Friday, 3 October 2014

Orctober. The orc that launched a thousand armies?

Following up on last years excellent Orctober retrospectives on Orc evolution Matthew and Thantsants have this year both expanded upon the subject with looks into influences upon the Citadel Orc and personal journeys through fantasy art respectively.

I feel compelled to add my pennies worth to the debate but much of the ground I would cover has already been covered quite admirably. I do see (or rather do not see) one glaringly absent figure though the subject has been lightly touched upon.

I believe the figure to be amongst the most influential on the young minds of our generation in determining what we will and will not accept as a proper orc. By the time it was produced the Citadel orc was already well evolved but I'm be suprised to hear if any other orc figure ever made it into as many homes. Figured it out yet?

Rather than post the picture here is a link to a picture so you can have a good unbiased think and then see if you agree.






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11 comments:

  1. matthewjksullivan3 October 2014 at 06:52

    FASCINATING!
    I think you're bang on! It's an oversight of mine in my blog because (for reasons unclear to me) I never had HQ as a kid. I just remember playing that old D&D-like game Dungeon.

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    1. Erny4 October 2014 at 09:21

      No HQ? It was an obligatory part of childhood rouind my way.

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  2. Snickit3 October 2014 at 08:15

    Totally agree, although your beloved Fantasy Regiments Orc would not be far behind on that reasoning either.

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    1. Erny4 October 2014 at 09:20

      I doubt they ever reach as many households.

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  3. Fimm Mc Cool4 October 2014 at 08:55

    I totally agree. In terms of miniatures, that was the first I ever owned and for a long time the only greenskins were these plus a Boarboy Boss.

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    1. Erny4 October 2014 at 09:21

      I also had Kellers keep so I had a very large unit of boys made up of these figures.

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  4. Zhu Bajiee5 October 2014 at 15:17

    Ahhh. Very interesting. Although not a miniature (obviously!) apparently this chap sold 300,000 copies in 1984.

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    1. Erny6 October 2014 at 01:55

      I know he's in Titan or perhaps out of the pit but I can't place the original book a good teaser.

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    2. Erny6 October 2014 at 01:57

      Oh and apparently HQ sold in the millions world wide. No idea if this is true but I'm sure B.A. said this last BOYL.

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    3. Zhu Bajiee6 October 2014 at 15:01

      From 95 This lovely couple apparently 1.1 million. Clue to the B&W: Same artist designed Darth Maul.

      We need some kind of timeline / market penetration infographic. lol!

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    4. Erny6 October 2014 at 15:16

      So Iain McCraig, Death Trap dungeon but also the cover to Destroy the Orcs by 3 inches of Blood.

      Your pair from 95 are from the last Warcraft I ever played. Loved it at the time but the orcs were massive GW rip offs.

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