MZ704 the end of an age
MMP › Mithril in Middle-Earth › The Secret Vaults of Angrenost › MZ704 the end of an age
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April 8, 2022 at 12:00 am #48092April 8, 2022 at 2:21 am #48093
Sorry, but what I see is horrible. Another step in the decline of former Mithril-quality, as you put it, Mornedhel.
Well, I’m glad that I didn’t order any more figures for quite a while.
What has been making me very angry from the start of the MZ “series” is the fact that you cannot trust the pictures provided in newsletters any more. What has a rendered screenshot got to do with the figure you receive? I strictly do not buy anything of which I don’t know what it might be like.
This is Mithril at its worst. I guess they must have lowered the price at least to a half to find some customers.
I am more than just disappointed ….
Mornedhel, thank you so very much for providing this information.April 8, 2022 at 10:54 pm #48094My dear master Ent, I was concerned about your email, and I am sad to read about your disapointment and the one from Mornedhel too.
I got the MZ704 myself and indeed that changes a lot and my eyes are not what they used to be but I still see lots of details… Actually, I hope you won’t be upset at me but I passed along your concern by directly copying your post to Chris directly. He was kind enough to answer by the hour to provide some very interesting information. Here is what he says :
I am sorry about Dieter’s comments on the new resin figure. I personally quality-checked every one of the new 704 figures and assembled and sprayed one of the figures myself before release and thought that the detail was much sharper than that on the metal figures. Admittedly, at first glance, the resin itself is hard to “read” because of its semi- translucent quality. But once primed , the details stand out very sharply. I have had several very positive responses to the new piece. What were Dieter’s specific criticisms rather than that the figures were just “horrible”?
I admit that I did not see any of the Mz metal figures after production and wasn’t aware of this decline in standards. Sadly there is a distance between myself and the factory these days for various reasons and I am never sent samples . However, the resin project is entirely under my control and I was able to check both resin and metal parts.
As for not displaying the actual castings on the Mithril site and showing only the digital images, this was something done under my insistence. It is a sad fact that there is no-one at the factory who has any interest or ability to assemble the figures. I was seeing promotional figures put together with no thought given to how the arms etc should be properly attached , coarsely glued ( with the glue sometimes showing and no cleaning up done before assembly. These were a disgrace and were a travesty of what the assembled figures should look like . My only solution was to insist that they use the digital images.
They seem to have no concept of how to present the figures. A cursory glance at the website will show you some horribly painted figures , often with blobs of paint for eyes etc. I have urged them repeatedly to look on other sites to see how figures should be presented but unfortunately I have very little influence on anything these days.
I did not know of the price reduction . As I said above , I am not really part of the Mithril loop any longer.
I would be happy to hear from Dieter if he wishes to email me directly ( you can pass on my email address to him) and I am happy for you to share these thoughts
“Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.” (Gildor Inglorion, LOTR1)
April 9, 2022 at 7:07 pm #48095I have yet to purchase this figure as I will wait for a couple more to be released, but I wonder if they could be produced in a grey resin rather than the colour shown which doesn’t appear to show the detail very well at all. Personally I am looking forward to resin, but then I do collect to theoretically paint the figures and not for collection purposes.
April 10, 2022 at 3:05 pm #48096Well, now back to you, Gildor and Chris.
First of all let me make clear that I never doubted Chris’ excellent skills and abilities in sculpting. The word “horrible” I used referring to the impression I had when I saw the picture Mornedhel provided. Looking at a “raw” resin-casting you cannot see all (or any of) the details of a figure, of course. I do know that priming a figure is absolutely necessary to get a better impression of it.
Unfortunately the Mithril company once decided not to sell the figures primed any more. That’s what I called a decline of the Mithril quality. From my point of view it would be absolutely necessary to provide pictures of a “real” assembled and primed figure. Thanks to Chris we now learned that the company seems to be absolutely unable to provide such pictures. To me that is another decline. For promotional and marketing purposes this would be a basic information for customers. – Yes, I do now understand well, why Chris insisted on having at least some screenshots of the rendering process published to give an idea of a figure.
Of course there is no reduction in prices by Mithril. This was more or less meant a bit cynical by me.Back again to Chris’ sculpting skills: I think there’s not a great difference in the appearance of a figure, metal or resin. Resin has some advantages in some ways – though I still like the feeling of holding a metal Mithril figure in my hands. This combination of metal and resin we already witnessed with a vignette in the Phaeton design range, the “Destroyer of the Dwarves”. The base and the “Destroyer” are resin and the 7 dwarves are metal. The figure of the “Destroyer” is excellent once it is primed.
So with my statement above I didn’t want to cause any harm. My criticism refers to the Mithril company and their very poor abilities to promote the miniatures. It was not at all aimed at Chris. But instead I would like to thank Chris for providing us with some important details.Gildor, of course you can pass on this entry to Chris, but I also could send him an e-mail directly. I have the adress(es). Just et me know, please.
April 10, 2022 at 6:33 pm #48097Please Dieter, do so by sending him emails, I am sure he would be more than happy to discuss with you directly and have your feedback… You certainly know that relations between Chris and Prince August are not really… perfect lately that’s why he is struggling to have his own brand working up (Phaeton) but encounters lots of difficulties.
Also, the idea of using Grey resin instead of white would really be good to mention I thinkGrey, primer or “material” has always been a “signature” of mithril, and well, almost all resin figurines on the market are gray too because if taken on a photo, we can see more details by lack of light reflection of the white color…
I really think those feedbacks should be listened, and I am certain Chris is listening far more than Lars…
“Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.” (Gildor Inglorion, LOTR1)
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MMP › Mithril in Middle-Earth › The Secret Vaults of Angrenost › MZ704 the end of an age