NEW PRODUCT: TBLeague：1/6 Spartan Army Commander Spartan Army Commander (3 models in total) PL2020-165A/B/C）

i like the brunette head...might have to try and get lucky getting one loose for a reasonable price. and no 60 plus is not reasonable imo.

Those looks quite impressive though, probably the best TBleague set ever produce in recent year. Gonna preorder Golden and Silver one probably.

Indeed I'm also liking the Black and Gold Commanders too but I think I will hold out for the Sariah, the Goddess of War
figure instead.

Finally some more of those fantasy Spartan helmets (hard to find nowadays) and weapons for my figures.

Prices are out on the Phicen website. USD169 each. Either same px or more expensive than other figures with base. I will need to think twice about this...

TBL certainly knows the way to my heart and wallet... I have the black and red commanders on order, so look for lots of pics here whenever they show up

I've never purchased from the Phicen site. Where is it shipped out of and how much is shipping usually or is it better just to get from other online retailers? (most are priced at 180 shipped)

I’ve never ordered direct from them, but depending on where you’re at, check out the following link:

https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t1860-on-line-retailers-list

Thanks for the link Stryker. Yea, I've been mostly getting my stuff from Giantoy and Onesixthkit, was just wondering if Phicen shipped direct from China.

csyeung wrote:Thanks for the link Stryker.  Yea, I've been mostly getting my stuff from Giantoy and Onesixthkit, was just wondering if Phicen shipped direct from China.

You can if you want. Here’s their site:

http://www.phicen.com/

$169 each and I need 300 of those for a "realistic" scene. $50.700 ? Before shipping and taxes ? I think I'll pass.

Seriously, these fantasy warriors are nothing for me. If I want one of those I'll just render a "N.V.I.A.T.W.A.S" in 3D. Those working with Poser or Daz3D may remember this cliché render from about 15 years ago.

BTW, the "flail" is also known as the "morning star" :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_star_(weapon)

A medieval weapon, invented way after our Greek pin-up age.

Actually, a Morningstar is any spiked ended weapon with a handle. A flail is still a ball on a chain. (Even the often inaccurate Wikipedia has that correct); as they have a picture of a morning star hanging from the same display hook next to a flail.

The original German "morgenstern" was apparently used to describe a spiked mace. By the time the English term was being used, it described any spiked ball weapon, but flails of any kind were rare on the battlefield, so it was still primarily used to describe a spiked mace.

AerynDiana wrote:I mention the major oversight that is Xena whenever I get the chance.

Missed this.

Yep. I want a Xena with a decent HS.

These are now being parted out on eBay. Just bagged myself a couple of pairs of loose sandals for my homegirls.

The Black Commander headsculpt looks quite nice... it's the nearest we'll probably get to the one TBL used for the S28/29 base body promo shoot.

I really hope they will release them in 1/12 or I'll kick myself for not getting these...

They recycle too much stuff. Brown Spartan is Red Sonja with black hair.

But again Hot Toys also keep reuse same headsculpt, so yeah...

Huge range of prices for the loose head sculpts on ebay - Black and Silver commanders going for £60 (and upwards) while the Gold commander is going for as little as £22... right up to £90 (!) ...

GeeWillikers wrote:Huge range of prices for the loose head sculpts on ebay - Black and Silver commanders going for £60 (and upwards) while the Gold commander is going for as little as £22... right up to £90 (!) ...

I wonder... subjectively I find Gold the nicest, but as long as the 3 sculpts are all well made, there is rarely a consensus on such things. Also I am assuming TBL made all 3 in equal quantity, but who knows if that is true. And no doubt there are some people so hooked by the language that they assume "Gold" is worth more than "Silver" ...

I actually think the gold head sculpt looks better in hand than in the promos! Especially on the black body, which is how it is presented in one ebay posting.

A Warning To The Curious:

I just got my two pairs of loose sandals - turns out these are incredibly flimsy. So flimsy that one connecting strap snapped just by handling it, before I even tried to put one of the feet in there. It can be repaired, I guess, but that's hardly the point.

That isn't even the worst thing about these, though - both pairs of sandals are big, and possibly through some kind of precognition I got one pair of this model's feet to match them just in case. They were the huge Frankenstein's monster clod-hoppers you usually get with the S28/29 and S38/39 (and if I didn't know better I'd think they were actually from a male figure).  

Now those feet look clunky enough on the bodies they're intended for, so just imagine them on the less bulky S23 that this set seems to use. I sincerely hope these feet aren't about to become TBL 'standard' size or something (it wouldn't surprise me considering how eager they seem to be to push those seamless-footed models).

If this is how they're going to tackle sandal-type footwear in future, it pains me to say that they should just stick with the old moulded-on and painted method.


