Knights and soldiers of Richard's day wore full mail with perhaps some padded jacket, and it is for this reason they they carried shields. ![]() Many of these figures wear plate armour, and one has a great helm, all of which are products of the 14th century, or at the earliest the late 13th. Right from the start things do not look good. So with the assumption that this set is depicting men from the late 12th century we can at least consider whether Airfix did a good job in depicting their subject, or at least the time frame that they are supposed to have lived in. The legends may originally have been loosely based on one or more actual people - the name is common enough at the time - but some of the stories, and this set, tie themselves down to a much more specific time, for they mention King Richard I (1157-1199) and King John (1166-1216). The date of the first stories of Robin Hood is unknown, but he is mentioned in ballads dating from the fourteenth century. The market for genuine historical figures proved to be much more resilient, so now there are so many sets of medieval fighters available we have to ask the question of what exactly are these figures good for? Clearly they thought these were going to sell well as they tapped into an existing market, though in general most of these sets were amongst the first to be discontinued.
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