Achapilago Muslims(May, 2002)
(Scanned @ aprox. 200%)
(Purchased by...a mate of mine (!) from http://www.gauntletinternational.com/Archipelago.html. As he himself pointed out... 'Achapelago' are the russian flogs of Revell & Esci [& Italeri]. I got the Norman & Muslim bags. [Apparently] they have been around for a long time.) Very interesting these. Not to put too finer point on it, or to get anyone in trouble (least of all me!), but these do indeed seem to be flogs of Esci's out-of-production Muslims (and I don't in any way condone the flogging of figures - even of GW stuf!). More alamingly, they are advertising Crusaders and Saracens that look suspiciously like Italeri's current product. However, these Muslims aren't just straight copies. They have one or two fascinating differences... As near as I can figure it, there are 5 unique figures that haven't been brought out by anyone else before. It looks like the centrafugal moulds that Achapilago use have room for 10 figures per mould. Since the Esci Muslim set originally had 15 different poses (I think - I could be wrong), it looks like they converted some of the originals to fill out the spare slots in the moulds. Can you tell which ones...?
...and these aren't your simple conversions either. Head swaps, new weapons, bent limbs 'n all. The Laurence of Arabia convert even seems to have gained a different pair of legs! So now, if you can't get hold of the Esci originals, you at least have a couple of decent figures that could be worked in with the Orion Pirates as HOTT Generic Pirate Shooters. |