EDIT: Looking more closely again at the promo pics over the page, you can actually see that they are the bigger feet - the bulky leg armour is subtly offsetting their enormousness, so I may be over-reacting ... but unfortunately I wanted these as ordinary fashion-type footwear for a particular pair of ordinary dainty-type lady-feet. Looks like I might have to get there by a more expensive route.

I suppose I'll have to try them with the intended figure and live with it for a few days to see how much of a disappointment they actually are.

oof! Thanks for the warning GeeWillikers . Had thought of getting a pair at one point, although maybe it's better to just make one myself, at least I would know it'd fit properly.

Stryker2011 wrote:

That makes us two lmao

On a sidenote gentlemen, stay fair and open minded in your debates, I find them very enlighting until the moment when people start stating this or that NEVER EVER existed... When talking about a 3000 years ago, I strongly believe that even the best historians have to rely a little on their imagination to fill in the blanks. Seeing the level of ornaments in the Antic greece, I doubt armors were the exception, there are actually bronze highly ornated greek helmets in several museums in Athens, in Paris as well... Loads of vase and wall paintings also suggest greek were wearing clothes, again highly ornated depending on their social rank.

It has nothing to do with the ornamentation. It is the style of helmet. We have tons of examples of Greek helmets and none of them are even close to this one. It is just as easy to model an actual historical helmet (e.g. a Corinthian) as it is to invent a fantasy one. IMO Corinthians look just as cool.

With all respect Shazzdan, it has to do with your absolute statements over the style of a helmet on a bikini breastplate armored toy, and your final sentence about greeks not having ornated armors EVER...
if we were to talk about a museum replica I would find it interesting, but it's quite ridiculous in this specific case... And yet again you state that over the tons of greek helmets, "none of them are even close"... damn you were fast checking those tons of helmets in each museum on earth, and even faster to dig out the ones still sleeping underground...

It is good to keep an open mind but not so open that your brain falls out. The Greeks had plenty of ornate armour. Bronze Age armour was even more ornate than Classical Greek armour. But none of them looked even remotely like the armour in that offering. I didn't need to "fast check" those helmets because I spent a decade doing that before writing this textbook:

https://www.amazon.com.au/Bronze-Age-Military-Equipment-HOWARD/dp/1848842937


Advance royalties from that book were spent on this. It is a reconstruction of Agamemnon's armour based on archaeological examples from the same time period and the description in the Iliad. It is a good example of how ornate Greek armour could be.

http://myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=28063

Ancient Warfare Magazine has an article about it (VIII.4)

https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/issue-viii-4-2014.html

I just picked up the Gold and Black versions of the Spartan commanders, and my reaction to them in-hand was extremely positive... the leather skirt and accessory pieces are very well textured and detailed, and while both version share similar designs for the vambraces and greaves, the breastplates are (perhaps not surprisingly - this is  TBL after all) uniquely styled. I love the portraits for both ladies - they are each exceptionally gorgeous, and again in keeping with TBL's female character design ethos. As for the Golden version commander's portrait being a recycle of Red Sonja's, I can attest that while similar in the general face shape, they are in fact unique - Gold Commander sports a narrower mouth, more tapered jaw, and softer eyebrows. And I had no issues whatsoever with the sandals on both versions - they fit the feet perfectly on mine, and show no propensity for loosening so far. Overall I love both versions, and I am super happy to include them in my pantheon of TBL warriors... Here are some of my hero shots of both - I have taken the liberty of christening them as Alexandria and Persephone

They are gorgeous indeed -- provided we see them for the fantasy warriors they are -- and your photos capture them in all their potential glory and beauty as always.

Just a word of advice -- Alexandria (better Alexandreia) is a city name, the city (polis, feminine noun) of Alexandros (Alexander); the actual female name Alexandra is a derivative of Alexandros (its feminine), but has the dubious effect that it translates to "she who beats off men." As in repels them. As in fights them off. That last rendition might be suitable for a warrior, but generally an iffy name. Blame my Greek friends for having explained that to me.

GubernatorFan wrote:They are gorgeous indeed -- provided we see them for the fantasy warriors they are -- and your photos capture them in all their potential glory and beauty as always.

Just a word of advice -- Alexandria (better Alexandreia) is a city name, the city (polis, feminine noun) of Alexandros (Alexander); the actual female name Alexandra is a derivative of Alexandros (its feminine), but has the dubious effect that it translates to "she who beats off men." As in repels them. As in fights them off. That last rendition might be suitable for a warrior, but generally an iffy name. Blame my Greek friends for having explained that to me.

Thank you GubernatorFan, and Alexandra she is

My fav pic is the last one! I wished you have bought all 3, so they can become DersertDragon's Angels!