'm desperately trying to get my hands on a pack again. Any ideas where I can find some?
Ebay, these days!
H
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