The ‘Hobgoblins of the Black Waste’ may look like they’ve come from an 80s Warhammer collection, but they’re part of a modern Kickstarter campaign by Oakbound Studio. Pledges start at $30 / £25 for a unit of 20 hobgoblins, and with the campaign already funded, delivery is estimated for August 2023.
The campaign currently offers units of hobgoblins with swords, bows, or spears, as well as an add-on for a troll-propelled ‘scout tower’ for $36.50 / £30. Stretch goals promise a troll and a stone giant could be available as add-ons too. The campaign will close at 3.59pm PT / 6.59pm EST / 11.59pm GMT on March 18.
The greenskins in the Kickstarter are tall but rangy, unlike the bulky orcs or diminutive goblins that Games Workshop made famous. You could use them as proxies in the Gloomspite Gitz or Kruleboyz Age of Sigmar armies, but they would probably fit better into a rank-and-flank fantasy wargame, where their svelte proportions make them easy to line up into square regiments.
They would certainly look the part in a retro ‘Oldhammer’ army from earlier editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battles – GW’s Orcs only got really bulky in the mid 1990s when sculptor Brian Nelson took over the Orc, Goblin, and Ork ranges from goblin master Kev Adams.
These minis would also make a neat Orc force in Kings of War – a much faster miniature wargame than Warhammer ever was – and of course there’s the promise of the revised Warhammer: The Old World somewhere over the horizon.
Oakbound Studio is based in Gloucestershire UK, specialising in miniatures with a retro aesthetic. It also makes rules for its own wargames and boardgames, including The Woods, a fantasy skirmish game based on European folklore. It’s not the only studio keeping the Oldhammer aesthetic alive: in January we reported on a kickstarter by veteran sculptor Tim Prow for an army of retro skeletons.