Ok! So, you can see my silly rant in the 'Plastic Fellbeast on the horizon-Now with Sneak Peeks!!' forum on page 2, but for now I would like to collect everyone's opinions on what thay think about GW and their constant releases of new models and model types.

In my opinion, GW has gone overboard alittle in terms of the creation and release of LotR miniatures. Now for example, Harad and Mordor have an endless list of Heroes and Warriors at it's disposable giving almost endless possibilities to an evil general. - The Fallen Realms have never looked better!

Yet, there a whole bunch of unfinished and incomplete lists shown in LoME with large gaps of miniatures left with no profiles, let alone a miniature to represent it! You need only look as far as Dol Guldur to find a list with a large portions of models completely untouched!

But then again it's not all bad... More models means more interest and in turn, more gamers and a better outcome for everyone but it's still alittle overwhelming. Kudos to GW for coming out with minis in the first place.

P.S - WHEN ARE HIGH ELF CAVALRY GOING TO BE OFFICIALLY RELEASED!!! ARGH!

I can see your point but really, this is nothing new. Many people have been of the opinion that GW went too far with LOTR eons ago, some looking back as early as Shadow and Flame, the first source book. Although I actually enjoyed seeing GW release their own interpretations of characters from the books at this time, there were a number of things that even I, a mere beardling of 12 or 13 (their target market I might add) noticed to be amiss. First we had some odd profiles for Balin (Durin's axe - WTF?) and Durburz but nothing really to complain about. Then there were the 'nemeses' of Gothmog and Suladan from SoG and BoPF, certainly not accurate portrayals but understandable given the comparison to BCotWT and the Prince. Then there were the SKoDA with their ridiculous, neck-breaking, skull-crushing helmets. Although the backlash from the SBG community was huge, the Swan Knights seemed to set a trend that only got worse. True, there have been some nice looking releases in recent years and true, the gradual shift into plastics (due in no small part to pressure from consumers) will inevitably reduce the overall quality of previous metal sculpts. However, there can be know doubt that GW's intention is no longer the creation a table-top game that portrays well the Middle Earth of the books or films and personally, I think it's been like that for some time.

On the point about LOME profiles, LOME is now considerably out of date and should be recognised as such. In its development GW obviously wanted to look as far ahead into new releases as possible so as to prevent the book from becoming obsolete as soon as it was brought out. However, many of their 'predictions' have evidently proved wrong as many expected profiles from LOME have been replaced with different ones or ignored entirely. That's not to say that models like High Elf Cavalry wont arrive eventually but don't rely too much on LOME as a forcast model for future releases.

Unfortunately, you'll be waiting a very long time for those High Elf cavalry models. Right after War o the Ring was released GW released a report saying they will only be making models to fill in what's left for War of the Ring, nothing more. While models like the upcoming Fellbeast and Eomer sort of deny that claim, it's true. For the most part, all models that have been released since WotR have been for that game and have not even been mentioned by Legions of Middle-earth.

It's almost sad, however they could be doing so much more. They have licenses for the Unfinished Tales (or else how could they have gotten Khamul in their game, since that's the only place he's mentioned), so why not make Alatar and Pallando (and not their corny names from WotR)? How about Men of Dale or the Beornings (both mentioned in the trilogy)? Yes, The Hobbit is due for release in a few years, but that doesn't stop GW from re-doing their Empire and Space Marine armies (and models) every few years.

So, my point here is don't expect HE Cavalry or Chariots, or anything from LoME that wasn't in WotR, because you'll probably be in for a disappointment.

i can see your point but they are there to make money so we can't have too much of a go. The "War Wraiths" are nice but somethings like the goldenking, Amdur etc are not needed

That's personal preference there Jaws. You might like all the new War Wraiths, but personally I think they're uneeded and just take away from the Witch King and the nameless horror of the Ringwraiths. It would have been far better to just edit the stats of the 9. I don't mind Khamul as a bit of combat and thematic variety but all these extras are just rediculous IMO.
In contrast, I quite like Amdur. The Easterlings don't have that many named heroes in the first place and he suits their style well.

Personally I don't mind it too much. As long as new life is put into the game then it can only be a good thing right?

BTW, do we need 2 threads discussing similar things? Both this and the other Miniatures thread are discussing similar issues.

Cal585 wrote:

BTW, do we need 2 threads discussing similar things? Both this and the other Miniatures thread are discussing similar issues.

Actually, they're different topics. This thread is discussing whether or not we need all the GW invented stuff, while that other thread is about the quality of the sculpts.

Actually, the other thread starting discussing GW invented stuff as well with RC's post, though I know they started out differently.

Cal585 wrote:

Actually, the other thread starting discussing GW invented stuff as well with RC's post, though I know they started out differently.

True, but that thread is still subtly different from that one - this thread is discussing whether or not we need a GW invented mini and its stats, while the other thread discusses the quality of the final mini in terms of sculpting.

Fair enough.

Having read a bit more of the process going into the War Wraiths, they're not as bad as I first thought. Though I still don't like such strong individual personalities when these things are Sauron's servants and always doing his will. I think a lot of these specialities are uneeded, and it just makes me wish the Witch King, as the most powerful, was slightly more individualistic if they all get to be.

I'm not really so concerned about the LoME profiles missing. If anything the shift of focus to WotR has made me realise that it's a fun game. There's plenty of room to do your own thing, creaute your own rules etc. that we can do a better job of than waiting for GW. Sure models would be nice, but there are some with potential out there, as well as the posibility of conversions.