Monday, January 7, 2013

New Giant Eagles

So finally I have found some good to come out of "The Hobbit". After me putting up with a month of movie overhype living here in the "Middle of Middle Earth", Games Workshop delivers the goods.

A new plastic kit has been released featuring two plastic Giant Eagles. This is a great option for both High Elves and Wood Elves and pretty much crowns the High Elves as the first fully plastic force.



The models are very nice and the two comprise a 16 piece plastic kit. Hard to get real fix on size but given the base is a large (60mm) flying stand, it seems the wing span is 7-8". This probably justifies the price point of $100 for the kit.

If you want further variety - and which High Elf player isn't going to have 4 eagles - then you can buy the Finecast special character.


This bad boy is a six piece Finecast kit and comes in at a whopping $80 here in New Zealand. It is a very nice and characterful model but the price point is certainly pushing the envelope.

They are currently on Advance Order at Games Workshop or usual stockists/webstores.


8 comments:

  1. I thought Empire was fully plastic? Anyway, funny you should take that view of the Hobbit, for me I think the complete opposite - that this is the only good stuff GW have put out in the past year. The goblins were great sculpts, very detailed for such small figures, as were the dwarfs. Quite liked the orcs too. These new eagles are very nice, the plastic ones are almost good value (it's all relative when it's GW pricing). Even the fell wargs are pretty good to me, I would use them as dire wolves in my VC army. In contrast, the SM DA releases have been dire, as were the WOC and the CSM before them. The Hobbit is king!

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  2. Pricing is always going to be an interesting point of difference between our international readers.

    UK readers should see things as relatively well priced. The median salary and wage income in the UK is what, 499 quid? This may be a bit higher now, I just did a quick google on my phone while riding the train. These eagles come in at 30 quid, meaning that you're looking at 6% of the gross median income.

    In NZ the median gross wage for salary and wage earners is 806 per week. Coming in at 100 dollars for the eagle, it is more than double the UK equivalent at a whopping 12.4%.

    As a general trend based on this, I would expect a more negative reaction towards pricing from New Zealanders (and other nations fucked by GW setting their prices relative to the UK on 20 year old exchange rates) than I would from countries that have the less pointy end of the stick.

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  3. They're not bad - but as a High Elf I prefer the Warmaster Great Eagles. Three to a pack for $27 + postage. Models are small but for me they are good enough, mind you I would consider getting one of these to use as a character mount depending on what any new book throws our way.

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    Replies
    1. Like flying eagle cavalry for dwarfs per chance?

      - Adam Richards

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  4. Ha ha, beat me too it Pete! Warmaster eagles must be tiny?! I’ve got two Gamezone ones currently (ok models) massive gaps that needed greenstuffing but might be tempted to pick up a couple of these plastic ones as they look great (depending on scale) and that would give me the 4.

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  5. I hope to grab these at some point, though I wont be paying NZ rip off prices. I'll source from abroad, far cheaper!

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    Replies
    1. Oooh can you drop us a line when you find a cheap source?

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