"Where did pig nosed orcs come from?" Topic

OK, I've been around a while, and I remember pig nosed orcs started showing up at some time, years ago. I don't know why that was or if this came from some movie or book. Could anyone tell me the whys and wherefores of these beasties?

Grelber

Probably nostalgia for AD&D 1e orcs. In the Monster Manual they were depicted as such.

Damon.

Also the early figures form Miifigs were in the pig noses style.

I'd have said Minifigs (I've still got mine from the 1970s).

D&D Monster Manual 1977, with MiniFigs following immediately, then Heritage et al.
link

Yep. David Sutherland.

There's a rumor that Gygax suggested the appearance in order to further argue that D&D's "orcs" were not from Tolkien's works, but from an Old English (or maybe Gaelic) word for pig. Don't know if that's true or not.

However, I will also note that Disney's 1959 classic Sleeping Beauty included some pig-snouted members of Maleficent's minions:
link
(The two on the right.)

My background was Tolkien, so I didn't understand where the pig snouted orcs came from. There is a lot of great information here, especially on Parzival's links.

Grelber

My Middle Earth armies in the late 1970s were packed with pig nosed Orcs. So I blame Minifigs and Citadel (?).

According to Wikipedia the AD&D Monster Manual with pig otcs was published in 1977, but I never saw one until 1979.We just played White Box.

Yes, the first AD&D Monster Manual sort of set that in stone, with the Dave Sutherland illo -- and then licensed miniatures companies took up the design. But I can tell you that among the game designers I worked with at TSR in 1980-81, no one took this seriously. It always seemed like a Gary Gygax joke that had gone too far, but couldn't be taken back. But we didn't promote it among ourselves, and eventually that was all ignored/rebooted in subsequent products.

But you can still find those pig-snouty minis today, old school designs that are replicated by some company or companies. I have a pal here who collects them! I find it comical myself, not at all my conception of Orcs or how Tolkien thought of them, but (shrug) horses for courses.

Does anyone remember the Orcs wearing Roman lorica segmentata armour?

I'd love to know the manufacturer and if one can still buy them.

Cheers.

The Minifigs pig faced Orcs were part of the licensed official D&D figure range. So the dwarves, goblins, gnomes, halflings, trolls, Ogre Magi, elves, hobgoblins etc all matched the original Monster Manual.

Their older Mythical Earth range were much more LOTR in appearance – unlicensed of course, like the Hyboria range.