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Post by steve on May 30, 2017 14:14:18 GMT
What are the best sets from hat over the years, & their worst in your opinion.I nominate the peninsular British infantry & command set as the best, & the Serbian infantry inherited from Coates & shine as the worst by far. I will be interesting what everybody thinks.  ........Steve |
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Post by 1stsgt37thga on May 30, 2017 23:40:29 GMT
Best 8147 Nassau Infantry and worst 8090 Spartan Army because they never made them. Todd
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Post by Graeme on May 31, 2017 15:36:56 GMT
My favourites are the Prussian infantry (action) and I'm looking forward to seeing the Landwehr figures alongside them. the Peninsular British infantry and Nassau infantry are also great sets.
I've always liked the Grenadiers A'Cheval and the Celtic Cavalry. The British Heavy Dragoons fitted with the Scots Grey head swaps provided are really good too, I just got the two extra boxes I need to get enough heads to make a box worth of greys.
Worst set, I don't know. Some of the older sets are less sophisticated than the newer ones and the horses have certainly seen an improvement. the Prussian Dragoons are an example of a set I think could be better, and I thought the Young Guard figures looked a bit clunky until they were painted, then they looked fine.
But really I don't have a Hat set that I'm not happy to use and in most cases the other manufacturers haven't made a set better (if at all) so I'm very happy to have got the figures from HaT.
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Post by PDA on May 31, 2017 16:49:32 GMT
Best = WW1 ANZAC 8071 or Australian Light Horse 8153. Probably the ANZAC; great poses. The Turks (8070), Austrians (8060) and Russians (8061) are very close runners up.
Worst = I agree with Steve; the Serbs. Sorry, but they are a bit on the ugly side.
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MARIOS KONTOGIANNIS
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Post by MARIOS KONTOGIANNIS on May 31, 2017 18:27:57 GMT
Best: Hat ww2 British Mortars and British Machine Guns!!! They filled a large gap and so, thank you Hat.
Worst: very rare for Hat, 99% of the sets are superb. But, yes, the ww1 Serbs... I think the worst by far...
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Post by Santi on Jun 1, 2017 17:04:42 GMT
There are a lot of very good sets over the years: sometimes due to the sculpting quality, others due to the soldiers represented, or the poses included, or...
But for me (sorry, I must eliminate all sets made in that horrible rubbish plastic), the best of all is 8013: Napoleonic French Guard Horse Grenadiers. 
About worst sets, simply I have never bought them, they can't sell by themselves. 
Cheers.
Santi. |
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Post by steve on Jun 1, 2017 17:35:02 GMT
Yes lets face it Hat have produced a lot of great sets over the years & very few really bad sets. I originally chose British peninsular infantry. But in truth it could have been the Nassau infantry, marching Napoleonic Prussians or quite a few more brilliant sets, but I am struggling to find any really bad sets apart from the Serbian infantry & long may it produce more great sets in the future. Perhaps I should have asked for your favourite & least favourite sets to be fair to Hat & make it easier for everybody ..... Steve .
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Post by Brian on Jun 1, 2017 21:54:00 GMT
My favourite has to be first Nap Prussian infantry MAC, 2nd Peninsular British infantry, 3rd Nassau infantry and the superb French Light Infantry Chasseurs MAC are not even in my top 3.
Worst set Napoleonic Russian Artillery under sized, lacking detail an early Hat set that would never make out of the door past quality control these days.
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Post by grumble on Jun 2, 2017 2:41:49 GMT
No one mentioned the Coates and Shine Askaris as the worst? I will. But two sets out of all their production (Askaris and Serbs) -- not bad. And HaT more than made up for the Coates and Shine Askaris with their own Askaris, Ruga Ruga and Schutztruppe! Wonderful sets!!!!! I can never sufficiently express my thanks to HaT for all the great WW1 sets that are useful in the Middle East (and some in East Africa as well) - Turkish infantry, cavalry, and artillery/MG's, Australian Light Horse, ANZAC infantry and heavy weapons, khaki drill/sun helmet Tommies, British heavy weapons and cavalry, Highlanders, Indian infantry of WWI and the colonial Indian sets of infantry and lancers which work very well in the Middle East for WW1. And I even have a few Coates and Shine Serbs (traitors!) serving in my Ottoman army. So they are not totally useless.  |
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Post by Ole Ben on Jun 2, 2017 15:14:10 GMT
I say the El Cid Almoravids and Andalusian Infantry sets are by far the best. Excellent Poses and I even like the plastic they are made from. I have customized many of the figures and the cavalry as well. Would love to see the Byzantines be as good as these sets.
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Post by jock52 on Jun 3, 2017 8:33:42 GMT
Painting one of the worst at the moment - Hypaspists.
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Post by flashman on Jun 3, 2017 10:13:58 GMT
Not the worst or best, but the set most in need of a retooling is the Imperial Legionaries. Poses are too thin, very flat, and have about as much belief in what they're doing as a Bishop in a Bordello. www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=165 |
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Post by waynew on Jun 3, 2017 23:29:27 GMT
I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Sea Peoples" as HaT's all-time worst set (due to a total screw-up factory, if I remember correctly) - so bad they make great fantasy trolls. But considering all the joy I've received from all the other HaT sets I've bought and painted over the years I can forgive (LOL).
Many have mentioned many of my favorite sets - it is difficult for me to pick just ONE - but neck and neck in contention are the aforementioned Peninsular Brits, Nassau Infantry, MAC Prussians, and the El Cid range. Boy I could go on. There are some that I still have great affection for even though they're a bit stylized. I like the Russian Militia and the 1812 French Line and Elites (again, wasn't fond of that style, but these guys had a charm of their own IMHO).
