Just finished the last of my bugbears and kobolds (I think!)
The more I look at the Grenadier bugbears, the more I think they are my favorite bugbears (although the Otherworld minis are a close second). Although these guys were originally sold in blister packs with two axe-wielders and one sword-wielder, somehow I have three swords and one axe! I think the issue is that the sword-wielder came in the “Action Art” boxed set too, so there are just more of them out there. The axe guy has an extra-large head, but the fact that he has an axe also helps tie him in with the plastic ‘bugbears’ from the Dragonstrike game that I have.
Grenadier bugbears
I figured the best way to make the sword guys distinguishable would be their shields, but then thought it might be cool if they were all the same…and finally settled on making one an ‘elder’ by adding some grey to his fur.
I went ahead and touched up a few WotC plastic figures I use as bugbears too — the one with a hammer was sold as a bugbear, but the other two were supposed to be orcs. 3e/4e orcs have a lot of hair, so painting them brown pretty much did the trick.
So here’s all 15 bugbears in my collection:
I’m not sure if I like the Heritage kobolds more than other manufacturer’s kobolds, but the Heritage figures have a lot of character, despite being in the same pose.
My kobolds represent just two of the four poses Heritage cast. I got them from a variety of sources second-hand so I’m not surprised; this may also be a case of the blister and boxes having different contents, so the clubs and axes are just more common than the sword and javelin variants I’ve seen online.
The Grenadier kobolds I have, which are from the mid-1980s I think, are similar but much slimmer and have no tails. I also filled in the ranks of my kobolds with some Games Workshop skinks. I can’t quite place why I started painting them all blue, but does help distinguish them from goblins.
I have Grenadier kobold mounted on a small dragon too, but forgot to include him in the group shot.
Big encounter groups like this are a welcome site… for bloggers, not adventurers. 😉 Like the bugbears especially. I have some of the Grenadier ones as well and it was a tough call for me to go with those or the Otherworld ones. The otherworld ones won out and now I have to decide the fate of the G. ones… sell, keep in a box, or paint.
Are the OW bugbears much bigger, or something? Because they look very similar to the Grenadier to me (i.e. like the Trampier pictures in MM). I’d use them together, if it’s just a matter of scale, you can give the shorter guys a ‘boost’ with thicker bases.
Fun seeing all of those bugbears. I think I might have own some of those, back when they were current, but have long vanished into the entropic mists of swirling decades past-passed. I’ve been on a little bit of a bugbear kick lately because I’m painting some bugbears I bought off of Etsy and poking around looking for old bugbear pictures from my youth is how I stumbled upon your site.