The Taproom

This topic has 6,719 replies, 38 voices, and was last updated 14 years ago by Barliman.

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February 16, 2010 at 3:46 pm #8850
Arthadan
Participant
Quote:

So for some collectors, (like me) buying Mithrils is also an opportunity to see these elements of Middle-earth realised by someone with an obvious love and respect for the material, matched to talent and commitment. So the military mithrils are worthy competition to the others. (The Lord of the Rings, after all, is the story of a war, and those caught up in it)

If only Mr. Tubb stops sculpting full armours, I would agree. And some other details, such toeless feet for Trolls and so. That’s something I have never understood, Mithril are suppose to be completely fatihful to the lore
February 16, 2010 at 4:09 pm #8851
Gavin
Participant
I suspect Chris sculpted full plate armour back in the day without really thinking about it. Back then, MERP and geekdom in general worked on the assumption that “mail” meant “armour” in general. So now he continues the “look” for certain figures. A lot of MERP material was written before we had access to Tolkien’s letters and sundry extras like the history of Middle-earth.

The later and clearer understanding of Middle-earth as some sort of 19th century Oxfordshire-meets-Dark-Ages-Germanic-saga is a little later than the birth of Mithril.

Though if Chris ever runs out of subjets to sculpt, he could do worse than re-making some of the plate-armoured Last Alliance heroes and ancient Noldor.

Gavin
February 16, 2010 at 8:14 pm #8853
Arthadan
Participant
I could understand that to a point. Last Alliance figures should keep continuity… but Galadriel in full plate armour? For Eru’s sake!
February 16, 2010 at 10:29 pm #8854
Barliman
Participant
Gavin wrote:

The GW black numenoreans are an embarassment.

Well of course they are – they were designed by Mr Morley. What more needs to be said?
February 18, 2010 at 5:58 am #8855
twrich
Participant
I don’t want to write a book so just a few thoughts:

It is absolutely correct that Mithril began its existence as a licensee of Tolkien Enterprises to produce figures compatable with and based on the MERP (Middle-Earth Role-Playing) publications by Iron Crown Enterprises–so from the beginning Mithrils were never meant to be “completely faithful to the lore.”

I think the issue of what is an acceptable suggestion is really up to Chris–if he didn’t want a broad definition of figures suggested, he and Mithril would let us know. So far he has mostly declined suggestions for reasons of cost or complexity, not whether they were purely Tolkien canon.

It is human nature to favor good over evil (at least for most of us most of the time). And the LOTR being a story about the triumph of “good” it is understandable that most suggestions are of “good” characters. But eventually this leads to Galadriel in plate. Likewise, there are far fewer evil characters mentioned by name than good, so we get many Witch-kings. But no one complains about generic good guy standard bearers, drummers, messengers, etc . . . . Why shouldn’t we have generic evil figures too that compliment existing series’ and are unlikely to be part of a future M series?

In the end, I am still long-winded even when trying not to be, and Barli right in saying that we can’t always get what we want (speaking of ageless rockers)
February 18, 2010 at 7:28 am #8856
Barliman
Participant
Ahh, that’s what the Pony needs – more Rolling Stones references! And the widely varying wants/needs/hopes/desires of the GF members, as regards good/evil/generics/heroes, is meanwhie being entirely underlined by the scatter-gun nature of this month’s voting even as we sit here and drink (sorry, I meant think – sort of), with no clear leader and only 4 votes between the highest and lowest scorers!
February 18, 2010 at 12:29 pm #8858
Theobald
Participant
Huooommmm … doesn’t one line also read “…but if you try sometime, you get what you need” … ? … rhuoommm … me tree and UP …
February 18, 2010 at 5:58 pm #8859
twrich
Participant
Yes Master Tree, the line does continue like that, with words ‘you just might find ‘ in there as well.

Are we allowed by Mithril to purchase two of these UP sets at once master Tree, or would you prefer us to buy one at first and wait a while for others to be able to scrape their coiny things together, maybe a couple months or so. I wouldn’t want someone to go without because I bought two (one to paint, one to collect), but I would like to save on the shipping.

I post this here, the most frequently visited area of MMP, so others can read your thoughts.

I think that in days to come this will prove to be Chris’s greatest Mithril work, and will be the centerpiece of many collections!
February 19, 2010 at 11:19 am #8864
Theobald
Participant
Huooommm … as you adressed me here, Master Twrich, I will try to answer … rhuooommm … as far as I know there will be no limit for the number of vignettes a single person might buy … huommm … of course no one knows how the selling of the UP will develop, and that’s why I cannot give any advice here, sorry, but I hope you understand … hoooomrhuomm … but there also are those special conditions about a payment offered by Mithril … huoommm … unfortunately that would turn out to be a bit more expensive than paying for the UP at once … hooommmhuom … so what can I say?
Huom … I agree with your judgement about Chris’s “greatest” work (size or weight?). huomm …
as a matter of fact this really seems to be the biggest single project Mithril has ever done so far.
February 20, 2010 at 5:40 pm #8866
Wendy
Participant
Whew! Just coming home from other parts. A round for everyone and something strong, but not too strong for me.

