I got yet another piece to the miniatures puzzle in the mail today. Pig faced orcs from Britain!
Now, as you might be able to tell, these are not the pig faced orcs that you can get from Otherworld Miniatures. Nor are they the pig faced orcs that you can get from Wargames Foundry. Nor still are they the pig faced orcs that you can get from Fractured Dimension Miniatures here in the US.
No, these are new casts from the old Minifigs fantasy line, now kept in production by Miniature Figurines in Britain. These are the self-same figures that were part of the old World of Greyhawk Miniatures line (WOG68), way back in the early 80’s. Now, it seems that Miniature Figurines doesn’t have the entire line back in production (they don’t have pictures of everything in the line on their website), but they certainly have enough of them to make a decent showing, and if they get more in, I’ll be buying. (If you’re reading this, I want orcs with swords!)
There is a bit of flash on the figures, and the shields will need to be glued on, but other than that the casts are very clean and the details are quite good. Much better than I remember some of the old Minifigs casts being, actually.
Why did I go with Miniatures Figurines and not another purveyor of pig faced orcs? Price and scale. Here’s how the four companies compare:
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Company
|
Price
|
Scale
|
|
$3.17
|
25mm
|
|
|
$5.97
|
28mm
|
|
|
$4.92
|
28mm
|
|
|
$4.00
|
28mm
|
The price is per figure, converted into US dollars at today’s exchange rate. I know that Otherworld Miniatures is sold through Noble Knight, but they don’t have the regular packages in stock, so I couldn’t use them for a price comparison. I used only the regular sets (where they had sets), so no command packs or mounted figures; those are usually higher.
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| The thing on the right is actually the shield. |
The scale is also pretty important to me. I’m using a ton of classic Grenadier and Ral Partha figures as the backbone of my collection, so I want true 25mm if I can get them. I know a lot of people have a bazillion 28mm figures (that’s the scale that a lot of modern places like GW and Reaper use), but I find the 28’s just don’t look right next to the 25’s. And there’s also “scale creep” on the 28’s, as I noticed yesterday with the new Wizkids’ prepainted D&D figures.
It’s a minor thing, but I’m also not a fan of “slotta” bases. I like flat metal bases. The Otherworld and Fractured Dimensions figures come with slottas. Not a decisive factor, but it’s still there.
So there it is; based both on price and their being the same scale as my other figures, it was pretty much a no-brainer. The fact that they have the nostalgia factor going for them is just a bonus, and the figures themselves are certainly as good as any of their competitors, at least based on the photographs I’ve seen. Some day I might order some from the other three companies and do a face-to-face comparison, but for now I’ve got a lot of painting to do.
Speaking of which, I just had to share this guy’s quick video about Otherworld’s pig faced orcs. He sounds so enthusiastic about them!
Otherworlds has some nice monster humanoids, but I can't afford 3 figures for $20. With the Reaper Bones line, I've made a full army for that much (no classic orcs though).
The price of Otherworld minis doesn't bother me (well, maybe a little) but I HATE slotta bases. They're a guaranteed deal breaker.
I had so many of those mini fig figures, but always hated the orcs for some reason. The samurai hobgoblins on the other hand…
I still have the wizard from the "Mythical Earth" line and a couple of elves.
Those minifigs orcs, along with the samurai hobgobs, were the first figures I ever bought! Ordered through an ad in S&T, I didn't even play rpgs yet!