New from Pvblivs: Normans

Posted on June 13, 2014 by admin

pv34 Pvblivs has issued a new set of 6 different Normans.  As we get more information we will let you know. We thank our very good friend Mathias for the information

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41 Responses to New from Pvblivs: Normans

  1. ERWIN says:
    June 13, 2014 at 4:53 PM

    nice figures,much better poses than A call to arms and even better deatail than replicant ones!!

    Reply
  2. Brian Johnson says:
    June 13, 2014 at 5:42 PM

    And they know what a base should be like!!

    Reply
  3. Don Perkins says:
    June 13, 2014 at 7:52 PM

    Nice, realistic full-bodied, 3-D figures. Why can’t Call To Arms conceptualize such well-designed figures?

    Reply
  4. Don Perkins says:
    June 13, 2014 at 7:56 PM

    Everyone should click on the picture and see what great detail there is on the chainlink armor. But is the archer supposed to be what Norman archers looked like?

    Reply
  5. Tom Black says:
    June 14, 2014 at 8:11 AM

    About the Archer, yes they did look like that. I have both the Osprey ” Battle of Hastings” and the Men-A-Arms Normans and they are pictured like that . The Replicants Norman Archer is dressed similar but different headgear (a Hood). PVBLIVS does it again. Look at the detail on the inside of the Kite Shield! I just wish it was easier to get them here in the USA!

    Reply
  6. erwin says:
    June 14, 2014 at 12:32 PM

    Yes the headgear and clothing is typical used by in fact Scandinavians in the time; few painting done in France and Norway show them using it along regular mail coating warriors. Russian also adopted same hats in the time of Viking/Scandinavians influence in their land. About these figures, will said that are the first and best from this company as almost every figure has complete arms separated from body(a plus!!) not seen in almost all before produced. It give you opportunity for variation of poses by cutting, bending else process!

    Reply
  7. lynn graves says:
    June 14, 2014 at 3:53 PM

    I recently received all of his medieval figures before these. They are all outstanding. I don’t know who is doing the manufacturing and carving though.

    Reply
  8. Christian Aldo says:
    June 14, 2014 at 4:51 PM

    FANTASTIC PHOTO!
    Nothing frustrates me more, that a stupid photo like the one posted above!
    Everyone who comes to this site is passionate about toy soldiers!
    We all want to see the latest offering clean and clear!
    Its not the fault of the person posting, its the fault of the person who took the photo in an effort to promote his new set.
    ADVICE: POSES are IMPORTANT to the collectors!
    LINE UP THE FIGURES SO WE CAN “SEE” WHAT YOU WANT US TO BUY!!!!
    Is LACK of common sense marketing, is one of the reasons why our beloved hobby is not doing as well as it should be doing.

    Christian Aldo

    Reply
  9. erwin says:
    June 15, 2014 at 5:52 PM

    My opinion:!!The problem are the prices .The web site in Russian has prices in Russian value ranging from 250 Rb for small sets (that is aprx US$7.45 per four fig set!!) to 1200 Rb that is about$34.05 USD per six figures set!!..And that is not counting the shipping. For plastic figures I think is way too high..So for now he will either do too little profit or don’t care about world collectors buying it as most collectors of plastic toy soldiers do not like to spend more than $2.50 per figure in any new production/cast; and If his cost of production is to high them need to look for other venues to move/sale then out with better production sytem.That is without counting shipping!!!

    Reply
    • admin says:
      June 15, 2014 at 11:46 PM

      Erwin
      Part of the problem from what I have been told is the two Russian companies have molds that allow only short runs. Also I do not know if the these two companies were prepared for interest for their figures outside their country. We will have to do more checking.

      Reply
    • Christian Aldo says:
      June 16, 2014 at 6:28 PM

      AGREED!
      But when you really think of it,
      I go to a bar with some chick and spend $70 on drinks.
      The next day, I have nothing to show for my money and I think,
      “I could have bought 2 Russian figure sets for the money that I pissed away”
      Thats how I justify the Russian prices!
      We have the money, were just being cheap in the wrong places!

      Reply
  10. erwin says:
    June 16, 2014 at 10:54 AM

    Thank you Paul for the update/info; Interesting, so they may be using non steel molds that are cheap but give you less quantity runs- cast and use more expensive material to mix/produce the type of plastic with color. That increases the cost of production but give opportunity to do it yourself without using industrial machinery!!

