PYGMIES are coming!!!!

[Rorio6]

Just back from Claymore, having bought some Kallistra Pygmies, very nice indeed. I love the palm tree catapult!!!!
check them out in 25mm fantasy range
http://www.kallistra.co.uk/

[Plynkes]

They fit a Pulp era depiction of Africans, so I suppose they work on that level. But personally I don't think I'd want them in my collection.

[njetkulturny]

You are right. The Catapult is a lovely piece.

[blackstone]

Pics are small but look like racist caricatures to me, and a copy of the equally awful citadels pygmies from the 80s. 

[Doc Twilight]

They fit a Pulp era depiction of Africans, so I suppose they work on that level. But personally I don't think I'd want them in my collection.

I agree. No offense intended, but they're too much like racist caricatures to me to work. Perhaps if the painting style was toned down. I had a set of similar pygmies from another company and (I've already mentioned this elsewhere) I ended up doing up a bunch of masks for them because I was too embarrassed to put them on the table with their cartoonish features.

-Doc

[capthugeca]

I ended up doing up a bunch of masks for them because I was too embarrassed to put them on the table with their cartoonish features.

What a good idea.
I like the concept of the figures but also feel uncomfortable about the rather racist portrayal.

[Christian]

Well, I don't find them at all offensive. I get it, though - they're charicatures and it makes them look silly, when in real life they were a people with their own culture and customs and that deserves dignity. That's all I'll say on that point.

I have been thinking of using these fellows as Pygmies, though:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat460031a&prodId=prod1090121
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat460031a&prodId=prod1090124

But I'd probably stay away from the mounted version as the camel would be too small - remember LOTR sculpts are somewhat smaller than 28mm. I currently have some Eureka pygmies that hark back to the previous complaints, but the GW ones have a bit more of a serious look about them.

[Argonor]

Those 'mahuds' are fairly big sculpts. They are at least as big as the Uruk-Hai, if I remember correctly (I can check later today if you'd like me to - I have already moved all my LotR stuff to the new place, but I can probably find some more stuff to move there tonight, thus having an excuse to go there).

I would certainly not consider using them for a diminutive race, though.

I can see why some people would shy away from the Kallistra pygmies, but I like them, because they remind me a lot of the pygmies in an old Donald Duck story (where they are at war with some cranes). They are VERY cartoony, and very much a caricature, but, then again, they are a 'fantasy pygmy' range.

If you want realistic pygmies, Foundry is the place to go.

[Christian]

Well if they're bigger sculpts that might do nicely anyway! 

[Erny]

It's not that they are caricatures, its that the caricatures are somewhat identical to the extremely racist depictions of Pygmies and Africans made in the past that makes them offensive. And they are offensive.

Sure Norse miniatures are often caricatures of muscle bound meat heads but this caricature doesn't have a history of being used to denigrate a people or portray them as sub human.

There are perfectly good pygmy warriors available that should offend nobody.

[Scorpio]

Reaper just put this set out. The Shrine alone is worth it.



03497: Evil Shrine & Pygmy Savages ($15.99)
Bobby Jackson
linky

[Christian]

That's more like it!

[Doc Twilight]

Reaper just put this set out. The Shrine alone is worth it.



03497: Evil Shrine & Pygmy Savages ($15.99)
Bobby Jackson
linky

Those are lovely. Unfortunately, since Reaper exercises absolutely no control over a general scale, they probably won't rank up well with other Pygmie types, which is a -real- shame. Great sculpts.

-Doc

[Christian]

Looks like the masks are separate too!

[Sir Dryden]

Hi to all

Those Reaper pygmies remind me of the Monkey Island cannibals. The ressemblance is far too strong to be a simple coincidence. Heck, there's even one (second from the left on the photo) who's got a "Lemonhead" thing going for him. Damn it, now I'll have to buy those!

Yours truly,

Sir Dryden