Many Mithril Pages @ Faerylands

Well, spontanous there comes the following thing into my mind: There are the miniatures in the foreground, aren´t they.
What about a gallery of painted examples of all fellowship releases?
Need more time to think about . . .

Huuooommm ... not that fast please, as I have to follow all this ... rhuoomm ... so let me try ...

I also learned today about the gap between MS540 (Arvedui) and MS551 (Haldir) ... hoom ... by the way, Master Gildor, both figures are ready for shipment ... rhuoomm ...
So these two gaps exactly meets the strategy of The Company for M-series we witnessed within in the last years (that means no more single releases but 'only' complete series ...
rhuoooommmm ... some finished series there are, as far as I know ... huoom ...
so let's hope that The Company remembers that there have been M-releases in the past ... hom.

Huooomrhuoommm ... as for keeping record about Gold-Fellowship releases I think you're right, Master Gildor ... huuoommm ... concerning the 'free figures' I started a query some weeks ago on the Gold-Board ... huoommm ... what I've seen so far is that about 12 or 14 people read the thread, but unfortunately not Master O'Brian ... huoommm ... still there's no answer to it .. but that doesn't matter ... huom ... as I feel myself in a position for quite a while (some of you call it years) trying to remind Mithril of these matters ... huoommm ... some of you might remember the year without a Christmas Figure, for example ... huooomm ... then I tried to ask about another 'free Figure' for the MS releases (that was Isildur, lately) .... gruuooommm ... all I did was asking The Company politely about these matters ... huoommm ... and I always pointed out that I think it is better not to have those extra figures (we also have to think of Chris' workload) if instead of that the production of the regular M-series could be improved ... rhuuooommm ...
that's what I think .... huommmrhuoomhom

I have indeed confirmation M520-529 an M541-550 are reserved for two upcoming ranges (helm's deep related)

Actually I sent my "GF chronology" to Michael who found it excellent and quite amazing. He will distribute it on twitter and other places so that people can check the GF details since its beginning.
He will also update and correct his mistakes as to the releases chronology.

I have no further info on any bonus info but indeed as Theobald and Barliman say, it would be better to have regular M ...
Not to mention that having TOO few regular M... necessarily increases the prices of those M... (they do not generate demand, still they offer batches intended for a regular release in a market with too low demand.. so the price must be higher to cover the fees of production... and income...  vicious circle... once again) low demande generates careful offer and it is safer for mithril to release MS figurine than regular M... which lately are more or less commercial disasters... and do not generate enough income...

... and this has been posted in the proper section too master Gavin (though I'd prefer this kind of info Not to appear on the prancing pony... as I have explained before, the pony is a public place for all those people who are members of the MMP but also for unregistered anonymous visitors. Everybody can see what is posted on the Pony... this is not the case for the marketplace... which is a "member-only restricted area"... Though I am willing to spread as many informations to serious collectors, members of our dear community, I am still afraid of "orcs" or other people who will retrieve this information without being a MMP registered member... in order to buy "batches" of this sale, to sell them back months later at 4 times their price...  I suppose there is no need to mention who does that , almost all of us know whom I am talking about

Wow! It has been a long time since I have been here.

How is everyone? I see new faces here too.

Gildor Inglorion wrote:

Having TOO few regular M... necessarily increases the prices of those M... (they do not generate demand, still they offer batches intended for a regular release in a market with too low demand.. so the price must be higher to cover the fees of production... and income...  vicious circle... once again) low demand generates careful offer and it is safer for mithril to release MS figurine than regular M... which lately are more or less commercial disasters... and do not generate enough income...

You do surprise me! "They do not generate demand"? It's advertising, economical pricing, and desirability that increase demand. If the M range figures were priced at a more apealing level then they'd sell more. For instance, I've only bought two of each of the first "Helm's Deep" release, but would have happily bought many more if they weren't so damned expensive! And you won't be able to convince me that each individual M figure doesn't sell considerably better than an MS release.

If they are indeed "commercial disasters" that has more to do with incompetent marketing than desirability or demand.

as an example of such "failures".... Mumak.... first release of mithril to be casted in a limited number of 1000.... years ago

Mithril still has them on their catalog if I remember well, that means that this was a total failure...
(no comment on the aspect of the mumak ... )

Gildor Inglorion wrote:

well see my point master innkeeper.
when there are too many rarities in a range, the range itself tends to become a rarity... not only in terms of prestige and collection but in terms of market and public availability...

I can't agree more with you, Master Gildor. It's not reasonable that Mithril does not offer unlimited ranges of most common races and character (for Eru's sake, how many mounted Rohirrim do they have in their regular (no GF) catalogue?).

