4273 ROMAN TENT

[Richard]

Thought y'all might like to see an "outside" review of Playmobil's Roman Commander's Tent (4273).

Click HERE ...

This "professional" review is from figures.com and it takes just a few seconds to load.

[Timotheos]

The review is respectable--example: he knew enough about Rome to know some Latin terms.

However, his critique of the artillery piece is somewhat incorrect.

The ballista he is describing resembles the "scorpion", a type of field artillery piece, a ballista small enough to be transported on a man's shoulders.
http://www.roman-empire.net/army/scorpion-pics.html

A book I have:
"The Roman Legions: Recreated in Colour Photographs" by Daniel Peterson shows re-enactors carrying a scorpion.

I think that set is great.  I only wish I could buy the figures again minus the tent for $16. 
I like that cavalry guy in yellow, who I call a Gallic Auxiliary Cavalryman.

[Gustavo]

The set is one of the best, master Rick, I think, in the Roman collection ... It has some actual content. (Horse, and its resting place ...)

I love some pirate sets because they're full of little stuff, and I honestly miss this in the Romans. (I'd like they made the Roman houses, villae as well as insulae, full of "traquitanae"* domesticae!

*Don't anyone make any efforts to try to find out what "traquitana" is ... It is Portuguese Latin ...

Wonderful tent!

 

Gus

[Justindo]

Although there are some errors, that's a pretty fair review.  I like the set quite a bit, as I do all the Roman sets.  Now if we could just got some Roman buildings...

[Richard]

Hello, Gus and Justindo ...

... I'd like they made the Roman houses, villae as well as insulae ...

Now if we could just got some Roman buildings...

It is our understanding that ALL of the buildings in the two attached pictures were made from existing System X parts! (Only the colours have been changed.)

All the best,
Richard

see attachments

[Timotheos]

I'm sure you're correct, Richard.

I guess I should try and wrestle with DS here for the parts!

"Sorry, all columns sold out.  Try ordering one every two months for six years.  Here's a shutter for the window.  Sorry, the window frame itself is sold out.  Try again in four months."

[Richard]

I guess I should try and wrestle with DS here for the parts!

"Sorry, all columns sold out.  Try ordering one every two months for six years.  Here's a shutter for the window.  Sorry, the window frame itself is sold out.  Try again in four months."

Timmy, I'm so sorry that you have had such horrible experiences with Playmobil USA's spare parts (DS) department.

I guess that I've been very fortunate. I am happy to say that I have never had a bad experience. And, that includes Schaper (all the way back into the 1970s).

[Justindo]

Although it's nice to imagine that one could assemble these buildings from current parts, I have serious doubts they actually exist.  Even if they do, there's the major problem of procuring them from DS.

I guess I should try and wrestle with DS here for the parts!

"Sorry, all columns sold out.  Try ordering one every two months for six years.  Here's a shutter for the window.  Sorry, the window frame itself is sold out.  Try again in four months."

This sounds exactly like my experience with DS!

"Yes, we have that helmet in stock"
"Great!  I need 80, please."
"Well we only have 3."
"Okay, I guess I'll take them.  I also need 80 of the crests that go with them."
"Sorry, we don't have any crests in stock.  Try back in six weeks when we get our shipment from Germany and we might have 5 of them."

And then when I finally get my order 0 of the 3 are included!

It has taken the better part of a year and numerous orders from DS and I still don't have my Roman army together!  I shiver thinking of how long it would take to receive the parts to build a Roman building!

[Martin Milner]

Did the reviewer get stiffed with a knight's sword for his commander? I don't recall getting one of those with my tent set, but it is 10 months ago, maybe I did.

This wasn't my favourite Roman set by a long chalk, this one and the siege tower I barely looked at after opening, just grabbed out the figures. Horses for courses.

[Timotheos]

This wasn't my favourite Roman set by a long chalk, this one and the siege tower I barely looked at after opening, just grabbed out the figures. Horses for courses.

It took me awhile to order the siege tower.
Historical nitpicks aside, the battering ram that comes with the tower is so poorly idealized.  Playmobil's medieval siege tower has a suspended battering ram that you can hoist back and let gravity do the rest.  The Roman one, on the other hand, would be inoperable and is a slander against Roman engineering knowledge (a smart battering ram provides mechanical advantage to the batterer).  We are supposed to "pretend" that the ram is suspended instead of clamped to the floor supports with its expensive kinetic friction tariff.

Although it's nice to imagine that one could assemble these buildings from current parts, I have serious doubts they actually exist.  Even if they do, there's the major problem of procuring them from DS.

Parts ordering in America follows an P^(n^n) complexity model.
Where P = the probability of acquiring one part for a multi-part item and n = the number of parts required to complete the multi-part item.

So, I estimate that to spare parts order one of the above Roman villas:

Odds of obtaining any one part: 80%
Number of parts: 20
Odds: 1.72E-37 %.