January Advance Orders :)

Pindergorn · **Posted:** Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:55 pm

I don't have much good to say about New Line either, due to their Hollywood Accounting shenanigans. As I understand it they tried to cheat several actors out of royalties etc by claiming that they actually made a LOSS on the LOTR.

RangerofTheNorth · **Joined:** Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:54 pm **Posts:** 483

I don't like that its expensive, but it does stop me from buying stuff I want and don't need for armies, and I only use cash so I'm not tempted to splurge. But its not just this hobby. Inflation (whatever that is) & a poor global economy has raised prices on everything. I collect Transformers, and some action figure lines and everything has jumped up drastically in price over the last five-ten years. GW's quality has gone up however, where companies like Hasbro has gone down horribly. Bottom line though this is the game I play, and I'm going to support it regardless. Of course there's a breaking point though, if it goes up another 50% I'll have to stop. If things get better and they should we should go back eventually to seeing better quantity for our $, but that's going to take years, and once the Hobbit is done, if sales tank because we don't support it. It may go away. We know GW has no qualms about changing the way they do things to save money.

Beowulf03809 · **Posted:** Fri Jan 11, 2013 2:25 am

Another 50% ?!?!? I couldn't even imagine that anyone would pay that. I'm actually very surprised by what people are paying already though. The Eagles are the only item out of the new release that I think are priced reasonably. I couldn't imagine even 25% more on top of any of those costs.

Jamros · **Posted:** Fri Jan 11, 2013 3:39 am

RangerofTheNorth wrote:

I don't like that its expensive, but it does stop me from buying stuff I want and don't need for armies, and I only use cash so I'm not tempted to splurge. But its not just this hobby. Inflation (whatever that is) & a poor global economy has raised prices on everything. I collect Transformers, and some action figure lines and everything has jumped up drastically in price over the last five-ten years. GW's quality has gone up however, where companies like Hasbro has gone down horribly. Bottom line though this is the game I play, and I'm going to support it regardless. Of course there's a breaking point though, if it goes up another 50% I'll have to stop. If things get better and they should we should go back eventually to seeing better quantity for our $, but that's going to take years, and once the Hobbit is done, if sales tank because we don't support it. It may go away. We know GW has no qualms about changing the way they do things to save money.

Visually, the Hobbit range just isn't clicking with me. That's partially WETA's fault for some of the designs, but I think the sculpts and paint jobs for a lot of the models so far really big misses. If GW is having to charge so much for the royalties, I think it's reasonable to expect that the models look a bit more like the actors. Combine that with the high prices, and I'm actually just plain not interested thus far. The Grimhammers though? Those look sweet. But all I've got for GW's Hobbit so far is criticism; they give themselves higher standards than they are producing, with prices to match.

Draugluin · **Posted:** Fri Jan 11, 2013 3:57 am

The good guys from the box set look incredibly like the actors. The Great Goblin too. The goblins are kinda hit or miss, some of them look exactly like in the movie and some don't, but they look ok.

Jamros · **Posted:** Fri Jan 11, 2013 4:30 am

Draugluin wrote:

The good guys from the box set look incredibly like the actors. The Great Goblin too. The goblins are kinda hit or miss, some of them look exactly like in the movie and some don't, but they look ok.

I've seen them in person and in picture and I think less look like the actors than they could. Some of them are very strong resemblances, like Thorin, but I don't think the quality is nearly as good as a lot of the initial Fellowship releases.

Draugluin · **Posted:** Fri Jan 11, 2013 4:38 am

Well, I would compare them to the MoM plastic set, in which case they look amazing. One thing about the FotR sets is that the stuff they are based on doesn't have as many tiny little details imo.

Jamros · **Posted:** Fri Jan 11, 2013 5:10 am

Draugluin wrote:

Well, I would compare them to the MoM plastic set, in which case they look amazing. One thing about the FotR sets is that the stuff they are based on doesn't have as many tiny little details imo.

Totally agree with you there, the set is a massive improvement over Mines of Moria. Plastic has come a long way. But what excuse does that leave for the Finecast models, like the Riddles in the Dark set? Or Saruman and Galadriel? Also, I'm more concerned about the faces than the minute details that comprise a costume. Costume-wise, they're spot on.

RangerofTheNorth · **Joined:** Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:54 pm **Posts:** 483

From what I've heard GW does not have their top painters on the sbg anymore.They're putting more money towards 40k because its bringing in more. That's just a rumor though. Most of the miniatures look even better in person then what's on the box. The white council is an example of a set I have no need for. I don't want a bunch of passively posed heroes or any of the movie scene sets like Riddles.
As far as the Goblins being hit or miss its on Weta. The straight legged heavily deformed Goblins that dont look right are based off the Goblins that were originally supposed to be prosthetic suits. But were canceled because it didn't look right on film. We got stuck with the minis because that's part of what GW was given to sculpt off of.

Athelas · **Posted:** Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:50 am

I've said enough about the prices. I think pretty much everyone agrees (at least part-ways) that the range is pushing the upper boundary of affordability.

What surprised me in this months WD is the abysmal paint apps on Bilbo and Gollum. Bilbo looks atrocious! It is certainly not doing much to promote the product. Add to that the fact that aside from the new release pages containing Hobbit Minis, we are back to zero Hobbit content in favour of 40k.

