More Dwarven Hobbit Pre-Orders Hit The Games Workshop Site
November 29, 2014 by brennon
With the Battle of the Five Armies coming soon Games Workshop are stepping up production on the miniatures for the range. The latest set of pre-orders come in the form of Thorin's Company and feature all of the Dwarves plus Bilbo himself...
Each of the sets comes with three of the Dwarves from Thorin's Company apart from the one with Thorin himself which comes with Bilbo probably after he has stolen away with the Arkenstone. I have to say that overall the miniatures are of a pretty good quality and once again it looks like it's the paint jobs that are messing with the look of these heroic stunties.
Saying that however the price is less than inviting. Once again you're paying over £100 for these heroes and it's as if Games Workshop don't want you to even bother with the range. I'm fairly sure these could have been made as a set of plastic blister packs or even as a full on boxed set in plastic with maybe Thorin and Bilbo as the Finecast additions to the line.
The way things are going we're going to have people just looking the other way at every turn. If someone wants a collectable piece then they can go to Weta Workshop and plenty of other outlets for their miniatures (pre-painted I may add). I hate what they're doing to The Hobbit franchise and it saddens me to see the line going the way it is.
As someone trying to get people back into the hobby it's hard to even begin to recommend The Hobbit as their entry point.
Stick to your Lord of the Rings from Ebay folks.
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The miniatures look good, but the paint jobs look like cheap pre-painted rubbish.
That’s what jumped out to me too. GW have had a tendency to veer between presenting aspirational paintjobs that make the minis look fantastic but few people could ever do themselves, to ones which look good using only basic techniques that anyone could try and replicate. Since they relaunched the paints they’ve been very firmly in the latter mode but these are a few steps too far in that direction. They do the minis no favours at all. They look like they got rushed out to hit a deadline.
Yeah, GW’s treatment of their Hobbit/LOTR range has been an embarrassment, especially since the first wave hit for An Unexpected Journey….
Took the words out of my mouth. haha
I saw the price and I feel cheated. :'(
They look better than some of the recent releases for the range, and knock spots of the WHFB dwarves imho, but not a ton worth a goodness.
GW can take the piss if they want, but they ain’t getting any of mine.
Over all sculpts of those are not bad, just not in par with creations of the Perry brothers.
Overpriced beyond all reason. I despair for Middle-earth.
There are dark times indeed for Tolkien fans that play Hobbit.
Painting is not doing these any favours, but I cannot see them making it to my collection – GW’s finecast only approach for 90% of hobbit releases simple kills possibility of me getting into it. Real shame as some one piece plastics and characters in anything other than fine cast (Alright not mantic’s restic) I would be inclined to collect to do a campaign play through
Also demonstrates that when it comes to film/characterful non-heroic models GW has a weakness in their sculpting.
Well, this doesn’t bode well for Dain or the Iron Hill Dwarves being in plastic like the Grim Hammers. This does look very much like a set of ‘contractual’ releases judging by the pricing, fact their are in Finecast and especially the effort that was put into the painting. LotR is still a great ruleset for the type of skirmish game it is and I don’t plan to stop playing, but these won’t find a way into my collection. Such as shame to see the game go out on such a low ebb, but as many have pointed out there… Read more »
Personally I think the sculpts are generally great, however the PRICE is simply ridiculous. This could have been GREAT, and at half the price I would have bought the literally whole range with numerous duplications like I did with the LOTR range. I would have liked to have got my God Son started as well, but can you imagine any sane parents face when they see £118 for a box of essentially little plastic figures which then need more money spent on glue and paint, with no rules and no enemy to fight! I understand the lack of interest from… Read more »
Well they arent trying to be discreet about the fact they think their customers are idiots .. its right there in the pricing and the recent base swap stunt for 40k. How they can still keep a customer base is astounding.
But they are doing a deal of all the packs (14 models) for a mere £118, a saving of… … … nothing!
£9 for one Hobbit, so glad I left the GW hobby a few years ago.
did you know that they are 3d prints of the actual actors, just scaled down?
I said this before and it seems to still stick. GW have invested way too much into the Tolkien movie line and the return has been low par. Ever since the first movie ended the benefits and gains have steadily declined. I myself have yet to see a single person play LOTR after a few months of the first movie hit theaters. The gains were solely attached to the movie releases and then they tank in sales afterwords. I don’t blame them for the quality of the models, quality of the painting or even the high price. A company as… Read more »
I loved the lord of the rings game and after a break of about 5 years from the hobby I got back in to WHFB and was looking forward to getting in to the hobbit when it came out. When it hit the website I was greeted by a box of 4 one piece fine cast minis for £40 and all my willingness to look past stupidly high prices evaporated. Around this time I decided that a return to the hobby was not going to be a return to GW. Glad I only spent £160 on my WHFB army before… Read more »
I really like the sculpts. I’m cool with the painting, it’s better than my own. However, the Oliphaunt in the room is the crazy pricing.
If it was cheaper, I’d have every model in the range. I say that as I have a lot of the original LotRs miniatures.
I really like the sculpts. I’m cool with the painting, it’s better than my own. However, the Oliphaunt in the room is the crazy pricing.
If they where a reasonable price, like the old boxed sets, I’d have every model in the range. I say that as I have a lot of the original LotRs miniatures.
Totally agree, at a reasonable price I would have bought them too.
I don’t buy the plastic tooling V Failcast cost argument, GW will easily cover costs with their world-wide sales, and if the did do rank and file plastics, they would sell 10x as many so gamers could build armies with them to BATTLE with the 5 Armies and not just skirmish with a dozen models.
Seriously what is wrong with GW?
i really want these… but at £9 a fig i’m seriously struggling to argue for them
You can still find the ‘limited edition’ escape from goblin town at retailers I think, which is £70 or so, contains models for all of these, some goblins and scenery as well.
So why do they think anyone would pay £118 just for these?
Anyone else gets the feeling that GW is simply fulfilling their contractual obligations, and the whole game will be dropped as soon as the license expires?
And another thing: dear designers at Weta Workshop, what’s with all the ridiculous flails? Sauron and the Witch King in LotR, Azog and now poor Bombur… Pull yourself together dammit! 🙂