Elves Take Over Games Workshop’s The Hobbit SBG!
November 22, 2014 by brennon
Games Workshop seem to have not forgotten about The Hobbit with a whole host of releases for the Elves of Mirkwood that will be playing quite the part in The Battle of the Five Armies. Let's kick things off with the characters of Legolas, Thranduil, and Tauriel...
Each of the new miniatures looks quite good and after some debate elsewhere online people believe that the fault may lie with the painting of these miniatures over the actual sculpts. Tauriel still looks like a man and Legolas an even older man!
One of the big questions people have also raised is why is Thranduil riding a horse? He rides his Elk/Moose in everything we've seen and it's come down to people believing that these were sculpts put forward a long time ago and since then Peter Jackson has edited the film so much these old choices have become a little redundant.
Why these couldn't have been plastic clamp pack characters akin to the Warhammer Fantasy marvels they've created in the past I don't know.
The standard foot troops for the Mirkwood Elves with their Captain, Cavalry, Spears, Swords and Bows look decidedly better and I would love to start a little warband of these. The only thing putting me off is the price and for once I'm going to have a little rant about it. I cannot for the life of me understand why all of these are coming along in Finecast for ridiculous prices. Games Workshop have dropped Finecast everywhere else so why continue to make sure poor decisions when it comes to The Hobbit?!
People are drifting away from the game as it is so surely the right course of action would have been to make some nice plastic kits that would have drawn people back in through ease of construction and a little cheaper on the pricing side of things. Instead you have people maybe coming in for the big finale film and being met with this massive pay wall.
Regardless at least it bodes well for us who still play the game that Games Workshop are at least paying it some attention as the final film approaches.
What do you think?
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They are obviously just going through the motions with the hobbit line. The painting has been nowhere near the usual quality since it launched
Man, the features on the faces of the hobbit figures (the finecast characters in particular) have just been so weird- they really don’t seem to have put the effort in when you compare them to some of the wonderful LotR figures they made almost 10 years ago now!
Greatful for scraps? Nah. People should take this as the final “F… you” that it is to fans of the Hobbit. If anything has demonstrated GWs poor management and lack of empathy with its fanbase its their treatment of this range.
GW had such an opportunity here – the Battle of the Five Armies – the CLUE is in the name: ARMIES! Not warbands or ‘A Wee Skirmish in Middle-earth’. Plastic boxes of 20 or 24, not 10 or 12 and at a price where real people can actually afford to buy them.
And they are nowhere near as good as the original LoTR line, which is incredible considering all the thechnological advances made since they were sculpted by the Perrys (who are doing great things elsewhere)
Those might not be as good as what LotR line had, those are still rather good sculpts. Being badly painted can’t take that away.
Frying pans to Elves faces can really mess them up. That aside, I get the feeling that GW regrets teaming up with the LotR franchise altogether. Ever since day one GW needed to bow to New Line Cinema or whoever the contract was made with. That’s why the range is made in a smaller scale so us gamers won’t place this product line in an army for WHF even though it will sell more. They insisted no cross overs possible into other games GW sell. Also they give the yay or neigh to what can be made for the game.… Read more »
“Frying pans to Elves faces can really mess them up.”
You can’t blame Sam because he wasn’t there.
Neither was Frodo’s loyal companion. 😛
And, wow, if you guys don’t think anyone is playing this game in your neck of the woods, let me tell you about the US Hobbit scene-that will be easy! There is none! Totally frustrated by GW by this. I used to play both 40k/WFB many years ago, and after looking at some of the Hobbit/LoTR models I bought the original game(green box with Moria gobs). Couldn’t find any players, lost the box tbh, so that really sucks. Then I try to get back into it, because it looks waaay cheaper as compared to their other games, watch some GBHL… Read more »
And sorry I know this comes off as bitchy, which it does, but the excitement I felt to get back into the gaming hobby, especially in the GW universes, was quickly tempered by the reality that I wasn’t going to get back into it maybe, or lets say as cheaply, as I had back in the good ol’ days! Just disappointed, but I WILL get into something, maybe just GW won’t be getting my money. I know I am not the only player that is under the impression that GW is on some “Fuck Off” crusade, and even it that… Read more »
Couldn’t agree more…..any LoTHRs player has been treated so badly by GW…I’m not surprised folk just give up. If you are looking for a good, simple, cheap start point fantasy game…try Kings of War from Mantic…it’s what GW fantasy battles USED to be all about…big armies, simple rules, great support.