The Eagle Sculpts look great, and I do like the look of the Fell Wargs compared to the LotR Wargs. Purchases from this range are just going to mean more careful budgeting and sadly, not supporting local business due to the prices.

RangerofTheNorth · **Joined:** Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:54 pm **Posts:** 483

They're not bad compared to the painting guides in that issue for Wargs and Eagles, now that's childsplay

Athelas · **Posted:** Sat Jan 12, 2013 7:01 am

Yes, but there is some expectation that the painting guides will look a little 'rough'. When the promotional photos in WD look worse than the painting guides, that's a worry...

RangerofTheNorth · **Joined:** Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:54 pm **Posts:** 483

Athelas wrote:

Yes, but there is some expectation that the painting guides will look a little 'rough'. When the promotional photos in WD look worse than the painting guides, that's a worry...

You think the promotion pictures look worse??? 0_o

Gene Parmesan · **Posted:** Sat Jan 12, 2013 10:44 pm

Jamros wrote:

Interesting. It seems as though both GW and New Line are to blame. The bottom line is that the price point is way too high for the Hobbit, for both long-time fans and the sorely-needed movie-boom buyers. LotR and the Hobbit serve as great advertising tools for GW. The Lord of the Rings prices, when first introduced, were at a nice place for LotR fans wandering into a hobby store through the allure of the brand name. People don't have any more money since then, but the cost of the miniatures has increased drastically.

Nothing I've seen so far has seemed worth the asking price; I haven't purchased anything from the Hobbit range.

I do agree with what you've said here. I carried a torch for 10 years in the hope someday thorins company would get made. And it's one of the reasons I've come back to the hobby, at least casually.
I paid £3 for Bilbo Baggins in Nov 2001 when it first came out.

I'm not into the hobby enough to bother but if I were any of you I'd start a serious campaign on the price issue, and the push towards buying everything from citadel rather than making your own stuff. GW are taking the p**s big time.

RangerofTheNorth · **Joined:** Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:54 pm **Posts:** 483

I dont believe GW can lower their prices and keep the SBG alive. Hasn't the company gone down in value progressively? The only reason why they're being underhanded is because they are clawing to make a profit and doing anything in the process
Cut box sets in half charge the same price,
Raise prices over time to about 50% more then they used to
Metal goes up in price
They offer the same product that was metal, in a drastically cheaper process-Resin. Then charge double what the more expensive to make metals were.
Botch the transition to resin and have to offer thousands of dollars in refunds and product exchanges
How many store closings were there five years ago? Now they're reopening in unproven markets under the one man shop style, and opening them rapidly.
Throne of Skulls US has such a bad turnout there are no plans for another currently.
Bottom line, if the new stores fail and GW downsizes again in the US. I can't see how they'll survive again. This is just my personal experience in the southeast. I'm hoping that with all these stores they're opening it means they are operating at a profit again. And I will say Finecast has gotten better, but its not perfect

GothmogtheWerewolf · **Posted:** Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:47 am

Erunion wrote:

Fell Wargs – Nice kit with good canine body language. Unfortunately, one of the poses appears to be duplicated and I think they would benefit from a different paint scheme. $5 too expensive since they aren't cavalry. Verdict: Low Priority purchase due to my current Warg collection, 2 boxes.

The picture on the site is wrong, there are 6 different poses. Just assembled 2 boxes of them.

EDIT: I would also like to add that the complaint about Gwaihir's talon though founded i scountered by th efact that the talons are that big in the movie.

Harfoot · **Posted:** Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:44 pm

Just went to buy Riddles in the dark set from GW in Bristol, they only had 1 set to sell on there stock delivery!!! Of course that had sold, why, why, why I just dont get it. Some ones please explain, why send a shop 1 packet of a new release!

Leonardis · **Joined:** Wed Oct 05, 2011 4:06 pm **Posts:** 891

Harfoot wrote:

Just went to buy Riddles in the dark set from GW in Bristol, they only had 1 set to sell on there stock delivery!!! Of course that had sold, why, why, why I just dont get it. Some ones please explain, why send a shop 1 packet of a new release!

Perhaps they thought at that price none will buy one, let alone two!

Beowulf03809 · **Posted:** Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:27 pm

Good catch if Gwaihir is in fact sculpted as he appears in the film, though I admit I was NOT looking for a talon-scale comparison when I watched it.

Maybe when I have it on disc I can pay more attention to those details. :rofl:

Do you happen to have one of the new eagles as well? If not, can you at least get a pic of Gwaihir next to a Fell Warg and/or typical model we're all familiar with (Gandalf, Legolas, etc.)? Just curious of the size and appearance in scale.

Along those lines, how do the Company of Dwarves really match up in scale with the existing Dwarves from the LotR release?

RangerofTheNorth · **Joined:** Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:54 pm **Posts:** 483

Beowulf03809 wrote:

Good catch if Gwaihir is in fact sculpted as he appears in the film, though I admit I was NOT looking for a talon-scale comparison when I watched it.

Maybe when I have it on disc I can pay more attention to those details. :rofl:

you happen to have one of the new eagles as well? If not, can you at least get a pic of Gwaihir next to a Fell Warg and/or typical model we're all familiar with (Gandalf, Legolas, etc.)? Just curious of the size and appearance in scale.

Along those lines, how do the Company of Dwarves really match up in scale with the existing Dwarves from the LotR release?

The old ones look like lawn knomes next to the new ones

January Advance Orders :)

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