LotR releases for Desolation of Smaug

[LeadAsbestos]

More proof that the Rankin/Bass version is the best! Dreadful folk singing and all, that movie is engrained in my mind as what The Hobbit should look like.

It also helps that the PJ version was kind of shit...

[nic-e]

so who thinks the smaug miniature will end up being north of £100 ?
given the size of the dragon from the movies i think they might release him just as a head/neck coming out of a door or something....

[jthomlin]

so who thinks the smaug miniature will end up being north of £100 ?
given the size of the dragon from the movies i think they might release him just as a head/neck coming out of a door or something....

The head/neck is probably just one of the versions:  

Inside the mountain - wings folded
Outside the mountain - flying
Inside the mountain - left leg forward
Inside the mountain - talking with Bilbo
Outside the mountain - breathing fire
Outside the mountain - with black feathered arrow in chest
...

Me? Slightly cynical of GW marketing tactics?   

Cheers!
Joe Thomlinson

[CptJake]

I'm hoping for a re-release of the Battle of the Five Armies set for the net movie.   I sold my copy off in a moment of weakness and would love to replace it.


Jake

[nic-e]

I'm hoping for a re-release of the Battle of the Five Armies set for the net movie.   I sold my copy off in a moment of weakness and would love to replace it.


Jake

That was a real non venture wasn't it.
It's a shame because it looked really fun despite some sub par sculpts (im looking at you smaug!)

The product list for this release says had a miniature called "turin dragon slayer".here's hoping gw make more miniatures for the non movie Tolkien stories.

[grant]

That was a real non venture wasn't it.
It's a shame because it looked really fun despite some sub par sculpts (im looking at you smaug!)

The product list for this release says had a miniature called "turin dragon slayer".here's hoping gw make more miniatures for the non movie Tolkien stories.

What list has Turin on it? GW doesn't have the rights to the Silmarillion. Or Unfinished Tales.

[Doomhippie]

The Hobbit is one of my favourite books but I'm struggling to recognize it on the big screen. And if these miniatures are what I can expect from the next installment I may just give it a miss completely. Especially as I am not a fan of how they're pronouncing Smaug

Now as a German I have to say that's exactly how I pronounced him as a kid. And as the word derives from the Old Englisch "Smeagan" (creeping, slithering) it might actually be fairly Close to what Tolkien had in mind. Plus the pronounciation of the au in Tolkien's writings is similar to the word how according to the pronounciation guide given by Tolkien.

I actually like the movies. Okay, maybe the jump and run scenes in goblintown were too much for me. And those stupid stone giants. But apart from that I like the movies actually better than the book. And that's saying something.

[3 fingers]

See I'm the opposite to doomhippy,I read the book when I was a teen,struggled to get into it,but kept at it,and couldn't put it down in the end,
The movies were ok,but really only watched them to see how they had interpreted it,and as there's nothing really similar out there.

[Brummie]

First and formost I never compare a book to a movie, or a movie to a book.

I have always found Tolkiens stuff difficult to get into, very dry (mirroring its age really). I liked the films though; its just someones interpretation, or rather a fantasy action film based on the Hobbit. Comparing it to our own interpretations has its own obvious issues.

Fact is, its visually appeasing and has lots of dwarves, elves, orcs, monsters etc, with big battles and evil villains. So long as it sticks to this then its good for what it is.

However I won't be purchasing any of the new stuff from GW.
1. Its too expensive
2. I think 90% of its pretty flimsy looking anyway.
3. Don't really want to support GW

[Cubs]

Yeah, the movies are good films but ... they're not the books. I like them both, but they're separate entities.

[Hammers]

I like both the films, the books and the miniatures. I will not pay those prices though.

[Vermis]

That was a real non venture wasn't it.
It's a shame because it looked really fun despite some sub par sculpts (im looking at you smaug!)

For sure.  But the plastics - at least, the white hats I scraped of ebay - are probably the best 10mms I've seen.

See I'm the opposite to doomhippy,I read the book when I was a teen,struggled to get into it,but kept at it,and couldn't put it down in the end,

I don't know if it was part of the curriculum, but our primary school headmaster - teacher of years 6+7 - distributed a bunch of copies and read it out as we read along. It's that, and Star Wars (by way of the Droids cartoon) that made me end up here.

I still remember the voice he put on for Gollum, and the drawing I made of goblins at the 'back door' for an english exercise on it. My first fantasy art! They looked like Urpneys.

So yeah... I've been fond of it ever since, no matter it's shortcomings. It's why I would've liked to see modern Middle-Earth film interpretations that were a bit more faithful; a bit more in keeping with the 'feel' of the setting.  It's not all down to sheer interpretation, IMO, or it wouldn't be so successful.  It's why I'm not happy with Peter Jackson shoehorning in all his type of shortcomings and the feel of a Michael Bay film into it. It's not the feel of - if you'll pardon the expression - the 'real' Middle Earth that book-shunning moviegoers love, but a shallower, tinnier, ersatz version. It's like a friend being replaced by a pod person, with too many people deciding to keep the pod person because it's a jerk but looks a bit shinier. Like Cubs says, though not with this particular meaning - they're not the books.  They're not The Hobbit; they're not The Lord of the Rings.

(PJ... a lacklustre moviemaker until the grandaddy of modern fantasy books fell in his lap.  I mean, he's still a lacklustre moviemaker, but now he's a media dahling and a 'sir' of all things, because the grandaddy of modern fantasy books fell into his lap. He couldn't muck it up completely. But I digress... and how!)

[FionaWhite]

Thranduil has a nice "Elric of Melnibone" feel to him... that's about all I can say for this release.
And still making stuff in Finecast despite supposedly getting rid of it sometime in the near future. Blergh.

[Doomsdave]

I like the Mirkwood gang and Legolas and the girl-elf.  The barrels are really cute; will likely buy those for the wife to paint.  I was really looking forward to a Beorn miniature with this release; and I might have overlooked how dumb he appears, but....resin.  No sale. Looks like I'll wind up with plastic elves and barrel dwarves.

[Momotaro]

The old Vendel (Now Sgt Major Minis) fantasy Hill Giant is about the best Beorn out there - he's 40mm+.  They also do an amazing (and huge) were-bear in the same line.

http://www.sgmm.biz/B02-Hill-Giant_p_381.html

For me, The Hobbit was my first foray into fantasy after hearing it read out on "Jackanory" on TV in the 70s when I was about 8, although I was already a SF reader.  I rushed out to the library that evening, and there it was!  My parents got me LotR for Christmas a couple of years later, and D&D red box followed a couple of years after that.

Hearing my English teacher say he didn't like "fairy stories" like LotR in secondary school really put me off him...