Wargames Atlantic: Plastic Classic Fantasy Goblins Reviewed!

Today we will take a closer look at the Wargames Atlantic Goblin Warband! These 28mm hard-plastic multi-part goblin warriors are already the fifth set of their Classic Fantasy miniature range. These useful ferocious warriors are very common in multiple popular fantasy settings and can be combined with the already released Giant Spiders to create some savage cavalry! About their Classic Fantasy range: As a company of mostly "Old School" wargamers, many of our first loves was Classic Fantasy. Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Goblins, Trolls, Necromancers, Hobgoblins, Dragons are all part of our fondest hobby memories. This ever-growing range is our tribute to these iconic tropes.

The Goblin Warband

"When the Goblin Warband hunts the countryside trembles. The ancient enemy of the Free Kingdoms, the Goblin tribes are a constant threat. In normal times, the threat can be dealt with tribe by tribe by the warriors and militia of the High Queen, but recently there have been whisperings that some powerful warlord has begun to conquer and unite the tribes. Folk fear that this can only mean that War will soon stalk all the lands."

This useful fantasy boxed model set contains enough hard-plastic components to create no less than 30 28mm scaled goblin warriors. These creatures are common in most popular fantasy settings in which they are often depicted as small barbaric humanoid monsters that often harass unwary adventurers and are most deadly in larger warbands. The miniatures in this model kit are supplied on 6 identical sprues each containing enough parts to create five different miniatures armed with spears, bows and a variety of other nasty crude hand weapons. The miniatures are supplied in a nicely illustrated box with artwork by the talented artist Peter Dennis and pictures of the painted miniatures by Matthew Leahy which are a great painting reference. The miniatures were digitally sculpted by Thieu Duong and were tooled and manufactured in China at the time of the release.

As mentionned before each of the identical sprues contains enough components to create five multi-part hard-plastic fantasy goblin warriors armed with lethal hand weapons and bows. The design of these ferocious warriors is most excellent and their appearances very reminiscence of the iconic Angus Mcbride fantasy artwork featuring his popular classic orc and goblin depictions. For those familiar with the Warlord Games orcs these would certainly match in style although the latter are slightly larger being orc warriors.The tooling and casting quality of these hard-plastic goblins is very good with only very minimal thin mouldlines present. These mouldlines can easily be removed before assembly with a sharp hobby knife. So let's take a closer look at all the lovely sprues and parts right now.

So as mentionned above each hard-plastic sprue contains five unique mininiatures of which three are single piece bodies and another remaining two bodies come in two pieces with seperate bodies and legs. These two piece bodies allows you to create even more unique poses and it are also these bodies that fit the also included saddle to create Giant Spider Cavalry (Check our review of those miniatures here) As you can see in the pictures, these miniatures are clothed in chainmail, rough armour and rags most suited for even the most savage of goblin warriors. The selection of the included poses is great with plenty of dynamic posing possibilities allowing for some great-looking miniatures for tabletop roleplaying and wargaming adventures and battles.

Next we have the heads of which 18 pieces are included, these come in quite a selection including heads with all sorts of cool helmets and caps but also more primitive hairy heads ornated with bones. The details of these heads is superb with excellent characterful designs allowing you to create some great-looking miniatures. For those interested in converting miniatures with these heads, they have a flat connecting surface so using these for conversions with ball-shaped designed bodies might be slightly more difficult to achieve.

Always the most interesting parts are the weapons and these are plentiful on the sprue. We have nice assortment of edged weapons including swords, spears and more and also some bows to create some ranged warriors. The bulk of the included melee weapons are the common ones such as four spears, two swords, one battle axe, one battle club and last but not least an oriental punching sword. The last punching sword weapon looks rather uncommon but really cool to see it included. The ranged weapons included are four bows along with three arrow quivers. All included weapons arms (and other arms) are supplied with ball-shaped connectors which fit the supplied bodies but I would have prefered flat connecting surfaces as they more easily prevent odd poses and are easier to glue on the bodies. That said if desired you can always slightly adjust the arms by cutting of some of the ball-shaped surfaces.

Then we also have the shields of which five variants are included, these consist out of two triangle-shaped shields and three round shield variants. These shields offer some good variation although I'm not particularly fond of the triangle-shaped shields as these are rather small while one of the round shields also comes with a hole in the middle and still wondering for what purpose this was done. Other cool and useful components of interest included are an arm holding a mighty war horn, an arm holding a decapitated human head and an arm holding a couple of loose arrows. So now let's take a look at the assembly phase and the assembled goblin warriors.

Assembling your Goblin Warband

The miniature assembly is quite straight-forward first of all I clipped and cleaned all the parts from the sprue and kept them in small part piles sorted by weapons, heads, bodies etc. Then I glued the bodies where needed and from there worked my way through the other parts by first testing different combinations before finally glueing (revell plastic glue) them into place. I haven't encountered much issues but would have prefered less sprue vents on the spears and bows as those make it a bit harder to cut and clean. The hardest part of the entire assembly is clipping and cleaning the pieces, the actual assembly is quite fun as you have loads of cool options and parts to choose from, allowing you to create numerous cool and dynamic warriors as you see fit. In the pictures below you can see some of the assembled goblins and a not so great picture of the goblin spider rider but that's more my fault than that of the actual kit but still wanted to include the picture to show you the idea of combining the kits.

The Scale Comparison

Below you can find some pictures of the goblins alongside other miniatures to give you an idea of the size of these new plastic Wargames Atlantic models. As you can see the goblins are small compared with 28mm heroic scaled miniatures which of course suits their fantasy origins and design. Check the pictures below to judge the scale of these new fantasy miniatures yourself.

The Conclusion

This fifth model kit for the popular Classic Fantasy miniature range is most certainly very useful when you need loads of goblin warriors for your tabletop wargames and miniature roleplaying sessions as these miniatures are both very affordable and good quality with plenty of options. Next to this these goblins are also compatible with the existing giant spiders boxed set allowing you to create nasty goblin spider riders!  The miniatures are true fantasy and look to be inspired by the work of some great fantasy artists as mentionned before in this review.

The boxed set contains everything you need to assemble a sizable goblin horde even including parts to assemble spider riders combined with other fantasy sets. The quality and price of these miniatures is excellent, with one boxed set containing 30 multi-part goblins retailing for £25.00 with further discounts for larger amounts of boxed sets. You can buy these very useful miniatures now directly from Wargames Atlantic or from other distributors and retailers worldwide. Picture of the painted miniatures below taken from Wargames Atlantic.

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Disclaimer - We received these miniatures from Wargames Atlantic for reviewing purposes. Please note that this doesn't influence our review as we always strive to supply you with our own independent and honest opinion about the wargame products reviewed.

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