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Post by Michael O'Brien on Oct 28, 2022 13:12:54 GMT
Thanks again to all that voted. Chris has confirmed that the ideas are allowed so we can progress. I will remind everyone that you have one vote for this initial poll and the top two or three will go into a final vote on the 23rd of November. This is a blind vote so you will only see the current state of the vote after you added yours. This gives all ideas an equal chance. You are encouraged to post why you chose your favourite idea too, as that can influence people to support that idea too.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Jun 22, 2022 13:56:17 GMT
Chris considers this a vignette and therefore invalid for this month. This also means we are still one idea short. Well, if there ever is a vignette month, I may resubmit it - though there will be plenty of other wonderfull ideas, and this one could have been made as a line of single minis. Nonetheless, just to fill up the ranks: Gandalf the thinkerGandalf in Rodings thinker-pose, contemplating passwords at the Gate of Moria... It turns out that this was already submitted and won in previous months and already sculpted by Chris. So the vote cannot start. Due to the delays I am going to postpone the vote for now. I will discuss more about this on the newsletter.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Jun 21, 2022 14:04:10 GMT
Thanks, I have submitted the new idea to Chris today.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Jun 20, 2022 13:31:28 GMT
The final farewell - BilboBilbo as he looks while meeting with Frodo and Gandalf in the Grey Havens, shortly before his final voyage to Valinor. Chris considers this a vignette and therefore invalid for this month. This also means we are still one idea short.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Jun 15, 2022 17:05:08 GMT
We are only after getting two ideas and need at least 5 more to comply with the rules for this month. I will extend the deadline until Monday next week. Please submit your ideas before then.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Jun 2, 2022 15:34:47 GMT
UPDATE: Due to a lack of new ideas, this month was cancelled.
Welcome to another exciting chance to add your ideas and dreams to Mithril's LOTR miniatures. Post your suggestions here. ONE per member.
This month's ideas is for single figures only, so no mounted or Vignettes (i.e.: more than 2 people or a lot of furniture + two people) please. A mounted figure counts as two figures (e.g.: horse/camel/warg/etc)
The only other restriction is that the figures MUST conform to our license, so NO Silmarillion based characters are allowed. They have to be in the Hobbit or LOTR books. The final say is ours and no argument will be allowed. Ask if you are worried about its eligibility.
Please submit ideas in the following format ONLY:
IDEA TITLE "this is why I think 'Idea Title' is a good idea for this month..."
Make the title stand out (within reason) and separate from any supportive text by a paragraph. This will prevent Chris accidentally overlooking it when he compiles the voting list later on. Otherwise it could be mistaken as a comment not a new suggestion.
Please add some quotes about where it is mentioned or give descriptions to promote your suggestion. Even add a picture or submit it to me to add to the gallery page. If you drum up support NOW, the you have a much better chance when it is time to vote.
Voting will begin on the 16th of June. We stop taking suggestions at 16.00 GMT on the 15th.
You may add comments about other members suggestions as well. If you post any suggestions elsewhere it may not be seen or credited. Please post any suggestions in English. (That is all I can respond in, sorry).
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Post by Michael O'Brien on May 24, 2022 12:44:27 GMT
Well it seems we have a three way tie. It has happened before but it is very very rare. All three go forward to this final round of voting that will continue until June. This round is not limited so you will see the current status at all times. If any form of tie remains then we will have Chris decide on the final winner so please do not try to tie a vote for the sake of it. We will not have duel winners.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on May 13, 2022 13:32:10 GMT
There is not enough new ideas yet to qualify so please get your thinking caps on by Monday.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on May 3, 2022 14:46:27 GMT
Thanks to all members who submitted or commented in the start of this months thread. We have some great ideas to vote on. Chris has 'OK'ed all of them so we can move ahead and start voting today. You have a week to take part. The 2nd vote will begin on the 24th and that will run until the end of this month. This is a blind vote so the current status will not be shown until after you submit your vote. This allows for as even an opportunity as possible for all entries to gain support.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Apr 26, 2022 13:40:26 GMT
The leading idea, Vidumavi (Galadwen), does seem to have a lot of support but there are still a lot of votes out there now that we have whittled the competition down to three. If either of the two other contenders were to gain the undecided voters they could win instead. Due to the Bank Holiday weekend we are extending the voting time until May 3rd (Tuesday). You have one vote so please use it wisely. The current status of the poll will always be known so you can be strategic if you so wish.
