Last week I showed off the classic 90s era Goblin Fanatics that I painted back in 2021; But I painted more than just these three orcs that month. Among the lot of Greenskins was another trio of Goblin Fanatics. Unlike the ones from last week this group of sculpts were the next evolution of Goblins.
Released in 1999 these new Fanatics coincided with the revamped plastic Night Goblins kit which would last all the way until 07/08. This next evolution of the Night Goblin design followed the trend seen in this trio of Orcs & Goblins characters released in 1998. There Brian Nelson sculpted a Night Goblin Shaman, the classicOrc Shaman which you can still get to this day and lastly an Orc Waaghboss on war pig. All three of these were seemingly inspired/made for the Idol of Gork camapaign box, similar to some Dwarf heroes which were released for the Grudge of Drong. These three new Greenskins showed the hallmarks of the 6th edition design ethos for Greenskins with much bigger and exaggerated facial features. One of these three characters was a Night Goblin shaman whose appearance clearly matches with the later Night Goblins including the new Fanatics: Big jutting jaw, long sharp nose and a much bigger head than his brethren at the time.
Back to the Goblins at hand. The original release had 4 different poses. OF those I only got three since my seller did not have the fourth one. In the following years I actually managed to get ahold of one after a lot of searching. I assume since these were packaged in groups of 3 that fourth sculpt just did not appear in blisters a lot. In any case since I did not buy him at the time he will sadly remain absent from this post.
Unlike the trio from last week this one features a lot more dynamic posing with clear signs of struggle and drag from the chains. This does lead to the unfortunate issue of a lot of overhang from the base. Normally that would not be an issue, but since these models are made from metal and their chains are still relatively fragile pieces, you can
probably imagine where the issue lies. The one Fanatic with the worst weight distribution is the one whose been thrust up in the air by his momentum. Since the base is a slotta-base I cannot just simply glue a penny below it. I will probably just have to get some small weights and add them to the base instead; Until I actually play with these models though, I have left that task yet to be done.
Issues aside I think these Fanatics are some of my favourite designs across their lineage. Something about the sheer chunky details and their huge heads just scratches a specific itch of mine.
Thinking more on this topic I think it is because they fit so well into this era of sculpts from around 1998 to 2006/7 where miniatures still heavily leaned into heroic scale. The thick detailing makes painting very easy and give you some amazing results. It is also the era of miniatures I grew up with and thus a lot of my feelings on this topic are probably tainted by nostalgia. That is not a bad thing, but I like to stay aware of my biases when I talk about these things. I am sure had I been born 10 years earlier I might have preferred the '92 Fanatics over these.
This time around the size of their heads allowed for a lot more details such as their gums and even nails. And again I painted their soft tissue turquoise. With these new sculpts they remind me a lot more of the Greenskin who inspired me all those years ago. And after whom all my Orcs and Goblins are painted. I feel that their skin turned out a lot smoother than the ones I showed last week. It is far too long ago for me to remember why this is, but if I had to guess it is down to their size. Unlike the Goblins from last week these are much bigger models with a lot more area and the me from 5 years ago probably struggled less with larger surfaces.
This wraps up the second instalment of my look into the past Orctober. Stay tuned for the next and last instalment!
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