And a bowl of the best, clearest water for Master Ent any time he might want it for the wonderful UP.
February 20, 2010 at 7:32 pm #8867
Barliman
Participant
What a pleasure it is to see a lady in here once in a while. Oh, and Mistress Wendy is here as well! That’s nice. It’ll give Nob a chance to practice being polite.

Meanwhile, I’m running a book on which figure suggestions are going to make it to Round 2 of this month’s GF poll. Any takers?
February 20, 2010 at 9:40 pm #8868
Theobald
Participant
Huuoommmmm … rhuommhuom … homm … it’s so good to have you around here again, Mistress Wendy …. huoommm, indeed it is … hommm … rhuoomm … but you might reconsider your offer of a ‘bowl-of-clear-clean-non-sparkeling-honey-tasting-watery-liquid-I-do-prefer-most-of-all-them waters-for-which-I-do-not-have-to-spend-any-coiny-thing on it” … rhhuoommm …
rhuoouummmhuommm … thank you very much, Mistress Wendy …. but I think you should rather offer The Man a free drink, as he had to do all the work with that MP-thing … rhuoommm
February 21, 2010 at 3:06 pm #8873
Theobald
Participant
Huomm … as for another matter … sorrry … I still wonder what the colours of the shield of the old ‘Army of the Witch-King’ might be … huoomm … I know of that tower in the woods where the ‘Necromancer’ kept hidden … alas … rhuoommmm … is there any hint or clue to how appropriately paint those shields? … of course, there’s the dominant ‘Tower’ on them … but what about colours? … I tried to put the ‘dexter chief point’ (which is the background) in variant colours … not very much convincing, by the way … rhuoommm… the next, according to Mr. Stephen Sleter, is to have the “middle chief point” – which in our case is that image of a fortified tower … gruuhuommmhomm … does anybody around here know about colours about that which our dear Master Tolkien provided? …. rhuommhuommmhooomm …. alas …
February 21, 2010 at 3:11 pm #8874
Theobald
Participant
Huuuoommmmm … Master Barliman, …. ahem… you’re the one who knows ….
February 21, 2010 at 4:43 pm #8875
Arthadan
Participant
As far as I know, Tolkien didn’t design that shield. But he did design Sauron’s device which was a red eye on black background and then we have Minas Morgul device which was a white skull-moon on black background. And Morgoth’s own shield was plain black when he killed Fingolfin. Then we have Haradrim device, the black serpent on red background. So I’ll definitively go for red and black, probably black tower on red background.
February 21, 2010 at 7:09 pm #8877
Theobald
Participant
huoommm … so it could also have been a ‘white tower’ on a black field … no … rhuoomm ..
I think that as Master Sauron chose the red colour to his visible threats – as later it was the red eye – the ‘Necromancer’ might have used a ‘Tower’ as a sign for a fortified place … huoomm … in that case a red tower on a plain green field … huoomm …. sorry, it’s not dark enough to see … rhuoomhuommmhommm …
Thank you, Master Arthadan, for sharing this issue … hooommm
February 21, 2010 at 10:35 pm #8879
Gavin
Participant
Weird, I posted here earlier about going to check the old MERP material, but it didn’t show up.

(The Mithril Angmar designs are all from MERP)

Let me get back to you in a bit.
February 21, 2010 at 11:14 pm #8881
Turambar
Participant
Mhhh, strange colours . . .( a hit by Cindy Lauper deep in the eighties . . . ?! Or was it “True colors” . . . )
May I interfere in this topic. At this weekend I spent hours of photographing all these Orcs which have a place inside my Moria-diorama.
The only one with that Angmar shield I posess is the M 050.
Orcish shields are made of wood, raw and plump. Similar to those Saruman-halforc-shields with the White Hand the Tower is white as well.
So, in this case it is Raw Umbar, shaded with Ivory Black and a needlepoint of Burnt Siena for the shield.
Master Theobald, I hope this could give you some inspiration . . .

[imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/32_m50.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/32_m50.jpg[/imgz]
February 22, 2010 at 7:52 am #8883
Barliman
Participant
Black seems a fairly certain choice of background colour for Angmar, as Master Arthadan says – all of Morgoth’s disciples and successors were clearly of a nihilist school of thought! But otherwise, sadly no, JRRT provides no clues whatsoever regarding any ‘device’ that the Withcking and his folowers might have used. So anything suggested anywhere is a non-Tolkienian invention. Let you imagination run riot, Master Tree! If it was my choice, I might be tempted to try dark grey on a black background.
February 22, 2010 at 11:25 am #8886
Arthadan
Participant
You’re welcome, Master Tree! Remembering the old MERP covers by Master Angus McBride:

Dark Mage of Rhudaur
Here you can see a black shield with a red serpentine dragon (Orcs from the Grey Mountains, maybe?)

Sadly, the other ones have no shields with coat of arms on them (“Arnor, The land” and “Angmar, land of the Witch-ling”).
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