Fortress Figures Zombie Hunters

To complete my review of the range of 35mm scale Fortress Figures zombies I now present their zombie hunters. These come in two packs, containing two figures each - set ZZZ501 Chrissy Hotrod & Timmy and set ZZZ502 Chelsea & Scott. All are armed with melee weapons. None of them carries a firearm. An oversight? I'm not so sure. In a zombie apocalypse game set in the UK very few people would have access to firearms. Sure, we read about the prevalance of gun crime in the USA but I'm sure that the vast majority of citizens do not go around toting guns, so when the dead start rising most folk will just have to arm themselves with what they can find.

Chrissy Hotrod has armed herself with a hockey stick. A nice touch is the bite taken out of the end of the stick. Her friend, Timmy, has gone for that well-known sporting staple - the baseball bat. Cheerleader Chelsea carries a chainsaw. Where would zombie hunters be without the infamous chainsaw? Scott, who is probably dating Chelsea, is the muscular college jock and he totes a machete, probably the best weapon out of the four for killing zeds.

These are sculpted slightly better than the zombies, which isn't saying much. As a group they work well together. Scott is noticably taller than the other three, but given that he is a jock, that's not a bad thing. If you were to include them with survivors from other figure companies they will stand out due to their size. If that bothers you I'd steer clear of them. I could see this group working well in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer game as well as the more obvious zombie apocalypse games.

Let me tell you about the bases of this range. All figures come with integral circular bases, 18mm in diameter. Included with each figure is a 25mm square base made of resin with a hole cut out of the top so you can fit the figure snugly in the base. I've never seen this kind of basing anywhere else before. I chose not to use the square bases for two reasons. First, I base all of my contemporary figures on circular bases, usually 25mm in diameter. Secondly, it would have made what is a tall figure to begin with even taller. I stuck all of my Fortress Figures zombies and survivors onto a thin piece of card cut to a 25mm diameter circle. I filled in the edges with Milliput sculpting putty and then based them as usual with sand and gravel. This helped knock a couple of millimetres off their height, which makes them fit in better with other smaller sized ranges. However, they still remain the tallest figures in my collection.

Both sets retail at $6.00.

Fortress Figures Zombies 02

Part two of my review of the Fortress Figures range of 35mm scale zombies concentrates on their resin casts. Part one covered their metal range of zeds. This is set ZZZ201 Zombie Horde 1. What you get here is a pack of 10 assorted zombies in three different poses. In the picture above, going from left to right, the first three figures show the poses they come in. All are naked from the waist up, wear either boxer shorts or ragged cut-off trousers and are bare-footed. Fer asked me if I have any duplicates in my zombie horde (which has now surpassed the 200 mark) and I replied I haven't. What I have done with the duplicates from this set is to convert them. The beauty of them being cast in resin is that they are very easy to convert. So cutting off arms to swap or reposition or making body swaps by cutting the bodies at the waist was a simple task. With the addition of some sculpting putty (use whatever you're happy with - I use either Green Stuff or Milliput) you can really come up with something original. The negro zombie is based on the third zombie in line but has had his left arm removed and his right arm repositioned. A new hairdo completed the conversion. The female zombie was my most extreme conversion. She is based on the second zombie in line and I haven't altered the pose. I did make her waist thinner and her bum bigger. I added boobies, a dress and a new hair-do. I'm quite proud of this conversion.

These five zombies are all conversions. Body and leg swaps on most of them. New hair on all of them and a few arm swaps or repositioning of arms. The zombie second from the left holds the severed arm that I cut off from the negro zombie, although it actually belongs to a totally different victim due to its colouring. The centre zombie has had the trouser leg of his left leg restored. The next zombie in line suffers a gaping stomach wound with his intestines falling out! Finally, the zombie at the far right has had training shoes and sports socks added. These were not difficult conversions to do for me but I do have some experience in sculpting. You may decide such conversion work is beyond your skill. No shame in that!

