NEW PRODUCT: HHMODEL & HAOYUTOYS: 1/6 Empire Series - Carthage Infantry Moving Puppet #HH18045

ahbake wrote:Love these ancient figures! Waiting for the inevitable Hannibal himself.

That 1/6 baby elephant from the Persian (?) figure might make a reappearance. lol

Asta wrote:That 1/6 baby elephant from the Persian (?) figure might make a reappearance. lol

LOL that will be unfortunate, unless they seriously upgrade the detail and also at least a little bit the size. Actually Hannibal's own elephant, at last, was an Indian elephant, so it should be full sized.

GubernatorFan wrote:LOL that will be unfortunate, unless they seriously upgrade the detail and also at least a little bit the size. Actually Hannibal's own elephant, at last, was an Indian elephant, so it should be full sized.

I felt sorry for the poor little thing.  

Asta wrote:I felt sorry for the poor little thing.  

I think we all did!

GubernatorFan wrote:I think we all did!

I received the Oscan mercenary last Wednesday.

This is what I wrote in the other place:


The first thing that struck me when the postman handed me the parcel was how heavy it was.

After getting into it, the next thing that struck me was how similar the brown shipper was to those of CooModel/Pop Toys, with the black inked sketch of the figure on it.

But why would the CooModel/Pop Toys/CM Toys stable need another couple of names (HHModel/Haoyutoys) to cover figures that don't require licensing? Unless the HH/HY teams are connected in other ways.

First impressions are very favourable. The detail in the metalwork is very crisp, and the research went deeper than I'd expected.

The back of the Montefortino helmet hadn't been fully shown in the promo images, but they actually sculpted the rising line of ridges on the neck gaurd, as on these examples:





The greaves are also designed better than on the likes of the old ACI figures, as they're shaped to grip the legs, since the real things were flexible and sprung onto the legs. There aren't any straps to secure them on the figure though, they just grip due to the shape.

They also have 'hammered' detailing, which the helmet and body armour also have to a lesser extent.

The sword, meant to be a wasp-waisted gladius hispaniensis, has a shiny iron blade of real metal, and is a particularly tight fit for the scabbard (which happens to be plastic, likely to reduce the weight being suspended on the leather straps).

The sword is a little short, and corresponds more to the much later Mainz Gladius.

The belt is fastened at the back by a thread laced through four corresponding holes on each side. Out of the box it's a bit too tight to push down onto the hips, so will need to be untied. I also want to raise the tunic over the top of the belt to shorten it, as in the drawing that inspired the figure.

The tunic itself has a fair bit of weathering on the skirt part.

Thankfully the shield is made of light plastic, unlike some of Kaustic Plastik's which were sometimes too heavy to hold. It's a bit too short versus the source image and details, as appeared early on, but about right in width.

The spear is very close to the quoted 2.5m length. It's made of a rigid plastic, with moulded butt spike and separate metal head. The head doesn't plug on straight though. Pushed all the way down it'll bend off to one side. The head seems true on the outside, so it must be the hole inside that isn't. I was thinking of gluing it into place, but white tack might be better as it's permanently adjustable.

Apart from the bracers, the only odd choice HH/HY made was sculpting socks inside the boots. While it does get cold in Italy and North Africa, especially at night, the socks (as worn by Romans in colder climates) aren't selling the idea of the North African setting for this Oscan/Samnite warrior.

Prior to the figure's arrival I went through my spares and picked a selection of fully sculpted feet to use on the figure. The pair I had that turned out to be the closest skin tone match were from a World Box AT012, which are pretty good as they have painted veins.

I opted to glue the spear head on, as it was the only way to get it to stay straight.

I'd forgotten this came with a base, and it looks identical to the one that came with my CooModel Gothic knight. Yet another similarity to the other group of companies.

I've finished setting the figure up, and I think the armour is still too big. You can adjust it to look the correct length at the front, but then it hangs over the belt at the back. However, I'm only interested in the front so it works okay.

In reality armour of this quality would've been handed down through the generations, so wouldn't fit every wearer the same as the first.

Overall I think this is a pretty impressive piece, with more historical accuracy than I'd have expected from these teams. Removing the bracers and boots was a simple fix, though it did require hot water to remove the hands and attach the feet.

The short shield is probably passable as not all examples are likely to have been identically sized, and it still looks the part.




It was only when I put him with the other ancients that I realised just how big he was:




The body HH/HY used is very good quality. It's heavy, well sculpted and well painted with shading in the recesses of the muscles. It may well be from World Box, which would explain why the feet matched so well. But it's so well built it looks more appropriate for Conan the Barbarian!

