ACI Toys Greek Hoplite 2.0

  When i saw the pictures for this year's Hongkong Toy Show highlights, a company called ACI Toys caught my attention with their product. It appears that they make high-end 1/6 Scale posable figures comparable with Hot Toys lineup. One of their featured products in the exhibition is their Greek Hoplites which looks gorgeous and soon will be available in 4 different styles. The Hoplite comes with Linothorax Armor along with Xiphos and Greek Shield as the armament. When i check the ACI website for the Hoplite 1.0, Hoplite 2.0 is designed as another variation of 1.0 which come with Cuirass and Javelin. Apparently they will sell the Hoplite's Equipment separately from the figure for some reason, probably because of production cost. Even though i am not to familiar with High-end toys like Hot Toys, but i think the Hoplite 2.0 will cost around 100-200 USD.

 Hoplites were the  Heavy Infantry of Greek in classical period which are mostly composed of Free Citizens of Greek City States and have been used as mainline infantry through the famous battles in Classical Period. Usually They fight with Spear and Shield and when 2 Forces of Hoplite fight against each other, the sight looks like 2 Porcupines sticking out on each other . Some of the more outstanding tactics using Hoplite in the period were the Oblique Formation used by Theban General Epaminondas and the Hammer&Anvil tactics by Alexander the Great. The Linothorax armor itself are rather interesting piece of equipment, made of layers of Linen Cloth, the armor provide better comfort than cuirass and at the same time capable of protecting the user from arrows in the period. The armor also had been featured in Homer's Iliad and seen to be worn by Alexander the Great on a famous mural. Nevertheless the depiction of the Hoplite's equipment looks accurate enough for a history amateurs like me and the Hongkong based company deserved a praise for putting respectable amount of effort on their research.

 Apart from the Hoplite 2.0, ACI Toys also made the figurine of famous Greek character based on Troy movie which starred Brad Pitt and i do see Paris and Achilles prototype from the exhibition which looks gorgeous. However the ones that i look forward the most is ACI Toys prototype for Sengoku Period famous Warlord, Shingen Takeda which is spot-on in terms of looks which will wait for its preview.