Well… While there is a part of me that wishes there were even more new Blood Bowl releases than we have seen in the last few months, I do have to say that there have been releases than I actually expected to see. With the way Games Workshop has treated Blood Bowl on the past, I thought we would be lucky to get four news teams over the course of an entire year. Here we are just a few months in and we have four teams and three Star Players as well as a number of extras like team dice.

Speaking of Star Players… I got another box in the mail today! Woohoo!

When the new Morg ‘n’ Thorg went on pre-order two Fridays ago, and I whipped out my credit card and went to the Forge World site immediately.

Now, I have to say that I was not particularly partial to the look of the new Morg. As much as Games Workshop has gone in a very gritty and serious direction with all the other new Blood Bowl releases, the new Morg is almost comical by comparison. But as I have posted before, I am committed to supporting my favorite game, and buying the mini was a forgone conclusion for me.

Time to cut open this box!

At about $25 US, Morg is a bit pricey, but then again, at 430,000 gold to hire him for a game, he was always pricey.

That is a LOT of spikes…

If you have seen any of the previous Forge World releases for Blood Bowl, most of this should be expected. First up is the insert booklet!

As with the previous releases, the front of the booklet shows off a nice paint job and the Blood Bowl artwork.

Once you open up the booklet, you are treated to some stats and fluff for the great Morg ‘n’ Thorg.

The back of the booklet contains assembly instructions… Are those more annoying, tiny pieces? Yes they are!

As with Zug and Varag, Morg comes with both a slotted and non-slotted base.

All the pieces laid out. As with Varag, and unlike Zug, Morg does not come with a hand option that is not holding the ball. Boo!

Now, after I trimmed all the pieces off of their block sprues, I had taken a picture of all the individual pieces laid out, but apparently that picture got corrupted somehow. Oops…

A couple of notes on assembly. First, considering this mini came from the much lauded Forge World, I was quite surprised to see some fairly bad mold lines around the legs. I was able to file them mostly smooth, but I just really did not expect to see that on a brand new mini from a brand new mold. I guess nothing is perfect.

Second, the spike pieces on the first block in the above picture were really a bit of a pain in the ass… Attaching them is kind of weird, and there is no “button” or “knot” on the back to help hold them in place. You basically just glue a tiny edge onto another tiny edge. Just really awkward to assemble… But assemble it I did!

OK, I got the big goof together, but just how BIG is he? Honestly, not as big as I expected really.

As you can see, while he is noticeably larger than Zug, he is not significantly larger than Varag. If Varag were standing more straight up, then those two minis would almost be the same height. I am not really sure how to feel about that. If I had to make a decision, I would say that Morg is a good size for the new Blood Bowl releases, and Varag is just too damn big.

Here is the new Morg next to some known quantities… A 3rd edition Morg and a 3rd edition Human Blitzer. As you can see, the new Morg is quite a bit larger, which means that the new Varag is larger than the 3rd ed Morg…. Just too damn big.

So to sum it all up: Mold lines, difficult pieces, no second hand option, and really kind of goofy looking. Definitely not my favorite of the new releases, but it is still Blood Bowl so it still has a place in my collection. I am actually far more looking forward to the new rookie Ogre for the Human team that is set for release this Saturday. I guess there will be another post this weekend…

Until then!