Gripping Beast Plastics Saxon Thegns- unboxing, review and sprue inspection

This review is for the Saxon Thegns kit

This is the first time I've seen inside the new Gripping Beast Plastics boxes. I've liked their metal models for a long time but these new figures a bit of an unknown entity so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Saxon Thegns box cover

Luckily, in no way did they disappoint!

You get 44 plastic figures in the box, FORTY FOUR.

 That's enough to give a GW CEO a heart-attack.

They're spread over 4 standard sprues and 2 command sprues. Let's take a look.

Saxon Thegns Sprue

You get a tonne of stuff with these kits. The Saxon kit doesn't have quite as much as the Viking one, but you do get a lot more spears, which makes them perfect for shieldwall arrangements.

The bodies and weapons are a bit bigger than most other 28mm scale figs but its a minute difference that is within the realms of possibility. In the real world everyone is a different height and weapons are all different sizes,  that's part of realistic gaming, so I welcome the difference. Check one of my previous posts for a scale comparison of these against other figs.

Saxon thegn sprue flipped

All torsos have crucifix necklaces.

Saxon sprue on the left and Viking sprue on the right- can you spot the differences?

Saxon and Viking side by side flipped. Notice the Vikings have much more in the way of axes and swords whereas the Saxons have majority spears. Helmets are also very different.

Same shields as the Viking set- round with bossed centres. Shame there's no kite shields included but not the end of the world.

 The heads are glued on to a flat plateau neck with the join just above the Adam's apple. This makes a really solid and easy joint without any faff trying to get the heads to fit in place. It does unfortunately also make it hard to mix these torsos with other model ranges but theres enough heads in here to have plenty of options so I wasn't fussed. 

Torsos and leg are joined but are in a range of 5 poses so they don't look too static when ranked up.

 They're also in the perfect positions to form a shieldwall- a major bonus over warlord games ad wargames factory whose figures are in more combat based poses.

Command Sprue

The command sprue contains two figures, a fabric cloak, horn, dragon standard, cool heads and some swords.

The kit also includes bases! Definite tick for that! Theres a nice selection too, theres 20mm and 40mm squares and then 100  x 20 , 60 x 20 and 40 x 20 strips. So no matter how you want to base them you're covered.

Detailing & sculpting: 8/10- few mouldlines in places but over all really good and easily trimmed, great detailing on all hair, beards etc, weapons look great and chainmail is spot on.

Scaling: 8/10- Bit chunkier than most other brands but mix in ok. Weapons are slightly chnkier than wargames factory but can still be mixed.

Amount of bits: 10/10- an insane amount of bits! check the pics- you get a tonne of stuff!

Ease of construction: 10/10- incredibly easy to build. Having joined legs and torsos was handy, and arms go on easily. Neck joined heads are easy and still allow for posing.

Value for money: 9/10- bit pricey compared to other sets but youre getting 44 men- thats a saga warband or for wab/fog either one massive regiment or two regular regiments. Awesome.

Over all: 45/50 - a mighty fine score!

So for your money you're essentially getting two regiments or one huge one if you play WAB, or a whole warband if you're playing SAGA. Plus a tonne of stuff for a bits box. AND bases included. The models themselves are of a very high quality, with excellent sculpting and manufacturing. They barely needed trimming before being built, hardly any mould lines at all!

Great kit!

To see how they scale up with other manufactures of 28mm dark ages check my other posts!