The stock body:






I transferred him onto a TTM19 type muscle body.

It meant opening up two of the rings on the armour to remove it, and pulling the lace out of the belt. The TTM19 is a lot slimmer throughout, so it took a lot of futzing and some padding to get the belt, armour and tunic to fit.

I'm happy with the result as he now looks more realistic for the period. I also diverged from the source drawing and moved the sword to his right side so it wasn't hidden behind the shield. It may not be accurate, but it's the side Romans (who weren't officers) wore their sword, so as not to interfere with the shield while drawing it in formation.






The source image for reference:

Very nice, Asta. Great acquisition, interesting discussion, and good simple mods to make it even better. Thank you for sharing!

Good score. Thanks for the review.

That looks like a great figure that isn't much into fantasy. It looks very good next to your gaul chieftains (which are great figures too)

thanks for this little review

GubernatorFan wrote:Very nice, Asta. Great acquisition, interesting discussion, and good simple mods to make it even better. Thank you for sharing!

Thanks.

This is my first and only HHModel/HaoyuToys figure, and while I'd watched quite a few video reviews of other releases I didn't know what to expect because they seemed to be such a mixed up company/team.

Quality and research across their line up seemed to be all over the place. Early on they looked like they were copying older figures by more established companies such as ACI or KP, and generally going for fantasy or movie renditions of historical types.

The 'Carthage Infantry' stood out both for the attention to historical detail, and the subject matter of a Republic era Italian who isn't a Roman.

While it's not perfect it's closer than I'd have expected from the company, and on display (on the smaller body) I really like him.

Based on their past releases I fully expected them to make more figures from the Second Punic War period. Likely a Hannibal, and hopefully actual Carthaginian warriors. However, this may not have sold well as there was only one photo review on the BBICN forum, and nobody responded to it at all.

Their Romans and fantasy gladiators get a lot more traction, so this Oscan may well remain a rare and lonely figure in the collection!

Asta wrote:Thanks.

This is my first and only HHModel/HaoyuToys figure, and while I'd watched quite a few video reviews of other releases I didn't know what to expect because they seemed to be such a mixed up company/team.

Quality and research across their line up seemed to be all over the place. Early on they looked like they were copying older figures by more established companies such as ACI or KP, and generally going for fantasy or movie renditions of historical types.

The 'Carthage Infantry' stood out both for the attention to historical detail, and the subject matter of a Republic era Italian who isn't a Roman.

While it's not perfect it's closer than I'd have expected from the company, and on display (on the smaller body) I really like him.

Based on their past releases I fully expected them to make more figures from the Second Punic War period. Likely a Hannibal, and hopefully actual Carthaginian warriors. However, this may not have sold well as there was only one photo review on the BBICN forum, and nobody responded to it at all.

Their Romans and fantasy gladiators get a lot more traction, so this Oscan may well remain a rare and lonely figure in the collection!

You're welcome. And that is an interesting take on the situation. I don't know how they are aligned (or not) with other companies, but in general, in my experience they have been pretty good about quality, regardless of sources of inspiration and occasional flights of fancy. I have several of their Roman military figures and have reviewed some, as well as a ton of parted-out parts. Will be trying to put this one together with those, but didn't like prices on eBay to get everything I wanted. I agree, it is a fairly unique figure, and not something that has been done before (unlike some of the things they were inspired by before). I do hope they don't give up on these.

shazzdan wrote:Good score. Thanks for the review.

Valiarde wrote:That looks like a great figure that isn't much into fantasy. It looks very good next to your gaul chieftains (which are great figures too)

thanks for this little review

Thanks.

It seemed fitting to put him with the Gauls as they also formed part of Carthage's mercenary army.

The helmet on the right hand one is based on the Villanovan Etruscan style that dated from about the 9th to 8th century BC, which makes him a northern Italian Gaul.

GubernatorFan wrote:You're welcome. And that is an interesting take on the situation. I don't know how they are aligned (or not) with other companies, but in general, in my experience they have been pretty good about quality, regardless of sources of inspiration and occasional flights of fancy. I have several of their Roman military figures and have reviewed some, as well as a ton of parted-out parts. Will be trying to put this one together with those, but didn't like prices on eBay to get everything I wanted. I agree, it is a fairly unique figure, and not something that has been done before (unlike some of the things they were inspired by before). I do hope they don't give up on these.

Going the parts route would likely be better than buying the figure, since the body needed changing, at least to my eye. I usually find a use for the bodies I swap out, but this one is so big that I don't know what use it'll have as most clothes probably won't even fit it.