Goblin Spider Rider

Where do Goblin Battle Platforms come from you may ask? Well, all big things come from small beginnings and Giant Spiders are no different. In the Badlands of Middle Zealand there are a species of spider that don't stop growing... as long as they can get enough to eat.

Goblin raiders nurture these little spiders and keep feeding them until they are large enough to ride into battle. Successful spider riders survive long enough to keep their spiders well fed... and the spiders who keep surviving and being fed enough will continue to grow to enormous proportions. Once they have reached a size that is big enough to transport 5-6 goblins into battle, a wooden framework and defensive structures are built on top of the spider in order to convert it into the mighty Goblin Battle Platform!

Unfortunately for both Goblin and Spider, the chances of this happening is quite unlikely. Goblins are clever and sneaky but generally weak and cowardly by nature... and spiders are particularly squishy! But you never know... The dream for every young Goblin Spider Rider is to raise a mount that will eventually grow to a size big enough to support a battle platform.

Until they grow to this size, Goblin Spider Riders offer a formidable cavalry option for a Greenskin army. Whereas Wolf Riders are quicker and Orc War Boars are stronger, Goblin Spider Riders can traverse any terrain and their mount's webbing can hold any troop in place with a mass of sticky strands. Underestimate them on the battlefield at your peril.

PIECE COUNT : 63 (not including minifigures or accessories)

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DESIGN NOTES : Another design of mine I've had for over a year that just wasn't "right", but I felt that the Goblin cavalry of my greenskin army needed a revisit after submitting the Goblin Battle Platform and the Orc War Boar. The midsection and legs were pretty simple and similar to the spider crawler but it needed to be longer and point towards something bigger. So with an added rear section and matching the black dark tan and brown colour scheme to follow the Giant Spider in the Battle Platform, it's almost like if the Goblin Rider kept the Spider growing, it could really end up being that big!

Once the bulk of the spider was built I got stuck again :( Well, once I added two more legs at the front of the build after my 6 year old son refused to believed it was a spider because it only had 6 legs)

With the size of the spider the face/head section left me in a quandary. There was no way I could make a multiple eyed spider head with the small space - plus trying to get a moving mouth seemed impossible... let alone trying to make it all toothy and bitey! After 2 nights of frustration it came to me... slowly... A lot of trial and error, and studying the composition of the Giant Spider and piece by piece it came together. One small spider and a piece of webbing underneath and all done!

With a single minifigure, and a couple of accessories, this might just fit into the polybag category (just) like the Orc War Boar... lets hope it doesn't have too many elements so it physically CAN fit into a polybag! :D

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My IDEAS dream would be to see a whole line of Castle/Fantasy sets that will allow all ages of fans of LEGO and tabletop gaming to come together, in order to help everyone learn strategic thinking, teamwork and planning, basic arithmetic, tactical awareness and simple probability. Please support and share in order to help this dream become a reality!

You can follow the progress of all my projects in this range here: https://ideas.lego.com/profile/Jeddy%20and%20Daddy/projects which will include siege weapons, mounted units, cavalry and all sorts of other fun stuff. And anything you don't see, feel free to request via https://ideas.lego.com/profile/Jeddy%20and%20Daddy/profile