I'm not persuaded by the "short musket theory", though the debate has made an interesting read. Since I am also unpersuaded that matchlocks would have made an appearance at Blenheim or Ramillies, let alone later, that is no great loss to me.

I'm with Minuteman, however, in thinking that Paint Dog is onto something with his conversion suggestion.

If flintlock barrels are added and the locks changed, I think there is a threefold gain. As Minuteman has said, it gets us some real "early war" fusiliers with the shoulder-belt cartridge box, and it also gets us some useful variety in command figures.

Third, as the figures also have examples of both horizontal and vertical pockets, it would allow us to supplement the figures in Set 236, giving us a second version for several poses within each pocket type. That could improve the look of the formations significantly.

In short, if converted to flintlocks, Set 234 confers many of the benefits of a second fusilier set, which, given that Set 235 appears to be dedicated to Grenadiers, is just as well.

Of course, I have to assume that battalions can carry a mix of cartridge box types in a single unit, as if a phased issue of replacements.

There is a limit to how many I'd want to convert, but I would certainly try a couple of boxes.