Well, I have been travelling on business for the good part of this month, and it seems that Michael has spilled the beans–so to speak–about Mx600.
So it is time to clear up some of the mystery. Last Fall my wife and I were in Western Europe on vacation, and we had a very nice afternoon visit with Chris Tubb in St. Alban, which is close to his home. It was then that I decided to pursue the Mx project, The Cracks of Doom. I actually was going to commission this piece over four years ago (perhaps some will remember rumors of a new Mx when an announcement was released prematurely back then, again by Michael, through another miniature website). At that time, PA and I could not come to an agreement on the financing. This also was around the time that material cost had gone up greatly for Mithril, and the economies of the world were still struggling–which had a direct impact on my income.
So I waited for what I judged to be a better time–I hope Mithril has not lost too many follower in the mean time for this project to succeed. I wanted to wait until after the Christmas season to move forward. Chris and I discussed the details, and I decided to pay him directly for the design cost, and then pay Mithril for production, packaging and the distribution of most of the figures. It is correct that I even suggested this vignette at least once as a monthly FG suggestion, and another person may have as well (don’t remember), but there are so few opportunities for vignette/mounted suggestions, that I decided to just move forward with the original Mx I contemplated.
Chris graciously offer to reserve Mx600 for this piece, but I know for a fact that he is caught up with his design work on ALL of the other Mithrils through March of this year, and maybe even April by now–as I mentioned above, I have been travelling and so with only a couple brief emails to each other, I am a little behind on his progress. So then, as I mentioned in a post a couple months ago, it is Mithril that is the cause for these figure delays–not Chris.
I have mentioned this project to a couple of friend here, as I asked for their advice in dealing with Mithril during my decision process, and more recently to another friend as he has been particularly kind to me regarding another passion of mine–stamp collecting! Still, I had intended to keep the Mx news relatively quiet until I knew when Mithril might release the vignette–no sense getting everyone excited, only to have to wait months for the release, right? Oh well!
Now for the particulars: Mx600 will be a vignette of Frodo, Sam and Gollum on a rocky ledge over-looking the Cracks of Doom. Gollum will be dancing precariously on the edge of the outcropping, holding the ring over his head as he begins to lose his balance. Frodo will be kneeling behind him, holding the injured hand with his missing finger in his other hand. Sam will be next to Frodo on the ledge, staggering from the previous blow to his head from Gollum. I will forward Chris’s pictures to Gildor for him to post where he thinks is best, and for others to see and copy, if they would like. Chris completed the design work about two months ago, and he sent the prototypes to Mithril shortly afterwards. Lars contacted me a couple weeks later, and I assume they have begun production. I haven’t heard from Lars since then, and in all fairness to him, I have been very busy and I have not inquired about the project status so far this month. But all cost for the Mx have been paid, and now it is just a matter of when the figures/packaging are complete–hopefully soon!
I hope you all enjoy this vignette!
