1/72 Multiverse

Linear-A has just released a couple of kits based on the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts, best known for the visual effects created by Ray Harryhausen.

The recent 3D printed Linear-A sets have been expensive, and these are no exception. The Hydra, Golden Fleece, and Skeleton Army set (LA136) runs about US$45, while the Talos and Crew set (LA121) runs a whopping US$70.



I went ahead and bought the Hydra set because of the skeletons, but passed on the Talos set due to the price.

I've seen some talk claiming the high prices are due to licensing, but I doubt that is the case. I see no markings on the packaging crediting the Ray Harryhausen Film Library or Columbia Pictures.

In addition, similar products such as the Oxus Civilization and Jesus Story sets released at the same time are similarly priced.

With regard to the Talos set, it includes two multi-part Talos models, but it's not clear how big they are.


In any event, options for sofubi and polystone Talos figures exist from X-Plus, and come in 8", 12", and even 20" sizes.


The 20" Star Ace version is prohibitively expensive for most people, but the smaller figures can be found for around the same price as the Linear-A set.

The box for these sets are quite large compared to their normal boxes.


The largely empty box makes the contents seem rather meager though, given the price.


You can actually fit four of the regular sized Linear-A boxes inside, with room to spare.

Anyway, the two human figures in the set are King Aeetes with his basket of Hydra teeth, and Jason poised to fight the Hydra or Spartoi.


I feel that the figures are actually better scaled than the previous Linear-A sets that I have reviewed, which I felt were on the big and bulky side (particularly for people of antiquity).

The Hydra from the set is a faithful representation of the creature from the film, and the size is quite reasonable.


The other figure on the left is a Mage Knight Hydra, which I wrote about along with other Hydra miniatures in another post.

The Golden Fleece is also quite reminescent of the one from the movie, although the tree is on the bulky side.


The painted Golden Fleece on the left is produced by Crocodile Games.

Jason v. Hydra clip
Of course in actual Greek mythology, it was the Colchian Dragon guarding the Golden Fleece (which I have written about here), instead of the Hydra.

Last up are the skeletons (or Children of the Hydra's Teeth) which are printed in green resin, and quite faithful to their appearance in the movie.



The skeletons may seem frail if you are used to metal or injection plastic skeletons, but they are accurately proportioned. My main peeve though, is that they count the skeletons rising from the ground as three separate poses.

Star Ace Children of the Hydra's Teeth (Statue, singular)

Argonauts v. Skeletons clip
Overall, I'm satisfied with the set I purchased. I'm not sure if I will buy a lot of these 3D printed Linear-A sets in the future, but we'll see.

Two of the latest sets from Linear A are 3D printed resin models. One set covers the Indus Civilisation, and the other covers the Roman Bacchanalia.

Indus Culture Set 1

Bacchanalia in Ancient Rome Set 1

The figures in both sets require a bit of clean up with a hobby knife, as traces of the supports remain on the figures in various places. The Indus Culture set however, had a lot more issues.

Several of the figures were wet looking and sticky, particularly on the bases. I wasn't sure if it was uncured resin, so I tried putting them under a UV light which seemed to reduce the stickiness a bit (but it may have just been my imagination).


The stuff didn't seem to wash off with isopropanol, so I scraped the base with a knife to remove the stickiness. This is not a good solution for other parts of the miniatures which were affected though. I may try scrubbing with soap and water later.

On many of the figures, the hems of the garments were ill-formed or incompletely printed.



What was really egregious however, were the malformed scales held by the merchant figure.


I used CA glue and baking soda to build up the bottom of the pans, then filed them into shape using the only properly printed figure as a reference.

The good, the bad, and the restored.

The servant holding a fan comes in two parts. The resin is not really flexible enough to allow the fan to slot into place easily, so I ended up shaving down the pegs on the hands holding the fan before trying to attach it to the figure.


The Indus Culture set consists of 40 figures in 10 poses.



