ALL72002

Although the creation of the orc as we know it today is usually credited to J. R. R. Tolkein, he himself said he took the name and some of the attributes from the ancient English poem Beowulf, and orcs have appeared as monsters in other works prior to the 20th century. They remain one of the most recognisable of fantasy creatures, filthy and of low intelligence, bow-legged with large heads and little or no neck, but useful as fighters in the cause of some usually evil plan. The creatures in this set are noticeably smaller then those in set 1, which were roughly the height of humans at 1/72 scale. Even when standing as upright as they can get, none here reach 20 mm in height. Otherwise they are similar to the first set, wearing an odd assortment of clothing and armour. One is bare-chested yet wears what looks like a mail kilt, which begs the question of why would he want to heavily protect that area but leave the rest of the body naked? The usual swords, clubs, hammers and axes are on show, as well as a couple of archers, and the very last figure looks to be blowing some sort of curved horn. Like the first set there are some flat poses here, particularly those with their weapon held across the top of their head. Also where shields are being held, they are always held behind them, thus offering no protection at all.

The sculpting is also the same as the first set, which is nice if not of the highest standards, though with such a subject you could argue that precision and elegance are not important features. On our example we found a good deal of flash - much more than the first set - around virtually all of the seams.