“Why these couldn’t have been plastic clamp pack characters akin to the Warhammer Fantasy marvels they’ve created in the past I don’t know.”
Because the cost required to produce and maintain injection moulds for hard plastic is WAY higher than making resin spin cast moulds.
£27 for Legolas. There’s a lot of people who’d need a second job to get into this game, which wouldn’t leave them much time to play sadly
From those he is not only model that is that expensive. Thranduil has same over high price as that Legolas.
Im pretty sure Legolas wasnt born with a brow like that .. looks like hes suffering from chronic constant flatulation syndrome. Very mediocre all around considering these models.
i am still trying to work out why the king is not on his stag in all the images I have seen he is riding a stag but here he is on a generic horse???
So at top of all GW went with already existing horse sculpt instead of making stag sculpt for Thranduil. That’s how much they care about this line.
I have to agree with most of these points…and I really,really hope that someone from the GW ‘team’ is reading this…….once again YOU’VE SHOT YOURSELF IN THE FOOT! The Lord of the Rings was a fantastic line of miniatures. War of the Ring was a really excellent game. I was hoping to flesh out my WoTR armies with this release….but these prices are even making E bay look cheap!……and those prices have shot up with a whiff of the up coming film release. WHAT ARE YOU DOING GW? This was a great opportunity to re-vitalise this game…and IMHO you have… Read more »
The quality of Hobbit miniatures has dropped since the Perry’s parted ways with GW. Also, why is everything in finecast when it’s being phased out of other ranges? Here’s a suggestion, which is just speculation. Plastic tooling is, or appears to be (based on what I’ve read from the many Kickstarters that have sprung up) more expensive than resin and metal, even though the models themselves are cheaper. If GW don’t see a future for the Hobbit and this is literally just fulfilling some contractual obligation, then it makes sense not to invest in plastic moulds for a range you… Read more »
How do we know the Perry’s didn’t sculpt these new models? They could have finished the range and then parted ways with GW, it’s how I assume they ended their contracts. If anything I haven’t seen a dip in quality for the Hobbit line, it’s all been utterly average.
Possible, but the quality just isn’t there. I would hope that the Perrys were not only more professional than to put out sub par sculpts by their own standards, but also had more pride in their abilities.
Sadly I have to agree either way that the quality of the Hobbit line has not been up to that of the LOTR range.
It’s a great game and there are some great miniatures in the range… The new sets are simply too expensive though. I’m disappointed that I can’t afford or justify buying these at that price point. I will buy some of the older miniatures to fill in gaps in my collection but I couldn’t contemplate starting a new force, despite wanting to. I also collect Perry Miniatures plastic medieval sets… 12 cavalry or 40/38 infantry for £20 a box. If GW did that, and added an extra £10 for the licensing they’d sell a ton of them (granted that’s not a… Read more »
I hear Mithril produce some pretty cool lotr minis
You may have heard right
http://princeaugust.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/mithril-miniature-new-release-funeral.html
Though looking at more of the range not so sure.
Perrys set a high standard
Mithril Miniatures are not great sculpts and are very expensive. they only advantage Mithril has over GW is that their minis are based on the books, not the terrible films.
Used to buy and paint some of the mithril lotr stuff as a kid .. have some very fond memories of the hobbits, orcs and especially the ents. They are not superdetailed but full of character, imo.