When I arrived home today after a very trying day dealing with demanding customers, I had a welcome surprise awaiting me, the box of figures I ordered from The Assault Group (TAG) about two weeks ago.
This consists of a unit builder pack of 12 Border cavalry, 4 packs of 3 figures, at a discounted price of £42 rather than £12 each, plus a £12 pack of command that includes "The Faerie Queen", Lizzie the First, and to round it off, two individual foot figures of "Bloody" Mary, Elizabeth's Catholic sister who succeeded her.
The reason for the latter is that if you spend more than £56, TAG ship free anywhere in the world - a pretty good deal when you look at the Royal Mail sticker in the top right of the box a note postage was £19.80! If you look it another way, the 15 cavalry figures only cost me about £35!
As I had always anticipated from perusing the TAG website, these are very nice, clean sculpts and will fit in very well with the existing Border Reiver collection. As they are listed as Border Horse rather than Reivers, I believe they are slightly more "military" in style and as such, will be used as a retinue of official "soldiers" accompanying Queen Mary in a visit to the Borders - which she did at least once in her short reign, hanging a goodly number of "naughty" people!
Braw figures!
ReplyDeleteAye, they aren'y bad at 'a!
DeleteA nice supplement to your project!
ReplyDeleteThanks Dmitry, I think they will fit in well with the rest of the team!
DeleteVery nice crisp castings there Keith. Your postage at two weeks is great during the pandemic- very lucky. Have fun painting. Regards. KEV.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kev. Yes, they are very clean figures. There is no consistency in international freight times at the moment, two months ago, I had a package from the Uk take 8 days, whereas one from France took over a month!
DeleteVery nice castings - considering how long our (UK) internal postage is taking at the moment, you did exceedingly well with your 2 week wait.
ReplyDeleteCheers Norm, yes I agree, two weeks is reasonable even in normal times, although I did once order from Frint Rank on. Friday and the figures turne up the following Tuesday! My son has a package from the Us that has been sitting in another Auckland suburb for a week, waiting fir NZPost to move it thirty kilometres.....
DeleteThose are really nice sculpts and should fit in nicely with your other figures. I'll keep an eye out for the film, but Netflix have some films available in one coutnry, but not another:(
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve. According to Iain below, the film may not be as good as I thought, so be warned! I take no responsibility for different tastes or wasting a couple of hours of your life watching a film you don't enjoy!
DeleteNice looking figures! Of course you had to have at least one queen! Not that keen on the film but at least it looked pretty!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain. What was it about the film you were not keen on? It was definitely slanted from Mary's point of view and was certainly a drama rather than an action film....
DeleteNice figures! While beautiful sculpts, I always thought TAG on the expensive side compared to other figures. I did not realize they offer free shipping. I must give them another look!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathan - yes, basically £1.80 per foot figure - but the free shipping kicks in a a pretty low total cost. £4 for cavalry figures seems about average for metal, unfortunately!
DeleteGreat looking figures, Keith. Another cool period...for me to resist. ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks Dean - you should check out their website - the bulk of it is Renaissance, and VERY comprehensive ranges!
DeleteTAG really are lovely figures and, as you say, the free postage and unit deals makes them very price-competitive. They single packs can work out a little more expensive if you have to purchase them though, but I find if you need a couple of units of the same type you normally end up with the figures you need.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lawrence, yes, you are correct. Its handy that they have a few single figures at £1,80 each - the two Queen Marys I bought were solely to get the cost up over the free postage threshold - they also have loads of bits n pieces - weapons, shields etc - that you could use to get the price where you want it without investing in figures you dont want! Very good to deal with and great communication too - I may well get some infantry from them at a later date!
DeleteA nice top up to your collection, TAG are an interesting firm, great castings and sculpts but have lost there presence on the web and wargaming circles as the like or Warlord have grown in size in recent years.... They should mix in well with the others in your collection.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Stu
Cheers Stu - I have always been aware of them - first noticed them when researching ultra modern a few years back - but I went with 20mm for that era in the end. They do have relatively limited ranges - the Renaissance and then ancient Far East seem to be their main areas - no Napoleonic SYW etc so I guess limited appeal to some. Warlord seem to be developing into a Jack of All Trades and hopefully they dont get to a point where they are too dominant. I have a few of their metal figures and they are fine but there are plenty better out there - I think TAG are nicer, for a start!
DeleteSome nice additions Keith...
ReplyDeleteI quite like the Assault Group figures... they are nice and clean.
I’ve only seen the trailer for the film... it’s well shot but why do film makers think that everyone in history wore black leather... also the pedant in me cant get over the lack of hats... and the fact that the French educated Mary would probably not have had a Scots accent... rant rant ranty rant 😂😂😂😂
I will probably watch it anyway...
All the best. Aly
Thnaks Aly, yes they are very nice figures.
DeleteI agree with you about Queen Mary having a Scottish accent - a bit like Robert the Bruce or William Wallace having one when they would have not spoken any language recognisable as modern English! Personally, I am also not that keen on the artistic license of casting different ethnicities for historical characters - with which this film abounds....Queen Elizabeth's ambassador to the Scots court is an IC 3 male, for example...or Afro Caribbean in the vernacular! He obviously wasn't and casting a black actor doesn't add anything to the film or the story....
The collection is coming along nicely, Keith. Must be time for a game?
ReplyDeleteCould well be Mark...just need Rick and Julian to paint up their figures too!
DeleteOr use them in a fantasy game......:)
ReplyDeleteIs that an offer Andrew - happy to come around one evening next wekk!
DeleteNot quite ready yet - will let you know as soon as I am.
Delete