What's good for the goose

During the Middle Ages, there was a belief that certain types of geese emerged fully grown from driftwood through spontaneous generation (with goose barnacles being some sort of embryonic form).

This legend was propagated without any sort of critical evaluation in natural history texts by scholars like Gerald of Wales in a manner similar to the Google AI.

British Library Royal MS 13 B VIII

While this myth was challenged by Frederick II in his treatise On the Art of Hunting With Birds, it wasn't really until the 18th century when it became fully discredited.

Biblioteca Vaticana Pal. lat. 1071 f. 14v

In 1/72 scale plastic, I think the only live goose may be from the Linear-B Roman Market set, but I was hoping to find some options from HO scale manufacturers.

Busch makes two sets of geese (wild and domestic) that are repaints of the same models, but they look more like ducks to me. Faller has a set of Hens, Ducks and Geese, and Woodland Scenics has a set of Geese & Chickens. I don't have any of these sets because they are rather pricey.

The geese that I do have are from Preiser, Noch, and Merten.

The Preiser set is of Ducks, Geese & Swans (14167). Even for HO scale, the swans look tiny, giving me reservations about the size of the geese.

Based on the size of the birds, I identified a total of four geese in two poses (one hissing, one swimming), however it is very possible that I miscategorized some of the geese as ducks.

The Merten sets include Geese and Ducks on Land (724), and Geese and Ducks Swimming (736). I think that both sets are now available from Preiser.

The figures come attached to sprues (at least for the original Merten releases), so there is the risk of damage or loss during removal unless you have a deft hand at working with such tiny parts.

Based on body size and neck length, I identified six geese in each set. I think that there is one duplicated pose in each set, but I'm not 100% sure. Again, there is the possibility that a couple of the birds I thought were white ducks are actually geese.

The Noch set is of Chickens & Geese (15772).

There are eight geese in the Noch set; four standing (three poses), two flying (two poses), and two swimming (one duplicated pose).

Looking at all the geese together, the Preiser bird look small. The Merten goose is larger, its body close in size to the Noch goose, but its neck is shorter, while the Noch goose is the largest.

Preiser, Merten, Noch standing

Meanwhile, for the swimming poses, the Prsiser goose is very small, while the Merten goose appears larger than the Noch goose.

Preiser, Merten, Noch swimming

I wish there were S scale options to compare with, but out of all the models, I think the Noch geese are probably the closest to being compatible for use with 1/72 scale figures.

It's been a while since I've seen a goose in real life, but when I think of how big they should be, images like these come to mind.

To Pastures New, James Guthrie, 1883

The Goose Girl, Stanley Royle, 1921

Die Gänsemagd, Paul Hey, 1939

Motocycles Comiot,
Theophile Steinlen, 1899

In any event, most adventurers probably don't give geese a second thought when it comes to danger, but players of Where Winds Meet consider them creatures that should not be triffled with.

Victory and defeat are unpredictable in the Jianghu.

However, perceptions may have changed with the introduction of the Goose Hydra in 5th edition D&D. The monster is derived from the MTG card The Goose Mother, where it is classified as a Bird Hydra.

Google AI claims that the Goose Hydra originates from 3D printed models created by various people in recent years, but monsters such as the Deep Goose existed ten years ago. There are likely even older incarnations.

My own model was created from splicing together the heads of a gaggle of geese from a bag of plastic farm animals that I believe are bootleg versions of Britains figures.

I gave the monster five heads, since it provided the most streamlined look while preserving the integrity of the individual necks for each head.

To Heal or Not to Heal

Generic no-name medieval and fantasy figures

I recently bought a set of bootleg Caesar figures that had been brought to my attention by a reader a while back. I had seen the likes of them on eBay and Amazon before, but never placed an order because I had the nagging feeling that they would be bigger than 1/72 scale.

The figures look so big here...

I decided to take a chance after finding some being sold for a low price, and soon received a bagged set of 200 miniatures bearing the title "Ancient wars" in the mail.

The majority of these figures are based on Caesar figures, and I'm pretty sure that they are actually a bit larger than the originals, but I haven't been able to do an actual comparison.

Due to their nature, they are obviously not as well defined as the original Caesar miniatures.

There are 12 poses made of plastic that is on the hard side. The material still has a bit of flexibility, but a couple of the figures in the bag did have broken parts.

The distribution of colors in the bag was not equal, and I received more gold figures than black ones. I might get some of the other colors in the future.

Even more interesting are some fantasy figures I found on Etsy. I'm not sure if they were originally intended as game pieces, or if they are just regular toys, but some of the poses seem vaguely familiar to me.

A–D

E–H

I–L

M–P

The figures come in 16 poses, and are made of a soft rubbery vinyl material. Each pose is marked with a different letter on the underside of the base.

They are sold in multicolored, gold, and silver sets. I originally ordered a multicolored set, but I think those sets come with a random assortement of poses.

Upon inquiry, the store was kind enough to send me a replacement order of gold figures that included all of the different poses.

The multicolored figures have a pearlescent hue, while the gold figures have a nice metallic sheen. I don't have any examples of the silver figures, and I think there is a purple colored plastic that isn't represented in my batch.

The detail on the figures is definitely on the soft side, with some being rather crudely sculpted, but overall I rather like them.

I would say that despite being soft on detail, both sets of figures still make decent 1/72 scale gaming pieces, particularly if you have to deal with gamers who are not respectful with your painted miniatures.

Generic no-name plastic soldiers

Generic plastic soldiers have existed for a long time, but not many new varieties are being produced nowadays.

The typical generic soldier was made in Hong Kong, and they were typically clones of Airfix figures. Among the most common were copies of the 8th Army set.

The variations in these figures is very interesting, and I imagine that you have figures that were modeled after or pantographed from Airfix figures, recast Airfix figures, and recasts of various recasts, all thrown into the mix.

Nowadays, I think copies of Airfix US Marines and British Paratroopers are what you will typically find.

Many of these are modified to be even more generic as WWII troop types have faded from public consciousness, and new poses have been added to the sets.

I bought this bag of Combat Force soldiers because they are 1/72 figures that I have never seen before. You can typically find them on eBay or Amazon if you use the search term "360 plastic soldiers".

Each bag contains about 360 plastic soldiers (I counted 361 in my bag). The figures come in green and tan, but the colors are not equally divided.

There are 12 poses that are distributed randomly, and I've listed out the numbers of each in the following images. If anyone has two of the kneeling riflemen in tan that they want to trade for something, please let me know!

The figures are crudely sculpted and rather flat, not to mention having a few awkward poses, so they will probably not be of interest to most people.

I did find that the plastic they're made of is capable of being bent into new poses that hold their position pretty well. I imagine they might be useful for other types of conversions as well.

The next group of figures are from the Mini Carry Case Playsets.

These sets seem to have been sold in Dollar Tree stores, but I have never seen them here in SoCal.

The Army set includes a random assortment of soldiers (9) in green and tan, along with some small plastic trees and barbed wire fences.

The Dinosaur set includes a few cavemen (4) in tan along with small trees and various smaller pastel colored dinosaurs.

I think there is at least one more pose similar to the first caveman, except with a raised club that I am missing.

The Dragon set includes knights (6) in black and silver along with various pastel colored mythical creatures.

There are at least two additional poses similar to the first knight, except armed with axe, and mace, respectively.

The figures are rudimentary, but a lot better than the Combat Force figures, though the knights are pretty flat.

If anyone has any of the cavemen that they want to trade for something (especially any poses that I am missing), please contact me.