The set of 10 figures retails for $10.00, which is good value for money. But are they worth buying? Well my criticisms of the Fortress Figures metal zombies apply equally to these zeds. They do have a cartoon-like quality about their sculpting and their size will, I'm sure, put many a purchaser off. Be warned, these are some of the tallest zombies on the market.

Fortress Figures Zombies 01

I'm always learning new stuff about the art of blogging. I was looking at someone else's blog-site earlier this week and they had typed under each of their pictures "for a closer look click on the picture" When you clicked on the picture it appeared on a new page and just about filled the screen. That's cool, I thought. I wonder how he did that? I went back to my blog-site and clicked on the first picture. Lo and behold, a new screen opened and there was my photo, full screen sized. These good folks at Blogger make life so easy! The purpose of this rambling is to let viewers who were not aware of this feature that if you want a close look at my photos then just left-click on any picture and it'll open up in a new screen. Mind you, at that size, every little mistake is magnified greatly. I've included the instructions under the header of my blog-site to remind you and it saves me from typing it out after each photo.

So onto this week's review and once again I'm looking at some of my older figures from my collection of zombies. These are 35mm scale zombies from Fortress Figures, an American based company. They come in packs of two and first up we have sets ZZZ212 Susan & Chris and ZZZ214 Wannabe & Lil Sarah. I've grouped them together as a family of mum, dad, son and daughter. The figure of Chris (dad) reminds me of Marvel Comics' Simon Garth the Zombie. Sarah is very tall and slim. Wannabe (what kind of a name is that?) has the surly teenage look just about right. Lil Sarah clutches her favourite teddy bear to her chest. None of these figures appear to be badly wounded and could just as easily be painted up as ordinary civilains, especially given their poses.

The next two sets are ZZZ213 Fireman Bill & Deputy Dan and ZZZ215 Deady Page & Johny Rotten. Apart from a few holes in their clothing the cop and the fireman aren't badly wounded. However, Deady Page (clearly inspired by Betty Page) has suffered greatly. Her midriff and lower arms have been completely chewed away, leaving nothing but bone behind. The punk, Johny Rotten, is in a ridiculous pose for a zombie. Zombies do not kick - fact! At least not in any game I run. As a consequence I have painted him as one of the living. He sports no wounds whatsoever, which lends further credence to making him a live human.

Moving on, we have sets ZZZ211 Dr. Laura & Dr. Drew and ZZZ216 Skip & Matt. Yet again, the two doctors could pass for humans with a more healthy skin tone and if you filled in the few holes in their clothing. I went over the top with Dr. Drew, assuming he was killed by whoever he was operating on in his surgical theatre and thus soaked his clothing in blood. Skip makes a great zombie "dragger," having been cut in half. Matt is obviously dead. He lies spreadeagled on the ground with his decapitated head nearby. Most folks know if you remove the head you kill the zombie.

Finally, is set ZZZ217 Mailman Steve & Roadkill (great name for a zombie dog!). Teaming up a postman and a dog is such an obvious choice. Mailman Steve is another zombie with relatively few obvious wounds, although his face and pose are clearly that of a zombie.The dog is huge and I don't know enough about dogs to identify its breed.
Each set of figures retails at $6.00. I fully acknowledge that this range of figures is not going to be to everyone's taste. For a start, there is their size. At 35mm these are some of the tallest zombies around and they will tower over many smaller ranges. Secondly is the standard of their sculpting. They have an almost cartoon-like quality to them and in no way could you describe them as being realistically sculpted. The heads on some are oversized, especially on Dr. Drew and Matt. Despite that, I find them rather appealing and so I was quite happy to buy them. I'm all for a bit of variety in my zombie horde. However, they would not have been my first choice of zombie figures to buy and I doubt if they'd be many other people's first choice either. If you want to pack out your horde with tall zombies then go buy 'em, otherwise I'd advise you to steer well clear of them.