Sunday 26 April 2020

But wait ... there's more!




More insufferably nerdishness and influence-spotting, that is! The miniatures above are from Citadel's Goblin Raiding Party, a terrific boxed set from the early 80s, complete with such euphonious names as Norgus the Flatulent and Gigblad Childsplatter.

Gigblad Childspatter
It's struck me before that the armament of these goblins was a bit out of synch with the usual Warhammer (and Tolkien) goblins: military picks and slings rather than scimitars and bows.

But after the last two entries on this blog, there are no prizes for guessing why. Here's the Monster Manual on goblin armament:


And sure enough, among the war party, we get a military pick, a short sword and sling, a short sword and spear, a morning star (here a flail rather than a spiked mace, but described on the box as a morning star). 

There's one with a warhammer too - but it's the historical sort of warhammer that has a pick head. And while the chieftain, Ubar Earbiter, has a falchion or scimitar, his lieutenant, D'Glish Sharpcut, has a short sword and a military pick on his back (leaders having the best weapons and two each, of course).

So I think it's pretty clear that these goblins are based on the Monster Manual entry. But there's something even more glaringly obvious. Just look at the illustration!


I can't believe that I'd never noticed this before, but the Goblin Raiding Party have exactly the same helmets - and in once case, exactly the same weapon - as David Trampier's illustration. Check out Torg Dwarfsmasher, bottom right:


Again, none of this is exactly earth-shattering. But it is interesting (to me at least!) to trace the origins of this rather distinctive bunch of Citadel goblins. 

6 comments:

  1. I share your interest, something between history (these old D&D parchments) and archeology (oooh, that old box in the cellar with 80s minis inside :)).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ha! Yes - there's something satisfying in spotting the connections, even if they're fairly obvious!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Replies
    1. Thanks, Skully! They're another old batch; I have the rest of the group to paint but am in danger of forgetting how I did these ones five or so years ago!

      Delete
  4. Nice observation...I've never spotted this blindingly obvious similarity. My penchant is observing figure designs and poses which sculptors copied from each other... makes the long winter nights fly by.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ha! I know what you mean. Just occasionally, there's a common source that all the designers were drawing on. I think the Monster Manual wight must have been replicated in miniature about five or six times at least.

    ReplyDelete