Am I living on another planet to you lot? Every mini in the starter set is wonderfully sculpted! I think the Perry bro's have done themselves proud there. The Goblins look exactly like their movie counterparts so all this comparison to Warhammer is starting to wind me up a bit. The sculptors and painters have done a terrific job with this set and the White Council Gandalf is awesome too. The wargs I like except for the bald patches at the rear. I think I'd have to give mine a hair transplant if I bought them, and the riders waists appear very thin at first glance, but other than that I can't find much fault with this first wave apart from the price which lets face it we all knew would skyrocket yet again.
Don't get me wrong, I've bashed GW several times myself in the past, and justifiably so at times, but this injection is the best thing thats happened to our hobby for several years. Our game has been neglected for far too long support wise and I welcome this new release with open arms. Its coming is like a breath of fresh air.

_________________
You don't have to be great to start. But you do have to start to be great.

Aside from the White Council I like the new figures. Most of my other complaints would be to the costumes of the characters in the films.

_________________
"If you can imagine something, then it is possible."
-Whiskas, 26th May, 2009

I'm with UKFB on this one. The new sculpts are really growing on me. Super excited to start painting them.

_________________
12th GBHL 2013.
13th GBHL 2014
9th GBHL 2015


Mid Sussex Wargamers

Interesting lot of releases, and if nothing else it'll (hopefully) be nice to see some growth in the hobby overall.

The goblins are an interesting case - Prima facie they look awful, and I mean that from a 'WETA designed horrible Goblins' point of view. But at the same time I think I understand why they did.
It's much more realistic that they would be pale and more disgusting that fierce.
Another thing which occurs to me though, is that if (like I had kind of expected) Gandalf and co. had been captured by the same type of Goblins from LOTR, then the audience might get the feeling that it was just a rehash of FOTR's Moria sequence.
For that reason, it probably made more sense to change the look of the Goblins, and effectively this 'realistic' depiction can, in my view, be forgiven.

Having said all that, I hate the look of them and won't buy any
One of my bigger gripes about them is their hair. For some reason GM struggle to sculpt hair well or at all in some cases. The Mordor Orcs were really bad for it, and I can't understand why it's so difficult. I really don't enjoy having the rely on a paint job to mask poor sculpts.

Will probably pick up some Hunter Orcs and Fell Wargs at some point, but that's just so I can add them to my Pelennor Fields scenarios.

_________________
Feel free to check out my galleries and painting guides! www.freewebs.com/necromancer7

The sculpting looks fabulous, some of the best I've seen. The designs are really not to my taste though

_________________
'Though my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior'
-John Newton

Personally I think that these sculpts are the best quality GW have ever produced, However the actual design of the dwarves, trolls, orcs and gobos are completely appalling...
Is anyone going to buy the scenery, Im certainly not, there's barely any there for starts.
I'm not a fan of the white council except Gandalf.
I believe the scale is off compared to the current hobbits and dwarves, the orc hunters look like van dam riding wolves suffering from alopecia...
To sum up:
the models are well made but conceptually feel wrong and will cost you an arm,a leg and the skin of your [word deleted]; my 2 cents

_________________
http://grungehog.blogspot.co.uk/

I really like the new models. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed when I first saw the pictures, but after seeing them again as well as the sprues, I think they are quite nice miniatures. The only thing that I have a problem with is the price, but that won't keep me from buying them. It will just take me a lot longer to get them.

-PoW

_________________
My WIP thread: http://one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=18247

I'm gonna try to make a mold of the scenery. Never done it before but the platforms don't have to be a two sided mold so I'm pretty confident it'll work. A multiple level board with tons of ladders, platforms and small passages... oh yeah.

