Iain very kindly drew attention to a blog which I had not seen before, which is dedicated to the (legendary) 25mm Ros wargame figures, which were a brilliant idea in principle but disappeared quickly.
The picture at the top is borrowed from the blog, which you will find here. I am very impressed - this is what blogs should be - celebration of the rare and the obsolete and the vanished - works of true affection. Humbling. My own short post on Ros was some 4-and-a-bit years ago, and is here, and I hope that it captured my appreciation of Ros's efforts - obviously their 6mm figures are very successful and rightly celebrated, but most wargamers and collectors are unaware that the 25mm range ever existed. Well they did, and it was a splendid idea - deliberately cheap and cheerful - you got 10 infantry or 4 cavalry to a bag, and the idea was to enable rapid build-up of inexpensive armies.
Not sure why they stopped making them - the "true 25mm" approach meant that they were a bit big for the 20mm collectors and were also rendered obsolete by the sudden growth of mainstream 25mm into something rather larger. Maybe they arrived on the scene a couple of years late - they would have made comfortable table-mates with S-Range and Lamming. I had a few units - the only one I have left now are my ferocious Chasseurs Britanniques, who have, admittedly, some non-Ros command figures - these chaps have been the heroes of many of my battles over the years; there is something especially satisfying about the occasions when they see off much more prestigious units, manned by more revered makes of figures.
Here they are.
Anyway - best of luck to the Ros blog - I would follow it officially if it did not require me to be recalibrated to Google+ (which a friend recently described as "the Betamax Facebook" - I would not have a view on this). I shall watch the blog with friendly interest.
Hmm....followed it on blogger with no difficulty. Very nice chasseurs. SHQ officer I think?
ReplyDeleteYou are indeed a better man than I am, Gunga, but nothing new there! Chasseurs - 2 types of Ros private (flank & battalion co), SHQ colonel on a NapoleoN horse, NapoleoN standard bearers, foot officer and drummer are intermediate Minifigs with head transplants. Flags are an educated guess based on a sketch incorporating the arms of Conde. First up, best dressed! They are conspicuously not light infantry - they were never light infantry.
DeleteBravo! Do you know, I think I my have a few. I think they'll paint up rather well
ReplyDeleteI'm especially supportive of all blogs for unusual or extinct figures!
DeleteMy Rospac Greek hoplites, Thracian peltasts and Scythian foot archers were the core of my greek and Persian armies for a decade and did service for 30 years.
ReplyDeletehttp://gatheringofhosts.blogspot.ca/2009/11/hordes-of-poor-quality-infantry.html
I must need more coffee, I don't seem to be able to find a link to said blog.
Ross - I think the link works - you click on the word "here" and say the magic word. Good show with the Ros ancients - I never saw any before.
DeleteGot some of the Rospak Romans, they went out before I could buy any Greeks. I'd completely forgotton about the metal Ros ranges.
ReplyDelete