Games Workshop’s The Hobbit Miniatures Are Nearly Here!
November 28, 2012 by dracs
They're finally here! Games Workshop have announced that their new range based around The Hobbit film is now up for advance order!
Am I the only one who's a little excited to see these?
The miniatures certainly have their own style, separating them from the previous minis of the Lord of the Rings range. The Goblin warriors look particularly disturbing and cool. I would happily populate a dungeon with those beasties as well as reenacting the awesome scene where the dwarfs and hobbit get captured by the goblin king.
The Hobbit is also getting its own set of rules, with the book up for advance order too.
I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see how the rules in this differ to the existing ones for the Lord of the Rings mini game.
What do you think Games Workshop's rules for recreating the Hobbit will be like? Do you like the miniatures themselves?
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Thought the miniatures looked okay in the video, but seeing the photos they look rather shoddy.
If these are sculpted by the Perrys then they certainly aren’t the brothers greatest moment.
Assuming these are in house sculpted?
For the money these minis are totally naff, I can only guess that they’re thinking the film will do a good enough job on selling these for them… Which it probably will, good luck to ’em I say. I just wish there was a big 40k or Warhammer release this December instead. (maybe there is?)
I do like the majority of what GW put out, I mean this is coming from a guy who thinks the much maligned ‘heldrake’ looks pretty swish too. Make of that what you will. ¬_¬
But the Hobbit line of minis. They’re just so bland, even without the INSANE prices I’d give ’em a wide berth. Horses for courses an’ all that.
I think they’ve done a good job on the dwarves – although they’re not stout enough there’s a lots of detail and each looks very distinct. I don’t like the look of the goblins (I’m a traditionalist!) – someone said they look nurgle and I agree – but can’t blame GW for that as their hands were tied by Peter Jackson’s art direction. I’d be interested to know how they’re described in the book as that may explain things.
I’m disappointed by the choice of scenery in the box set – it looks like a load of lolly sticks – I’m not sure how it would work/look on the table top, they could have used something to get more of a sense of being under ground – perhaps I’m being harsh and there’s lots of ways it can be put together.
Certainly the production design is not the fault of GW.
Looking at the goblins and forgetting any Nurgle reference, they are depicted as being very distorted, with twisted limbs and faces.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Charles Laughton springs to mind. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a reference for the design team.
It doesn’t translate well on small 28mm scale models. I don’t think the paint job does any favours either. Especially when I think of Tor Gamings Neum and Vaettir painted by Worthy.
I got to say that the goblins look rather nasty. Nothing like the ones we see in the LOTR.
The thing about these new Goblins is that they were designed to look different from the ones that dwell in Moria. These Goblins have not seen the light, live deep in the bowels of the Misty Mountains and have become a little bit feral. That’s why we have this pale “The Hole” style creature. I quite like them…
As for the other miniatures, I like Thorin and Company they look great. The new Trolls are fun and a little different from the norm, with a little bit more character to them than you’d normally see. The hunting orcs, I’m not so sure on. Same for the White Council – specifically Saruman. He looks a little mental lol. The others look alright.
Overall I’m looking forwards to seeing these new miniatures on my table in the near future.
BoW Ben
Looking forward to some all new dwarfs ben?
Aye I certainly am. I really love what they’ve done with Thorin & Co and it will be fun to see how they do Dain and the other Dwarves that appear towards the end of the book. A few sneaky shots have appeared from the behind the scenes look PJ posts every so often which shows Thorin in royal attire, so it will be good to see some variations along the way.
More beards is never a bad thing!
BoW Ben
More beers is better! 😛
The Dwarves look bigger than the LoTR Dwarves
iirc Gimli is the same size as Frodo. Or is my useless memory playing tricks?
Unless its on a date …….
Just so anyone considering the box is aware, the rulebook is not complete, it lacks profiles for everything outside of the box and those in the box have no point values according to this:
http://www.thelastalliance.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5829&start=40
I will be checking GWs policy on return this as I believe it is a case of being mis-sold.
That seems rather underhanded if it is correct
Does this release and rulebook only cover the first of the trilogy or all three films?
Gw confirmed on their facebook, GW USA has confirmed it apparently, GW UK customer service denied it, say it even included the LOTR profiles – And only first of the 3 covered eve in the big book.