_________________
Operation future in full swing.

I think the sculpting is great, release-wide. The poses are hit and miss. I think the Goblins, the Goblin king, the Trolls, and most of the Dwarves (par Gloin) are great as well. Although I highly disagree with PJ's depiction of half of them.
We can't blame GW for designs, as previously mentioned, WETA was the designer and we should not forget that The Hobbit is a children's book. As the writing style is different to other Tolkien's works, the movie has to reflect that style and depict, present it properly.
I agree, the prices in most cases are exorbitant, but the Starter sets are relatively reasonably priced. And guys/gals, you don't have to make your purchase from GW, browse a bit, see on what price the independent retailers are selling them. Wayland, and GreenDragon even more, have better pricing. I am not trying to support either in any way. But for example GreenDragon's prices are 20% off and he does give us free shipping. Why not utilize it to minimize our spending? 77 euros for the box set, suddenly isn't that expensive!
Regarding the rules, firstly we have not seen them yet so we are not entitled to criticize, judge, or even praise. Concerning monsters, we all know that unless a monster was a hero, or a monstrous mount, it was basically worthless. A fact which does not reflect their status in Middle Earth. But as I already mentioned, we have to wait before we make praises.

P.S. I will be buying the Set and the Three Trolls. I concur with the majority of opinions on the White Council, namely that the poses are meh and the price

Sculpting overall is great but the poses not so much imo (orc hunters and goblin warriors). For me the orange and purple skintones of the Orc Hunters don't work, I bet I like them better with tones more in line with the old orc's.

I'm getting the starterset and that's all for now, I'll be waiting till there are enough models to make a decent army.

_________________
Operation future in full swing.

for as far as ive seen I think that if im going to buy goblins their skin tone will be some tints greener and maybe sculpt some armor on some of them
because I think there a bit to bare and pale.
for the rest gw did a great job with the sculpts and its just the design of the gobbos that we need to get used to.

martijn

_________________
"tonight you will taste man flesh!"
saruman the white

That sounds like a great idea! What kind of material will you use for the mold and the platforms themselves?

_________________
“A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.”

If only these were the final rules being released... but we all know the other movies will produce a new starter set. If not I might've been able to convince myself saving for a few months in order to buy the starter set. Well my birthday is in january guys...

_________________
"Mickey, my friend!"

I'll probably make a silicone mold and cast with resin. I'll be posting the plans and progress end of next week in my wip

_________________
Operation future in full swing.

Quite like the new goblins! Gives the idea that there were dozens of varieties of the creatures living in the Misty Mountains. Nice battle scenario would be fight between these goblins and their Moria cousins

BTW did anyone notice that Radagast has two totally different shoes

_________________
Operation future in full swing.

Gandalf's staff is accurate to the way it looks in the new film. The top is more woven together. Remember this is set years before the events in The Lord of the Rings. By that time his staff would have seen much more use, ending up looking like Radagast's does.

_________________
Cheers
Athelas

I agree with above posts about the models, I think the Dwarves look great! The goblins have grown on me and I will enjoy playing with them when we play through the scenarios here.

If anybody missed it, and you live in EU. Head over to my site at http://www.greendragongames.co.uk/games ... ?limit=all

As others have said I've got everything at 10-20% off RRP (alot of things in the LOTR section are even 25% off) and code "oneringexclusive" will get you free shipping, as it says on the tin that code is exclusively posted here for onering forum members . Some very happy customers here on the forum too (he hopes!).

I'm enchanted by the Goblin Town scenery possibilities, I'll pick up the scenery from the box set and an upgrade pack and then wait I think until I see the film on Dec 13th - I want to make a full Goblin Town game board based on the film as no doubt there will be a few bits GW have missed out, walkways crossing under each other etc.

Also picking up the paint set as I happen to need every single paint in there, so that plush 5 extra gobbos and a paint brush sounds like a deal to me. I'm intrigued by the campfire in the Trolls box set, apparantly it gives them an advantage (plus one in combat or something is the rumor) but I'll have to wait until I get the rulebook through next week to see what it does. Either way, I've got some painting to do!

_________________
My Wargaming Store: http://www.greendragongames.co.uk
10-25% off LOTR.

- Model Painting Service also available.

Its'official! GW admit that everyone buying the starter set is buying a bucket of poo !!

(Sculpted by Aly Morrison to go under the Goblin Kings throne. Makes it a throne in all senses of the word.)

_________________
Short Strider
Running for the train at Bletchley Station, over the foot-bridge to platform four.

@ Short Strider. GW seem to have an unhealthy obsession with such things. The Great Goblin has his bed pan. the Goblin Scribe has a bucket and Radagast has guano on his face. I know these things because they were gleefully pointed out in White Dwarf. Very strange...