The hobgoblin image I favour is definitely Eastern inspired, probably more mongolian looking than samurai but at the end of the day it's a starting point and not a rigid template. It's fantasy after all, and I think fantastical designs make a good impact when they have a strong foundation in real world reference but won't necessarily limit themselves to it.
Personally I've never considered the mentality of them much as I've never done any gaming or reading that involved the hobgoblin mind and/or society. I did a quick bit of research to see how they're often portrayed and the popular depiction appears to be that they are "a lot like orcs, but more organised and tactical in their warfare". I'm all for that as the visual cues are very much saying "nomadic marauding threat from the east, hide your wives and cattle". Warlike, like ordinary greenskins, but with a twist.
I also imagine that organisational bias to be more of a battlefield tactics kind of thing more than kit uniformity or manufacture/distribution of whatever wargear they own. I can't quite picture an organised large scale manufacturing anything with goblins behind it as well as I can picture things made more individually. Plunder is probably a common source of loot, if not even the only one.
This would make a hobgoblin force look as ragged and mixed as any ordinary goblin/orc force, only mainly drawn from oriental sources.
To boil it down to specifics then; the scale and lamellar types of armour set them apart from the more eurocentric orcs of plate and maille. Scimitars and other curved blades fit them for the same reason, recurve bows do too. Shields are primarily round and sport some funkily crafted designs, top knots and fur trims add to the image and the more orange skin tone reinforces the idea of a distant goblin relative. Lastly, but not leastly, I think any self respecting orc/goblin kin says 'sod footwear' and goes campaigning barefoot. At least a lot of them do, footwear optional as per the loose dress code.
To reiterate the first point though, let historical reference be a good backbone but a fantasy design is something more than just a carbon copy, that's my view. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of orc/goblin kind is wicked looking blades, pointed and hooked like no historical counterpart. I've always been a fan of that. I suppose it implies the malicious and cruel mindset you'd attribute to orcs or goblins. I don't see hobgoblins as an exception. In effect the blade, for example, could have no eastern association at all and that's fine as long as the rest of the hobgoblin does. The same goes for any other detail; that's what makes a good fantasy hobgoblin to me rather than a hobgoblin in plain historically accurate gear.
And to be clear I don't have anything against historical depictions whatsoever. On the contrary, good fantasy draws heavily from it in my opinion and I greatly enjoy historical documentaries and whatnots from a visual standpoint as much as any other angle. So if you're a historical wargamer I didn't just knock that, I'm just saying that to me there's an important distinction between the two. I place hobgoblins in the fantasy bracket* and good fantasy to me has always happily sacrificed a bit of realism to gain a bit of flair. That's what makes it such fun escapism.
Anatomically I see them being on par with human size/weight, but with decidedly poorer postures
I like the idea of size being more of a variable thing than in humans, the idea that power and physical stature is somehow interlinked in goblinoid races. The visual effect is of a breed more chaotic and monstrous than humans, not less so. The facial setup would be goblin/orc like but not as acute - more human - this would be the visual tiein to the idea of a breed that isn't as devoted to anarchy as other orcs/goblins. I would associate them with an overbite more than an underbite. A similar, yet still different kind of goblin/orc.
Here's a hobgoblin I appreciate:
That turned out to be a bit more of an essay than I intended. I can find it very satisfying to take a thing that interests me and break it down to sort of gauge my own understanding of something. In this case, a design exercise. "What's a good hobgoblin?" was such a great question to me.
*If you don't put hobgoblins in the fantasy bracket I urgently recommend you see a specialist
