The Taproom

Viewing 20 posts - 481 through 500 (of 6,720 total)
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  • #2489
    presto247365
    Participant

      I don’t know what got me started on a yen for collecting Balrogs. Probably just the sheer variety, which i think is entirely justified in Tolkien’s universe.

      Early ideas of the Moria Balrog made him more mannish, and “no more than man high” (HOME vol 7 pg 197) So there we have the little guys.

      Then there is the description of “sudden host of Balrogs” (HOME vol 10, pg 75) so there we have license for many. On page 80 of the same book, there is mentioned “about three balrogs, no more than seven” which contrasts the earlier ideas of multitudes. However this concludes with Melkor having created “Many other monsters of divers shapes and kinds that long troubled the world.”

      So sifting through all of that, I envision seven “greater” balrogs, including the chief baddy, Gothmog. These would be the larger Mithril and GW types. Than there could be a host of “lesser” balrogs, which I could easily envision being involved in the sack of Gondolin and other such tragedies. Good fun!

      #2491
      Gildor
      MMP Elder

        well you must not forget that Balrogs are Valaraukar corrupted and they can’t change their fana anymore after their “banishment” from the Maiar order. They were like Arien in the beginning, maiar of Fire, followers of Varda “Elbereth”if I remember well, and could assume any “fana” they wanted. we don’t know their numbers for sure, but they are undoubtedly many. Since we don’t know the number of maiar… we can’t guess the number of balrogs… but Melkor did not create them nor modified them at all… They simply decided to follow him, the same way Sauron left Aulë for Melkor too.

        #2492
        presto247365
        Participant

          No, i wasn’t thinking of Melkor “creating” them as acually forming the creatures and giving them life. More like he”created” them by turning them to evil and leading them down a path towards destruction.

          #2497
          Gildor
          MMP Elder

            (Just a little message to let you know I closed several old topics in the Prancing Poney section or even elsewhere (tharbad for example, they are out of date and should not , I think receive any more posts, they are still here for reading, but you can’t post in them)

            One day, I think I’ll have to archive the Taproom somehow, but so far, no need :)

            #2498
            Barliman
            Participant

              Thank heavens for that – less rooms to clean! Nob will be delighted.

              #2507
              Barliman
              Participant

                Ah, while it’s not busy I shall sit and have a quiet drink in the corner here to celebrate having painted my 3,000th LOTR figure. A red-letter day, I think.

                #2508
                Gildor
                MMP Elder

                  Doh! congrats!
                  I wish I had painted but a fifth of that amount!
                  unfortunately, in 17 years I think I have barely painted 350 references… :(

                  #2511
                  Gavin
                  Participant

                    I’ve painted…dunno. Lots. Several hundred GW and Mithril figures. Then I got rid of the plastic and G. Morley figures, which has reduced the finished models considerably. Unfortunately, I don’t really have any good place to show them off. Lots of them are sitting on the prototype gaming table in the vault (yes, I have such a thing) where they stay, alone and unloved. The concrete dust in the vault is pretty poisonous, so you don’t want to spend much time in there!

                    What was your 3000th figure, by the way?

                    #2512
                    Barliman
                    Participant

                      It was, appropriately, a Mithril figure – M312 Orc drummer. It’s taken me eight years to get this far, and I think there’s still another 2-3 years of work to go. Ironically I originally thought I could get everything I really needed purchased and painted in about two years, but that plan hasn’t been helped by new figures constantly coming out (even dismissing the worst of GW’s excesses). Final tally will be in the region of 4,000. All I have to do is live long enough and I may eventually get round to playing with them.

                      #2513
                      Gavin
                      Participant

                        Oh yeah…playing with them.

                        That might be fun.

                        I will be able to do it in 2010, maybe. Maybe.

