Welcome to the Strelets Forum. Please feel free to discuss any aspect of 1/72 scale plastic figures, not simply Strelets. If you have any questions about our products then we will answer them here.
Linear-A are certainly bringing out some excellent figures. Their Ancient sets with a 'conventional' number of figures per box are very good IMHO, and I might well be tempted by the new Samnite set, ditto the Celt Salassi set.
Almost all the figures I buy are for 'wargames style' units, so clapping Prussians* and axe-wielding farriers with dying horses are of limited use to me; but nonetheless interesting as a contribution to the ever-growing range of 1/72 figures out there.
(* PS: I'm pretty sure that, had I been loading and firing a musket all day, coupled with a bit of crawling around and perhaps some 'hand to hand' combat, the last thing I'd want to be doing with my poor, sore hands is 'clapping'....I'd be saving them to ensure a good firm grip on the Gin canteen or beer tankard!)
I like the look of the Highlander in the British victory set, I think I can see a use for him. The Prussian could perhaps convert to a figure clambering over some sort of obstacle which would be cool. The clapping guys would easily convert to loaders but I don't think I have a desperate need for two extra loaders; perhaps they could just be applauding the arrival of the gin wagon. The pioneer is very nice, but so are the ones Strelets produced recently.
As for the price of the mini sets it depends on how I view them. I complain about the price of Zvezda's AOT French Dragoons because $44 for a standard 12 man cavalry set is just excessive. But, on the other hand, I have sometimes bought a set of figures just to get one figure and the price I pay doesn't worry me because I really want that figure for a specific purpose.