I fancied a bit of Oldhammering recently, so I dug out a fistful of 1980s hobgobs to colour in. They're all Citadel C36 hobgoblins sculpted by Aly Morrison. The chap on the left (Dut Doomaxe according to the old catalogues) is an early slottabase miniature from 1985. The other 3 are unnamed pre-slottas from 1984.
There's an excellent potted history of Citadel hobgoblins on ...the Leadpile blog which goes someway to explaining why the early ranges were such a hodgepodge mess. Hobgoblins had been depicted as generic barbarian-types for the Fantasy Tribes range, proxy bakemono opponents for the Samurai range, militaristic baddies with Chinese-inspired arms and armour for the AD&D range, and eventually Steppe nomads in WFB 2nd ed. Despite having mercenary contingent lists for both 2nd and 3rd ed., this iteration of hobgoblins would be killed off at the end of 3rd ed. I guess the niche for nomadic, wolf riding marauders was already well served by the evergreen orcs and goblins (not helped by the fact that all the hobgoblin miniatures were footsloggers). There also seems to have been little appetite at GW for developing the East of the Warhammer world. For my money, though, the C36 range knocks the later Big Hat hobgoblins into a cocked hat.
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| Hobgoblin banner designs from WFB 2nd ed. Ravening Hordes book |
I'm fortunate to have previously collected several dozen C36 hobgobs (the going rate on eBay is currently a bit too spicy for me). So, given that I recently took Tolkien to task for Orientalism, why am I so enamoured with this range? I suspect it's because they're peak 1980s fantasy. The aesthetic is 1-part Conan the Barbarian to 2-parts NWOBHM* sleeve art. In fact, while I was painting the latest batch, this tune from The Comic Strip presents... More Bad News was firmly stuck in my head!
For my money, though, the most metal of all the Citadel hobgobs are the Despoiling Hobgoblins of the Darklands (Regiments of Renown RR15 - 1985) sculpted by Jes Goodwin.
*New Wave of British Heavy Metal
Good stuff. Time for an army shot, perhaps? Would it include any of the AD&D figures from when Citadel had the license from TSR?
ReplyDeleteThere probably won't be an army shot for a little while. I think the next part of this project will be going through what I painted back along and seeing how it stands up. I've got at least a dozen hobgobs I'm happy with as I've been using them as a unit in Dragon Rampant. They have a few bits of battle damage that need tidying, but nothing too onerous. With the rest, some may need a small dab here and there to bring up to scratch while others may need a nice relaxing Dettol bath. It'll be a bit like Snog, Marry, Avoid, but with goblins. Then it's a rummage through the unpainted pile to do a bit of a stocktake... I already have some more hobgobs in prep, so watch this space.
ReplyDeleteBTW I only have a single AD&D hobgoblin archer (still to be painted). I managed to snag him for cheap on 'buy it now'. I'd get more, but they go for astronomical sums. Great minis, though.