A tip of the hat... (Sometimes I can't help myself...)
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Post by plasticpanzers on Jun 4, 2017 6:33:19 GMT
to me worst was Napoleonic Russian Artillery.... the best (so far) was the 100 fig pack of Napoleonic French Infantry....
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Post by gerd on Jun 4, 2017 17:02:36 GMT
Hello, in my opion the Napoleonic Sets of prussian Line Inf (marching, action, command) are great sets. Another wonderful set is Set 8186 British Peninsular Infantry. I used the added hats for changing many other figures... Bad: The napoleonic artillery sets.... Just five gunner-posses is too less...some multipose figures with the possibility to change their positions would have had been nice.. And the guns are too simplified.. |
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Post by Mikey V on Jun 6, 2017 12:38:25 GMT
I can only speak to the Napoleonic sets as that is what I collect but my vote:
Best: 8220 French Light Infantry Carabiniers. Beautiful figures, realistic yet attractive poses, perfect proportions. All of the French Light Infantry sets are good but the Carabiniers are imho the best of the best. The British Pennisular Infantry are a close second, I have both sets and I recommend them to anyone interested in 1/72 Nappys.
Worst: 8095 French Line Infantry 1808 - 1812. I realize this set is very popular (just google and you'll find dozens of examples of painted units) but I could never get past the chunky proportions, stunted legs/poor anatomy, marching figures that look like they are stepping over huge puddles, and of course the bubble gum plastic that makes cleaning the mold lines such a chore. There is one other reason for me, my French army is 1808 - 1812 so I really need line Infantry but I could never accept these meaning my army is incomplete (I am still hopeful sets 8296 and 8297 will be good and fill this huge gap).
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Post by flashman on Jun 6, 2017 13:46:03 GMT
I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Sea Peoples" as HaT's all-time worst set (due to a total screw-up factory, if I remember correctly) - so bad they make great fantasy trolls. But considering all the joy I've received from all the other HaT sets I've bought and painted over the years I can forgive (LOL). If you need some heavy infantry for your goblin army check out the Coats and Shine "Gothic Army", though citing C&S sets as the worst of HaT seems like cheating.
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Post by traveller1865 on Jul 20, 2017 17:53:32 GMT
For me, the bes set is 8043, Macedonian Phalangites, just need about 4-5 sets for a full Phalanx |
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Post by Contrarius on Jul 6, 2018 15:48:18 GMT
Best set, hmm, I'll take a raincheck on that, not seen enough to have a fair opinion. But I do like the French supply wagons, caissons and limbers for the Napoleonic period.
As for worst set. Yeah, the early ones are obviously the poorest. Two that I disliked so much that I didn't buy them because they were so manky (even though I desperately needed them) were WW2 Polish Infantry and WW2 German cyclists.
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Post by tonymather on Jul 6, 2018 16:51:58 GMT
Agree with many of the contributors
Best sets have to be Roman Medium Cavalry , Sassanid Infantry, All the El Cid range, French 1808-12 infantry, Spanish guerrilas. These all came out around the same time and look similar in sculpturing style
Poorest set is the Sassanid Clibinari - waited 15 years for midgets! Enough moaning - without Hat my armies wound be rather thin on the ground
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Post by richard on Sept 12, 2018 22:01:05 GMT
My favourite is probably the Zulu War British command set.
Worst-either Russian Cossacks, Nap Russian Artillery or Nap Dutch Inf.
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Post by minuteman on Sept 13, 2018 8:16:09 GMT
Best sets for me are the two outstanding big Napoleonic sets: Nassau Infantry and British Peninsular infantry. I'll also add in here the excellent smaller command sets for British Napoleonic, Prussian Napoleonic, and now French Napoleonic Line infantry - all very good indeed.
I have tended to avoid most of the sets that have already been mentioned as 'well below standard' eg: WW1 Serbs. I'm not entirely sure what I think of the rather strange selection (and sculpting) of most of the Coates and Shine stuff, although I do have an entire Ancient Indian Army (Coates and Shine) which I have yet to paint, and I have a feeling they will look OK when done.
I have a particular problem with one of the mini-sets of Dark Age figures, notably set 6006 'Saxons' who are so thin and puny that they are completely useless, even as undersized adolescent warriors. Saxons are meant to be chunky and well-fed, surely? The mini-sets were in some ways interesting - small numbers work OK with small Dark Age forces. No-one had ever attempted to model Picts before, I think (I may be wrong on this, perhaps Redbox had??). But those Saxons.....no way are they convincing.
The very old Napoleonic sets eg: the early Artillery sets, and the Prussian Uhlans and Dragoons, could really do with being re-sculpted. New sets to HaT's current standards would be, in one word, marvellous.
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Post by cpn on Sept 13, 2018 17:28:01 GMT
Hi everyone,
I can only speak for muskets era.
The very first sets are now outdated especially the Russian arty and cavalry as the Prussian ones.
More sadly, and it is only a personal taste, all the chunky series of Russian 1805, Prussian 1807, and French line/elites/grenadiers are a NO GO for me. It was a pure waste since no one else was making these.
The current style achieved by Hat is just wonderful. If the pace of release of the old time could be back I could maybe see the AWI series before...
Cheers.
CPN
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Post by richard on Sept 13, 2018 22:25:36 GMT
Admin, do you have a best and worst set?!
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Post by stevo0113 on Aug 26, 2021 11:39:43 GMT
My favorite for the best hat set is the Russian militia set loads of figures & great faces that are easy to paint. In second place the peninsular Brit infantry & third the mac Prusians. My least favorite set is the British light infantry for its poor faces & poses.  |
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........Steve
