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Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review

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1Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Empty Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Thu Jun 13, 2019 11:50 pm

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
Introduction

Having missed out on the CooModel Teutonic Knight (which were godlessly expensive) and losing patience with ACIs three variants (which have been on preorder for what seems like the better part of a century), I picked up one of China Toys' "Knights Teutonic" (an oddity apparently produced by analogy with "Knights Templar"). (I should probably note that none of the aforementioned products corresponds 100% to the historical illustrations of the Teutonic Knights I know.) Based on what I had seen and heard, I expected it to be a derivative but affordable piece, and in some ways that is exactly what it is. Given how basic this set is, it was not worth trying to assign points for the various categories, so the brief descriptions should suffice. Not all categories merited their own specific photos, but you should be able to spot most features in the images as a whole. Keep in mind that the Teutonic horse in my photos does not come as part of this set, but was produced by ACI.

Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Ctkt0110

Packaging

My Teutonic Knight arrived in a plain cardboard box with only a small white sticker with Chinese text and the product code ZH011 (misspelled ZHO11) on it -- ZH is presumably the abbreviation for Zhongguo ("China"), this being "China Toys" and all. There isn't much to show, so I will skip the photo. I don't particularly care about the boxes, but they are not even trying. Their Greek hoplite came in a similarly minimalist packaging, but they had printed out a photo of the promotional image and glued it to the front of the box in that case. Inside the cardboard box was a thin lid and two treys of black foam, containing the figure and accessories. Everything was safe, but certainly not snug, because the cutouts were clearly designed for a different figure and different accessories -- apparently those of the hoplite set. If I were in the business of displaying or collecting boxes, etc, I would ave been sorely disappointed by the packing. But it does the job of protecting the contents, which is what I was after.

Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Ctkt0410

Sculpting

The set does not include a real head sculpt, just one of those black under-helmet heads without ears that we have seen included in some such sets before. At this point it is stuck in its mail coif and helmet, and there is little to see anyway, even though the helmet's face plate can lifted to expose the face from below. The helmet, sword, and dagger are metal, everything else plastic or cloth. The molded plastic includes the body and the gloved hands, the greaves (shin guards), the scabbards (sheaths) for the dagger and sword, as well as the helmet's decoration. The gloved hands are annoying hard plastic, while the helmet decoration is so soft that on one side the bat-wing-like detail has partly warped. The quality of the sculpt is pretty good throughout. Perhaps the most impressive small detail of sculpting (or rather molding) is the inscription in hoc signo vinces ("by this sign though shalt conquer") on the hilt of the sword (see under Accessories below).

Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Ctkt0310

Paint

Most of the paint work is pretty basic and fairly decent. The areas where imperfections are most obvious are the weapons and scabbards. A customizer could easily fix these issues. There is little in the way of weathering (for example on the knee caps of the lower leg armor), but the metal pieces look about right.

Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Ctkt0210

Articulation

The range of motion of the underlying body is surprisingly good, especially under the layers of cloth vestments and armor. Also surprisingly good is its ability to stand and keep a pose, at least for a little while (or maybe longer, but I didn't give it the chance) -- my photos don't show you the full, virtually unimpeded range of movement. That said, the knee joints especially are a little loose for my taste. The gloved hands come off of the wrist pegs far too easily -- at least in the case of the right one in my set. Depending on one's needs and preferences, with some effort a customizer should be able to substitute a different body of his/her choice.

Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Ctkt0510

Accessories

In this category, the figure is severely limited to the bare minimum. As noted above, there is no separate, "unmasked" head sculpt, unlike many similar sets by other companies. There are also no alternative hand sculpts to the two gloved sword-holding hands that come on the figure in the box. There are the helmet, greaves, sword, dagger, their respective scabbards, two belts and other straps and loops. These required some research on my part to figure out and set up more or less correctly. The thinner belt simply goes around the surcoat. The wider belt connects to the strapping that winds around the sword's scabbard; the wider belt also carries the loop for the dagger's scabbard. The CooModel and ACI sets included (between them) a variety of accessories you would not find here: shields, vambraces, fur caps, spears, banners, maces, axes, flails. There is also no action figure stand. I imagine these economies went a long way to keeping costs down.

Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Ctkt0810

Outfit

Since I relegated the molded pieces to accessories, this category includes the soft goods (belts and straps excluded). Since they are made of a sort of woven synthetic fabric, the outfit includes the "chain" (really ring) mail items, namely the haulberk (armor tunic), separate mail coif (hood worn under the helmet), and chausses (covering the lower legs and feet, largely under the greaves). The pattern does not look quite convincing to me up close, but from a distance it certainly conveys the impression of "chain" mail. The items made of cloth and representing cloth include the white cloak with black cross and shield crest patterns on it, the white surcoat (outer tunic) with matching black cross and shield crest patterns on it, a blue padded gambeson worn under the haulberk, matching leggings worn under the chausses, and white breeches. While some of them are more basic than others, all the cloth items seem to be pretty well made; the most glaring exception is probably the unsightly seam on the sides of the haulberk (luckily they only go on the inside side of the sleeves, allowing them to go mostly unnoticed).

Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Ctkt0910

Fun Factor and things to watch out for

Despite his limited accessories, the Teutonic Knight is well-attired, well-articulated, and overall looks quite good. Find him a horse, some buddies or rivals, or kitbash some enemies (Saracens? Slavs? Lithuanians? lots to choose from, none of it made yet), and you are well on your way... though I suppose a shield would not have been too much to ask for. Generally speaking, I had no concerns handling this figure and its accessories. Apart from the head being pretty well stuck in the helmet and coif, the only real annoyance was that when trying to force the sword into the irritatingly hard gloved hands I managed to snap off its blade where it meets the hilt. Some Gorilla super glue and a few hours later, the weapon -- and the knight -- is fully armed and operational.

Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Ctkt0710

Value

In this category, this set is a winner, at least relatively speaking. There was a time when a high-end company could produce then-high-end licensed products for $80 (USD), but this time has long gone. This is not licensed and not as rich in accessories as some of its (theoretical) alternatives, but if you are lucky you can get it for around $90 (though in most cases this would not include shipping, which would often bring it up to about $110). That is substantially less than the alternatives -- leaving aside the much more expensive and long sold out CooModel set, ACI's run between $210-255 (not including shipping), but most of the preorders have already been sold out for a long while; Admittedly, the alternatives do contain more accessories, real "unmasked" head sculpts, and we can probably expect higher quality with them than with the present offering. But if your needs are more basic and if you are ready to customize or kitbash away any limitations or imperfections, this is probably a relatively decent deal.

Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Ctkt0610

Overall

This set is clearly more limited in extent and inferior in quality to some of the related higher-end products. But it also looks and performs decently, and at a substantially lower cost. Without being an exact duplicate of it, the present set closely resembles ACI's "grand commander." Since that is a convention exclusive, more expensive than ACI's other two Teutonic sets, and perhaps rarer (if it ever sees the light of day), this China Toys set might be a viable enough substitute for that figure. Similarly, it might be suitable for limited army-building and certainly lends itself to kitbashing and customizing (as I have noted repeatedly throughout the review). I realize I have been fairly easy on this product, because I realized most of its limitations from the start and I looked to it as a stopgap and affordable alternative to what was either unobtainable or not yet produced; and I suppose I was looking at it as a source for kibashing and customizing all along. That said, there is plenty that is good or passable here, while there is also plenty to be desired.

What do you think?

Where to Buy

I would recommend searching on eBay for 1/6 and Teutonic (the official name of the product is misspelled as "Knights Teutonic"). One of the few online retailers in the States that still has some available (i.e., not sold out or wait-listed) preorders of the ACI Teutonic sets is Cotswold Collectibles.

#historical #crusader #teutonic #chinatoys #military #male


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2Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Empty Re: Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Fri Jun 14, 2019 12:10 am

Stryker2011

Stryker2011
Founding Father
Interesting review, and fair for the cost. Not my thing anymore — I would have been all over medieval knights as a kid, but it’s still cool to see. It really is too bad that ACI takes so long to get stuff out; I’ve been waiting years for their Pangea Scottish Warrior (ie Braveheart William Wallace) to come out.


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He who dies with the most toys wins!

Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review C8485110

3Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Empty Re: Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Fri Jun 14, 2019 10:51 am

shazzdan

shazzdan
Not bad for the price. There are a few on ebay for around $100. The CooModel ones are selling for around $400.


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4Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Empty Re: Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Fri Jun 14, 2019 12:14 pm

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
Stryker2011 wrote:Interesting review, and fair for the cost. Not my thing anymore — I would have been all over medieval knights as a kid, but it’s still cool to see. It really is too bad that ACI takes so long to get stuff out; I’ve been waiting years for their Pangea Scottish Warrior (ie Braveheart William Wallace) to come out.

Glad you thought I was being fair. ACI's delays are remarkable. I didn't realize they were also Pangaea, I suppose that would be their super-expensive branch. At least you grabbed their Aragorn when you had the chance.

shazzdan wrote:Not bad for the price. There are a few on ebay for around $100. The CooModel ones are selling for around $400.

I agree. Just looked it up and the CooModel ones you are referring to are new ones (Stryker just posted the New Product announcement, but they are apparently on the market already) and so we are looking at in-stock figures (or at any rate not all sold out) at $400 (and more!) apiece! Yep, not gonna happen (for me).

I forgot to mention that if one wants representative medieval knights but is not set on having them in 1/6 scale, CooModel recently made 1/12-scale figures of all three major medieval military orders (Teutonic, Templar, and Hospitaller) as part of their Palm Empire series. These are great, with almost as much detail as you might expect from 1/6 scale, and retail for about $80. Maybe I should showcase them too, in the appropriate section. You can see one of them (the Hospitaller) alongside some other 1/12-scale figures here (I posted these in response to Adeno's Great Twins T-800 review) :

Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Arniet10

You can get the 1/12 CooModel Palm Empire Teutonic Knight (for example), here:
https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/71805


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5Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Empty Re: Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Fri Jun 14, 2019 12:31 pm

Stryker2011

Stryker2011
Founding Father
That 1/12 Wolverine looks pretty good for that scale. Is he posable?


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Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review C8485110

6Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Empty Re: Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Fri Jun 14, 2019 12:52 pm

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
Stryker2011 wrote:That 1/12 Wolverine looks pretty good for that scale. Is he posable?

Yes, he is poseable and looks pretty good. The product is 1:12 Era Wolfman. The material is substantially harder than the TBLeague "skin" (flesh). This makes it more difficult to pose and I saw a used and loose figure for sale on eBay where careless handling had caused some of the realistic hair effect to rub off. I haven't messed with mine much.

Here is a review you should check out before getting it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QawaUnTCq0


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7Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Empty Re: Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Fri Jun 14, 2019 1:28 pm

Stryker2011

Stryker2011
Founding Father
Interesting video review. I was just curious, though, not really planning to delve into this scale at the moment. They have to improve A LOT to get me interested. Mezco’s Popeye was an exception for me, and I’d be tempted to get more related characters if the produced them, but that’s about it. Now if Mezco picked up the classic Planet of the Apes, and made the Humans to go with the Apes, I’d be all over that.


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He who dies with the most toys wins!

Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review C8485110

8Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Empty Re: Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Fri Jun 14, 2019 6:20 pm

shazzdan

shazzdan
Calling something "Templar" doesn't actually make it a Templar. Even the few items that are kinda historically accurate weren't used during the Crusades.


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9Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Empty Re: Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Fri Jun 14, 2019 6:43 pm

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
shazzdan wrote:Calling something "Templar" doesn't actually make it a Templar. Even the few items that are kinda historically accurate weren't used during the Crusades.

Agreed, but there were no "Templars" here. There is also the question of what constitutes a Crusade and a Crusader Era, because all three major orders survived beyond the fall of Acre, etc. Technically the Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights still exist. And over time their equipment changed.


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10Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Empty Re: Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Wed Jun 19, 2019 1:54 pm

Ephiane

Ephiane
Great Review with fantastic outdoor Pictures !

11Military - Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Empty Re: Teutonic Knight by China Toys Review Wed Jun 19, 2019 8:16 pm

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
Ephiane wrote:Great Review with fantastic outdoor Pictures !

Thank you very much, Ephiane! I'm sure you realized that only the two "tall" green grass photos were really outdoors. Smile


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