Where to start? I seriously think this is one of the most exiting things to happen to toy and model figures in twenty-to-thirty years, as well as being a major development in general toys
and boardgames (despite the lack of a board!). Some of the press is already suggesting that this will be the biggest boys playground craze of the near future, but the thing is - both the books and the TV series are just as popular with girls...Produced by
Worlds Apart toys in association with
Scholastic, this is...
Horrible Histories
The game system comes in various formats from the recent phenomena of 'Blind Bags' at a couple of pounds, through to large sets with all the bits and pieces needed for every level of game-play. Although even the biggest sets are reasonably priced at around fifteen pounds.
Even as I was unpacking them, it was obvious that one could play on several levels, from the simple act of catapulting pigs at each others armies, to more complicated point-scoring, and /or head collecting (yes; heads - history is horrible!), the capitalist act of amassing money, card-based intervention....and that is exactly what the system is set-up for. A quick read of the clear and easy to follow rule leaflet allows for most of the above to be the/a main winning aim, with or without any of the other elements.
Therefore, while I'm reviewing these as figures for adult figure collectables, I'm also recommending them for your kids, nephews & nieces or grandchildren, and if you can get them interested in figures in the 54/60mm range now, they may become the next generation of collectors.
These are the lovely, shiny, larger sets currently available, with the Egyptian sets to the left and Romans to the right. The
Starter Sets (top right and bottom left) give you everything you need to get going; pigs and their catapults, groats in three values, head-collecting racks and some play-cards.
The smaller
Battle Packs give you a top-up of 'cannon-fodder', cards, groats and a special figure. Not illustrated are two further sets of army booster
Special Sets, again with special figures. An arena of battle has been announced and more figures are on the way.
Contents of the sets illustrated above with the
Starter Sets above and the
Battle Packs below, it will be seen that some of the pigs don't look quite as dead as you might imagine they were in days of old, but it can't be over emphasised...history really was rather horrible!
Cards are used in three ways, a bit like the
Chance and
Community Chest cards in
Monopoly; you can play some of them immediately to gain an advantage, leave some festering around the 'board' (traps) or the rest are used in the points totting-up at the end of the game...luck/chance and strategy!
The special figures include the grand commanders, who are allowed to keep their heads! Only because it's game-over if a flying-pig catches them a glancing blow! And limited edition versions of the blind-bag figures in a gold finish, their groats however score the same as their full-colour doppelgänger, although they both get larger 'ceremonial' weapons!
Clockwise from top left;
- Ramesses II - The Great - The Great Ancestor, Son of Ra
- Julius Caesar - The Roman Geezer
- Gengis Khan - The Great Khan - Temujin
- William of Normandy - The First - The Conqueror
The cannon fodder! One of the few criticisms I have of this range is that the soldiery have very cartoonish faces, most of the figures have quite caricatured faces, but it works with the 'heros', Boudica looks like she's been very wronged by Rome, Alexander is looking a bit foppish etc...but the 'other ranks' just look a bit goggle-eyed. However that's a 'Toy Soldier' collector's sensibilities talking, and as one of the main strategies of the game is to protect the heroes with cannon fodder, you can pass the troops on to the youngsters as you collect the character figures!
A nice touch with these is that there are more than one weapon type with a choice of spears from the Egyptians and a choice of Pilums (pila?) for the Romans. Armour though is thin on the ground, that's part of the game-play/groat systematics, and a collector will only want one or two of these figures.
A comparison between the blind-bag and special gold versions, you can see the gold ones have larger weapons, which seem to be more like ceremonial tools, especially the huge sword/axe being wielded by the gilded Genghis.
Below is an illustration on what the head-scoring element might look like toward the end of a game...it's Horrible History!
The blind-bag figures, these include three that are less common, asterisked below;
Top Row - William I, Hangman, Genghis Khan and Boudica; Bottom row - Viking Berserker, Alexander the Great*, Blackbeard* and a Highwayman*.
In addition to removable heads and separate weapons/accessories, the figures all have at least one movable-arm, some have both arms articulated.
There is a video of a blind-bag opening here;
For the collectors among you, here are a few comparison shots with various commonish figures, another criticism of these is the large groat provided for a base, and again it's purely from the point of view of a collector, but it makes them a tad tall for standard 54mm figure collectors, however they are of varying height and sit well with some '54mm's' and most 60mm figures, if re-based most would look right at home.
There is a nice attention to detail with this range, and we see here that the pigs can double-up as pencil-toppers, and spare parts are supplied for both the catapult elastics and the very small pistol that comes with the Highwayman - anticipating loss.
Also a couple of extra shots showing arm-movement and another comparison shot with a 54mm figure (
Timpo Apache) on the
Worlds Apart base.
Musical heads! An unintended consequence? If your heads are removable - they will be swappable! Giving a real motley crew for Blackbeard to recruit in the upper shot here, and some more humorous combinations in the lower picture. It's
Timpo-lite
This toy really needs to succeed, and if it does (the Horrible Histories franchise has been around for a while now and covers most periods), we could be looking forward to WWI and WWII figures, Napoleonic or English [un]Civil War sets, who knows?