                        #2565
                        Barliman
                        Participant

                          Assuming that there’s anyone about (it’s all gone horribly quiet in here lately – not a single chime of the cash register for days…), folks may be interested to know that I’ve had one of my occasional communications from The Man, who says he’s caught up with the Fellowship figures as far as William the Troll, and is even beginning to turn his thoughts to what his next ‘M’ range should be. Alas, I can say no more than that for now, but it sounds interesting.

                          #2566
                          erchamion
                          Participant

                            Does this mean that will eliminate the backlog in the Fellowship figures?:)

                            Before William there are four months overdue (though some as Theodred we have already seen that is finished):rolleyes:

                            #2567
                            Barliman
                            Participant

                              I imagine that’s exactly what he meant. Of course, getting TE approval and producing the moulds and castings is another matter entirely – but at least the design work is done.

                              #2568
                              Gildor
                              MMP Elder

                                well Barliman, at last that confirms the fact he received my answer ;) Chris had lost your email (he broke his computer and lost his contact list), I thought you would not mind me giving him your email as he was planning to email you :)

                                Thanksfully I had the right email to give him ;)

                                I wish he had time to be a member of this forum… but I don’t think he is the “mailboard” kind of people (or else he would post himself on the Official board I suppose)

                                #2572
                                Barliman
                                Participant

                                  Ah, that would explain why I hadn’t heard from him for an Age!

                                  #2574
                                  Kenakko
                                  Participant

                                    Well, I’m back at least and I’m not above making some noise in here…but first a tall scrumpy please! And , Barli, I’ve never actually heard the ‘ca-ching’ of the register in here with everyone running a tab! And please put that scrumpy on my tab, please! Anyway, I was gone to the Far East (or the Far West from my corner of the planet). I had an extended stay in Japan. That would be another long posting, so suffice to say I’m back. In trying to catch up with some of the recent postings I noticed that not much has happened on the Mithril front! I didn’t win in the painting contest, but I’m glad that one of ours did. Some fantastic stuff there…and the hard drive issues of Chris Tubb I can certainly relate too ahveing just survived a crash! Also, I saw Glidor’s posting about the dates of the LR and LT series and it reminded me of those times. I have some interesting trivia about the LR series regarding the shape of the bases. As you may or may not know, the LR series was an effort to hang onto their license as producing collectable miniatures. This and the ‘assembly needed’ aspect of some of the very first ones was part of that too. I believe that they were also looking to distance themselves from the old M series as well. I think the shape was retained for the LT series for the same reason. The LR series has always been overlooked in terms of the sculpting. The oddly shaped base (circle within a rectangle) was originally intended to accommodate a name plate!
                                    Check out this picture and you can see one in the mold:
                                    [imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/21_pic00006.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/21_pic00006.jpg[/imgz]
                                    This picture, by the way is of a master mold and was provided to me by the late Adam Dawson, the first and former web master for Mithril

                                    #2575
                                    Barliman
                                    Participant

                                      Wow, that’s a complicated mould. I’ve only seen the big circular mass-production moulds used by wargame-figure manufacturers before now, and hadn’t realised that the Mithril ones were so much more sophisticated. Nice picture. Have a drink on me (darn it, that’s another lost opportunity to hear the cash-register bell…)

                                      #2579
                                      twrich
                                      Participant

                                        Hear, Hear! Kenakko.

                                        It is good to hear prior times.

                                        #2580
                                        Barliman
                                        Participant

                                          Ah, so there is someone else in here. I really must look more closely into the dark corners.

                                          Haven’t seen the Tree about for a while either. I guess he’s out on another Entwife search. Anyone know when he’s due back?

                                          #2581
                                          presto247365
                                          Participant

                                            Hello fellow travellers. I’ll just stop in for a quick hello, I’m off on vacation this week, and heading to Historicon. Hopefully, I’ll see Jim Corless there, and can while away some time chatting about Mithrils! And maybe some crab imperial while I’m in Baltimore too!

                                          Viewing 20 posts - 481 through 500 (of 6,720 total)
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