howdy,

just got hold of the Pelannor Fields boxed set and a couple of extra tomes...

doing my research perhaps a bit belatedly, but now understand there's quite some scale-creep within the ranges.

In the boxed set, as you all know here I guess, we go from the Rohan figs<Morannon<Dunharrow - and the latter might as well be a different scale!

So ... I've googly'd but am not finding much in the way of size comparison info between older and newer figures / LoTR vs Hobbit etc, etc. ...

any pointers / pics that can be posted in this thread?

I'm probably going to get some Far Harad figures (the plastic inf and cav), and other sets from that area - can any one advise as to how they compare in in size to other figures in the ranges?

e.g. the Dunlenders (warriors and wildmen), Ruffians, Corsairs ...

all advise and info much appreciated.

** - also - in terms of what forum threads and pics I can find, there does seem to be a consensus that the metals are that bit bigger than the plastics in general - confirmation / pics etc much appreciated again.

I guess it's hard to generalise particularly with the plastics.

For example do the later Hobbit plastics match the metals overall or ... ?


I'm beginning to wish I'd just stuck with the metals (as my main aim, in the short term at least, is to be working up relatively small battle companies).
The packs of 3 inf / command and 2 cav. would have been ideal building blocks it seems to me...

I don't have any pictures for you myself, but I will say that you are correct about the size variations in the miniatures.

Generally speaking, the first wave of plastics (last alliance box, goblins, fellowship) are the near 25mm ones. The plastics got larger over time to the extent that you see in the rangers of middle earth and the warriors of the dead box. Why those boxes got larger, I don't know. Other stuff that also went from metal to plastic (like Easterlings, orcs and Dol Amroth knights) didn't share that fate. So, there doesn't seem to be much of a rhyme or reason to it. It could be something internal with GW, like a change in the modeling design team that caused a shift toward Warhammer scale humans.

The metals are bigger than the plastics, but there is also some difference between them in scale. Things like the Easterling and Haradrim captains and they are smaller than the Axemen of Lossarnach and Arathorn for instance. Why this is, again, I can't say for sure.

As for the hobbit plastics, they seem to be more akin to the smaller GW plastics while the resin and Forge world are more like the metals in scale. I am not real familiar with Haradrim or Corsairs so I can't say how they stack up to other things. I can say that the metal armies (khand, Arnor, Far Harad, Dunland) are all of a size with the other members of their same army. I've never found a discrepancy like there is between armies with long, spaces out releases like Minis Tirith.

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

thanks very much for reply Wan Shi Tong.

I do have to wonder how a company with the profile and resources of GW, and with an IP like Middle-earth, can produce such inconsistent scaling.

You'd think it would be a set-in-stone priority at the outset.

I appreciate that plastics involve a different design process (I.E. scaled down from masters for production) - but even so, can't see why things couldn't be standardised regardless.

I've just had a box of the Easterling Kataphracts.

horses seem the same size as the orignal rohan figures - but riders that bit bigger.
Not hugely so (not dunharrow size), but enough to be noticeable (although I accept many wouldn't in this case - or consider it a problem anyway).

I'm going to post a series of photos in this thread once I've got everything in. Might be of use generally.

That probably would be helpful in the future Harrocks. Just be mindful that the site's upload capacity has been reached and that pictures need to be hosted somewhere that permits their sharing (like imgur) and then they can be spliced into a post with the URL in the full post editor.

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