Trolls - Old School Dave Sutherland Style

Troll Attack!

Most persons, reading the Lord of the Rings will agree, I suspect, when I say that the creatures proferred as "Trolls" by E.Gary Gygax, are indeed not "Trolls" - at least, not in the Tolkien sense, and therefore not recognisable by anyone who came to Dungeons & Dragons by way of the "LotR" trilogy.

Tolkien's trolls were hulking, scaly brutes, formed from stone, by the first Dark Lord; Morgoth. As creatures made by the uttermost evil, against the intention of the One True God, trolls, much like orcs, are - in Professor Tolkien's words - "utterly irredeemable and damned". 

They are also the Intellectual Property of the Tolkien Estate, and perhaps more importantly, in forma juris, of Elan Merchandising a.k.a. Tolkien Enterprises - a legal Balrog, standing astride the bridge, if ever there was.

So Gary Gygax, who at the time was already in heated waters with any entity that had "Tolkien" in their incorporative documents, over (inter alia) using the term "Hobbit" without a license, made to steer clear of any more legal hurdles, and went with the gangly, green, regenerative creatures we now indulgently call "Trolls" in D&D, and first drawn by David C Sutherland III in the original 1974 boxed set.

(In defense of E.G.G., Tolkien's copyrights in the late 60's and early 70's were an international mess, and becoming entangled was not very difficult....) 

by David C.Sutherland III ©1977 TSR/Wizards of the Coast

This rather long introduction seemed necessary in order for your humble writer to explain why he started running an AD&D game with miniatures, when he had nothing for trolls.  Nothing for "Gygaxian Trolls", that is. Now that some trolls are needed - where to find them with the right look...

Back in 1993, Ral Partha produced the classic Sutherland Troll in 25mm, under license with TSR.

Figure by Ral Partha Miniatures

The Ral Partha troll I recently bought on eBay was a bit pricey - I can't at this time determine whether it's currently out-of-production, as the jumbled mess that Ral Partha calls a website is down for maintenance at the moment. I paid about $30 USD for mine, wanting something for reasons of comparison. I also wanted to find something with which I could build a band of trolls.

Enter Otherworld Miniatures (again!). They do an excellent 28mm version of the Sutherland "thin, rubbery and loathesome" troll that requires fire or acid to kill with finality.

Figure by Otherworld Miniatures

The figure comes in a five-part kit (legs/torso, two arms, two heads, plus a plastic base. The arms are cast with socket-nubbins to help fix their position whilst they are glued on, and the head can be fixed any angle you like.  The feet also have more pin-like nubbins, for attaching to the plastic base.

The model has smooth, clean lines with almost no casting marks - the lumpy pseudo-buboes from the Sutherland illo are also present, along with some pock marks; leading one to believe that trolls are singularly unhealthy creatures.

From these comparison pictures, the reader will be able to see that the Otherworld troll scales well with the older, 25mm, Ral Partha one. Especially where monstrous humanoids are concerned, uniformity of size is less important than an agreement in style.

Otherworld Miniatures vs. Ral Partha size comparison

Animation: 5

Detail: 5

Proportions: 5

Relate-ability: 5

Variety:5

Final Verdict: 5 out of 5. Excellent miniature and more on order...