Caesar 三國演義

Though not born on the same day, same month, same year, we hope to meet our end on the same day, same month, same year.
May Heaven and Earth attest to what is in our hearts. Should we betray our friendship, may Heaven and Man turn against us.

– The Romance of Three Kingdoms

The Peach Orchard Oath (桃園結義) is one of the iconic moments in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo Yanyi; 三國演義), in which Liu Bei (a scion of the failing Han dynasty), Guan Yu (the future god of war), and Zhang Fei (the dour-handed warrior) swear brotherhood as they prepare to campaign against the Yellow Turban rebels.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is one of the four classic novels of Chinese literature, and a work of historical fiction based on the Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo Zhi; 三國志).

The novel has been a source of inspiration for popular culture in both China and Japan, with numerous films, comics, and video games based on the story and characters. Now, Caesar has produced a set of toy soldiers to represent the army of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period.

The set consists of 33 figures in 14 poses, three of which have separate arms that need to be glued to the body. The Caesar plastic bonds well using CA glue without the need for any sort of treatment.

The rank and file troops are armed with swords, bows, and spears.

Four character figures represent the three sworn brothers – Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei, along with the renowned strategist Zhuge Liang (aka Kongming/Koumei) with his trademark cap and fan.

Unfortunately, these figures were made in "heroic" scale, so they're about a head taller than the rank and file. Guan Yu is even taller due to his reported height of 6'8" (based on the length of a Han dynasty chi).

I imagine that doing some head swaps with approriately sized bodies would bring them to 1/72 scale. Certainly putting Guan Yu's head on Zhang Fei's body, and changing the snake-spear head with the halberd head could be one conversion.

Anyway, it's nice to see Caesar back in production, and I look forward to more of their upcoming figures.

I'll end with a link to a play through video of the Capcom classic Dynasty Wars, which was my introduction to The Romance of Three Kingdoms, and which was the only arcade game that I actually played through to completion (back in the day).

The original name of the game is Tenchi wo Kurau (天地を喰らう), which is also the name of the manga by Hiroshi Motomiya upon which it was based.