Bill Nevins found these figures at his local flea market. They are copies of the Italeri knights from China. I had heard years ago the Italeri mounted Napoleonic had been copied and had shown up in the dollar stores in the Las Vegas area. Have you seen these figures in your area?
I’m in LA (Lower Alabama). As much as I hate knock-offs I almost wish I had. We never get the good stuff around here – enough to make me want to move (LOL).
Those as well Napoleonic did in Yankee dollar stores up here ;only cavalry men ,British light and French hussar and mamelukes mounted, not bad copies I should say. I never saw infantry of any type. The had very small stock in each store as far I remember , manage to get 12 pack of each aprox. I sold few after and paint most later. My Napoleonic collection figures are half way painted
After never supplied again. Dollar stores often run not replenishment set as they buy at port warehouse in both coast(east and west) warehouses were Chinese container are unloaded. Center-central states get less generally because of this issue.
Now about the italeri mounted knight poses I should add that two same mounted poses were run in 2000/2001 aprox under a painted(red and black) with 5 foot pose set that I still have few set left. The foot poses are base in italeri too
Later SOLD under unpainted set mix with two lonely Greek poses in silver color of original design, not copies too of which I have too many poses still. All sold by dollar stores in blister pack, not bags. Some non dollar stores had sold these too.
All runs of these figures are done using the aluminum limited run production till mold wasted. That is main reason you see then for few years ,then gone till pup up either in varied poses or cloned in different size.
I will look and provide picture as I find then in my dungeon=Maze
I forgot mention, these sets had been done apparently with no violation of italeri, they had been sold in Europe/Italy specially, few weeks ago I found two sellers selling then from itali on same day from two parts of Italy on eBay.
So nothing new or italeri are selling their right to be copied for lack of sale in their own!!??. At the end italeri do their figures in china too!!
and indeed the pack in pictures as well mine have too the Italian wording ,look closely.
I will have to take a look around at some of the dollar stores in my area. We usually only have the more generic army men but one never knows!
Todd
My dollar stores usually have garbage in the figure line so I wish you luck.
Erwin – The 2 Greek poses are copied from the Supreme ‘Alexander the Great’ set but without shields. I got about 20 of them and added them to my HK copy Britains Greeks. I gave them shields and painted them bronze like the HK Britains guys. They fit in just fine.
Greg. Yes I recall the lot you bid and won on eBay and you did a great job out of then!!
But need to clear this out if you do not mind please.
The two Greeks figures done in 52-54 mm scale were indeed done in 1998/1999 and sold in the packs with mentioned Knights painted sets. Later they appear in mix with other knights(copies of original TM knights done in 1995/96 approx. And also sold along in 24/40 pieces bags in only two poses .
Either in black or silver color.
Supreme is commercialize importer company with offices in mainland china and H-Not the toy maker.
The true name of the figures sets you are referring to and think were others copied from is SUNJADE INDUSTRIAL TOY CO.
They start their line of set in 2002 with first set SU-PYS 21 call (Knights and armor play set) http://stevenshobby.com/viewpicture.aspx?productid=407419
That was a set of cloned and revised poses from (disputed SIMBA original knights and TM original poses too.(I will post pictures of original Toy mayor) knights that are great nice poses.)
The set that has the two copies Greeks was done in 2002/2003 SU-PSY 22 AND SU-PYS 23.
http://stevenshobby.com/viewpicture.aspx?productid=407420
Called Roman warriors figures and….
The set call (Alexander the great) in reality named in card(Alexander,the legend of warrior king) probably to avoid copyrights was set SU-PYS 25 .Released right after the last film directed by Oliver Stone in 2004.The set come to US market in December 2004 and or early 2005
http://stevenshobby.com/viewpicture.aspx?productid=407422
SUNJADE industries had cloned and redone many sets base in already done figures just in their 65/70 scale and using true steel mold industrial type long production. The last Napoleonic french sets were base in most italeri 1805 french infantry two sets poses.
The Egyptians are most cloned poses from Atlantic ,in some cases they just change the design in shield,in others made new poses by swapping body torsos from one original pose to other.
Thy also do generally from 2005 till now most sets in 16 poses ,but if you look well ,only 12 poses as 4 mounted are most time same foot with out the base to use as riders in the large nice horses they use.
In fact the two Greeks poses you had got and we are referring too are taken from an obscure original Russian made figure,i will supply pictures later .
And the knights painted original sold with these two Greeks in 1998/1999 are from were much later the above company(SUNJADE) that distribute under Supreme did made the following(link bellow) set that is not longer produced and was replaced by set (SUN-PWY 34)-crusades
http://www.ebay.com/itm/16-Crusaders-Knights/261392771731?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D33097%26meid%3D3b504a550535437d8220489a8d194061%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D161812681337