Swan Knights & Death of Theoden Vigs

[Michael O'Brien]

These new vignettes are extremely detailed and exciting. Filled with action and centre around the battle to defend Gondor from Mordor's hordes in the Pelennor fields.

What do you think of these vignettes.
Many of you did suggest Swan Knights as a theme so we do hope you like the results.
There was a lot of work gone into making such complex vignettes which include up to 5 figures (theoden, merry, eowyn and 2 rohirrim).

[mb]

The new vignettes are pretty beautiful. The Swan Knights is especially great. But I did have a few questions. First, I was a little surprised that there were only 2 vignettes that came out. Are there plans for more this year? And second, are the long rectangle bases that were used for 6 out of the 8 earlier vignettes going to be used in the future, because the bases used for the new ones look smaller. But good job on the new vignettes (the price seems high, but then you were saying something about the rise in the cost of metal).

[Axel Schudak]

The comment on the website reads: "Contains: Theoden, Merry, Eowyn, 2 Rohirrim"

I assume that this is a mistake, and should read "Eomer" instead of "Eowyn".

[Michael O'Brien]

Guest-Axel said:

The comment on the website reads: "Contains: Theoden, Merry, Eowyn, 2 Rohirrim"

I assume that this is a mistake, and should read "Eomer" instead of "Eowyn".

One of the Rohirrim could be Eomer but Eowyn is there, kneeing down dressed as a warrior. She was present when Theoden died, as stated in the text passage I quoted from the books on the product pages.

[Michael O'Brien]

Guest-mb said:

The new vignettes are pretty beautiful. The Swan Knights is especially great. But I did have a few questions. First, I was a little surprised that there were only 2 vignettes that came out. Are there plans for more this year? And second, are the long rectangle bases that were used for 6 out of the 8 earlier vignettes going to be used in the future, because the bases used for the new ones look smaller. But good job on the new vignettes (the price seems high, but then you were saying something about the rise in the cost of metal).

We have had other ideas for vignettes but at present we have not any more planned yet for release. I don't know about the bases, I assume the new vigs would not suite the rectangular style, it was up to Chris. We will see how well received these vigs are, and based on those sales we can decide whether we make more this year. We have another boxed set planned.

[FPCC]

Do you have a box set idea already planned, or are you going to take ideas from members in the forum? I like the Swan Knights vignette, but I was hoping that a Death of Boromir vignette would be done. Hopefully someday.

[Zoetrop]

We have had other ideas for vignettes but at present we have not any more planned yet for release. I don't know about the bases, I assume the new vigs would not suite the rectangular style, it was up to Chris. We will see how well received these vigs are, and based on those sales we can decide whether we make more this year. We have another boxed set planned.



Hello Michael,
please excuse my hard words but I must say that´s not enough.
This is a forum for Mithril enthisiasts and (for me) one of the most important things is to get new informations from Mithril.
The new newsletter was from March 31, the first informations about the new vignettes in the forum was from April 01.
Ok... you tell us about a new boxed set planned, what box? Where are the pictures or the models, when we can buy it?
What´s about other releases this year?
Must we wait here in the forum for the next Newsletter to get more informations?

Best regards

Zoetrop

[Michael O'Brien]

Guest-FPCC said:

Do you have a box set idea already planned, or are you going to take ideas from members in the forum? I like the Swan Knights vignette, but I was hoping that a Death of Boromir vignette would be done. Hopefully someday.

The reason I got from Chris is that the arrows sticking out of Boromir would be very difficult to cast. Also he resting against a tree would present some difficult issues. I would still ask if it may be made in the future.

The actual reason is financial. It is just so expensive to model and tool a vignette that making more at the moment is not possible. It also takes time to make a vignette, if we were to make say five vigs it would take a year to release at least. Some vigs have 5 figures in it.

[Michael O'Brien]

Zoetrop said:

We have had other ideas for vignettes but at present we have not any more planned yet for release. I don't know about the bases, I assume the new vigs would not suite the rectangular style, it was up to Chris. We will see how well received these vigs are, and based on those sales we can decide whether we make more this year. We have another boxed set planned.



