Knight Models Get Their Hands on Gandalf
August 27, 2013 by dracs
With the next Hobbit film appearing on the horizon the guys at Knights Models are hard at work to bring us their own interpretation of everybody's favourite servant of the secret fire, wielder of the flame of Arnor.
From this WIP we can see that Gandalf is shaping up nicely. Even in this early stage of sculpting the facial features are particularly clear and well defined.
From the look of it this Gandalf miniature will be to 28mm scale, meaning it could easily be used as an alternative for games of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings.
Will you pass this offer up?
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GW lost the license then?
That was my first thought too. I’m not sure they have to lose the license. The 2011 extension announcement from GW and Warner Bros. (http://investor.games-workshop.com/2011/02/09/243/) made it sound like GW had exclusive tabletop licensing rights, but how does FFG make their card game that way? Does FFG license the rights through GW (which would give GW derivative rights), or is the wording of that announcement misleading (a very narrow definition of “tabletop gaming”)? Could Knight have secured the rights through GW (again, derivative rights)? Or do they even need to? Knight has had access to some pretty solid movie rights… Read more »
GW do not have exclusive rights to the Hobbit franchise, otherwise all “Hobbit” and LOtR swag would be produced by them, and it is most emphatically. GW did not produce any of the video games, toys, board games, and so on. GW are allowed by New Line Cinema (or whatever relevant business entity) to include the Hobbit in their LOtR game, and still have the right to use the New Line Cinema trademarks for these purposes (although this was renegociated at great cost, I believe). New Line Cinema remain sole owners of the IPs. They just grant (well, sell, really)… Read more »
Tabletop and video game would be handled by different licenses. So would toys.
The Warner Bros announcement from three years ago on GW’s site seems to imply an exclusive “tabletop gaming” license (which is probably not what that really means, but that’s what it says). Regardless of the scope of the “exclusivity” (which is explicitly stated) one would expect it to include any miniatures. This raises valid questions about the current status of the relationship between GW and Warner licensing.
Even though GW is licensed to do a game, it doesn’t mean others can’t be for different games.
That said, I think the KM license is probably more of a “collector’s miniatures” kind.
It seems that Knight models has successfully renegociated its expensive license to make official LOtR/Hobbit figures… At least I hope so for their sake.