Looking for Mithrandil… Last bottles to the Sea

Yes, I had contact with Marc regarding the MX, but only through his email on MMP, which was the same he has as contact on the gold board. I’m sorry I don’t have more info. Marc wanted to sell of his collection, but this never happened eighter. So at the moment we are not really further then we have before. What a shame.

A Merry Meeting!

[imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/548_harrydavid.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/548_harrydavid.jpg[/imgz]

Hi Collector fellows
Yes it happens sometimes:
I (hwolf or halbarad II) had the chance to meet ddaines in reality!

On a trip to United Kingdom/London we had a merry meeting
and some very nice and interesting chat about collecting Mithril Minis.
thanks to David for the tasty wine ;o)

Cheers, Halbarad II

Your round next time Harry 😆

Mmmh, I must confess this is a invitingly occasion ! We should talk about this.

It is not a dumb question George.

Originally, Mithril contracted with Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) to produce figures based upon their Middle-earth Role Playing (MERP) game. This was a license granted by Tolkien Enterprises (not to be confused with the Tolkien Estate). Over the years, Tolkien Enterprises (TE) came to own the rights to all materials relating to the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. The books themeselves, games, collectibles, movies, almost everything. Tolkien Estates maintains ownership of all other JRR Tolkien works. That is why Mithril cannot produce any Silmarillion based figures among other restrictions.

So back to your question: the whole Mithril concept, per the agreement with ICE, was based upon these MERP publications, which included not only characters from the books, but made up characters that the authors of the MERP publications thought might be reasonable to expect would exist in Middle-earth, if it were fleshed out, so to say (Thieves of Tharbad, or Orcs with spears). And then there are the completely made up Characters such as Nimhir the Regent.

In the begining Chris Tubb sculpted pieces that corresponded to several of the MERP Role-playing books, which of course included many (and eventually all) of the regular Tolkien characters found in the Hobbit and LOTRs. But the first few books dealt more with the common folk of Middle-earth. Thus Legolas being number 65.

Eventually, ICE lost the license to publish the MERP line (screwed by TE who wanted to license the movie and product rights to bigger, better capitalized companies–New Line Cinema and Games Workshops), but Mithril has maintained their agreement (with TE) to produce figures as long as they keep to the original deal. This is why after we vote on a figure in our FG club we still have to wait for approval from Tolkien Enterprises before Mithril can produce and sell it. The same process holds when Mithril makes an “M” series release such as the recent Helms Deep figures.

Chris has always enjoyed the MERP body of works, and that is why we still see some pieces produced based upon those publications, such as Dagohir. And enough FG members like some of the MERP ideas, such as Female Assassin of Dol Amroth, that we vote occassionaly for a MERP inspired figure of the month.

Hope you’re not more confused now than before.

As for Marc, I also lost touch with him; well before the original MMP site went down he seems to have disappeared.

Thanks for the info! (I don’t know your real name, only twrich!)

That is very valuable information. Thanks for taking the time to write it.

Beer, Mead and Jagermeister (spelling?), bring it on, lol.