I haven't even begun to come to terms with that!

On the subject of the in-the-box scenery: well it is better than nothing, way better than nothing, but more importantly it gives scratch builders like me a starting point to work from in terms of scale, design and style. I would use balsa, basswood, cocktail sticks and so forth to create a positive goblinesque subterranean jungle-gym, and somewhere near the base of it, would be the spot where the Goblin King crashes down on them and Bofur goes 'You have GOT to be joking!'
And at the very bottom: Gollum's Cave.

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Whilst its good to finally see the new figures... I am a little surprised by some of them, but am assuming they are tied to the imagery from the film?

The three trolls do look rather plain...

And I am really surprised by the look of the goblins... they look more like undead/nurgle stuff! I was expecting variants on the Moria goblins.

But I suppose if PJ had done that, then it would have been nothing 'new'... and I guess the cynic in me says , it makes you buy the new models!

I will have to go back to the literature and see just how Tolkien describes the goblins in goblin town...

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The 3 trolls are more or less as shown turned to stone in The Fellowship of the Ring - no armour or helmets. I assume their leathery apparell would simply have been destroyed in the passage of time between Bilbo and Frodo's adventures. The rest of the minis look like the film versions - I have 2 of the movie books. The dwarves look great but I wonder whether the painted version in the photos are those in the box or a Finecast box set?

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I'm really thinking on to buy the new fellowship. My wallet is crying.

I'm curious, what will the new SBG set contain.

Ty for sharing the pictures, i always like a sneak peak. I am rather curious for the movie! Soon soon... and yeah i guess my wallet is crying to! Maybe if we sell some organs...

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Must admit, the quality of the figures shown may vary with 'other releases'... to put this in perspective I didn't like any of the fellowship figures from the Mines of Moria boxed set, compared to the original metal sculpts... the plastic troll was pretty naff too...

I may sit on the fence and just see what rolls out, over next couple of months.

No doubt the boxed set will contain the wooden platform terrain, with 'dwarven fellowship' and goblins... and they are obviously going to try and cream xmas gift sales from this boxed set. I may end up buying for my young son to play with anyway, then add models for my own collection as they come out later... The terrain I can make myself, if I get motivated!

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My 'concern' - is I am wondering how they will make the 'Necromancer' look!?

Will my model and Avatar be consigned to the trash heap!?

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I'm curious about this as well - especially after PJ portrayed Sauron as a floating eyeball (I still haven't forgiven him that...) in LotR and even went so far as to have Saruman declare that "He cannot yet take physical form.", which he never said in the book.
I read somewhere that Benedict Cumberbatch would portray Smaug and the Necromancer both in voice and through motion-capture - that implies that the Necromancer is more than just a smaller floating eyeball. I love the smell of a well-deserved retcon in the morning.
Either way, your Avatar will probably be scratched... as will the, IMO, much better-looking old Radagast model.

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Hmmm...

Well, even though these are miniatures, this is the first good look I've gotten at the film's visual style besides the trailers. The lack of consistency does bother me. The Hobbit book is so much different from The Lord of the Rings; a film would have been a great opportunity to play-up the interconnections and visually tie the universe together. Many of these designs were conceived by del Toro, who is still part of the project as a writer. PJ just rolled with them. Yet, the altered appearance of the wargs, Trolls (you can see them in FotR), goblins, orcs, Bilbo (though understandable), the use of 3D, heavy reliance on CGI, and the expansion to three films has left a bad taste in my mouth. One film should have been made years ago. Or maybe the Middle-earth film franchise should have just been left alone to stand on what it already is. Excitement has dwindled to caution.

Thankfully, none of these models are as tempting as I thought they would be. I think I liked the dwarves the best, but not even one model stood out as something "I have to get." I too think the old Radagast model looked way better--this new one is definitely no incentive to buy a more expensive boxed set. It's entirely possible that I'll pass over this release completely.

Still have to admit that GW's original Bilbo is still one of the finest Citadel miniatures of all time. Does anyone recall the sculptor?

Going by the action figures, the little Goblin with the King is called 'Grinnah'.its been a while since I read the book and I don't remember him if he's in it.

As far as the design of the figures goes, I was appalled at the Goblins at first. They are so different from the designs we have seen in the previous films. They are growing on me now, and I think it was a good decision to make them look different. It is 50 or so years before LotR and a completely different location.