No matter who wins, I am sure the resulting figure will be a joy to behold.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Apr 4, 2022 11:21:03 GMT
Sorry for the delay in starting. Easter holidays had disrupted plans a bit. Anyway we have the first round and nearly all ideas passed except for the King Theoden vignette idea for reasons that it is a vignette.
We will have the 2nd vote next Tuesday (26th) for the finalists. This is a blind vote so you will not see the current status until after voting.
As usual please add comments to support your favourite idea, even if you never submitted the idea personally. There are always going to be undecided voters that a clever pollster can influence with some context, images or humour.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Mar 28, 2022 13:11:57 GMT
Thanks to all who took part in the first round. 'Troll of the great ram 'Grond' crew' led the first round but there is a lot of strong competition. Certainly the Grond narrative has been successful over the last couple of years so it might prove a winning strategy yet again. However you do have three choices and every vote counts. Please remember to add comments as appropriate to convince undecided members to support your idea.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Mar 15, 2022 11:44:51 GMT
I believe we have seven ideas this month, but some are risky, so if anyone can add another before 4 p.m. that would be useful.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Mar 2, 2022 14:44:35 GMT
There is sometimes a bit of inconsistency with suggestions, twice (I think) I suggested Beorn in mid-transformation, even included a sketch; on one occasion it was approved but failed to win the vote, second time it was rejected as an idea, then I think it was suggested by someone else and won . The decision is that of Chris, our sculptor. Try to be specific (avoid plurals for singular months. Avoid being too vague, add a picture, help him understand your idea).
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Mar 1, 2022 15:16:04 GMT
Welcome back after our long weekend with St. Patrick's Day and the Day of Remembrace. Unfortunately Chris was unable to supply the approved list in time on Wednesday so we delayed until today. Chris rejected the animals again but accepted the rest of the ideas so we are moving forward with those. This vote will expire next Monday and then we will do the final round. This is a blind vote so you will only see the current status after submitting your vote.
Feel free to post comments supporting any ideas, even if you had not submitted them.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Feb 22, 2022 13:33:45 GMT
Bifur of Thorin and Company certainly gained a lot of support in the last round and easily won it, but there are still a lot of votes for other ideas and the two contenders were tied so I included them here. You have until March 1st to submit your vote for the final winner of this month.
Comments are, as always, welcome and they can sway undecided voters. Every vote counts, and we have seen numerous times winners based on a single vote.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Feb 1, 2022 14:02:08 GMT
Thanks for all the suggestions. Two were rejected however. The first was the horse and the second was the deer. The other ideas were acceptable and we have enough to start the vote. Every member has one vote and will only see the current status of the poll after voting to allow all ideas an even chance of getting support.
You are encouraged to leave comments about your chosen ideas, even if you initially did not submit them. There will be plenty of people that can be influenced by a comment, especially if a persuasive argument can be made as to why one idea might be more voteable this month.
The top two or three ideas will go into the 2nd round on the 22nd.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Jan 18, 2022 14:42:28 GMT
Thanks to all members who took part in the first round. The voting is quite clear so we don't have any messy ties to deal with this time. There are two finalists PER month so a total of four ideas go forward. These are clearly divided yet again and you have TWO votes.
Please remember to place one vote PER month (DEC and JAN). If you use your votes on the two ideas within the same month you simply waste your vote as both ideas gain equally and cancel each other out.
