Outside LOTRO: Mithril Games Workshops Miniatures

Most of us were introduced to Tolkien’s world before The Lord of the Rings Online came out in some fashion.  Some of us through the books, others through the animated movies, and others through the live-action movies.  Nevertheless, somehow, someway we all traveled to Middle Earth and were so captivated that we have found a home living in the world through LOTRO.

However, we cannot always spend our time logged into the world that was forged by Tolkien and brought to life by Turbines and our imaginations.  Sometimes computers crash, company calls, or we find ourselves wanting to do something else other than log into a computer and sit there for a while.  Maybe we’d rather do something outside, or spend some time face-to-face with a friend, but we still have that hankering to spend some time in The Prancing Pony or walking through the Breefields.

So begins this series of posts where each week I will highlight some form of Lord of the Rings that can be experienced outside of LOTRO.  Now of course I am not putting these out there as a replacement for LOTRO, but instead a supplement that can be used to take a break, spend some time face-to-face with the family or friends, and basically unplug from the game and do something different.

My first post is going to be about miniatures.  For those who might not be sure exactly what a miniature figure is, they can be defined as:

…small-scale representation of a historical or mythological entity used in miniature wargames, role-playing games, and dioramas. Miniature figures are commonly manufactured from metal, plastic or paper and are used to augment the visual aspects of the game, and track position, facing, andline of sight of actors within the game. Miniatures are typically painted, and are often artfully sculpted and are collectible in their own right. (Miniature figure (gaming), 2009)

I’ve been thinking about starting to paint miniatures for several months now, and I’ve been searching for a theme on which to base the miniatures around.  I’ve always thought it would be neat to have a huge diorama of figures that I’ve painted displayed in my house.  Something that I’ve crafted with my hands and put together myself.  What better theme is there than that of Middle-Earth?

For Lord of the Rings fans, from my investigation there seems to be two companies that manufacture minatures, Mithril and Games Workshops.  Mithril appears to have licenses to the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit book licensing, while Games Workshops appears (according to Wikipedia, so take that for what it’s worth) to have the rights to produce a skirmish wargame based on the films, as well as the books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Mithril:

Mithril was founded in 1987 with the purpose of creating miniatures inspired by Middle-earth and all other topics contained in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and they have a variety of different categories that can be purchased including limited editions, boxed sets, items that have become rare over time, as well as paint brushes and paints.  Their Introduction page contains all the information about where they are located, and the availability of their different lines.  They were also the company that produced the 32mm scale metal figure of the Witch-king of Angmar.

What I like about Mithril is that they ring true with the purist in me.  Since these are licensed from the book you know that they are going to be in line with how Tolkien envisioned Middle-Earth.  They aren’t going to have Arwen taking Frodo to Rivendell (it was actually Glorfindel) and they will have characters such as Beorn and Smaug more readily available.  I also like that they do have some painting guides for general information and on specific pieces.  There are also galleries that have user painted figures that are very well done.

The downside for me is that I live in the US, while the company is based in Ireland.  Not that this is a bad thing specifically, but that the market for this line of miniatures doesn’t seem to have taken off very well here.  There are a couple of US distributers listed on the site, but one doesn’t have their website updated, and the other one leads to a website written in kanji.  Although I could still order the merchandise (and I just might to compare the two hands-on) it seems to me that it would be a bit more expensive since I would definitely have to pay for shipping overseas and the ratio of the Euro to the US dollar means I’d probably be paying more.  That aside, based off of my initial impressions this would be the company that I would go with; mostly because it’s based on the books, the time they’ve had to put out figures, and their overall range of items.

Games Workshop:

Games Workshop, the same company that makes Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, has two lines of miniatures for collecting and for playing their tabletop miniature wargame.  They first released their product in 2001 in order to coincide with the the first movie (The Fellowship of the Ring), and have released updates to both their rules and miniatures over the years that it has been in production.  There are two games that can be played with the miniatures from Games Workshop as well, which are the Strategy Battle Game (focused on the best-known skirmishes/events from the book and films such as the battle in Balin’s Tomb) and the War of the Ring (which focuses on mass battles, such as the Battle of the Pelennor Fields). Some of the models are sold in boxed sets (and are usually plastic) or “blister packs” containing usually one to three metal miniatures.

What I like about this series of miniatures is their availability.  I can order most of these directly from the website, from a comic book store, or from an online reseller like Amazon.com.  Also, I would say most of the pieces are generally cheaper, but those are usually just the basic armies or plastic pieces.  What I don’t like about this line is that some of figures are plastic, and not all of the descriptions tell out of what material the item is made.  To me plastic figures come off as a cheap and shoddy alternative form of construction, but since I don’t have them in my hands yet, I can’t say that for certain.  I do understand that this may be because that plastic is easier and less costly for the massive amount of armies or extra large figures; which makes it more manageable and attractive for a tabletop player.  I will say that if the plastic figures do paint as nicely as some of their display models do and maintain their colors as well as metal figurines, then I’m sold 100%.  However, the purist in me says wishes they were all metal. 

This is the series that I will probably end up purchasing the most of, due to their availability.  Even though Games Workshop is based in England, they seem to have a much larger market in the US than Mithril.  Also, the more I look at the site and their available miniature catalog the more I get excited about the collection.  Ultimately, I’ll see what the difference is between the two and blog my response here and hopefully I can mix the two together without it looking awkward, although I don’t expect it to be anytime soon.  I still have to put together what tools and paints I will need as well as find the time for doing it.  I’m looking forward to trying this hobby out and seeing if I can actually do a good job painting or if everything will come out looking like I dumped a bottle of paint on them.  Either way, at least the paint can come off, right?