Ettin (Reaper Miniatures)

Howdy from wonderful windy Wyoming, and welcome to the Monster Toy Blog! Today we will be reviewing a Reaper Miniatures ettin.

But before we take a look at our giant, a little history about the creature. The word ettin is derived from the Middle English words eten and/or etend, which came from the Old English word eoten. Eoten means “giant, monster or enemy”. In The Hobbit (p. 46, published 1979, 73rd printing), J.R.R. Tolkien referred to the three trolls encountered by the dwarves by writing, “Yes, I’m afraid trolls do behave like that, even those with only one head each.” (Italics are mine.) Trolls were also known to dwell in the Ettenmoors range at the northeast end of the Misty Mountains. When designing monsters for the Dungeons & Dragons game, it is likely that these two resources led to the creation of the two-headed giant, the ettin. The first mention of the ettin was in the first edition of the Monster Manual, published in 1977, so this form of the ettin has graced the world for almost fifty years.

This ettin is 2 inches (or 5 cm) tall, with thick arms wielding a club in each hand. In his right hand he has a club with three spikes pointing from it, possibly from a rhino, and in his left hand a club with nasty bits of metal embedded in it. Each hand has only four fingers and each foot has four toes. He wears furs hanging off the left shoulder and has rags of cloth wrapped around the heels of his feet.

From his belt, two fish are hanging, and a keg of beer hangs from his back, so he’ll be feasting well when he is finished defeating his (their?) enemies. There are also three skulls hanging from the belt, which makes a person wonder if these were just enemies or if he likes to snack on humans. The belt buckle has a mug of beer on it, and it could have been the shield of an enemy.

The ettin’s left head is yelling out a war cry, destroying their enemy’s morale. The mouth is wide open with the teeth and tongue showing. The right head is sneering in glee, looking out for hits next target, teeth bared in defiance. The right head is bald, while the left head has a mohawk. Both heads have beards.

This figure is a 28mm figure, where 1 inch on the model scales to approximately 5 feet. It is manufactured from Reaper Miniature’s Bones White plastic. All in all, I consider the Bones White plastic to be inferior to Reaper’s metal versions of various creatures, but the plastic is cheaper. This is a decent figure of an ettin. I would recommend it for a gaming piece but would get the more expensive metal model for a collection. It would work for people who don’t have other options. This figure is a gaming piece and as such is not suitable for younger children.