Alright. First up is the Bear Clan
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For 15mm they hold good detail, are properly armed from the get go with stone weapons which means no conversion, and the bearskin cloaks give them a consistent theme which when mixed into a larger unit would make them look pretty badass and keep you from having all the same caveman.
Also, because of the scale you could probably paint the cloaks to look like any decent sized predator, such as wolves in case you don't want everyone to be a bear wearing badass.
Now for the one problem with them. They're on the small size of 15mm. Out of the figures I bought they were the shortest. They're probably actually 15mm rather than the "18mm" standard thats becoming more and more common as scale creep progresses.
Normally I wouldn't hold tihs against them, but it does damage the imapct of their well muscled pelt wearing sculpts. Depending on how big your other cavemen are you might want to consider them. Though whatever you do, pick up the female as a single. Decent cave girls are hard to find.
Out of the individual figures though, the female from the command set is good with any scale of figures. She's a decent cavegirl sculpt and as a female I doubt anyone will care if she's a little on the short side.
Regardless of the high issue, I recommend them. This is especially true if your characters are closer to actual 15mm scale. Even on the small side they can be mixed in with larger figures, and considering the height we normally look at them from, you could just build up their bases a bit so they stand taller.
Next up are the Skraelings.
Decent size they stand a hair above the Bear Clan and like them they need almost no conversion. I say almost because the guy with the sword and the guy with the Mohawk need a weapon/head swap respectively. The sword is too advanced, the moehawk screams "American Indian".
They're good sculpts with good detail and the indian girl works as a cavegirl who's not all fur bikinis.
I'd have to break out my bag of figures to give you a real size comp but they're probably the average size for 15mm. Good figures all around. If you want a cheap and easy starter tribe, I'd pick them up.
Next comes the singles I got.
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I got poses 1 and 5 of the Early Angosaxons.
Pose 1 just needs to have his axe converted while post 5 is a lunatic in loincloth with a snake. The sculpts are good and SLM does sell singles if you're willing to pay a small premium.
Number 1 is a big guy. Compared to the other figures he'd be huge standing about a head taller than most of them. Of course this works for him. Something about the sculpt just screams "I'm HUGE!". Must be the stance and belly. Be a good figure for your "Big guy" type hunters/warriors. All he needs is to convert his axehead to something less iron age and more stone age.
Number 5 is decent sized and high detail. While you might wonder what good is a hunched over guy with a snake, I think he's good for your paleolithic magic user/evil wizard type characters. After all, who else would use a snake but someone not entirely on the side of the angels?
In general, I feel other non-caveman lines can be a great source of singles, such as the above.
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Next up on the singles list is second row, number 1 of the Viking personalities
He's a big guy with a bear pelt. Good detail, good sculpt. A little bit on the large side of 15mm, but still reasonably sized. I'll be swapping out his weapons for stone axes and probably using with with the Bear Clan as the chieftain. After all, he does tower above them comfortably well. Makes him look all kinds of badass.
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Next there are the Scots-Irish personalties. I got figure 4.
As you can see, beardy man with a fur cloak with a deer skull. Good shaman type. Good detail good sculpt. Problem is he's short. Maybe even a little smaller than some of the bear clan figures who are not giants themselves.
In this case, I don't care though. Just paint him up like a little an old man and he'll work great as the elder shaman with the fancy headdress.
The next figures are not technically from SLM.
I bout a couple Copplestone Castings Cavegirls off of him. 2 and 3 of the top row on that image.
I now know why Copplestone are so highly detailed (and the sculpts are incredible). They're HUGE. I need to find my measuring tape but just eying it, they're flat out 18mm figures. As characters they work, but as is they will somewhat tower over your others.
I'm going to buy more of them in the future as well, but be warned. Copplestone 15s are really big.
All in all, they're all good figures but have their quirks. I like the Skraelings the best, but think they're all decent figures and can work as cavemen with only a little effort. No effort if they're willing to sentence sword guy and moehawk to the singles bin.
The only real blackmark I have against the Bear Clan is their size. They're good figures and I'll be using them, just they're on the small size.
The other singles I mentioned are all solid and will work well with a little work. The only tough one being the druid on account of his height, who can get away with being small.
The Copplestone are good figures but are MUCH more "heroically" designed than the others, which makes them and their weapons really big. I'll probably suck it up and buy more. I've found a good reseller on EBAY who charges a reasonable price without the painful overseas shipping.
