The worlds of Warhammer contain creatures of every size and stripe, ranging from stout dwarfs to the mighty dragons of the Old World, and throughout them all, one group has strode above all else: the giants. Possessed of prodigious size and almighty strength, they’ve been smashing puny man-things into paste since the early ‘80s – and with the Sons of Behemat still running riot over the Mortal Realms, they show no signs of stopping.
Many giants have shaken the earth since their advent, but the multi-part plastic Warhammer Giant was the first to capture their bestial and spontaneous nature in such a towering scale.
This mountain of muscle is everything you expect a giant to be: huge, brutal, and probably not that bright. At the time of its release, it was one of the largest plastic miniatures ever produced by Games Workshop and liberated Warhammer fans from the process of drilling and pinning heavyweight pieces – an essential task with previous giants cast in metal.*
One of the best bits about this gigantic plastic kit was the abundance of customisation parts, as the towering macro-monsters could throw their weight around with many different factions. Horns and ritual scars could mark them as a Chaos Giant, while animal pelts and a massive jawbone ornament indicated an alliance with the Orcs.
The wide variety of scavenged weapons on top of their accoutrements made sure that even two giants standing next to each other looked completely distinct, and the accessorising didn’t stop there. Perhaps the most iconic part of the model was to be found on its base – the perpetually unlucky Johann, cursed to flee endlessly from a very flat fate.
Giants have been such a fixture of Warhammer that it’s easy to forget that they weren’t always looming over our battlefields and that their oppressive presence only began with the uproariously popular Citadel Giant – a honking great lump of metal that weighed in at 4.5lbs** and commanded awe from its onlookers. Since then, kits that defy the word ‘miniature’ have been popping up in metal, plastic, and resin, always packed with detail and creating a fearsome presence.
Various types of giants have cropped up throughout the history of Warhammer, often accompanying major conflicts like the venerable Storm of Chaos campaign that took place on the World-that-Was. Here, giants from the misty isle of Albion strode forth carrying boulders that looked to have been wrenched from a stone circle and accompanied by druids, while elsewhere, Marauder Giants cut a dashing figure in crudely assembled clothes aping the fashions of the Empire – so dashing, in fact, that one appeared in almost every Golden Demon competition for the next decade.
With the marvels of modern miniatures sculpting techniques allowing us a diverse array of huge centrepiece models, the humble*** Warhammer Giant has aged like a fine wine, and still competes with the best of them in the Age of Sigmar. Its larger cousin – the Mega-gargant – refines the groundwork laid by its forebear, seen most recently with the majestic King Brodd.
We’ll be back next Wednesday with the next in our series celebrating the 40th anniversary of Warhammer, but can you guess who or what we’ll be looking at? Here’s a hint: Be’lakor is throwing a tantrum that he didn’t appear first.
* No giant-owner’s carry case was complete without a wayward arm or two falling between the foam.
** That’s just over 2kg for those of you using the metric system.
*** If such a brute can ever be called ‘humble’.