i have recently purchased some new minatures over the past couple of months and have noticed that the quiality of models has gone down considerabley. i find that things on metal models like swords and the bases are quite "misshapen" and the amount of mold lines and flash has doubled especially on plastic minatures. is it just me or do other people agree?

I've always been of the opinion that the weapons on the metal LotR minis have been flimsy, especially when compared to GW's other minis. I reckon it may have something to do with the smaller scale...

Incidentaly, you know that 'flash' is a good thing? It means that enough metal has been poured into the mould to fill the cavity.

The plastics, generally, are terrible. Mould lines cross the hardest to clean places, and the features of certain minis disappear when you turn them around. I reckon that the best plastic sculpts are the Uruk Scouts, Rangers of Arnor and Morrannon Orcs. The Orcs make it just because they are so heavily armoured that if you miss a few lines here and there it isn't readily noticeable against the spiked armour plating.

The Mordor Orcs are really bad, from what I remember of building mine, as are the Wood Elves. I haven't had too close a look at the other plastic sets yet because I haven't got round to building them.

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Yes they have. The Mordor orcs are pretty bad, poor detail in a lot of places. The riders of Rohan and the Last Alliance Elves arepretty good. Noticeably better than the Mordororcs. The Shield sockets for the plastic Numenorians are down right terrible.

I havn't purchased anything from GW for about half a year, but I have heard from friends that the quality isn't what it used to be, lets hope they do better for the War of the Ring.