63. Hoodlums and Thieves

I finished painting up some 28mm Old Glory / Blue Moon Manufacturing figures recently, and thought I'd post them here to be seen.

These are from their Robin Hood sets called "Adventures in Sherwood Forest."  First up we have the box set of 12 figures, "Robin Hood's Men."  These were fairly nice and easy to paint.  I went with very obvious forest-y colors, three shades of green in particular.  The men are not armored, not even quilted as far as I can tell.  All of the Merry Men are armed with long bows (as seems appropriate), with the exception of two who are instead armed with quarterstaffs.  Most of the bow-armed men also carry swords; most of those are scabbarded, but two men have their swords drawn.  Three of the bowmen have arrows nocked and ready to fire; three have already let their arrow loose; one is readying his bow; and the last is just truckin' along with bow in hand, not particularly worried about anything.

They look mighty merry, don't they?

Merry from behind.  Wait, that doesn't sound so good....

This is from the Blue Moon website, and the cover of the box.  That guy on the lower left with the staff reminds me very strongly of someone from the "Where's Waldo" series of books.  Maybe...

...he's the Wizard Whitebeard, in disguise!

O.K., moving on.

Next I painted up the hero of the hour himself, Robin Hood.  Beside him is his love interest, the lovely and charming Maid Marian; then the man who was to marry the two love birds, Friar Tuck; and his best man, Little John.  link to the blister pack

Robin doesn't have his trademark hat, and he doesn't look at all merry.

Nope, still not merry-looking.

This is from the Blue Moon website, again.  I'm not sure why they painted Robin in red; seems like it would make it pretty difficult to hide in the forest.  However, it does make him easy to differentiate on the game table, especially since all of his Merry Men are dressed exactly the same.  Nonetheless, I persevered and painted him in Merry Man clothing; but he'll be easy for me to pick out:  he's the least merry-looking of them all!

I also have to wonder why Blue Moon sculpted Robin holding a sword.  I realize he was an accomplished swordsman, but he is mainly and primarily known as a magnificent archer.  This figure does have a bow, but it's not prominent at all.

 

So that's the good guys sorted, how about the bad guys:  Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Wait.

You mean the bad guys are the duly-constituted, official government figures?  The ones who serve the public interest by acting as Sheriff with an official police force?  The leader of the country, viciously slandered by history?

And the good guys are the ones who rob from the rich and give to the poor?  O.K., that part sounds reasonably good, but who decides who's rich and who's poor?  How rich is rich, and how poor do you have to be before you're not rich anymore by this arbitrary reckoning?  And what if that poor person IS poor but they've got cell phones for everyone in their household, three TVs, a computer and two cars?  Are they still poor?  Why does Robin get to decide, and who put him in charge?

O.K.  Deep breath.  I think this has gone beyond the scope of this blog's pretense.

Where was I?  Oh yes.  The Merry Men's opponents.  We'll just leave it at that, shall we?

First, the Sheriff of Nottingham's Men, another box set of 12 figures.

Chainmail, swords, determined looks.  Yep, they don't look merry at all.

I have nothing to add here.

From the Blue Moon website.

I wanted a color that would contrast well with the greens of the Merry Men, and while I liked the quartered black-and-white paint job of the Blue Moon site, I wanted color.  I thought, well, they represent the King (ie, Prince John) so what better color (in lieu of knowing the "real" color) than a royal color:  Purple!

And last but not least, the King's right hand man, the honorable Sheriff of Nottingham; Sir Guy (of Gisborne); His Royal Highness, Prince John; and the Abbot of Black Canons.  link to the blister pack

The Sheriff is holding what I assume to be the tax chest, full of ill-gotten gains.  I had absolutely no inkling of who the Abbot of Black Canons was, so I painted him similar to Friar Tuck, only with a white cloak (note the subtle irony of color there!  Bwa-ha-haa!).

That subtle irony of color is even more apparent here.

From the Blue Moon website.

The biggest problem with these figures -- all of this range, that is -- is that the sculpting of the faces is not the best.  The rest of the figures are pleasant enough to paint, with sufficient detail to satisfy, but not so much that it takes ages to finish.  They are a splendid range for the tabletop.

One thing I did notice is that whoever scultped these knows nothing about actually shooting a bow and arrow.  Go back up and look at the Merry Men, specifically at the ones with the nocked arrows.  You'll notice that the arrow is on the same side of the bow as the hand pulling it back.  It should be on the side of the hand holding the bow.  Very basic.  Kind of funny, really.

Blue Moon has one other blister pack of four figures:  Alan Dale, Will Scarlet, Much the Millers Son, and The Happy Minstrel.  However, I didn't get those so can offer no opinion on them.

Considering that the extent of my knowledge regarding the Robin Hood mythos consists of...

 

...and...

...I'd say I did fairly well!

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read this far.  As a reward for your persistence, allow me to present the obligatory battle scene!

A peaceful and tranquil meadow in Sherwood Forest (perhaps 100 acres in size) is disturbed by a fierce fight!  At last the forces of Good have caught the forces of Evil, and they prepare to administer a mighty thumping.  Which side is which?  I leave it to you, gentle reader, to decide....