This is the second of two sets depicting these light cavalry from RedBox. The first set review discussed the background to such men, and their growing use during the 16th century, so the figures in this set provide more poses to expand on the same subject.

The three swordsmen poses in this set are a little better than those in the first set because they are more natural, and more clearly actually being used in anger. The middle man has his arm rather close to his head, but generally all those poses are good. The two men with lances are fairly relaxed, which is fine for a subject that spent most of its time guarding, watching etc., and not actively engaging an enemy. The last man carries a crossbow, sometimes called a 'latch', which was certainly used by such men, particularly earlier in the century. His presence highlights the one weapon missing from both sets - pistols. The development of the wheellock from c.1517 allowed mounted men to use firearms more easily, and pistols became more common as the century developed, so their complete absence here, plus some elements of the costume, make us think both sets have more of an early century feel to them, though this is hardly a rigid dating.

The costume here is much the same in style as the first set. The big baggy clothing made famous by the Landsknechts is on show here, along with a few elements of armour, though some may be hidden under the clothing. A majority of the men wear burgonet helmets of various styles, which is fine, while the other two wear caps of typical design. Such clothing might be seen in Germany, Italy, France or anywhere in Western Europe, and both it and the weaponry is correctly done here.

If you have read our review of the first set then you will find our thoughts on the production of this set are exactly the same. The men are all nicely done, well-detailed and with good proportions and realistic poses. The relaxed lancer and crossbowman poses work well for such men, and the swordsmen are more active and bring some perfectly acceptable action to the scene. On our example there was a little more flash here than on set 1, but since RedBox seem to be fairly inconsistent in such things anyway this is not much of a guide.

Another area of similarity with our review of the first set is the horses, because they are exactly the same models used there. To repeat, many of the poses are absurd and most are highly unlikely even if they were possible. How exactly would the crossbowman or relaxed lancers look on any of these super-charging animals? Well, they look ridiculous, as you might imagine, so we recommend you find some decent horses elsewhere for so many reasons it hurts.

Good points here are the figures are nicely done and accurate with little flash, and build on the first set very well. The bad points are the horses, which is a major shame for a cavalry set. Find some good horses elsewhere (these men don’t even sit well in the saddles of these ones), and you will have a worthwhile and appealing set of 16th century European cavalry.