Cool One-Off Halfling sculpt on BB Tactics

[Gaixo]

Maybe you're just not very discerning, Giraffe. I know any number of people who have bought "duplicate" teams because the quality of the stuff coming out of Europe is so much higher than what is available from GW.

I do find it unfortunate that Greebo, Gaspez, Willy/Franarcilla seem to copycat each other to some extent; it seems like they we got 3 slann teams that came out on top of each other, and then chaos dwarves, and then orcs. Seems like they might all see more sales if they got together and split up the races. They could always work back around to the rest of them later.

[Virral]

The bandages boots are unique to thrud (and maybe mummies perhaps).

And Arnie's Conan the Barbarian.

http://www.thedialecticalplaya.com/wp-c ... negger.jpg

The impossible Triangulation of the Upper torso

Have you ever seen a He-Man toy?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gCAVZ_YC00o/T ... he-man.jpg

And before someone brings up the helmet style (not an exact match naturally but lets not pretend a horned helmet on a Barbarian is shockingly original):

http://thestockmasters.com/images/conan-helmet.gif

I don't disagree that the figure bears what had to have been an intentional resemblance to Thrud (who I'd never previously heard of outside of the context of Blood Bowl) but the suggestion that Thrud himself is anything but an exaggerated caricature of Conan is laughable. People saying that this figure would never look this way without Thrud are correct, but they then have to also accept that Thrud would never look the way he does without Conan.

[Giraffe]

Maybe you're just not very discerning, Giraffe. I know any number of people who have bought "duplicate" teams because the quality of the stuff coming out of Europe is so much higher than what is available from GW.

No,I'm just skint, we've 2 kids under 5 and the wifes staying at home, plus whatever cash is left after that is used to fund Thrudball...

You are right they are better than the GW minis hands down, reason being the guys who modelled them gives a fig about Bloodbowl. I always kind of felt GW didn't put enough thought into making the teams spectacular, in the way nice chess pieces are. Gw seemed to treat the Bloodbowl teams as if they were just sculpting hordes of infantry, rather than Fellowship of the Ring model sets that would grab your attention.

Personally I always gravitate towards converted teams, as they have spoonfuls of love poured on them...

But often it's all about what your means can obtain, and I've obtained most of my Bloodbowl teams from Charity shops and Boot sales. When your budget is tight you don't tend to buy lookslike teams even if they are better than what you've got, particularly if like me you have to then pay someone else to paint them.

And as for Arnie, much as though the governor of california is a pinhead in every figurative sense of the word, literally speaking he's of almost human proportions, so i reject your argument there.

[Giraffe]

The bandages boots are unique to thrud (and maybe mummies perhaps).

And Arnie's Conan the Barbarian.

http://www.thedialecticalplaya.com/wp-c ... negger.jpg

The impossible Triangulation of the Upper torso

Have you ever seen a He-Man toy?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gCAVZ_YC00o/T ... he-man.jpg

And before someone brings up the helmet style (not an exact match naturally but lets not pretend a horned helmet on a Barbarian is shockingly original):

http://thestockmasters.com/images/conan-helmet.gif

I don't disagree that the figure bears what had to have been an intentional resemblance to Thrud (who I'd never previously heard of outside of the context of Blood Bowl) but the suggestion that Thrud himself is anything but an exaggerated caricature of Conan is laughable. People saying that this figure would never look this way without Thrud are correct, but they then have to also accept that Thrud would never look the way he does without Conan.

Sorry, I would say first that in your Conan pic he's wearing socks and not bandages.

And He-man is nothing like thrud proportionally (plus thruds more "By the power of NUMB-Skull!")

Only Carl Critchlow, who created thrud, can know how much Conan Caricature there was in Thrud.

But even if it is partly inspired by a caricature, it is unique enough to deserve it's own IP (Thrud is INTENTIONALLY funny), whereas the model is TOO just similar to the Heresy models...

[Norse]

The argument being made here at least is that Stealing from People We Don't Like (e.g. GW) = Good, Stealing from People We Like (e.g. Carl) = Bad.

I think Robin Hood worked out pretty quickly that stealing from assholes was, in some strange way, more acceptable than stealing from decent people...

[bound for glory]

all over a very small pewter miniature that may or may not have been ripped from someone elses design to begin with. that may or maynot sell enough units to cover the time and cost involved in making it. seems to me that this is a fine looking ff figure(and i'm not the only one). change the head(or supply multipy heads), and let it go.

