cornixt:
My daughter got the Sisters of the Thorn set recently. It’s the first of the newer style plastic sets that I have actually got my hands on. It has three different sprues and a booklet on how to construct the models. It makes either 5 Sisters of the Thorn or 5 Wild Riders, the latter of which are confined to a smaller picture on the back of the box for some reason. There are no extra bits - the only leftovers are the parts specific to the other unit type you can make, or the bits not used to make a command group. They could have just been one-piece models. There seems to have been a lot of consideration into making the sprues as flat as possible, meaning you have to do a lot more construction yourself. In this case it is the legs (split through the groin and turned 90 degrees to fit more flatly) and the ears of the deer (gouged out to make a separate piece that doesn’t quite fit right), that are the annoying things we never had to suffer before. The extra space saved by doing this is taken up by the crazily thick instruction book, ironically it is only really needed because the models were made less than intuitive to construct by those actions.
Here are my overall positives, negatives, and neutral notes:
+ The five mounts are all slightly different, as opposed to the two variants older cavalry had, but not much different
- The unit looks remarkably similar to the other unit you can make with the same kit - even the banner is identical
- Zero extras, not even a few different heads with hoods, and no sprites as found on all other WE sprues
- The only variation you can make is angling the arms, and you only have 120 degrees that make it look natural.
- Lots of extra and awkward construction steps required
- Costs the same as 10 wolfriders despite using significantly less plastic, smaller box.
0 Very delicate parts, much more susceptible to accidental damage, but more detail.
Overall - while the models look great, very disappointing.