Unhanded would be a reasonable description I feel, con and dick move are other I have heard. Oh I can return it in the shrink wrap either by freepost or via a store with proof of purchase no questions asked.
So to put it in perspective in one week:
GW pulls this.
PP: Puts up a bunch of deals.
Warlord: Has it books on promotion on Amaon
Mantic: Releases a christmas bundle box
THe money grabbing %&^$ award goes to………
As far as I am concerned GW has shot itself in the foot so many times it must be near impossible for it to stand.
But of course there are the evergreen supply of kiddies coming through and the ever faithful die hards who will protect GW and prop them up come what may.
Spot on about the die hards- I worked for them for 5 years and I am a fan, well was recent decisions makes that untenable if your even a slightly informed consumer.
Oh and I can see those fresh green kids parents being oh so happy when the everything you need to play box has been opened and young sprout whats more, but cannot use it, so the now you need a £50 book discussion occurs
The one-piece plastics are rather underwhelming. The Goblin King looks like a melted candle, and the Trolls are virtually devoid of detail! Most uninspiring. The Finecast stuff look better cast, but the White Council poses are undramatic and boring, but most importantly, they are made of Finecast so are a no-go area for anyone with sense.
With a lack of the lovely Perry/Nelson metal sculpts that punctuated the early LotR releases to drool over, so far I am finding it very easy to pass this stuff by. Which is a bit disappointing, but makes my wallet ache somewhat less than it did 10 years ago!
I fear some of you may not have read the book or even seen the movie trailers as some of the comments seem a little negative in terms of what some of the sculpts look like. Because this release is linked with the movie (it is not GW’s own ideas and art work…) The Trolls, hunter orcs, wargs, goblins and goblin king are incredibly accurate to the movie representations so i believe the sculpters have done a grand job. And as far as the dwarfs go, they too are very close to the movie images as only a few of them are ‘traditionally’ dwarf-like (ie fat, beardy, stout etc.) The youngling kili is a great sculpt especially based on the movie images.
I know GW have been rubbish to say the least in terms of price hikes etc but i think this is a good product for what it is, a movie spin-off. In all honesty, i prefer the mines of moria box for lotr but thats just me but this is cool, if a bit ridiculously overpriced.
Rant over.
Please read the book and spend some time with the movie images.
I agree that in the most part these are faithful to the film – from the images I have seen. Although the fim accurately matching the book I would take some issue with, not that that bothers me they are different media so changes are required.
Although I think a lot of the models needed better posing and position to be defined as great, they are solid at best.
That is not my issue with the release, and to an extent the cost of the starter with a complete set of rules was to my view exceptable (for me, all personal choices etc) GW strategy and promotion are were I have an issue. Cost of other things I have split views on – but again personal value etc.
Reading the book just ain’t gonna happen with all due respect.
It isn’t the sort of thing they usually have at the local library.
Sorry I will just have to take other peoples’ word for the fact that profiles and points values are missing. If that is not the case then sorry but @dags suggests that has been admitted by GW USA
The sculpts might look like the characters, but until I see some in the flesh, the sculpting looks a tad clunky.
For example, the arms and hands of the Galadriel look like simple tubes. Now for a lot of people such details will not matter a jot, but to me some of the figures lack finesse.
From what I can make out the dwarves look good.
If you are happy with them that is the main thing and no one can gainsay you.
I would take issue with the idea that faithfulness to the movie images (clearly faithfulness to the book images is a non-sequitur) is the issue. A sculpt or cast can be faithful to the movie image and still be devoid of detail. The issue for me is not that the plastics are unfaithful or accurate, just that being made of plastic, and one-piece plastics for the most part, they are too smooth and blocky ever to be considered “good”. They lack under-cuts and much fine detail – Bilbo for instance, while clearly recognisable looks like he’s on botox! This is a limitation of the casting material, and process, not the sculptors or artists. There are two things that don’t work out well in plastic, one is large “organic” creatures (such as trolls) where the skin is too flat and texture-less. The second is one-piece small sculpts where the lack of undercuts, or the distortion of posing to avoid them, results in a poor final result. Compare the plastic Fellowship from the Mines of Moria set to the metal Fellowship boxed set from LotR ranges if you don’t understand what I’m talking about.
Finecast is another issue – sculpting and posing aren’t the issue here, just confidence in the durability of the casting material and in GW’s quality control. But that’s nothing to do with the Hobber per se.