I have ranted about plastic modelkits vs toy soldiers before.
The latest issue of Miniature Wargames, came with a free sprue of a mounted knight, for the game Conquest - The Last Argument of Kings (never heard of this game before, but I also think I'm not the target audience anymore :-)) The figures of this game are also much larger as what we would expect even from "heroic 28mm" (which really is 32mm?). The figures looks closer to 42mm, although I didn't make a formal measurement. But you can probably find the relevant information online.
The sprue didn't look very inviting. Sprues these days are very obviously "computer generated", a result of some optimization algorithm to lay out all 3D components. To me, it simply looks like a piece of soulless plastic. How can a good toy soldier ever come out of this?
Yesterday - after working in the garden - I suddenly felt the urge to put this thing together. So I set myself to it, and 15 minutes later (take or give a few minutes), the knight was assembled.
Now, I admire the design of such a figure. The level of detail and complexity is something that was unachievable when I starter miniature wargaming in the 80s. And if you paint it up, it would probably look fantastic.
But to me, it has no character. No matter how detailed, it feels like a modelkit, not a toy soldier. It's still soulless plastic to me.
