February 2021 1st Round vote is CLOSED.

[Michael O'Brien]

Thanks for all the new ideas. Chris has approved all of them.
This is the first vote and as normal will be blind.
Please take a moment to comment on why you voted the way you did and your reasoning and it may influence others to support that same idea.

[olivier]

Wainrider man with whip

The appendices mentioned incursions of the Wainriders in Gondor from 1851 TA, for almost a century.
The appendices A mentionned that the Wainriders were a people, or confederacy, of Men from the East. They journeyed in great wagons, and their chieftains rode chariots in battle.
In the Unfinished Tales, "Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan", it states that they camped in fortified camps of wagons. Their young women were also trained in arms, and they, along with old men and youths, stayed behind, able to defend their homes from attackers.
The MZ670 Wainrider girl mounted is the very first miniature representing this people (2018 December votes).
To complete, I propose another Gypsy member : a man this time.
He is bearded and has long hair. His head is covered with a bandana tied behind and he wears a thick leather bolero, a wide fabric belt and boots. He is armed with a whip that he wields in front of him and a short scimitar is passed through the belt.

[Axel]

A napping Hobbit

I imagine a gardener or artisan taking his well deserved nap in the sun between the second breakfast and the 11 tea, contemplating on how to deserve the next meal with hard work. Or just sleeping off the chores of digesting a good meal (or three), perhaps in a corner of a famours birthday party. He could have a blanket or a root under his head, or sitting leaned to a tree or wall, looking kind of "fully" content with his life.

[khador]

A keeper of the gate of Orthanc

[ddaines]

I will need to see the outcome of the last vote

[Axel]

I know that we do have a multitude of ideas for mounted or combined miniatures.

I also know that we struggle to catch up with the ideas.

Perhaps we should consider to jump to a bimonthly vote & mini for a couple of mounted suggestions?

That could perhaps work out for both requirements.

Alternatively we could do a month (or two, or five) with "mounted" suggestions that have to use a mount alread in production?
This would mean only the rider needs to be sculpted.

[maxtarna]

Mr. Mugwort

At the Prancing Pony Frodo and his company meet mr. Mugwort and talk to the hobbits from the community of Bree.
Mr Mugwort complained that he saw Frodo disappearing after singing his song:
"Of course there's a mistake!" said Frodo. "I haven't vanished. Here I am! I've just been having a few words with Strider in the corner".

I think this could be a good idea: it's a completely unreleased character from the book (no other company has ever released him before); he could be added to our Prancing Pony and Bree series; and...

...I'm really curious to see how Chris will realize a hobbit from a community, born and living outside the Shire, side by side to men.

Hope you, guys, like this idea. :-)

[gilgaladtolkien]

Bolg, Orc-chief of Gundabad

[Luthien Tinuviel]

Umli/Half darves


Umli is the name ivented by ICE to describe the following men in the Retun of the King:

"The new host that we had tidings of has come first, from over the River by way of Andros, it is said. They are strong: battalions of Orcs of the Eye, and countless companies of Men of a new sort that we have not met before. Not tall, but broad and grim, bearded like dwarves, wielding great axes. Out of some savage land in the wide East they come, we deem."

[barliman]

I'm simply going to repeat my suggestion from last month that didn't win:


A TWO-HEADED TROLL

I still feel that this would make a fine addition to the range, for the reasons I've cited on several previous occasions.

[Halbarad II.]

Strider fighting at Weathertop

in fighting pose (against the Nazguls) with torches - burning branches in his hands.
for in the scabbard at his side is the broken sword Narsil
and the weapon the Ringwraiths most fear is fire.

Strider / Aragorn shows the broken sword to the Hobbits at the Inn, the Prancing Pony.
(In the novel the shards are not displayed at Rivendell like in the movie adaption,
so Strider obviously carries them with him.
Narsil is reforged at Rivendell as Anduril before the Fellowship is starting the journey to Mordor) 

J. R. R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings 
The Fellowship of the Ring
Chapter X
Strider
and 
Chapter XI
A knife in the dark

[twrich]

I love the Mr. Mugwort idea! And as he is a Hobbit, perhaps we can have two Bree Hobbits, maybe a drinking buddy. I always favor ideas that have not yet found their way into the Mithril range.

[ddaines]

The Ruffian of Bywater

Apologies if this has been suggested before by A N Other. For this month my suggestion is from the Scouring of the Shire when the hobbits are returning home and find things have changed.....

When they reached The Green Dragon, the last house on the Hobbiton side, now lifeless and with broken windows, they were disturbed to see half a dozen large ill-favoured Men lounging against the inn-wall; they were squint-eyed and sallow-faced………

I see the 'chief' Ruffian standing in a threatening pose and holding his club in a threatening manner as he addresses Merry (alternate idea was to have the club being held in an outstretched arm).

….. “The ruffians had clubs in their hands and horns by their belts, but they had no other weapons, as far as could be seen. As the travellers rode up they left the wall and walked into the road, blocking the way.
‘Where d’you think you’re going?” said one, the largest and most evil-looking of the crew. ‘There’s no road for you any further. And where are those precious Shirriffs?’…….”



The suggestion is for the Ruffian figure and NOT both illustrated  

[twrich]

It Seems that many ideas are being suggested again, which I think is good. And I will repeat one also:

Wose Drummers.

Since Woses are about the same size as Hobbits, I'm hoping Chris will accept two as a "single" figure. If not, then Chris can pick which of the two I suggest for the vote.

We don't have many Wose figures (Ghan-buri Ghan, Spearman, Priestest, and Warrior), and no Drummers, which were specifically mentioned in the Return of the King with Merry speaking to Elfhelm in the woods on the way to Minas Tirith:

"Is the enemy coming then?" asked Merry anxiously. "Are those their drums? I began to think I was imagining them, as no one else seemed to take any notice of them."

"Nay, nay," said Elfhelm, "the enemy is on the road not in the hills. You hear the Woses, the Wild Men of the Woods: thus they talk together from afar."

If it wasn't for the Woses, Rohan would not have reached Gondor in time to aid them, if at all.

The two Drummers I envision are #1: standing behind a large drum that sits on the ground, waist high. I imagine the drum shaped like a whiskey barrel or wine cask. The Drummer would have legs spread to the sides of the drum with arms in a motion of beating, perhaps one on the drum surface (animal hide laced with sinew) and one arm held high, ready for the down stroke. #2: A Wose seated cross-legged on the ground with a drum resting on the legs, not so small as to be between the crossed legs. I imagine this drum to be circular and about twice as wide as it is high. Again, there would be an animal hide cover and the drum would be beaten by hand. I hope for continuity in appearance with the earlier Wose figures. I also think it would be great if one drummer was a male and one a female.