Despite the various printing issues, they are very nice figures. The dancing girl figure is clearly based on the bronze statue of the Mohenjo-daro Dancing Girl. Other figures seem to be based on illustrations from Ornament Styles of the Indus Valley Tradition (Kenoyer, 1992).

The Bacchanalia set also consists of 40 figures in 10 poses (kind of). PSR claims the set is pornography, and refuses to show pictures, but whatever.

NSFW

According to PSR, the set is based on the movie Caligula, but almost all the figures are completely nude, which I don't really think was the case in any of the relevant scenes from the film.


One of the figures is clearly based on the Priapus with Caduceus fresco from Pompeii, while the tibicen player is perhaps based on the left panel relief of the Ludovisi Throne (maybe).

Given the limited utility of these figures, I think that Linear A should cut down on the number of figures per set, reduce the price accordingly, and increase their quality control.

The classification of early humans has been complicated at best, and the taxonomy of specimens has been termed the "Muddle in the Middle [Pleistocene]" by paleoanthropologists.

Advances in DNA sequencing have started to bring more clarity to the field, but many scientist show clear bias (whether for or against) when it comes to proposals to establish a new species, or to reclassify and retire old species names.


I am partial to the opinion that many of these hominin "species" should be more properly classified as sub-species, since it is clear that interbreeding occured between different populations of early humans that are otherwise characterized as different species.

The latest set from Linear-A consists of a group of early humans. I received the box a couple of weeks ago, and made an unboxing video over at 72chan.


The first image is of the Denisovans and a single Neanderthal.


The Denisovans are sculpted as shorter overall than the Neanderthal, but an epigenetic study by Gokhman et al., published in Cell seems to suggest they fall in between modern humans and Neanderthals in height.


The rear Denisovan hunter had a big blob of plastic filling the void between his right leg and the javelin(s) he holds, so a bit of cuttng and sculpting was needed to make him look closer to the production figure on the back of the box.


The second image is of the Neanderthals.


The first Neanderthal figure looks like it was modeled after "N" from das Neandertal Museum just outside of Düsseldorf, while the second figure might be loosely modeled after the figure of a Neanderthal woman from the Museo Arqueológico Nacional in Madrid. The final Neanderthal seems to be a mutant with an abnormally huge right hand that exhibits polydactyly.


The final image is of the Homo sapiens.


A comparison of Phersu, Linear-A, and munich-Kits figures reviewed in a previous post.


I will round out the post with some metal miniatures of more archaic hominins.

The first group are 15mm Monkey Boys from Rebel Minis (RMPA4).


The figures remind me of Cha-Ka and the Pakuni from Land of the Lost. The LOTL fandom wiki suggests that the Pakuni belong to the putative Paranthropus genus (which are considered a sub-species of Australopithecus by some).

The second group are 15mm Wildmen of the Savannah by Khurasan Miniatures (Mystri Island MYST-800). The figures seem to be modeled after the man-apes from 2001: A Space Odyssey which are probably members of the genus Australopithecus.


I modifed a few of the figures by removing their weapons for more general use.

During the 80's, Roger Corman was looking to cash in on the success of Conan the Barbarian, and figured that producing some films with a dash of Argentine sensibilities would be the way to go.

Barbarian Queen

Amazons

What resulted has been described by critics as being an unusual mix of feminist movie and exploitation flick. Corman has also claimed that these movies were the inspiration for the Xena Warrior Princess TV show in later years.

The characterization of these Corman produtions is probably analogous to how one might view the latest set of 1/72 Amazons produced by Linear A.


There are 12 poses made in dark brown plastic.




The figures are largely portrayed in heroic nudity, and are very reminiscent of the Alliance Amazons, except with less clothing. The majority of figures look characteristically Greek, while the sitting figure has a vaguely Egyptian appearance.

Linear A in brown, Alliance in gray

I don't have much more to say about them, but I'm sure there are going to be as many people who belittle these figures as there are those who will have a use for them.

A comparison of Linear A Amazon, Dark Alliance Amazon, and a Ral Partha Amazon.