We're used to seeing seated figures in this scale. Usually they are waiting for a train, but that's probably not what is happening here. These people seem to be having a lot more fun than that.

These people are lower class Romans. They wear the hitched-up woollen tunic that would equate in social standing to jeans and T-shirt today - basic, functional and comfortable clothes which the upper echelons of society would not wear in public as they were very concerned with the status their clothes portrayed and this was working man's clothing. One man has got even more relaxed as he has uncovered one shoulder. The woman too wears a simple garment, undecorated and again suitable for the lower classes.

Of course these people could be doing anything, but they seem perfect for a crowd watching games or some such spectacle. The poses could easily have been taken from a modern audience at any sports event, with hands being thrown in the air to show exasperation (or perhaps a score) or clapping to indicate approval. The woman seems to sit more quietly - perhaps she doesn't really want to be there anyway!

As with all Nikolai figures these are beautifully sculpted, with good facial features and proper folds in the clothes. They have no flash and only two small burrs where the resin entered and left the mould (which are easily trimmed). They are all balanced, and therefore sit well without any need for gluing. With several sets of gladiators and chariots either available or promised, it seems only sensible that their escapades are witnessed by a crowd, and the vast bulk of that crowd will probably be made up of these simple but faultless figures.