New Shanghai, 1930 Wave from Black Army! (Picture Heavy!)

[Doc Twilight]

Lots of new releases to show off, here, guys. Forgive me for the quantity of pictures. I'll make multiple posts here in order to save loading time for any one entry. A warning: these are Photobucket links, as I'm having issues with my LAF gallery. All are approximately 28mm scale, most of them are slightly over 28mm in height, although Kawashima Yoshiko is 27mm tall.

First, the much anticipated Japanese in M1930 uniforms. They cast up quite well. Because of their dynamic poses, there is a small amount of flash, but nothing too terrible to deal with. They are available as a set of 3 for 9.75, and include three rebreather canisters and three optional heads wearing gasmasks.

M1930 Japanese, front view:


M1930 Japanese, rear view:


M1930 Japanese, gasmask heads:


Japanese NCO in M1930 Uniform. Available separately. Carrying a Nambu pistol. He comes with an optional non-masked, helmeted head. Available for 3.25.




(More in the next post)

[Doc Twilight]

More Japanese characters.


To the left - Colonel Washiji Toro. Japanese occult expert. Commander, Shanghai Branch, Special Unit 66. Available for 3.00.

To the right - Kawashima Yoshiko, "Eastern Jewel." This infamous Manchu Princess was raised in Japan and active as a mover and shaker in 1930s Shanghai. A very controversial character, even today. In Japan, she is depicted as a hero, or at worst, a victim of circumstance. In China, she is seen as a traitor. Available for 3.00



Two more characters for the International Settlement.

FC Julian, Private Detective. Recently hired by the Society of Virtuous Pagans to solve a series of unsolved mysteries in Shanghai.
$3.00.



The Great Adamski, Performer, Solver of Problems... With multiple puppet options. More puppets will come, too. $3.25.



(More in the next post)

[Doc Twilight]

Finally, the surprise release for this round. New agents for the insidious Fu'Xian!

The Terra-Cotta Golems!

A set of four animated Terra-Cotta statues, in various states of disrepair, provided with multiple head, hand, and weapon options. These are slightly taller than the rest (as they are statues). The full set sells for 12.00.



Comments welcome:)

-Doc

[elysium64]

Really nice, would love to see a Cthulhu puppet.

[Doc Twilight]

Really nice, would love to see a Cthulhu puppet.

That's a distinct possibility;)

-Alex

[elysium64]

Brilliant, I thought it might be an idea you couldn,t resist

[Tomsche]

I like the terracotta guys, quit original

[commissarmoody]

I like them all, especialy Colonel Washiji Toro. About time we had some Far east occult specialists instead of the tons of germans that are flooding the weird war set.

[Mancha]

Terra cotta statues are a pleasant surprise.  Love the interchangeable puppets on the Great Adamski.

[Baldrick]

I agree, the Terra Cotta statues are a nice addition to this release.  Great pulp potential.

[leadfool]

Will you be bringing any figures to sell at Kubla Khan??

[gamer Mac]

The Terra cotta guy are just what I have been looking for, but maybe not so broken. Any chance of releasing a set of unbroken ones
Very original characters as well. Very nice.

[Svennn]

Well done DT. I will have to get some of these to paint at some point. The terracotta statues concept has worked a treat.

[Argonor]

OK, so now we need somebody to produce buildings fro Shanghai 

[Doc Twilight]

Thank you all for the comments:)  I'm very glad that they all turned out well. I'm particularly gratified that the terracotta golems have gone over well. I'd like to do more "supernatural" stuff for the range, and this is sort of a tester. There are many possibilities, here.
We will likely be redoing, or adding to, the SMP range in the next installment. Will see how it goes.

In regards to a few specific questions

- No plans in the immediate future to do "undamaged" versions, but if there is enough interest, I might consider it. There are already a number of "Terra Cotta Army" style figs on the market, though I think these are currently the only "golems"/statue types.

- We might very well have some inventory at Kublacon. Unofficially, of course... If you were to tell me what you want, I might be able to bring it along, as well.

- Shanghai buildings. I agree that these are needed, but I have yet to find a sculptor willing to do them... I've also got a need for another vehicle sculptor, but that's another matter entirely. It's an interesting business, really; sometimes you get loads of offers and enthusiastic requests to sculpt, other times the well is fairly dry. Not that the sculptors already doing work for us aren't doing a bang up job, of course!:) Once the cops are given some new life, and we have some Chinese troops in place, I wouldn't mind doing something ambitious with commissioning some terrain for demo games, but of course that doesn't solve the problem of the generally limited availability of Shanghai terrain.

One sculptor I had spoken to was interested in doing various scenic items for Shanghai, and these would have been included with the Shanghai packs. The concept is vaguely similar to some of the 1980s era Cthulhu ranges, which would frequently come with a figure or two and then some random, scenic accessory. Unfortunately, that arrangement seems to have fallen through (Haven't heard from that particular sculptor in over a year), but it's something I'd still like to attempt. I think it'd be very helpful and improve the desirability of the range.

That said, a huge advantage to Shanghai in the 1930s is that a large portion of it (even in the Chinese controlled sector of the city) was built to a European style, which means that you can mix in a lot of pulp era buildings with only a few scenic Asian pieces and have a very authentic looking setup. Hell, you could use colonial and Napoleonic era French architecture -alone- if you were gaming in the French Concession.

-Doc