Hello Michael,
please excuse my hard words but I must say that´s not enough.
This is a forum for Mithril enthisiasts and (for me) one of the most important things is to get new informations from Mithril.
The new newsletter was from March 31, the first informations about the new vignettes in the forum was from April 01.
Ok... you tell us about a new boxed set planned, what box? Where are the pictures or the models, when we can buy it?
What´s about other releases this year?
Must we wait here in the forum for the next Newsletter to get more informations?

Best regards

Zoetrop

I understand that you feel frutrated but I give you new information when I get it. When a new project is started it may progress very quickly or be beset with delays and problems. If a tool breaks or Chris has to make adjustments to the model it can delay a release a month. This is unknown beforehand. Chris does not give us drawings so I cannot show you a new project until it has gone into a milliput format and checked for any problems. Otherwise I may show you a master that may never appear if a major problem occurs after I released the news. Chris also makes figures for Prince August and the Edman Collection, and the tool department has many other projects to deal with as well. All these play havoc with scheduling. We don't aim to upset our fans, we try to give you info that is reliable.
The new boxed set is planned for release after summer, it is a new version of smaug. I will provide milliput master photos on the next newsletter. It is still being worked on so adjustments are still being added.

[mb]

I dont want to sound ungrateful here, but why are you going to make another Smaug? There are already 2 box sets featuring Smaug, one where he is next to his treasure, and one with him in flight, what other pose could you make for him without being redundant? If someone wanted to have the death of smaug, they could easily convert one of the previous models to do so. There are alot of dragon box sets out right now in mithril, so I would prefer an idea that has not been done yet, like the 3 trolls from the hobbit, the watcher, the Entmoot, Grond, Frodo and Sam being rescued on mount doom by Gandalf and the eagles, Pippin and Beregond facing the troll chieftan at the black gates, a box set with the 13 dwarves from the hobbit... The list goes on and on. Mithril fans have to wait long enough for something new to be released, so why not have a box set release that has the most positive response from fans.

And with the boromir vignette, Games Workshop was able to produce a boromir figure with arrows in him. Make the arrows bulkier if you have to, because they were orc arrow, and bulkier arrows would probably be easier to cast then skinny ones, and with the tree, just have the tree stump that he is lying against, not the entire tree. Vignettes dont need to have 5 figures on them, the vignette of the death of theoden looks crowded and very busy for the small base it is on. If Chris is too busy with other projects, then get another sculptor, and have 2 people making mithril miniatures instead of just one.

[FPCC]

Yeah, another dragon is the last thing I want to see done in a box set. If you did make another smaug, how would it be different from the previous 2? Dragons have been the main focus when you look at the box sets that have been done. You could do other creatures, like the watcher, or the trolls in the hobbit, or do more with the eagles. You could have box sets done like the ones for the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the ring. You could have one with the 13 dwarves, or one for the Return of the king, with a Beregond figure, Imrahil on foot, Eowyn in a dress, Halbarad, etc. I would suggest doing what is most asked for by fans, because there are few new releases in a year. Now that you said that there are probably not going to be any more vignettes coming out this year, I would have preferred that a different scene be done instead of the Death of Theoden, because that idea was done in the Witch King box set.

What do other fans think about doing another box set with Smaug? Would you be excited for it, or would you want mithril to consider doing another idea for a box set?

[Ori]

I think "the vengance of Smaug" is by far the best dragon mini in the market. So, why doing an other Smaug?

Remember the 13 dwarves, the Trolls.......

[Wendy]

I guess I'll chime in a bit.

First, I do like the Death of Theoden vignette, but the only problem is that in ROTK, everyone thought Eowyn was dead till Prince Imhrahil discovered otherwise. Eowyn was there, but unconcious. (Perhaps when designing the vignette they were thinking of the movie?)

The Swan Knights vignette is super.

I really like all the dragon box sets, but it does seem a bit redundant to have another Smaug. However; one might ask how far along in the design process it is? It's difficult to ask Mithril to abandon that project if they've already invested time and money in it. Possibly they could shelf it for a while, but to abandon it might prove a waste of resources. (Trying to look at it from Mithril's point of view.) Now I rather curious what kind of pose is in the works for the new Smaug.