Don't overlook the value of posting further supporting information or images to support one idea over another. There are plenty of undecided voters that will now have to choose from the finalists and your views or comments can sway their decision making. Every vote counts.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Jan 10, 2022 10:47:47 GMT
hello everyone, I would like to propose the idea if it is still possible: Boromir in heavy armor and holding the banner of Gondor, mounted on horseback, I am going to put a photograph of the posture that would be most epic for me. Please read the rules for the month before posting an idea and also note that we are currently voting on the accepted list.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Dec 16, 2021 16:44:19 GMT
The problem with the fact of releasing a whole backlog early in the new year is that... by lack of products, many customers have spent their money on other stuff because it is Christmas, and well besides die hard collectors (and even for them) it will be hard on our purses to buy more than 6 or 7 figures altogether at the mithril regular price once they are released... that will be too much money to spend in a row We will not be releasing everything at once, a few figures per month.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Dec 13, 2021 14:37:08 GMT
Sorry to ask but I am perplex and I can't see the point of keeping on suggesting anything considering the backlog of production and the fact nothing has been released for 6 months... maybe not the right place to say that but I am really sceptical about doing that... we won't even have christmas release this year because of that We had one of our staff, responsible for tool making, retire and leave in the summer. At first there was a possibility he wanted a break for a month and would come back, but then he didn't. So we have been working (Lars and Chris) on finding a new way to continue manufacturing the necessary items and we believe we have found it and testing takes time. As far as new ideas are concerned. Yes there is a backlog, but only in the manufacturing. We have sculpts done and we can release the backlog in early 2022. This will include the Christmas figure, which is sculpted and approved. We are a small company so when something like this happens, it gets complicated to fix as we don't have 'spare' employees that can cover such niche roles.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Dec 3, 2021 12:28:38 GMT
Happy New Year everyone. Glad to see such wonderful ideas and most of them were accepted by Chris. There were a couple of problems however. Beren and Luthien are not under the license, despite the poem. So they are not possible. The generic versions are also avoided in case it causes any problems with T.E.
The other issue is the 'What If?' versions of Gandalf and Saruman. Its not within our license to do that kind of thing. They have to be faithful to the books. It's a cool concept but unfortunately we are not Disney and cannot explore the possible alternative situations as we don't own the rights to that ability.
But all the rest are fine.
We have gotten new members over the last year and so I want to let everyone know the rules around this special double month.
1. You have TWO votes. You cannot vote for the same figure twice. PLEASE do not vote for two figures in the same month. Check out the [DEC] and [JAN] tags by their names and ONLY put one vote PER month. That way we can move forward properly.
2. Please use your TWO votes. If you do not, you can lose one.
3. The top ideas PER month will go forward to the 2nd round. Due to the technical limitations of the poll, this situation may show misleading tiers. I will ignore the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc markers and only focus on the amount of votes PER MONTH to work out which was popular. Normal months don't have this issue, but with a combined month, the software gets a bit confused as it does not realise what we are doing and just allots success per vote in total.
As usual please submit comments explaining your reasons for supporting ideas, or why another idea should not be supported and provide images or text to encourage others to agree with you. No bribes though, even virtual beers.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Nov 24, 2021 14:21:46 GMT
Thanks to everyone who took part in the first round and originally submitted these wonderful ideas. It seems there was a tie for first place and only one vote above the next runner up so I will include the three ideas for this round.
Please remember you have one vote only so use it wisely. The winning idea will be announced at the beginning of December. You can always include a comment to explain why you chose one idea over another. Even if you had not voted for any finalist idea in the last round, you should still take part as they are all exciting concepts that will be forever part of Mithril's history.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Nov 8, 2021 11:01:27 GMT
Please don't add links to gambling sites.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Nov 2, 2021 12:16:51 GMT
Thanks to everyone who were brave enough to include their ideas this month. Chris has approved all of them so that is a great start to the voting round. This is a blind vote so you will only see the current status AFTER voting. You have a week to take part. Please remember to comment on your choices, as there will be plenty of voters that can be swayed with a clever argument or properly sourced information from the books, or even a lovely drawing.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Oct 26, 2021 16:35:44 GMT
