Da Red Gobbo’s Tinboy

It's that time of year again: another Christmas miniature! This time it's Da Red Gobbo's Tinboy.

In case you want to take a look back, we covered the A-Bomb-Inable Snowman in 2024 and Da Red Gobbo Surprise and Grotmas Gitz the year before.

This year's design features the Red Gobbo inside a supersized wind-up nutcracker in the style of a Vostroyan Guardsman, priced at 27.50 GBP / 35 EUR. Da Red Gobbo's Tinboy will be available to pre-order today.

This miniature is part of the Warhammer Commemorative Series, which covers not only these seasonal releases, but also limited miniatures for events and store anniversaries. Since 2019, we have received five holiday-themed Red Gobbos wearing a red cape and carrying a mistletoe instead of a sceptre, including this one. However, this is not the first Christmas miniature released by Games Workshop; they released Christmas Space Marines in 1987 with White Dwarf #96. Since then, there have been several Christmas-themed releases of the Red Gobbo: again in 2021, a double pack in 2023, and the snowman in 2024.

The 'original' Da Red Gobbo was part of GorkaMorka back in 1999. He is the leader of the Rebel Grots on the planet of Gorkamorka and the head of the Gretchin Revolutionary Committee/Da Kommittee. However, there is no single Red Gobbo; it is a title and position that rotates between members of the Committee, along with the red cape and sceptre. His role is to inspire the grots in their revolution against the oppression of the orks.

Over time, however, the story of the Red Gobbo left Gorkamorka and became known to the wider Ork species. While not every Grot believes in the Red Gobbo, some claim he is just a legend. This provides the perfect opportunity for Games Workshop to pick up the tongue-in-cheek humour again.

The Da Red Gobbo's Tinboy set comes in a small box containing a small sprue and a colourful, multi-page leaflet. The miniature does not come with any rules in the box. I assume these will be included in one of the upcoming White Dwarfs or made available to download from the Warhammer Community website.

In terms of casting quality, there are notable mould lines, but the details are sharp and the sprue is tightly packed. As with the older Red Gobbo miniatures, we receive a sculpted base that is included on the sprue, as well as a regular round base.

Let's start assembling the Tinboy by putting together the corpus. This robot mimics the uniform of a nutcracker in the style of the Vostroyan Firstborn, with the Red Gobbo waving from inside it.

The legs do not have knees, but are built from pistons. It is tricky to remove the mould lines inside the parallel pistons as they are too narrow for a file, so a fine-tipped hobby knife is needed to reach the surface.

Next, we move on to the bits and bolts on the back, including the winding key and parts of the clockwork. The alignment of the gears is not that clear from the instructions, but once you put them in the slot, they slide into place and align themself.

At this stage, we also add the Tinboy's head, as well as the Red Gobbo and his Santa Claus cap. The robot's head includes a periscope.

The arms are positioned on the sides, and the Red Gobbo's hand holds a stick of TNT that looks like a candle. These are fixed in position, so I suggest not gluing the Tinboy's arms to his body yet, as they will block areas during painting.

All that is left to do is add the bag of presents and 'surprises' to the miniature. Inside the bag, you will see a sculpted git. Whether you paint him before closing the bag or not is up to you, but you won't see much of him either way.

This is the fully assembled Red Gobbo's Tinboy, along with a breakdown of how I split the miniature for painting. I think it's easier to do it this way and add the arms afterwards.

Here are some close-ups of the final miniature, including detailed shots from various angles.

Conclusion

While the Commemorative Miniature series might not be for everyone as it is quite focused on Space Marines and Stormcast Eternals, these festive Red Gobbos are a fun addition to it. It is certainly a collector's item, as its playability is limited to some less serious scenarios, and it will spend its existence in a showcase rather than on a gaming table.

Assembly was straightforward, but painting will be tricky as some parts are hard to reach. While you can leave off the arms, the helmet/hat situation of the tin boy is certainly an issue. Perhaps I'll cut it off and reattach it after painting the Red Gobbo's back. This could be handled differently by dividing the pieces differently/into sub-builds. While the nutcracker theme is funny, I would have liked more Easter eggs, as they did with the Grotmas Gitz.

At 35 EUR it's not cheap, but as this is a fairly limited release, you can pick it up from independent stores and get a discount on the recommended retail price.

• Production Quality: 4/5
• Design appeal: 4/5
• Options / Customization: 2/5
• Value for money: 3/5
• Ease of Assembly: 4/5

Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar are brands by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.