    Reply
    • Christian Aldo says:
      June 17, 2014 at 12:13 AM

      The 3-Dprinter is going to change everything soon enough.

      Reply
      • admin says:
        June 17, 2014 at 12:47 PM

        Christian
        The 3D printing will change things, but right now it is not cost effective. Earlier this year I talked to some people doing 3d printing and they figure it would take at least an hour to do one figure. Once they can get that down to ten minutes or less it will be cost effective. right one German collector is doing his Timpo parts via 3D.

        Reply
  11. kent sprecher says:
    June 17, 2014 at 12:20 AM

    Although not a fan of a Call to Arms their Normans are just as good and much cheaper.

    Reply
    • admin says:
      June 17, 2014 at 12:33 PM

      Kent
      A number people on various forums have been unhappy with the new Call to Arms Normans. The Call to Arms set will get you four more poses to use.

      Reply
      • erwin says:
        June 18, 2014 at 1:12 PM

        Yes I agree; few more pose – a plus!!. Still these so far are the worst of a CALL T A company, when they start doing figures like E civil war figures with plug in weapons/long spears and arms/heads plug in, they did very good job even were down/small 1.32 side scale. Zulu series still were fine ESPECIALLY THE PLUG IN FRONT SHIELD SYSTEM. With the Napoleonic was a bit down as some compared to others are not same scale/size. But this mold of Normans could have been done with same tecnic as (England civil war or Zulu figures) with plug in arms and weapons to give impression of better 3 d poses. Sample the first 3 sets of PVBLIVS SETS (Romans and Teutonic), were done using the 2D cavity mold sytem.The new are way too different using a complete renovated realistic 3D artistic design. In other words, they start with less quality and increase to best=from low to high standards .But in the Normans from A call to Arms even after doing good quality figures before, they went to do very poor design and actually the deep detail in faces and armor is not impressing at all. Any ways few are definitely good to fill gaps as we use all in the now increasing plastic toy soldier world. But no good to repeat and less to convert..
        p.s EVEN the Barzo Normans and two Dulcop poses from robin hood series are much better!!

        Reply
  12. Ed Borris says:
    June 18, 2014 at 7:06 AM

    I don’t know the details or even if this is the same thing, but I heard the TSSD Romans were sculpted using a computer. I heard some metal manufacturer sculpts his figures using the same method, not sure of the name of the company.

    Reply
    • admin says:
      June 18, 2014 at 8:52 AM

      Ed
      You can do on computer the design of a figure and get a 3D model of your design. The problem is not there, but in the production of the actual figure for sale. The time right now to do a figure is an hour if not longer. At this pint it is not cost effective. With hand machine you can do 30 to 60 pressings a minute.

      Reply
    • Berthoux Mathias says:
      June 19, 2014 at 2:34 PM

      I ‘ve heard that too. Sorry but the sculpture sucks. Nothing to see with other TSSD sets.
      Regards

      Reply
      • admin says:
        June 19, 2014 at 6:28 PM

        Mathias
        I agree the new Normans are a disappointment. Doug of Call to Arms will only do four poses a box for 1/32 scale. His reason is he lost money when he did more figures. His other figures were done by Farmer and Cameron. I have no idea who did the Normans.

        Reply
  13. Ed Borris says:
    June 18, 2014 at 11:33 AM

    Yeah I get that part, it just seems if you can eliminate the sculptor that should reduce the costs somewhat? I don’t actually know how much a sculptor would charge to produce say 8 figures, but let’s just say if the entire costs for producing 8 figures would be $40,000.00 and 10 to 20% would be the fee for the sculptor, it’s got to help keep the costs down. At least I would think so. I would also think it would eliminate the back and forth process of getting a figure the way you want.

