Who has got two thumbs and got another package in the mail today? This guy! Two weeks ago today, Forge World put the new Griff Oberwald and the Skaven Rat Ogre on pre-order. I ordered them, because of course I did! I have a Blood Bowl addiction, remember? Well, it is now two weeks later and I have a box to open, so how about we get to it!

First up is the man, the myth, the legend… Griff Oberwald!

Like all the other recent Blood Bowl minis from Forge World, The packaging and artwork of the Griff mini is nice and relatively easy to get into.

The insert is pretty much like every other insert that I have shown in my recent unboxing posts,

Like all the other Star Players released by Forge World, the insert opens up to provide some nice fluff about Griff. Fluff is always fun.

As you might expect, the back of the insert shows the assembly instructions for Griff.

You get two bases in the package. One slotted 32mm base with a hole for the football, and one standard 32mm base. Not sure why they bother with slotted bases considering Griff does not have a tab for the slot, but I will never complain about getting extra bases.

All of the pieces for Griff. It is worth noting that Griff has several fewer pieces to him than some of the other Star Players that have been released (Varag anyone?!).

The body is a single piece, which is nice. One less thing to worry about. On a side note, I really do not know what the deal is with every star player and big guy being on only one foot, but Griff follows that trend.

Body attached to the base.

Another view… This brings up the first of two small gripes with the Griff mini. Due to the pose, there is only a small portion of one foot to glue to the base. I am probably going to pin the foot to the base, but I am going to have to be careful about it. I will have to drill in at an angle in order to not drill straight through the top of his foot… Foreshadowing?

First arm attached. The original model shows this arm forward, but the leg on that side was also forward. When you run, your arms and legs pump opposite of each other, not together. As such, I choose to attach the arm pulled back. It looks slightly awkward at this angle, but it is not too bad.

It would be awfully nice if they had included a left arm that was not holding a ball, but no such luck…

Another angle.

And another.

Now for my second small gripe… More of those side plate pieces that attach to the mini along tiny connection points.

Luckily, this piece does have the small pin piece to make the attach point slightly stronger, but that only makes the piece slightly less annoying.

I am also going to have to paint this piece separately (which I do not enjoy doing), so in this picture it is attached with poster tack.

Only one piece left to go!

The mini only comes with one left arm, but it comes with two different heads. I choose to use the helmeted head. I wanted Griff to be a little imposing. I guess there is something imposing about a player who is so unafraid of the competition that he does not feel the need to wear a helmet, but I think the unknown is more imposing. A big feature obscuring helmet is cool for perpetuating that “unknown” factor.

The new Griff does have a little bit of a Judge Dredd thing going, but that is not really all that bad of a thing.

Now, on to the Rat Ogre mini…

No real surprises here. Everything is as you would expect.

Honestly, I am really not a fan of this paint job, but it is what it is… Not being a Star Player, there is no fluff contained inside the insert. This particular insert is only a single sheet front and back.

Of course, the back has the assembly instructions.

The torso of the Rat Ogre. It came out looking a little like the dreaded Fine Cast resin. It’s definitely a different look that the Griff mini. Where Griff was smooth and crisp, the Rat Ogre is a bit rough and scratchy looking. Honestly, my first impression of the mini was not a very good one.

The torso attached to the lower half of the body. Things are not looking any better so far. Maybe I expected too much, but the two torso pieces really do not fit together as well as I was expecting.

HOLY CRAP… Look at the size of that gap!

Got his head attached and glued to the base… I definitely had to pin this guy to the base as his size made his extremely small attachment point even more awkward than Griff’s. Remember when I mentioned being careful not to drill through the top of the mini’s foot? Yeah… notice the little dot on top of his foot there? Also, the rather large gap on the neck joint is worth pointing out here.

Rear foot attached. The joint here is a little more smooth than the previous two joints, but it will still take some work to prepare for painting.

The first arm attached. I had to do a little trimming and shaping to even get this thing to remotely line up correctly. It was WAY off initially. My opinion of this mini continues to drop.

The second arm now attached. No gap, but again a VERY noticeable seam.

Finally, no large gap or noticeable seam… I only had to put nearly the entire mini together to find one…

The triangular chest plate does not sit completely flush so I will have to paint it separately and attach it later. *sigh* Here again, I used poster tack to hold it in place.

There is also a small triangular plate on his right hip, but I forgot to take a separate picture of that apparently. My bad.

At this point, I would like to take a minute and review all of the massive gaps, and extremely noticeable seams that this mini has, because frankly it was more than a little surprising to see.

The great big gap on the neck joint…

The massive seam on the left arm… (At least it is not holding a football)

The HOLY CRAP gap along the waist…

This picture shows how much the two torso pieces DO NOT line up… It will take more than a little bit of Green Stuff sculpting to fix this thing.

The glaring seam on the right arm…

To sum up, the most intriguing thing about these two minis for me is how different they are. As nice as I find the Griff mini, I honestly find the Rat Ogre to be pretty much the polar opposite in every way. I am happy to add Griff to the collection, but the Rat Ogre is officially my first regretted purchase of the new Blood Bowl releases. I can not really recommend it for other players to purchase. Honestly, I think you (we?) would be better off just using this guy.

I think this mini is a MUCH better option for a Blood Bowl Rat Ogre than the one that we got. Oh well…………

Now for the most important question of the day. How big are they? Glad you asked! Here are some size comparison pictures for you to drool over.

The new Rat Ogre next to a 3rd edition Rat Ogre. The new Rat Ogre is a little bigger, but not TOOOOO much bigger.

Next to a new Skaven thrower and a 3rd edition Skaven thrower.

Griff through the years… A 3rd edition “Chicken Head” Griff on the right, and 5th edition “Tripping” Griff on the left (has there ever been a worse pose for a Blood Bowl mini?), and the new Griff in the center. Again, bigger but not massively bigger.

Seriously… has there ever been a worse pose than “Tripping” Griff? WTF were they thinking?!

And since it seems to always be requested, the obligatory 3rd edition Human linemen comparison shot. Yes, I am aware that he totally has “crazy eyes.” Do not judge me.

One last shot of the two new minis together. One great mini, and one that was kind of a waste of money. You can not knock it out of the park every time I guess…

On a final note, I wanted to leave you guys with a teaser for the project that I intend to work on next. I want to finish painting the new Human team Ogre and my Zara conversion first, but when they are done, I have something a little different to paint up. Some friends are having a big gaming event this summer, so I am going to TRY and paint up some minis for the event that have been sitting on the shelf for YEARS. It has been a long time coming, but I think it is finally time to paint up the shiny headed crew…

*********************UPDATE*********************

I was asked for size comparison pictures between the new Rat Ogre and the new Human team Ogre. Here you go!

The Rat Ogre is actually a little bigger. They are pretty much the exact same height, but the Rat Ogre is seriously hunched over for it’s running position, so if it were upright, it would be noticeably taller. Also, with that pose, it is much longer than the Human team Ogre, so it will be a little harder getting other players into adjacent Tackle Zones than the Human team Ogre would. I would hate to see this Rat Ogre going toe to toe with the new Deathroller…