[Virral]

Sorry, I would say first that in your Conan pic he's wearing socks and not bandages.

And He-man is nothing like thrud proportionally (plus thruds more "By the power of NUMB-Skull!")

Only Carl Critchlow, who created thrud, can know how much Conan Caricature there was in Thrud.

But even if it is partly inspired by a caricature, it is unique enough to deserve it's own IP (Thrud is INTENTIONALLY funny), whereas the model is TOO just similar to the Heresy models...

You'd be wrong about the socks (Conan has no need for puny socks!). They are boots made out of fur crossed by random black straps that would hold the fur together... if those straps were off white you'd have the "bandages" of thruds boots. My point was simply that the look is not unique to Thrud.

Ditto for He-Man, you said Thrud had a unique "impossible triangulation of the upper torso", but He-man (in production before Thrud according to wiki) has similar impossible triangulation. It's exaggerated even further in Thrud but again I was simply demonstrating that the unique features you point out about Thrud are not, in fact, unique.

And I also agreed that the model is clearly supposed to be Thrud, but at the same time you can't stick your head in the sand and pretend Thrud himself is a discrete entity that owes nothing to others that came before him.

[Darkson]

Anyone trying to claim similarities for He-Man to Thrud is, quite frankly, clutching at straws.

[Virral]

Oh come on, can you honestly tell me you see absolutely no visual similarity between Thrud and this picture of a He-Man toy?

http://images.wikia.com/heman/images/4/ ... ntoy83.jpg

Note the unpainted detail of random straps covering his fur boots, the wide metal belt with ovals inside it on top of a fur loincloth, the unrealistic V-shape of his upper torso.

Here is another picture (I have no idea who by or when it was done), which shows the similarity to his clothing even more clearly (particularly the boots as the straps have defined colour) but gives He-Man a more "realistic" musculature. I believe it's from a comic book, probably far more recent than Thrud, but still showing the same basic design as the 70's/80's toy.

http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/4/49 ... _large.jpg

Are they identical figures with a head swap? Of course not! But when I look at that I have to think anyone who *doesn't* think there are some similarity between the two is the one clutching at straws. And personally I believe that is because they both drew some inspiration from the same source: Conan.

[Darkson]

No, I don't see any similarity between He-man and Thrud, other than an overall "Barbarian" feel.
Next you'll be claiming Thrud is based of Tony Atlas or any other steriod-inhanced muscle-bound freak.

[Virral]

Well enjoy those blinkers you've got on then

[Giraffe]

Well enjoy those blinkers you've got on then

I can't believe you're still playing with He-Man, but whatever floats your boat...

I too must be sharing these blinkers, but I'd be willing to wager a bucket of beer that if we put a vote on the forum about this, 90% would also be sporting such eye appareil.

Give it up mate, He-Man is about as Thrudlike as Puggy is Morglike!

Is ANYONE on planet earth (except Virral) in agreement on this "He-man looks like Thrud" agrument?

Or is he really the clutcher of the straws?

(Hey Virral, if you get enough of your mates to post in agreement, I may well owe you a bucket of beer... )

(No,Simon, you cannot now change your mind if Virral agrees to share )

[spubbbba]

The character of Conan the Barbarian was so successful that he formed the basis of the fantasy barbarian archetype.

If you were to describe the classic look of the fantasy barbarian without using pictures there would be little to differentiate between it, he-man, conan, the barbarian from heroquest or warhammer quest and thrud.

To someone outside the small geeky circle who know of Thrud they would all look pretty much the same, in fact they may well assume he was Conan. I’ve seen plenty of comic book artists draw very different versions of the same character and that’s not even factoring them changing the outfits/costumes over the decades.

[Chris]

So basically any bloke with too much muscle and not enough fat (makes a poor soldier you know) and wearing a pair of socks and underpants looks like Thrud?

Well I suppose so, in much the same way my Chinese mate has trouble telling russians apart.

[spubbbba]

No, Thrud looks like Conan (and is supposed to), as do a dozen other barbarian type characters.

Take Willy’s model and swap his helmet for long dark hair and you have conan, give him shoulder length blonde hair and that weird chest armour and it’s He-man, give him a mohwak, some facial hair and tattoos and it’s Zangief from SF2, or a bald head and scar over 1 eye and you could have a savage Zug.