Miniature Review #2 – Goblin Master by Kev Adams
Been a while since I did the last one and yeah, maybe do this one since I’ve now ordered from them.
If you have been in the oldhammer community for a while, or atleast know or been interested in Warhammer or British miniatures from atleast the 80s, you should know the name of Kev Adams. Starting about 1984, Kev started to sculpt miniatures for Citadel Miniatures and got the nickname ‘Goblin Master’ pretty quickly as the amount of goblinoids he sculpted in a wide range. To many, a Kev Adams goblin IS THE Goblin style.
Kev is very well loved in the community and at the annual ‘Bring out your lead’ (BOYL) show he does charity head sculpting, but as I have never been that far north and to the event, I can’t say I have got one.. Maybe at some point but most likely it isn’t gonna happen. Oh well.
On the 20th March 2013, burglars broke into his house and he was brutally assaulted. He had severe facial injuries including to his eyes which left him unable to sculpt. To help him out, Ian Brumby and Jon Atter created ‘GoblinAid’ to help raise money to. Ral Partha Europe volunteered to master the sculpts and cast them and you can still get some of the minis done for this I believe, though I’m not 100% sure. Anyway, Miniatures were sculpted by a range of people showing how much loved Kev is. Anyway, this fills you in a bit on who Kev Adams is.
As well as still sculpting for others, Kev created ‘Goblin Master Limited’ with some friends (I believe) where he sells Miniatures he creates. the Range is a bit limited, but there are some great things there. So.. lets just point out a small issues I personally have. The Site appears a bit out of date and the prices aren’t bad but aren’t great. That’s basically it for the issues I have.
Recently, I finally got around to being able to order a couple of things I wanted. Partly not cause it was too pricey but more then I felt happy paying for the reasons I wanted them. But a nice sale price helped me jump in. For disclosure, I brought two sets:
“Wily Waggeries” (normal price £30 – sale price £22.50)
“‘Orrible Oddities 2” (£25)
I’m not 100% sure on what Metal is used for the casting of these but they say ‘Unleaded’ and mm.. from the weight and ‘ting’, a pewter I think. I have no problem with the metal used as this appears fine
Wily Waggeries is a 3 piece diorama set which really highlight what I view is Kev’s take on Goblins and the best way for me. They aren’t so much evil as very mischievous. The Set is cut up into 3 miniatures, one featuring a wizard (a little short for the average human mini but not Dwarf level) having his Staff being stolen by a Goblin, Meanwhile one has a Goblin carrying off his books and the third is one goblin holding his hat while another one is pissing into it. A great fun set. The Normal price isn’t bad but it worked out as £10 per mini? for a diorama set.. mm.. though that said, you could say small time ‘self-published’ maybe the reason for a higher price. Still far cheaper then Citadel’s plastic these days. These sculpts are very nicely done, the casting is good, each a nice one piece casts with little flash to clean up.
Now, the Orrible Oddities is part of a series of .. mm.. Chaos Goblins. Basically goblins warped by chaos Magics into all kinda weird forms. There are 4 in each set and this one has… well.. a kinda multi-goblin fusion monster. 4 heads, 3 legs, 2 arms. A winged goblin with three large eyes on his face (I would say triclops but.. cyclopes doesn’t mean “one eyed’ it means round eyed. so 3 eyes can still be a cyclopes. ah, complex word meanings), One I’m not quite sure on.. it’s.. a furry goblin. huh. that is pretty weird for goblins ^_^ and then there is basically the one I got this set for. A goblin which has been turned into a Chaos Ratman! yep. It’s a Kev Adams Skaven Mini! now surely that is something nice to have? Bits of the head do have a possible more Bat but with the tail and all, it’s clearly Rat.
Most of the figures he sells appear to have been done around 2019-2022 period and the forum and related stuff are pretty much dead with stuff having low production numbers and probably cast on demand, which isn’t a bad thing persay. I’m not really sure about order turn around time. It wasn’t too bad but I did order over what is the Christmas/new year period which does delay everything.
The website is fairly simple and easy to use though I think there is some minor code problem as I find the site tagline can overlap the links to each section making it tricky on a smaller screen or non maximised window. But images are pretty clear with painted photos of the miniatures on offer. Shipping prices are pretty good, and lets do my round up:
- Sculpt: 4.5 out of 5 – Great variation on designs while still keeping easily compatible with each other, Details are nicely defined and the sculpts aren’t overly cluttered while not being under detailed.
- Price: 4 out of 5 – Yeah.. the prices are a bit high, partly understandable but still on the high side. Some are a bit better than others, as the Oddieties set worked out £6.25 a figure, which is very ballpark, but the waggeries set is kinda on the high end but this very much does seam to be a side line with small production numbers.
- Quality: 4 out of 5 – I can’t say what metal is used but it feels good, standard solid stuff, no signs of casting errors so no problems there. The packing was good bubblewrap with the figures in re-sealable bag with nice little labels on them saying the set and giving details on the back (did you know that Unleaded Miniatures are artwork not toys? ^_^)
- Extra Details: 4 out of 5 – Website gives a bit of fluff on each set, while no sculptor is listed, it’s the website for the sculpts of Kev Adams… do you need to have them repeating “Kev Adams Sculpts” all the time? There are nice photos of the minis though I would prefer a copy of the unpainted examples as well but this is more of a personal thing.. which is the point of this, surely?
Final score: 4.125 out of 5
If you want classic old school goblins and snotlings and some related to go with your old Kev Adams ones, these are Kev Adams ones. That said, he does still sculpt for other companies and you can get Kev Adams goblins from a few sources.
