Creating a Roman Century circa 150AD - how?

[Richard]

Ha! I can neither succeed nor fail!

Hi Richard,

Ah, yes!  I challenge you to order parts from PM USA to construct one complete villa / "insula" that matches a building in the movie.

If you succeed, we all benefit by your example.

If you fail, you understand the plight of folks like me and Justin.   

-Tim

I am in the Virgin Islands, Timmy!

I cannot order didley squat from Playmobil USA DS ... 

All I can tell you is that my understanding is that Bart constructed ALL of the buildings from available System-X parts to use as models for his animations. (He said that only the colors were different.)

So, the challenge is yours, Timmy ...

Good luck and all the best,
Richard

[Timotheos]

I cannot order didley squat from Playmobil USA DS ... 

Heh, we on the continental US are almost in the same boat.  Ask my brother in misery Justindo.

Ordering from USA DS is like trying to order the interesting stuff from the menu of a Chinese restaurant.

"Don't have.  Don't have.  Sorry, don't have that either."

Did Bart draw from his privately-owned inventory or have access to Playmobil's research-and-development toy chest?

-Tim

[Richard]

Ordering from USA DS is like trying to order the interesting stuff from the menu of a Chinese restaurant.

"Don't have.  Don't have.  Sorry, don't have that either."

That's very funny, Timmy ...

Did Bart draw from his privately-owned inventory or have access to Playmobil's research-and-development toy chest?

Bart has always been very creative with System-X.

Click on the image below and also click HERE, HERE and HERE for a few of Bart's System-X creations!



click on image above

All the best,
Richard

[Justindo]

18 was a number I pulled out of my ear.  I actually prefer 24 -- 4 rows of 6 columns creates a nice, broad front without eating all my table space.   But yeah, my 7 archers looks anemic.  Am disappointed PM made those guys so hard to come by.  I think I just need to hit DS every month with an order solely for archers and yellow shorts guys until I get the quantity I want.  (If I pad out my orders with other stuff to get better shipping, I'll wind up getting everything but the archers and yellow shorts guys).

BTW, 18 (2 cols of 9 men) is what Playmobil deploys in its movie for "The Wooden Sword."

PS.  I think I'm going to tear down my Auxiliary fort and replace it with my 16th century castle (Sheffield Manor) from last year.  The castle was gripping, whereas my Roman scenes just have not taken root. 

Maybe I'll give it one more go.  "Saturnalia in Britain" might give me an inspiration for the Christmas break.  I have a Roman family (the spouse of a legate or tribune) and I have market material.  The hardest thing to square is the fact that a regular camp is too huge to depict on a table, whereas a fortlet is unlikely to be something a legate would ever see the inside of. (or I could resume the premise of a fortlet, run by a centurion with a local wife--that could work).

Hard getting the Romans to come to life.  Everything takes so much thinking and ingenuity to look good.  I've tried making several villas from steck, but they have to be augmented with paper, or wood, to have the look and feel. 

I ordered 39 archers and 39 auxiliary troops with sandals from an e-bay seller's store in Germany that no longer seems to be selling anything.  The price and shipping with the exchange rate wasn't cheap, but I'm glad I got them.  Playmobil really should have had a 3 archer pack as an Add-On, as I think it would have been a big seller.  Direct Service is always out of the klickies I want, to say nothing of the Roman building parts.

It would be great to have one or two more photo stories with your auxiliary fort, Tim!   I like the idea of "Saturnalia in Britain" and I wouldn't worry too much about scale.  It's Playmobil, so 20 man "centuries" are fine, a legate and his wife commanding a few "centuries" would be okay, especially if they are mixed troops, and a military structure somewhere between a fortlet and a fort in size would be acceptable.

[Martin Milner]

All I can tell you is that my understanding is that Bart constructed ALL of the buildings from available System-X parts to use as models for his animations. (He said that only the colors were different.)

My inference was that the parts do not exist in the movie colours, so you could build the building shapes if you had the parts, but you'd have to paint it to get the right colours.