There are other box sets that would be more attractive to the dedicated Mithril collectors (Hobbit Trolls, 13 Dwarfs from the Hobbit), but they may be thinking another dragon will appeal to more general collector? It really is a complement to Mithril that the devoted collectors are so rabidly awaiting new releases.

I'll be one of those with a "Death of Smaug" - my Vengence of Smaug "died" due to metal fatigue. I am making a diorama out of it. I'll send pictures when I'm done, Michael.

Don't be too hard on Michael (not that anyone has so far). He probably doesn't have much say in which figures are ultimately picked for production.

[Michael O'Brien]

Wendy said:

I guess I'll chime in a bit.

First, I do like the Death of Theoden vignette, but the only problem is that in ROTK, everyone thought Eowyn was dead till Prince Imhrahil discovered otherwise. Eowyn was there, but unconcious. (Perhaps when designing the vignette they were thinking of the movie?)

It is my fault, I was wrong, I see the painted version today and it is Eomer, not Eowyn. I thought she was in it. Long hair and so on. Now it is painted I see the difference (the figure has a moustache) so I assume it is NOT eowyn. I will be adding multiple shots of the vigs later today (Wednesday). And on the matter of the making of the figures, I do my best to champion your ideas, but some projects have already started or other factors influenced them. The choices of the Swan Knights and The Death of Theoden was BECAUSE you wanted more from the Battle at the Pelennor Fields. The Swan Knights were asked for specifically. WE are listening and are making figures for you.

As far as time and effort for a vignette or a boxed set is concerned it is VERY time consuming and expensive for us to make one of these. There are many factors I am not able to go into here that affect the length of time and amount of cost for any project but boxed sets like the oliphaunt (8 moulds) and the new dragon (possibly up to 17 pieces) make droppping a project half way through rather painful.

[Axel]

I am glad to hear that the vignette does not take its liberty with the book content by putting Eowyn at the side of Theoden in his last moments. One of the aspects I always liked with Mithril is that it presents a (one of many) consistent view on Tolkiens work. I ordered my exemplar anyway :-)

The Swan Knights were long overdue, and I hopefully it brings in its ROI fast. My interest in a new dragon mainly depends on its pose, though I have to add that the poses already presented by Mithrils dragons are pretty good if compared to other dragon kits. Somehow dragons are a market of their own in the miniature world. Do NOT abandon it! I trust that it is a great addition to the existing aspects.

Some ideas, like the "Lords of Gondor" or the "Thorins company (13 dwarves)" could probably produced as M or even LT/LR series. You could reserve some LR-numbers fo the 13 dwarves and publish them piecemeal, just to keep us comsumerbase happy with regular (if smaller) releases.

[mb]

I like the dragon box sets that mithril has come out with, but I think that 5 is enough for right now(thats almost half of the box sets that are out right now). Dragons are a small part of Tolkien's world. Only one is a central character to the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books. Other creatures and personalities need to be depicted too that have not been done yet in mithril (like the watcher, grond, the 3 trolls. I would also like to see more box sets done like the fight between Eowyn and the Witch King, on larger bases). Im not saying never release the Smaug box set, but wait to come out with more dragons after you have come out with creatures and personalities that you have not done yet in the Mithril series. We already have 2 great box sets of Smaug, so I think we can wait a while longer for the next one to be released.

[Axe99]

G'day Michael,

That 'eye' of yours is kinda freaky . Just thought I'd pop by to say that I was a huge fan of both vignettes (which arrived on Friday) - and am glad to hear it was Eomer - I'd heard rumours it was Eowyn and was a little confused - and then when I looked at the vignette say he/she had a moustache, and was most befuddled! Both it and the Swan Knights are phenomenal, and thanks all of you (including Chris, of course) ;D. On the by, I quite like that Smaug that's coming along as well, although I feel sorry for the poor Dwarves strewn at his feet!

[Bond...SBond]

I would agree. These two new vignettes are the most exciting and dynamic put out by Mithril yet (imo...well, perhaps Eowyn facing off against the Witch-King is pretty dramatic, too). Chris did a phenomenal job, and I'm looking forward to more! I first had the same concern about the upcoming Smaug vignette (not a another dragon...) but then I saw some shots of it and it's stunning! Spot on. Looking forward to that one.