Númenorian Army

It would be interesting to see Master Ent’s army opposite Ken’s orc army!:cool:

Hmm…..
This sounds interesting Master Erchamion. That would be a interesting task.

Dreaming! Imagine a future “Dagor Dagorath” ….. with the military included the Númenorian Army …

It is now that I misses that Mithril haven´t the license to create this…

Most impressive, but that Numenorian standard bearer must have the muscle power of Arnie and Claude Van Dam to hold that hoofing great thing aloft especially the size of the blade atop of it .

Oh if only that lot had been released:)

Theobald wrote:

Yes, the standard is too tall, I agree. But I will not cut it …

no, don’t do that (cut it) Master Tree

The Master Barkeep always needs to throw in the last word….

I was merely making an observation, Master Tree. The figures are indeed, as you say, all recasts. Which is, of course, the point I was making.

Why? Because, I’m afraid, converting a figure before recasting it doesn’t alter the fact that that the conversion is based on a copyrighted figure, and that recasting it (not converting it) is still a breach of copyright. Believe me! – I’ve been in publishing all my working life and know somewhat of the arcane, obtuse, murky ins and outs of copyright legislation.

It doesn’t even matter if the figures are never sold, but only given away – the breach of copyright is in the act of recasting, not what’s done with the recast figures subsequently.

So, to put it simply: converting a figure is not a breach of copyright; recasting it is, whether it’s been converted or not.

Where we hit a grey area, of course, is where a figure is no longer available and is never going to bcome available again…though, technically, even then the figure’s copyright remains valid for 75 years from the date of its production or the death of the copyright owner, whichever comes last.

It’s a really, really nice thing…for collectors.

And while it’s really fun to hunt down just the right figure for your diorama or whatever, there are plenty of Mithril figures which how-shall-we-put-this: don’t need to be so rare. The Wood Elf guardsman (M71 or whatever it is) is a lovely figure, but does it really need to be 18 euro or more per figure? Thus there exists a large, healthy and rather lucrative market for Mithril product…which Mithril has no participation in (well not much – the rare stock sort of helps). Other companies who sell to a collector’s market – eg, comic book companies – find ways of participating in this market without impacting on collectors. They sell reissues of classic issues. They offer “remastered” versions in delux formats. In other words, they figure out ways of making money on things that they have already made and sold. (And, crucially, pay more money to the creators). So…I would pay about 80 euro for a delux collector’s set of the Halls of the Elven King series. Maybe release it on a display base. Release it with an extra figure. Something.

Earn more money.

Mithril’s core problem is that they release figures in themed series (great for collectors) that go out of print after a certain period (also great for collectors). However, in doing so they are preventing new people starting as collectors. Someone sees some pictures of (for example) Mithril elves online and thinks: wow, they are so much more beautiful than other miniatures – I wish I had some. Problem is, of course that he or she can’t, unless they get very lucky. (Or live in Germany or France which seems to have a healthier secondary market)

Remember that poster who was complaining about missing parts of Mithril series? Thing is, the poster was right, in a way. These ranges should be bigger, especially the army ranges – even if some of the figures are just the same template with a different weapon. The Lossarnach figures may not be my favourites, but they are a good model of how things should be done. Lots of repeated torsos, but optional weapon arms and easy to modify left arms. Suddenly you have an army – or a military unit for a battle scene, or personal favourites to choose for something else.

(Which should be then advertised to all hell – but that’s another day’s work)