The Taproom

yes yes christoph… the “or” I used in my sentence should have been an “and” I did not mean that morgul orcs are hithaeglir orcs i just meant “both of them” but they have nothing in common…

Hithaeglir orcs are those from Mount Gram, Gundabad, or Moria… and usually called “goblins” by Hobbits from their history with the war of greenfields if I remember well (Golfimbul etc.)

Folks, there are other people who are more crazy than those who paint 32mm miniatures for putting them in a diorama which they build also !
Look here: http://www.matchstickmarvels.com/Comingin2009.htm

Wonderful! Definitely some people have much spare time ……

. . . right decision to stop smoking . . .

Rhuoommm … I’m also impressed,… huom … I think it’s not only about having too much spare time, Master Erchamion … rhuoommmhom … must be some interest in it, too, methinks … hom

Really I don’t know what to think about this month 2nd vote…

It’s really the first time three “common” suggestions reach the 2nd turn without any named people (not to mention only 37 people did vote out of more than 100 GF members I think?)

I know this has already been discussed but I keep wondering something… Do people suggest figurines to satisfy their personnal desires “only” or do they suggest them also thinking about the originality and exclusivity one figurine could provide to Mithril as a whole…

I can easily understand someone’s desire to see a half-orc officer or female assassin but I can’t manage to see how the release of such a figurine will contribute to the promotion of the Gold Fellowship “exclusivity” or “originality” of figurines seen nowhere else in the released ranges… Now maybe GF must be seen as a “community” way to have a MX for free? but really I don’t see the “promotional and exclusive” aspect all MS figurines had in the past….(indeed the fact that we are not allowed to suggest vignettes does not help, I admit)

I used to suggest people to vote for anything, but to vote anyway, if they did not want to see a special suggestion win (some kind of counter-vote) but it’s difficult to apply this in the case you would not really want to see any of the three suggestions winning (don’t misunderstand my point of view here, I will always enjoy Chris sculpture and figurines and I have nothing against individuals and I am happy for them if they win, but for Mithril in general, I still feel these are not Special figurines and should thus not carry the prefix MS which means Mithril Special….)

but I am not angry at all master tree it is not anger that I feel but perplexity… I just wonder what is the objective of the gold fellowship at the time being in a promotional way for Mithril
Let me give you an example :
during the first year or months of the GF… Mithril could promote its GF program and also its trademark as a whole saying :
“Hey come join the fellowship and you’ll be able to get great “pieces” like the Death of Boromir, the Death of Thorin, the fighting between Celebrimbor and Anatar or between Sauron Elendil& Gil-Galad or why not the King of the Undead Army (to quote a single figurine) , all of these… never released! exclusive, found “nowhere else” and purely original!

Having half-orc commanders, female orcs, female assassins, troll drummers, captain of this or that, it is ok for suggestions to give Mithril for “regular” and common releases… These are cool… but I really can’t see the “grandeur” in these figurines that would let people think “wow, this figurines are Unique, I have to join the fellowship to get them!” like it was when Wulf of Edoras, Gandalf vs Witch-King, Oath of Cirion and Eorl were up there…. they were “wow”… and Mithril would get people to go join the fellowship to have them…

The current suggestions will please those who suggested and voted for them… who are already members…. but will it bring “promotion” to mithril to get the attention of “potential” new members? I really wonder so… (not to say I doubt so)

so I repeat I don’t feel angry at all, just perplex… about Mithril marketing and promotion methods and if the suggestions from the collectors actually help promote Mithril?

well I think the problem still comes from the fact Mithril does not release enough “regular” figurines which are not a collection of military /army figurines and thus people submit “military” or “regular officers” among the gold fellowship.
Now indeed that depends what Mithril is looking after for their new fellowship members. if military common figurines are what people want, they’ll join in to buy them and suggest others who will eventually keep winning the votes if all new members are here to have “this special” kind of figurine that’s a vicious (or virtuous depends how you look at it) circle.
If I look back at the archives of the first GF years, there was no single suggestion that was not unique in its own way. I can’t remember seeing un-named or common character suggestions or when there was one, it was this suggestion that seemed odd among all the others… I have the feeling it is the other way around now… Named ones are a minority among anonymous ones…(I use the term “named ones” by lack of a better word to mean special character with a name or special function or position)

there used to be a time when Mithril did release…. in the regular series, all kinds and types of figurines and the fellowship special one were above the rest.

If I check closely in my database there has not been such release since “the Village of Bree” (M387 to M395). Since that time there has not been any thematic series (the MERP series was special, it did not have any theme except that it was MERP related and even if we count it, that makes only one such set)

Back in time.. Mithril had the habit to release series with all kinds of characters from the same theme : military, noble, townfolk (see Isengard, Minas Tirith, The Black Sword, Court of the Elven King…)

oh by the way Beruthiel is a curiosity I admit, but Gilraen … it’s the mother of Aragorn (quite important )
I wonder if the vignette of Sauron (no price consideration) would have won a single vote should we have the possibility to suggest it now…

and there is already a half-orc captain (not warband leader but officer anyway) in the Mithril range. it’s [mith]M180[/mith]

*sigh* I had the idea , months ago to ask for a vignette of King Elessar and Queen Arwen with baby Eldarion in their arms but when the vignette possibility disappeared, and because, after many months of suggesting it it had never won I lost all my hopes…. I would have asked it in MX would I have the money but I don’t… This would have been a good gift for my child birth event… but it’ll eventually have to wait until I win at lotery which will surely happen before vignettes are authorized for suggestion once again

well enough whinning

I agree with almost everything you said while resting with a beer in hand ….:rolleyes:
Don´t despair. Among all try to contribute with good ideas. Sure with time we will have excellent (and “special”) figures.
I actually already have some new ideas of single figures (in the expectation that we can suggest “pairs” or “mounted” figures). And all ideas are named figures….

Hello Gildor, I think I have a simple answer.

Now Mithril advertises that they have produced over SIX HUNDRED figures!! To be sure, this includes all lines and sizes. And it also includes many renditions of the same person. But do not be perplexed or despair. There are still several named characters who will be made for the first time, and certainly several other named characters who will be made again, just as we have another Boromir recently.

For myself, who first suggested the female assassin, it was born out of a belief that the more suggestions we have the better, and in that month there were already several named figures put forward. With the deadline looming for suggestions, I couldn’t think of anyone so I threw her out there and she has hung around ever since. In the old days, when regular “M” releases were more common, as you mentioned above, we would get a variety of peoples and professions from a given area. Now it seems very concentrated on the armies. This is our reality now; the FG hasn’t attracted hundreds of new customers to Mithril, but it has found us some excellent new friends. Mithril needs to make the regular releases that will sell, and we can broaden the line with our FG group. I think the female assassin, dorwinion wine merchant, even female orc are just a natural attempt to get more balance into the releases. The stories are as much about individuals (even more so) than grand armies.

But look at how we came together as a group to get the three trolls from the Hobbit. Go back to the begining and look at all of the releases in the FG and you will feel better. Very few non-canon releases made it to the winners circle. And remember, in the books we get a very small slice of Middle-earth. Even JRR Tolkien himself said the books were too short and that “other hands” would expand the story. Most would believe that in Middle-earth there were all kinds of peoples that Tolkien wasn’t able to specifically mention, but that it is common sense that they would exist.

Perhaps I am ruining the “magic” of the written word. But I don’t intend to. When I read the books–and I have done so cover to cover at least a dozen times–I am lost in the imagination of what Middle-earth was like, all of the peoples and places, even those just hinted at or not mentioned at all, and wish that I could have lived there, the writing is so excellent.