So please support the range, get the sets for the young people in your life/family and collect the hero figures...if this range takes off and runs for a few years you'll kick yourself if you weren't 'in' at the start!
Even the packaging is interactive, with cartoons on the back illustrated with the figures, rats looking out and a 'Where's Wally' take-off, while the weld-fold/flap on the blind bags reveals a sorry-looking chap hanging around if you fold it back!
This flap also hides a clue to the contents, if you know your Roman numerals;
CCCXXIII BC - Alexander
LXI - Boudica
CMLXV - Viking Berserker
MLXXXVII - William I
MCXXVII - Genghis Khan
MDL - Hangman
MDCCXVIII - Blackbeard
MDCCXXXIX - Highwayman
So that's the new Horrible Histories game sets and figures from
Worlds Apart, a pleasure to review, a joy to play with, highly collectable, infectious game-play, great value and easy to recommend to all.
And that's not all...
COMPETITION
The PR company helping to launch this range has kindly put-up some serious prizes as follows;
One First Prize;
1x Roman Starter Set, 1x Egyptian Starter set, 1x Roman Battle Pack, 1x Egyptian Battle Pack and 4 blind-bags
5 runner up prizes;
Each prize to consist of 1x Roman and 1x Egyptian Special Set and 4 blind-bags
These prizes will be sent out by the promoter, to stand a chance of winning, you need to answer the following question in the comments section, I will employ comment moderation for a period of 7 days, during which time all comments will be hidden, after that time all correct answers will go forward to the draw, winners addresses (or a valid eMail if you don't want me having your home details) will need to be forwarded to the promoters. To help youngsters to enter I have switched the word-verifier off.
The question is;
What were the original titles of the first two books in the Horrible Histories series and when were they originally published?
The draw will close at around midnight (British Summer Time) next Wednesday/Thursday turnover (8th/9th May). Please encourage your younger family members to enter!
There's still more...
Speaking of younger family members, if you were thinking of attending the PW show this Saturday (4th May - details on PW website and blog), you may find the organisers have a number of blind-bags for the afternoon give-away to encourage the next generation of collectors, but they're limited so you need to be there when they call it.
Finally - Thanks to Cairyanne and Fosbury PR for supplying both the review samples and the figures for the Plastic Warrior show.
Competition...Posting and Eligibility...Originally published on 07/05/2013 02:04
Someone at work was having problems with commenting this afternoon
and I've had an email from someone asking if they can enter from outside
the UK?
The answer to the later is yes, this is open
to anybody, the reason the skateboarders were limited to the UK was that
it would have cost more than they are worth to post them, and while the
makers suffer the same problem, they are hoping for a good review
(which they get because they are lovely figures not because they are
free!), whereas with the current competition, a major toy company has
offered the prizes without caveat, as they will not see them as 6
invoices from Royal Mail, but rather as 6 new collectors who will
hopefully add to their prizes with purchases of other/forthcoming/future
sets and figures.
As to the former problem, perticularly if you are not familier with Blogger...
...instructions; scroll to the end of the
Horrible Histories review post (article beneath this one on this 'page') and find where it [currently] says "
4 COMMENTS"
(fig.1), left-click on that wording and you will get a pop-up panel
(fig.2), scroll down that past the [currantly four] published comments
to find the embedded dialogue box (fig.3) and write your answer (clue -
wikipedia!), then tick (left-click) the relevant 'radio-button' (fig.4,
you can see I've ticked anonymous which has automatically unpicked the
default '
Maverick Collecting' which was live in fig.3), if you don't have an Internet presence that is indicated by the other buttons, left-click on "
Anonymous" and then left-click on the orange box-button "
Publish Your Comment".
Remember
we need the two titles and the year of publication, and something to
identify you - especially if you publish as 'anonymous', winners can
send their contact details after the draw so you don't need to publish
any address, telephone number or eMail, just a name or blogger ID
etc...Don't comment on this post as it will be deleted in a day or two!
Good Luck!
Horrible Histories Competition...Results Originally published on 09/05/2013 00:51
Competition is now closed, comment moderation has been lifted, but
capcha is also back on...you wouldn't believe the amount of Spam I've
had in the last 7 days!
All entries seem to be correct
and the draw will take place tomorrow, with results posted on the
original post probably at tea-time. Thanks to all who entered, there is
only a slim chance you won't win something!
Competition Prize List - Originally published on 09/05/2013 18:59
I used the same randomiser that Sean used on his blog the other day,
as I felt that names-in-a-hat didn't quite cut it for 6 prizes out of
eleven entries.
So
Smellymudhut, you have won the first prize, all those below
him (her - Doh!) to and including Christopher Webster [Sean, Brian, the Brooks' and Ferryman] have a runner-up prize to come.
Please
can those listed get their names to me by next Wednesday, after that
time I will offer the prize to the next name on the list until I have 6
addresses to sent to the promoters.
Thanks again to all
who entered, commiserations to those who failed the randomiser, and
maybe we will have a similar one when the next tranche is released?
Hugh
(PS - to prove it really is 'random' it's invented a 12th invisible entrant? How random is that!)