I wouldn't be surprised.
An interesting thing about the A Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures game (which is a great source of SBG scaled minis - only sayin') is that not licensed by CMON from George RR Martin, but from Dark Sword Miniatures who have the license from Martin.

Since GW has been exploring other licensing arrangements, you might see 28-32mm "collector's" minis put out in co-operation with GW but by someone else some sort of miniatures boardgamey thing (again in co-op with GW), actual boardgames (ala the War of the Ring boardgame) and who knows what else.

There's a lot more players in the market (kickstarter has been a game changer) and while I think there's generally more customers, fans have more options to spend their nerd dollars on, so we might as you say, see something new.

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Dreaming of getting back to painting...any month now.

I never followed the HeroClix miniatures for Lord of the Rings, but as far as I can see that is pretty much a miniatures game based on the films, just like Games Workshop ... (except maybe played on a grid rather than measuring distances?)

Maybe multiple companies could make miniatures games at the same time, as suggested above.

Well, this is interesting:
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/lord-o ... 235176036/

Looks like the Saul Zaentz company is getting out of the Middle-earth business.

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Dreaming of getting back to painting...any month now.

I am sure that the Zaentz lawyers are looking at it as a temporary "rental" of the rights. Like they did to New Line/Warner there will be a nasty reversion clause if no new live action movie or TV short serial is forthcoming within a few years (from which SZco will earn commission). Looks like the lawyers are angling for another payday.

That piece references the Rohan anime as still being current, presumably not being live action it does not count as exercising the rights SZco claim have now reverted to them so I wonder what licence that is being produced under?

I dread to think what LotR will become if someone like the woke pandering Disney Corp get hold of it.

Some new pictures here I think:
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/20 ... first-look

(Well, if they make this Galadriel model, she'll have to go up to defence six or seven for a change!)

I was not at all impressed with the show description or the new photos.

For one thing, I thought dwarven women were practically indistinguishable from men.

Saw the trailer
So I want minis of that guy and that woman and that guy and those elves and that orc and...you get the idea.

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Dreaming of getting back to painting...any month now.

Looked good to me, looking forward to watching it and hopefully collecting some of it too!

The elves in the battle scene (with Gil-Galad?) looked fairly similar in design to the Peter Jackson Rivendell I thought, though the helmet style is a little different without the crests. Maybe a bit more Roman-army looking.

There was some kind of troll monster type thing with horns or tusks that looked somewhat similar to the Hobbit-era trolls and orcs I thought.

Certainly lots of things you could imagine fitting in on a table with the existing armies.

I'm not sure the trailer has done much to swing me either way at this point. Amazon's film department pulled of Carnival Row rather well, (in terms of mixing practical and CG effects, non-human costumes, realistic looking sets, and atmosphere) hoping it can do the same thing here. A little more hopeful on some of those accounts for this show now. Only time will tell.

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"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

Yeah I also really liked Carnival Row! Still waiting for the next season xD

The trailer for me too did not change anything. It showed far too much in its short time and at the same time actually nothing. But what it showed looked like a standard fantasy flick and not like Middleearth.

I do however ask myself how much I (we) should cling to the style, look etc of Peter Jacksons version. Yes it was great but maybe someone else too can make something great even though it might be very different?

I am only a little bit worried about their display of "young" Galadriel/Elrond. Yes in the 2nd age they were several thousand years younger. But I am pretty sure this wouldn't make them look like early 20 somethings xD

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This is all very true, but so long as Warner Bros are involved, somehow and so long as Weta is involved and so long as the "consumers" of the last six movies remain the target audience, Middle-earth will look...like that. It's not a bad look at all, and basically defined the "look" of fantasy media ever since, but its not the only game in town.

Now, if it was up to me, all Middle-earth shows would be shot in Iceland, Newfoundland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the West of Ireland and places like the Malvern Hills and the Lake District of England, shot in as naturalistic a style as possible and lean heavily on Alan Lee and Jon Hodgson's visual palettes.

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Dreaming of getting back to painting...any month now.

I found this on YouTube and summarizes quite well the potential problems of the show with their forced diversity and changing/adding of characters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QJbAbe2yyo

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He is spot on with his comments. In Tolkien's world Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits are not Negroes and Galadriel was not the prototype of Red Sonja or Xena.

Yeah without risking getting into heavy debates on this topic he does make good points. It's just unfortunate that small parts of the fandom on both sides are resorting to actual racism and then the polar opposite are gaslighting relevant concerns from Tolkien purists. I think we just need to remember whether this show is good or not it doesn't change what we already have. If anything i'm just looking forward to some spectacular moments. There will undoubtedly be scenes worthy of Tolkien's work even if they are minimal. But we just won't know until we see.

The elves in the battle scene (with Gil-Galad?)

I believe that in Finrod Felagund Gil-Galad was the one watching the meteor (and he looks badass imo, just like Peter Jacksons version of him)

All I got from the trailer was a big "meh." Nothing special and it honestly felt like Peter Pan seeing the supposed "Harfoot."

My issue is similar to that of some who commented above, I fear (well we know it's already happening) that amazon is simply check-marking boxes to fill current modern day quotas, instead of simply sticking to the lore.

I get it, they are trying to pander to a wider audience, but then again, the LOTR trilogy (which is our best version of Tolkien in the modern day) is critically acclaimed by all regions in this world, and only a tiny percentage actually look at the fact and care if there is a black/asian or a minority character being included.

Especially reading the quotes from the show creators about how they deem criticism towards the show as "rac***"" to simply push away any thoughts that their show couldn't be amazing.


The main thing is the story though and the condensing. If they make sense of it, then the show will be decent at best.

From the Vanity Fair articles, Amazon only has the rights to LOTR and the Hobbit. Which means they only have the rights to the appendices to build this show. Which means they are largely going to be making up a lot of their own stories up for this. They have also said they are not sticking to Tolkien's timeline, but rather quashing about 1,000 years of events to be happening simultaneously.

Honestly, my reaction so far is disappointment, although I admit the trailer looked beautiful. It just didn't appear to be Tolkien. And that doesn't even mention the way they are shoehorning diversity into the show, which I'm not going to make a big deal of: other than to say that if you want to make an adaptation true to the source material, that idea is ludicrous. Obviously they are more interested in pushing identity politics than they are making a Tolkien adaptation.

I also heard that they made a number of changes the day that Christopher Tolkien died. Changes that he had apparently objected to. I will give it a chance, but I'm not at all optimistic about it. What's more exciting is the upcoming War of the Rohirrim movie from Warner Brothers! Might be a good source for GM wargaming as well.