I bought a bunch of em4 Dwarves and Orcs, back in the late 1990's to the early 2000's. Those were made out of a resin material. I sold those off, but I re-visited the em4 website recently, and I decided they were such a good deal back in the day that I decided to buy a bunch more Orcs and a pack of shields.
I ordered their variety pack of 48 Orcs: 16 Swordsmen, 16 Spearmen, and 16 Short Bowmen. I wanted some shields for the swordsmen and the Spearmen, so I also ordered a pack of 25 shields of three different types (25 ordered [Correction: I ordered 50 shields, two packs], 59 shields received!). The total order, shipped from the UK to the USA, was <$40, delivered.
I got the order today. The current models are no longer cast in resin, rather they are injection molded. The sculpts are slightly softer than I remember. There is a small amount of flash on the right elbow of every Spearman, but otherwise, they are really decent. They have more pronounced mold lines than I ever remember, but I have sanding sticks which will remove these easily. If not, I can use an X-acto razor blade to remove the mold lines quite easily.
What surprised me, however, was that my order of "25" shields multiplied during shipping to a whopping 59 shields of three distinct types! I will be sure to store them separately so as to avoid any more reproduction of plastic shields, as I already have way beyond the 36 that I can use!
I plan to use these figures to supplement my existing Orc army: the 16 Spearmen/Swordsmen/Short Bowmen will be segregated into two Units of 8 figures of each type.
The plastic seems to be hard, and I am fairly certain these are made of styrene plastic (liquid glue will dissolve this type of plastic, creating an actual weld of the two pieces where the melted plastic fuses together as the solvent evaporates -- the plastic hardens). I am fairly certain they are not made of High Density Polyethylene -- HDPE (doubtful as this type of plastic is soft, and flexible -- Army Men figures are made either of HDPE, or LDPE -- Low Density Polyethylene; no known-to-me glue dissolves PE plastics, but Hot Glue sticks to PE plastics with a strong enough bond for gaming purposes…).
Styrene plastics allow paint to adhere beautifully; HDPE/LDPE will not allow paint to adhere except superficially, rubbing off in a short time, especially with rough handling/flexing.
I am looking forward to cleaning these up, priming and painting them. I am nearing the point of army building wherein I will have sufficient Orcs, Goblins, and Kobolds to stage some large-sized battles against (Hill and Mountain) Dwarves and Gnomes, in the Underdark. Cheers!
reports from the final California Gen Con...
