For about two years now, I’ve been building up a small collection of original boxes for "The Lord of the Rings", which, in my opinion, remains Games Workshop’s best game.
I was just five years old when the system was released, but I still feel a strong sense of nostalgia whenever I see the old green, red and blue boxes and blister packs.
Inspired by the recent games from our "Quest of the Ringbearer" campaign, I’ve decided to open one of the boxes for the first time and paint the contents. Of course, they could just stay on the shelf forever, but I think the miniatures look much better in a display cabinet!
Just look at this wonderful box design. A great still from the movie, wonderful earthy colours and just an overall great presentation.
On the back, we see another magnificent image, featuring some truly beautiful scenery that used to appear on almost all White Dwarf articles and the boxes back then. This combination of a relatively simple grass mat, rocks and bushes is still very lovely to look at today and has aged very well.
Wonderful!
The box wasn’t sealed anymore, so I couldn’t breathe in the air from 2001, but everything’s still in brilliant condition.
We’ve got the plastic box containing the figures and a small promotional booklet.
Let’s start with the little booklet:
I think it’s simply brilliant! It’s really beautifully presented again, with the map of Middle Earth in the background, the wonderfully painted figures and the lovely green boxes… It really makes you want to buy more immediately.
What’s quite interesting, though probably already known to most people:
The "plastic" figures pictured here are actually the metal prototypes that were presumably used to get the models approved by New Line Cinema or simply to develop a concept for the box sets.
I find it really fascinating that these prototypes existed and that they were used on the back of all the boxes and in Games Workshop’s promotional material, in fact almost exclusively. The proportions, differ quite significantly in some cases from the actual plastic figures, and some details look nicer and sharper.
I’d give a lot for a few of these figures! As well as these two sets for the Fellowship, they also appeared on many other boxes: the Warriors of Minas Tirith, Uruk-hai Warriors or Warriors of Rohan, for example, to name but a few. But perhaps we’ll come across a few more as this series progresses.
Be that as it may, it’s a brilliant little booklet that I wouldn’t want to be without in my collection, even if it is just a nice commercial.
But let’s move on to the miniatures themselves:
Inside the box we find the three companions Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, as well as Boromir, who has been mortally wounded by arrows.
On the evil side, there is a very attractive model of Lurtz, leader of the Uruk-hai scouts, armed with bow, three Uruk-hai scouts with swords and shields, and two more Uruk-hai, each carrying one of the hobbits, Merry and Pippin.
The latter two models are probably my favourites from the whole set, simply fantastic sculpts.
The figures in this box were sculpted by Alan Perry, Michael Perry and Brian Nelson, by the way.
What struck me straight away: Aragorn isn’t wearing an elven cloak!
I’m not entirely sure why not, and that’s probably my only criticism of this set. I find the model itself only okay, and then there’s the missing cloak… If my analogue sculpting skills were a bit better, I could probably sculpt the cloak myself, but I am not sure I can do it to be honest.
But the rest is fantastic: Gimli swinging his axe in a very dynamic pose, Legolas in his classic pose as he fires an arrow, and our heroic Boromir, struck down by arrows, kneeling on the forest ground. The arrows are separate, as is his broken horn! What a lovely detail.
On the heartless, Hobbit-hunting site, which, according to film lore, is only a few months old at this point, we have a fantastic selection of figures with absolutely no flaws.
Three Uruk-hai scouts with swords in very dynamic poses that go perfectly with the box’s cover image, the two Uruk-hai figures with Merry and Pippin mentioned earlier (also incredibly dynamic figures with superb folds, and the Hobbits are sooo well sculpted), and Lurtz with a bow, just as he’s about to draw a final arrow from his quiver to deliver the fatal shot to Boromir.
Brilliant figures, and I can’t wait to paint them.
There’s really nothing more I can say! It’s a great feeling to open up these old boxes and marvel at the beautiful miniatures.
I still believe that the miniature design back then with The Lord of the Rings was far ahead of its time, and for me it remains the benchmark for a good tabletop miniature to this day.
I hope you enjoyed this little unboxing, there are more to come!
All the best
Lucas
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