Playmo-Friends Royal Soldier
Released: 2020
RRP: £2.99
Rating: ★★★★★
Playmobil soldiers generally follow a historical ‘look’ although they can, of course, be situated anywhere in your universe. Ours, for example, form a militia that protects Daddy’s books from A.’s thieving pirates! They’re decontextualised and consequently, in play, have nothing to do with early modernity. With that caveat acknowledged, I think it’s terrific that Playmobil have an eye for a period when they’re designing these klickies.
In this context, there are two interesting features of this smart-looking fellow: his hair and the fact that he’s been called a ‘royal’ soldier.
Shoulder-length curly hair combed off the forehead was in fashion among the English and French elites by 1630. You can see this in contemporary portraits such as those of Charles I and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Louis XIII went prematurely bald at this time and began wearing a periwig of long, curly hair, establishing the trend for wigs in the same style.
After the Thirty Years’ War had concluded in 1648, there was a cultural shift towards more opulent hairstyles. Hair got even longer and was allowed to fall forward, rather than being combed back. These changes were resisted during the English interregnum with its Puritan government, but quickly became the norm following the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, at least among the upper sort – court figures such as John Evelyn, for example.
By this time, monarchs (and the nobility) had been keeping armed retainers for centuries, but the Thirty Years’ War and the British Civil Wars proved the catalyst for establishing modern ‘standing armies’ made up of career soldiers. In England, this began in 1645 with Sir Thomas Fairfax’s New Model Army (Oliver Cromwell was its cavalry commander), disbanded with the Restoration but then partly recommissioned into the new, royal army. This military transition went hand-in-hand with the development of a centralised state bureaucracy, not only to raise the taxes to finance the army, but also to appropriate the power of mustering troops from local towns and lords.
All of this situates our klicky in the second half of the seventeenth century. Although it’s tempting to regard him as French, a number of regiments from across Europe wore blue, including some from the Netherlands and Prussia. In England, one of the Parliamentarian units that transferred to the king’s army became the Earl of Oxford’s Regiment (and, later, the Royal Horse Guards). Unusually for a British unit, they also wore blue and were subsequently nicknamed ‘the blues’. So there’s quite a bit of flexibility when placing this figure into a historical setting.
The klicky itself is clean shaven. His mass of curls, falling either side of his shoulders, do limit his head movement to slight turns. He has the standard waist.
His hat is a plain black tricorn. On the torso print he has a white shirt with gold buttons, and a red waistcoat with gold trim buttoned up to his neck.
Incidentally, according to Evelyn the waistcoat was an invention of the English court of the 1660s as a response to the French lead in fashion.
The soldier’s coat is royal blue with matching sleeves, and has gold and white trim. It has a waist adjustor at the rear but no pockets for clipping the baldrick. His breeches also match his coat. He has white stockings and black shoes.
His torso print and coat appear to be identical to those used on #6435, an officer, released back in 2015.
He is a well-equipped soldier, carrying both a flintlock musket and sword. The musket (p/n 30020300) comes equipped with a socket bayonet (p/n 30070100). This was introduced in the 1690s as a system that offset the bayonet to allow the musket to be fired while fitted – previously soldiers had plugged the muzzle with the bayonet. The sword is a sabre (p/n 30062180) and is held by a white, wide-bodied baldrick.
Although he’s a thin-wristed klicky, he lacks any cuffs (by contrast #6435 had red cuffs). These would have been a nice touch, but without them he is able to hold his musket at the shoulder. As with all the soldier klickies, his grip in this posture is a bit loose, and the musket is best braced between the shoulder and the corner of his hat.
Whether the musket is indicative of his place among the ranks, or his sabre suggests he’s an officer, I’m not sure. However, I like the ambiguity as it makes him a flexible character, and the extra parts are never unwelcome.
Either way, his final accessory does help define him: a charter, with two seals apparently affixed with a great big blob of red wax. The text is illegible, as one might imagine. Although one or two ‘words’ look as though they might be readable, the characters are mostly minims. It’s extremely large, the same mould as used for pirate maps, so a bit cumbersome in play.
To conclude, and with a deferential nod to the caveat with which we started, this is a genuinely early modern figure and a great addition to our collection. The elements of red, white and gold enhance the blue to good effect. He comes with plenty of accessories to help develop a story. The highlight though is that hair, which is spectacular. Here’s hoping for more along these lines from our friends in Zirndorf in the future!
EMPM
EarlyModernPlaymobil 