The Blog of Michael T. Murphy and his lifelong obsession with "little army men" and their imaginary glory, miniature wargaming, and other things...

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Review of Blue Moon Egyptian Agents.....

As promised in an earlier posting, dear readers, I was concerned about the issues with Blue Moon figures, and perhaps some "differences" in them.
Last year at Little Wars, I bought some of their Hillbillies and they really haven't been pleasurable to paint. They seem to take more primer and paint than most other 28mm figures.  The primer seemed to gritty out some also, (but I think I am blaming this more on the humidity than the quality of the figure).
But I did promise that I would do reviews.
So this year at Little Wars, I bought the following Blue Moon Packs:
1: Egyptian Agents
2: Russian Agents
3: German Agents
4: Lord of the Manor and his Servants
5: School Days


PART 1: Examining the figures.

This review is on the first pack; The Egyptian Agents....

The Agents packs seem to come with five figures per pack, (the same as Bob Murch's "Pulp Figures").
Each pack is in a plastic baggie stapled to a back-card with an easy to read Identifier, so you aren't confused with what you are getting by reading some obscure code number that some companies put there.

Russian and Egyptian Agents Packs

Removing the bag from the card...so far so good....

Laying out the figures, from L to R, #1, #2, #3, #4, and finally #5... You can see some of the flash on the bottom of the bases already...

Setting up the figures to get a look at them....hmmmm.....

Okay first off....
The metal is shiny....really shiny....which seems to indicate a different type of alloy used than that of the other 28mm figs I am used to, (Murch, Foundry, Artizan, Rafm, etc...)
Each of the figures seems to have a ground base already on it...which might not be what some people want. It can be easily fixed by being covered with groundwork though....

Now lets take a look at the figs up close and personal like shall we?

First off is Figure #1:




Yes you can definitely see flash and mold break marks on the bottom bases of this one, (and the others), and there is some light flash around the cuffs and hands of the figure. Nothing that an X-Acto knife can't handle....

Now onto figure #2:



Usual flash on the bottom, and some flash around the hands arms....

Figure #3:


Not as much flash on this one as the others....

Figure #4: The "Dancer"....


This one has very little flash but oddly enough has the most detailing of them all...Body proportions are "okay"...looks like she could use a sandwich or a gyro or two based on her waist/hip ratio....

And Figure #5: aka "Burkha Betty"....



This one has the least flash of them all, and also seems to have the least detail. I see this one and for some reason I keep thinking of some of the old 1980's Ral-Partha/Grenadier D&D "Ghost" figures....

Okay so after looking at this pack, I noticed very little undercuts (as opposed to the hillbillies I have). There is a standard amount of flash and production break tabs. Very little in mold/casting lines, and the details varies in the figures. The paint jobs on these are going to go from "easy" to "kinda challenging"....

Next Installment...PT II: Priming and Basing Them....

Stay Tuned!!!!




3 comments:

Eli Arndt said...

I have this pack and a few other Agents packs. Mine were not as messy as yours so it may be a matter of different castings.

Michael Murphy said...

That's what I am thinking also Eli...When it comes to this, they have a lot less flash than the hillbilly pack I had....

Jay said...

Cool stuff. These characters look like they could have a lot of fun while causing a lot of trouble in the desert.

Flash is a problem with BM figures, at least for me. But I don't mind cleanin' them up, because the are so cool.

Have fun!