The Great Reinforcement - Box 2 - Woodelves, Hobgoblins, pig-faced Orcs and Smurf-Elves

Here are the contents of the second box from my big figure purchase. With both boxes, my fantasy collection has grown by the enormous amount of 465 miniatures and the number of figures for the project has now exceeded the mark of 1000 pieces.

You could say "stop, that's enough". And that would be true. That was my first thought too. But then I decided that it would be foolish to say that because I wouldn't stick to it anyway (I know myself). And secondly, it's still possible to get old treasures at the moment for a reasonable price sometimes. That will become harder and harder. I've watched the prices for classic miniatures and other old Wargaming and RPG stuff rising like nothing else in the past few years. So I keep on looking.

The miniatures now have to be restored and partially repaired. I think I'll save myself the stripping of the old paint this time, it's just too much effort. I hope the existing paint layer turns out to be a usable foundation.

You could already see some of them in my blogpost from Monday. Maybe you remember the archers, which I was able to reinforce during my 'time travel experience'. They once were 3 miniatures hopeless alone and are now 30 pieces strong, a fairly large unit.

These hobgoblins complement the Black Baron miniatures I found last August. If you think that they look a little bit weird: the design is based on the illustration in the first D&D Monster Manual form 1977. So this is how D&D-Hobgoblins originally looked like...!

Ahh...pig-faced Orcs, also an early D&D design. Everybody should have some, no household is complete without them.

Orcs in the background but what's that in the foreground? Smurf-Elves?

I went down the rabbit hole almost to the beginning with this purchase. You can hardly go much further back in time. In this post here on the blog 'Where the sea pours out' we can see that the the hobgoblins were already available in June 1977 when Minifigs announced them in the Battle for Wargamers magazine. The pig-faced orcs were available in 1978. 

Perfect timing, it seems the TSR and Minifigs worked hand in hand. The D&D Monster Handbook was released in 1977 and miniatures based on drawings in that book are produced and sold in June of the same year. In those days Minifigs had the sole rights to produce figures under the D&D label and at that moment in time they were somehow at the forefront of the fantasy hype to come...

(By the way, has anyone seen miniatures from this collection in action anywhere, does anyone know who the previous owner was? From the rest I've seen during the sales, the owner was a very busy wargamer. He had big armies for the ECW,  7YW, Romans, Greeks, Persians, also medieval knights and armies for the Malburian age. Old school miniatures, armies for both or more sides or nations. What was sold must have been about 10-15.000 miniatures, if not more. Nearly everything painted, the pike & shot minis often based in groups of 4. I don't believe that nobody has ever seen them.)