    Reply
  14. erwin says:
    June 18, 2014 at 12:25 PM

    Ok ,I will write this as on update for those who want to know cost processing of plastic figures as of now according to any Chinese-Hong Kong factory,Sauth American and else quotes. But USA.
    Cost of first files (blue prints) $200-400-(but if you provide you save this money)
    Cost of 2nfile-3 file (either by 3D special computer programming design)-no more than $1000.A design by artist is getting eliminated; programming computer animators are used for this.
    Cost of 3d file prototype done in light-fragile material to be finish by hand detail with Tec-artist hand as touch up. $300.00
    Cost of a steel mold for 8 cavity=figures in 3 D poses scale 54-60 mm range from $4000-8000.No more.
    Please notice that steel mold machine could produce way more figures in a short-long run without stop and could be reused for years plus DO/MOLD duplicated at a low cost price. This machine is multipurpose mold machinery.
    Silicone/else, 3 d molds are cheaper to produce but give you limited quantity and has to be stopped often in order to refill/cool machine and else. Cost of industrial-TYPE 3 D printing machine is from $20000-60000.Not counting liquid/tint material and parts that have to be change constant. That is why this is used for 3 file/prototype molds before pass to the industrial steel mold.

    Cost of production from steel mold from $0.05-0.36 per figure in a minimum of 2000 sets of 8 poses.
    Conclusion: The cost of 8 figures in an 8 poses cavity mold for plastic soldiers should range no more than $9500.00 USD grand total. Some Chinese factories give you the option to stamp OR NOT (made in china) on it. Designing figure in US with possible 3D file prototype done by yourself give you this advantage in this small business as patents some times are not used.

    Reply
    • TD Barnecut says:
      June 23, 2014 at 6:02 PM

      How about 8 of you entrepreneurial guys form a limited partnership and each chip in 1/8 of the cost to produce an 8 cavity steel die. Each partner gets to choose/design a figure or pose he wants. The resulting figure sets would be offered for sale to recoup the original investment. Any gains or losses would be split 8 ways. If successful, you could chip in again to expand the range.

      Reply
  15. Ed Borris says:
    June 18, 2014 at 1:03 PM

    Cool thanks, much cheaper than I had anticipated.

    Reply
  16. Ed Connell says:
    June 19, 2014 at 2:53 PM

    Hi all, yes thanks for the info, pretty interesting. At one time I was looking into 3d printing some figures, but as said its pretty expensive, the price is getting lower by the year, maybe I’ll still be around when its affordable to me, lol.

    Reply
    • admin says:
      June 19, 2014 at 6:21 PM

      Hello Ed C
      I have been watching 3D printing as well and agree that the price is too much. It will go down. I remember when dot matrix printers were $800.00. As we know printers have gone down and improved in quality.

      Reply
  17. Christian Aldo says:
    June 19, 2014 at 9:16 PM

    $10000 sounds good to me!!!

    Reply
  18. Ed Connell says:
    June 20, 2014 at 1:14 PM

    You are absolutely right Paul. They have inexpensive 3d printers now, for example the cube, a desktop 3d printer. If my memory serves me right, an article said you could get one for as low as $100 !. I am not sure about the quality of the rendering however. Not to mention, I think you need their program to run it, so I am thinking it has very limited capabilities, it is also for smaller prototypes. Also as you said for mass producing figures, it definitely isn’t the way to go, however, if you want to make some very special character figures, for say a book, movie, play, story, it could be useful.

    Reply
    • admin says:
      June 20, 2014 at 5:26 PM

      Ed C
      The show where we looked at 3D printers. One person has a low price printer working. The person used for basic items. Remember in the 1980’s black and white dot matrix printers for computer cost as much as $800.00 Today we have printers for $150.00 and less that do color.

      Reply
  19. Ed Connell says:
    June 20, 2014 at 6:36 PM

    Lol, I remember Paul. I’ll never forget in the mid 60’s my dad brought home an adding machine (basically an electric calculator) he had just bought, he said it cost $500. Which was a lot of money back then. He said he had to have it for his business, within a few years people were giving calculators away as premiums.

    Reply
  20. Ed Connell says:
    June 21, 2014 at 11:28 AM

    Its too bad these figures are such a hassle to get, or afford. I like the Knight pose stabbing with sword in the Lake Peipus set, which is in your November archive, he’s the top center figure in that set. He’s really the only one I like though, the rest of the poses aren’t action packed enough for me.

    Reply
  21. Ed Connell says:
    June 21, 2014 at 11:39 AM

    I wonder if they plan on doing any Vikings. If they do, they should make them more muscular, and action packed, dual wielding swords, and axes. Also do some great 2 handed swinging poses with swords, and axes. I always wanted the Marx 6 inch viking swinging the great sword scaled down to 3 inch size. He would have been a great addition to their 54 and 60 mm vikings.

    Reply

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