Charging Cuirassiers

What first drew my attention to the figures produced by First Legion was an advert in TS&MF magazine which had as its centre piece some of their Bavarian Napoleonic infantry. From that moment on, I was completely hooked and their Napoleonic figures, their flagship range, remain some of my personal favourites. None more so than these exquisitely painted and dynamically sculpted cavalry

Galloping on to the scene in the form of nine differently posed figures, they have been designed to complement perfectly the previously released French personalities and Carabiniers charging, en masse, the British squares at the Battle of Waterloo

With deep enough pockets, and a suitably large display space, one could create an historically accurate and aesthetically quite beautiful depiction of the scene with these, and their companion, figures from First Legion who have already produced British Guards, Gordon Highlanders, British Dragoons and British artillery, as well as allied infantry from Nassau and Brunswick and a handful of personalities to range against them

The release comprises an officer, standard bearer and trumpeter, together with four charging troopers, one of whom is armed with a slung carbine in addition to his sabre, a trooper in the process of being thrown from his horse and, lastly but my no means least, a dazed and shaken trooper propping himself up next to his wounded mount. Such figures, I know, are not to everyone's taste so we will have to wait and see just how popular it proves to be

Take a look at the following photos and I'm sure you will agree with me that with every release this company's figures just get better and better. As always, further information and details are available from the company's website

Charging officer, standard bearer and trumpeter, on his regulation grey steed

One of four charging troopers, all differently posed

A trooper in the process of being thrown from his horse. You can almost 'feel' their sense of shock and trepidation

Dazed and down! Horse and rider, together, having coming to the end of their exhilarating, but all too brief, journey

As beautiful as these figures undoubtedly are, I for one won't be buying them, and I'll tell you why

Like many collectors,  I decided at the outset of my own toy soldier collecting adventure to place certain restrictions on myself, to concentrate on certain themes, historical periods, and manufacturers. So I decided to limit myself to collecting figures representing German soldiers

Most of my collection to date consists of World War 2 figures produced by K+C,  and the Collectors Showcase, however, I have recently expanded the bounds of my self-imposed restraints to include certain ranges from First Legion, namely their Stalingrad and Napoleonic Germans, and it won't be long before I buy some of their Teutonic crusaders! I won't be buying the French Cuirassiers because I am waiting, with eager anticipation, for the day when they announce the release of some equally spectacular German horse

With this in mind, I fired off an email to Matt Pavone the other day and was delighted to receive a reply within the day. Here is my original email, followed by Matt's reply, reproduced faithfully

Dear Matt


I've been collecting your German Stalingrad and German Napoleonic figures for a
little while now, and am about to start on some of the Crusaders

I absolutely love the French Cuirassiers you have done, however, since I
limit myself to collecting figures of German soldiers, I won't be buying
them. I was wondering whether you have any plans afoot to add some similarly
stunning cavalry sets to your German series? Likewise, one or two German
personalities and artillery sets would go down very well, too, I am sure. I
for one would certainly buy them

Yours, in anticipation

Dave Fell


Hi, Dave,

Thanks for your email and the very kind words about our figures.  Since you
limit your collecting to German figures, would you consider collecting saxon
or Bavarian cavalry/artillery or are you limiting yourself to
Prussian/Austrians?  In the end, we'll do cavalry for all of them, however,
we have our eyes on producing some of the Conferation of the Rhine cavalry
in the not too distant future.  For the Prussians we'll also add Cavalry,
artillery, and personalities, with the personalities most likely coming
first.  Unfortunately, for all of the above I can't exactly say when we will
release these figures, but they are on our list and something Napoleonic
from a German nation will most definitely come this year.

Hope you are well and if you have any additional questions, please don't
hesitate to ask.

Best,

Matt


Apart from the above correspondence, I have absolutely no insider knowledge so please don't take this as any kind of guarantee or 'unofficial announcement' of future releases, but it sounds promising. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some Saxon Garde du Corps or Zastrow Cuirassiers, maybe even some bright and breezy Westphalian Hussars. Whatever the future brings, it's sure to be delightful, and I can barely wait