Tolkien fans want a nice bunch of Mordor Orcs (discontinued), some riders of Rohan (two discontinued series) and famous characters (but not 1000000 versions of the very same character such Gandalf on foot ad infinitum).

What I personally miss is a consistent classic series with more common troop types currently OOP (I want an Angmar Army!). Things like generic Orcs and then Orcish shields blister (such Gondor provincial shields blister) would be most appreciated for sure.

Don't we all. If wishes were horses etc...

On the other hand... now I clearly see another problem I had totally forgotten..

Being myself lucky enough to have a complete collection of all Mithril released products, when i see people supporting the ideas for orcs, (mounted or not) trolls or even personnalities seen many times in the range, I tend to forget that OLD mithril references are no more available except through "second hand" offers on ebay or other ways... but not "unlimited"... And there are people who began collecting or simply buying mithril on a thematic basis (for armies or rpg) who do not have all the old references...

I can see now how someone who has only access to regular, currently available mithril may want to have "once again" orcs, trolls, etc... but when you objectively look at the full range since M1, and when you have all of them.. you can also be exasperated to see repetitions over repetitions... because when, for example, it comes to orcs... and that you have ALL orcs since M1, including the unreleased warbands.... you feel as if you were in Mordor already, surrounded by hundreds of orcs....

that's a point of view I had not taken into account but the problem then, rather than release still new references of already existing ones, would be to FINALLY create new Mithril Classics of old figurines that DO exist and that people would like... (for example, orc riders, only one exists in MC, the other one should also be in the MC range)

this way would be satisfying for both the casual buyer and the collector who has them already and prefers "exclusive" new content over "repetitive" content...

to answer your remark Gavin, you are right, websites are cool, but when it comes to merchandise, people are like St.Thomas, as "first-time buyer" they wanna see concrete.... Ebusiness and Esaling is good for "regular" customers, not for new ones

when I want a new washing machine, a new flat TV... I MAY order online on e-stores but FIRST I go to physical shops to have an idea of the product "by myself" beforehand...

that's why eBusiness is great for those who are already mithril customers... and those last years prove that it works perfectly for Mithril... for regular customers... But not at all for newcomers... no matter how strong is your dedication to "verbally" or "virtually" promote their products...

Chris knows about that.... and volunteered to go to "meetings" like the Salute Event, in different European country like France. but the politics at Mithril/Prince August said otherwise and thought it to be "too expansive" to run such events... and so Lars did not accept Chris proposition...
Such behavior contributes to Mithril lack/diminution of "generated demand"...

Now unless there's a millionaire out there willing to take part in mithril ownership, provided there are parts of the society to be bought from Lars Edman, and who would take my considerations (and also Theobald considerations, and Chris considerations) into account, I fear nothing will change...

At a time I thought Mithril lacked ideas and wanted our help and our suggestions to solve the problem. I think both Theobald and myself sent loads of suggestions to him... which were discarded or overlooked without being even taken seriously into consideration...

One of the only BIG project that was used as promotion was the Unexpected Party vignette which, sorry to say, except from being a masterpiece, masterwork and a GREAT thing, did not reach outside the "community of mithril regular customers"... I would have thought about other kinds of promotions OUTSIDE the "mithril sphere of influence"... but where has there been any promotion for this great scene outside of Mithril communication networks (including twitter and facebook maybe but for whose members are once again members of the community)

there was no mention of the MX535 release on Prince August France at all (their site) and not a single retailer in France was aware of this event

Last time I saw a REAL promotion campaign from Mithril, it was for Salute Event 2007 (the Salute Event 2008 with the Orc Rider did not have the focus on Mithril like 2007 had) and before that, the Witch-King figurine realised for Lord of The Rings Online Collector Edition. THESE were promotional campaigns

I know I may feel upset, but with all the promotional work I do for Mithril and all the suggestions I submit, I think I can... i dedicated this entire website originally as a HUGE promotion for Mithril... That's my contribution to the community, as I don't have money and could not do any other things like MX alas
...and though I know "they" all like it (and Chris has found very good ways to let me know he was very grateful for this work...)  they still discard all the ideas I suggest them...  which does not surprise me a lot considering they discard ideas submitted by C.Tubb himself at times (thankfully they did not discard his idea about the new primer! thanks Eru! )

I agree with Arthadan above about the orcs and armies in general. There should be enough different miniatures available at any given time to build the army that you want. Waiting five years between orc releases has probably driven many potential army builders to other companies. They could sell shield packs using existing shields without having to get permission from TE. I would buy several right now.

As usual, Master Gildor, you make a lot of very good points. As I said only a few posts ago, I never did understand the deletion of earlier ranges of Mithril figures.

Well, my RPG.net of the Helm's Deep series review has been written and sumitted.
Should be up next Monday or Tuesday
It included an overview of the range, some background and links to Mithril's site.