The dwarves, Bilbo, and the other characters look great. I quite like the Orcs too, and the Fell Wargs look amazing. I can't wait to get painting!

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Some more pics, from an other topic:
http://www.natfka.blogspot.nl/2012/11/a ... dwarf.html

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The Perry Brothers sculpted the Dwarf Company, Bilbo and Gandalf!

Not sure if they've had anything to do with the rest of the releases (my gut says no) but at the very least they're still involved! It also goes some way to explaining the difference in quality between the fantastic dwarf company and the varying quality of the other sculpts.

I'm not gonna repeat what I've said over on the main discussion thread ('Release date for hobbit minis') but I think a lot of the negative reaction is due to the garish paint jobs and not being familiar with the film world yet. I still think the films are going to be great and we'll warm to these figures once we've seen them in context in the movie.

As for the Necromancer, not sure what GW/PJ have planned but I'm thinking of picking up the new Mourngul from Forge World for mine. It's a much better example of what I think a disembodied, spirit Sauron should look like!

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/MOURNGUL.html

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That does look impressive. However, by the time of the Hobbit, Sauron wasn't a disembodied spirit anymore! He had started taking new shape over a thousand years before that. To quote Tolkien himself: 'Sauron should be thought of as very terrible. The form that he took was that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic.' And that's from a letter specifically discussing Sauron at the end of the 3rd Age, where the Hobbit is set.

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Rohan - as it should have been. A house rule project.

I am sure we will warm to the new figures, once we have seen the movie, and after a while it will become 'what we expected' in a sense... I have watched the LOTR movies so many times now that its virtually imprinted on me, and my own thoughts of what things should have looked like are a distant fuzzy memory... I am sure the same will happen with the Hobbit movie and its imagery...

I am wary of using the word brainwashing, but in a sense thats what it is - repeated exposure and it becomes accepted...

Buckle up folks and get ready to enjoy the ride, I am sure its going to be interesting!

My other concern, is will GW alter the game somehow? Will the rules change for SBG? Will it split into two games; LOTR SBG and Hobbit SBG??? I hope not...

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We, Hungarian players are not really happy, cause we play WOTR, and now we have to wait a lot, till GW will do something with the lotr again. Maybe after the battle of five armies...

Well think of it this way. The goblins and wargs are from the northern parts of middle earth and therefore have adapted differently and so look different. I am glad that GW renamed the wargs 'fell wargs' and goblins 'goblins of hte misty moutains' to differentate between the two. I heavily doubt any of Del Toro's influences remained after he left.

Anyways, when commenting on the products. The goblin town set looks really fun! But i want to wait for official photos before I can fully judge them. The dwarves look absolutely brilliant, i love all of them. Radagast looks much better with the paintjob on, the white council and gandalf all look fine. The new orcs and goblins are very different so I think I have to wait to get used to the films before I adapt to them. The Great Goblin is the only one I am not so keen on, seems very undetailed and bland. Also the trolls and fire seem to lack some detail, I will reserve judgement until I see them in person.

A very good release but I don't think I will be personally needing any of these. The only ones I really want are the 13 dwarves...... hmmmmm.

All of your arguments are flawed. They cannot be in anyway warhammer designed since these were just copies of what the filmmakers of the hobbit made... and I'm pretty sure they didn't get the idea from Warhammer...

Super Excited, im glad the whole concept of the Goblins changed.

Now when i build my hobbit armies i wont have 2 similar goblin armies

Too true, too true... I'm actually very tempted to not watch The Hobbit at all and keep it the way I imagine it. I didn't do that with LotR, and visually I didn't regret it - some of the plot and cast decisions PJ made, however, I found very hard to cope with, and I try to blind them out, so to speak: Elves at Helm's Deep, Faramir being a douche, Théoden's actor being 15 years too young and him being a semi-douche, etc. Rohan, to me, will also always be wide open plains of waist-high grass flowing in the wind, not a rocky, hilly country as in the film.
I actually refused to watch the Harry Potter films after reading all the books, and I have never regretted it. In the end, imagining things for yourself is much better than just watching how someone else imagined it.

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Rohan - as it should have been. A house rule project.