I personally would appreciate it if the powers that be remade some of the older stock. I would not expect the oldest models to be rereleased, I know how hard that would be, but maybe the past 10 to 15 years or so. I started collecting Mithril Miniatures when they were first released back in 88. For years I kept up with collecting, even to the point of visiting the Prince August factory in 1995. It was closed but a nice women was there and gathered some items for me to purchase. Over the years I sold or traded some of my collection and life took me in varied directions, even living in China for 5 years. So my collecting waned. Recently I unearthed my remaining collection and found that I managed to maintain many figures. I even found some that I had painted long ago, including my avatar photo the first Fellowship miniature. Once I realized I still had many of the miniatures I regretted not keep up better with the line. It is beautiful! Needless to say I'm back to collecting pieces that I love and there are many. My list above is a short list of numerous that I would love to purchase. There are many more. I, for one, would be extremely happy if some past models were rereleased. I do wish more attention was put towards the line. Things like the complete Thorin and Company would be such a wonderful release. I would easily pay for a box set. Perhaps a refresh of classic older models too. A three pack of Bert, William, and Tim would be fantastic. I'm not sure how Mr. Tubb is creating his digital sculptures, but as he makes more models he should be able to reuse assets to produce alternative poses. I think this is a wonderful line of miniature. Chris Tubb has done a fantastic job bringing Middle-earth to life over the years. After being a life long miniatures guy I can say Mithril Miniatures is by far my favorite line of all time. Looking forward to what the future brings. Recreating previous castings for sets is a good idea. The figures would have to be redesigned for 3D sculpting and print. The trolls availability unfortunately suffered due to the loss of those moulds. But a redesign is not impossible.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Oct 26, 2021 14:27:34 GMT
Thanks to everyone who took part in the 1st round. There were three ideas that clearly held the lead. The "Military Musician of Harad" did get the most votes so far but we have seen many times that the final victory can be completely different.
This is an open poll so you can see the status at any time. The poll closes at the start of Nov 2nd.
Please leave a comment to explain your support for any idea, even if you had not supported it in the first round. There are a lot of undecided voters so your explanation may resonate with others.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Oct 22, 2021 13:32:34 GMT
That would be pretty cool. @michael What is the policy on re-releasing of miniatures? Does this ever happen? Or do they get released until the moulds break down? we don't release older figures again outside of the box sets as a standard policy. There are exceptions for requests by Middle-earth Enterprises if feasible. However if there are requests for figures I would ask our staff to see what the state of the moulds are and if there is a slot for release, I could swing it if enough people wanted it (I could put a poll up to see if there is interest). They would not be primed however. Naturally the newer the release the more feasible for a re-release.
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Oct 14, 2021 12:05:55 GMT
I used epoxy glue to glue a wing of Smaug. Ten years later, she fell. So, anyone know how to dissolve epoxy glue? I found this article that might be useful. www.unibond.co.uk/en/adhesives/epoxy-how-to-use-and-remove.html"Once the epoxy hardens, it becomes more difficult to remove. However, it’s not impossible! Try one of the following methods to remove cured epoxy glue: Sand or scrape the area. If there’s only a small amount of dried epoxy, this technique may be sufficient. Use acetone. Acetone can be effective on wood or concrete surfaces. It should loosen the epoxy, so you can peel it away easily. Use acetone only in well-ventilated areas and keep it away from any flammable objects. Use a heat gun. You must wear thick work gloves, goggles and a mask when using a heat gun, and make sure that your skin is completely covered. Use the heat gun at a temperature of about 90 °C, aiming it at small areas of the epoxy until it softens. You can then use a plastic scraper to remove the epoxy. Use chemicals. If you’re removing epoxy from plastic or glass, you can use chemicals to soften the epoxy, and then scrape it away. If the epoxy has only just dried, soak a cloth in methylated spirit and wipe the surface to remove the epoxy. If the epoxy is cured and proves to be stubborn to remove, try applying paint thinner first to soften it up."
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Post by Michael O'Brien on Oct 11, 2021 10:40:56 GMT
I think the wording is causing a bit of confusion - but the opening statement does say 'Single' figure month This month's ideas is for single figures only, so no mounted or Vignettes (more than 2 people or a lot of furniture + two people) please. A mounted figure counts as two figures (horse/camel/warg/etc)I know it looks like two figures are permitted, but we have been doing this long enough to know that (unless CT gets a creative flair and decides to expand on an idea) Single figure means a Single figure . Personally, rather than lose your suggestions, why not rephrase (Merry stabbing at the Witch-King might inspire CT to sculpt the WK as well ) or revise Thanks for your response to the meaning of my post. The brackets explain what a vignette is because I realise not everyone would know what that word means. I had assumed people knew what 'single' was.
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