Warrior Irish (1 Viewer)

[CannonFodder1971]

I bought some of Peter Nathan's "Warrior Irish" series from Shannon and Pete back in 2003. I really hoped that it would take off as a series, and Peter Nathan would probably be known to many of you as a K&C distributor for many years. However, I seem to be one of the very few out there who had any. Perhaps it's not enough to have millions of people of Irish descent out there to win an audience. Then I reflected on that: there are enough potential customers out there. Also in the series there are easily enough items of interest across the various continents to attract collectors, from Bernardo O'Higgins in Chile to the Wild Geese of Europe. (However, I wish Peter had also done a "Ned Kelly" vignette to represent Australia). It'd appear though that the uptake hasn't been what might have been expected.

My view on the reason for this would probably be soemthing to do with the stranglehold of Britains/ERTL, Frontline and now more recently Conte, on the Irish-themed ACW market. Face it: the ACW is the cash cow that cross-subsidizes other ranges when you've a universal price structure in place.

Perhaps also the lack of enthusiasm for the Warrior Irish may simply be the crowded nature of the market and perhaps the need for another few years for it to gain recognition to take off. For example, the Soldier Gallery was founded by former King & Country sculptor Chris Munroe. However, unlike Britains/ERTL escapees Ken Osen (who teamed up with Troiani for a series of miniatures) and Richard Walker (who founded Forward March!) it would appear that it didn’t really work out for him either. I found his Irish Brigade sets on Larry Symon’s March Through Times website and that led me to find his own website, which has only recently come back to life.

Perhaps the Warrior Irish series needs more time, a slow burner. Perhaps Peter needs also to think about an Africana series or some ethnic group from which enormous diversity could be shown through a similar series of sets. A "Warrior" series rather than a "Warrior Irish" series?

 

[Shannon Reuss]

I think Warrior Irish would increase its popularity if it would produce companion sets to what it puts out. Each set produced is entirely unrelated to the other Warrior Irish offerings except for of course being an Irish regiment of some type. Collectors often like to make dioramas and vignettes with their soldiers and if you only have one 3-piece set to work with, it is difficult to do much with it. Though each set is designed as vignette unto itself I think collectors would like the opportunity to use their creativity with these sets.

 

[jazzeum]

I'm unfamiliar with them. Can somebody post a link where I might see some of their offerings? Thanks.

 

[Shannon Reuss]

Hi Jazzeum,

Since no one else has responded I'll just go ahead and tell you that you can see them on our site: http://www.treefrogtreasures.com/irish.shtml or you can check out Peter Nathan's website at http://www.thewarriorirish.com/pages/index2.html.
Warrior Irish are 54-mm metal figures and Peter Nathan is located in Australia but I don't believe the figures are actually produced Down Under. He has some very unique sets.