Copyright 2003 T. Sheil & A. Sheil All Rights Reserved
The Ancient Era, or Classical Age, was hopelessly stuck somewhere between the High Middle Ages and Plastic Dinosaurs there was yet another realm of miniatures. Knights were plenty, as were Pterodactyls, but the Ancients had a harder row to hoe. We had a few. There were a few - a very few - Romans. A few showed up in the Ben Hur set and in Remco's battery-operated Roman galley, and some Romans appeared in the Warriors of the World series. That was about it for the most powerful empire of the early Common Era. An occasional and rare set of Egyptians might pop up. The most plentiful Ancients weren't sold as such. Vikings complete with horned helmets were actually models of Ancient Germans or early medieval fighters with horns added to their helmets. Adding to the confusion, these "Vikings" with their Dark Ages weapons were sold as opponents to knights in 15th and 16th Century armor.
Vikings ranked pretty high with most kids. I think the thing that set the Romans back in the popularity parade was school. We had to learn about the Romans, and our classes focused on many things that were not "cool." Instead of dwelling on gladiators and battles and siege artillery, our teachers fawned on the Romans' technological and "cultured" side. For kids, catapults beat culture every time. Teachers were not so silly about the Vikings. Because the trend was to regard the Vikings as "barbarians," we were not saddled with "culture" when learning of the Norsemen. We got what we wanted: swords and dragon ships and raids and the Siege of Paris. Hooray! Thus it was the Vikings sold better than Romans.
Of course, most of our "Vikings" were more properly Ancient Germans. I think we would have loved them more, since it was the Germanic tribes who freed the world from the burden of Roman "culture."
These 60mm scale figures are typical Northern European warriors of the ancient period. |
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Vikings? Actually they resemble Ancient Germans, such as the Cheruscans or Franks |
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These 54mm Vikings are also more akin to Ancient Germans. |
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Without the horns and wings, they are also early medieval soldiers |
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These Ancient Egyptians have dynamic poses! |
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These 60mm figures are copies of 6 inch figures. |
54mm Romans by Remco. These figures were packed with the Remco Roman Galley sets.