Hi guys,
As the title says, I was wondering what made you guys join the hobby. This has probably been done before but I'll start it again.
I'll start:
From Christmas, I began a phase where I loved anything lotr so I looked around on the Internet for thing lotr based eg, replica sword (not happening says my mum ), board games, computer games and the like. But then I came across a advert on a website for gondor soldiers (I think) so I looked at it and then the next day went to my local gw store and bought escape from goblin town and I have loved the hobby ever since. I am now hoping to start a lothlorien/mirkwood army.
So there's my story, what did you think and please share your own.
Sorry for the lengthy post.
Gandalf

My friend got the old rotk book from his school fair

He and his twin read it (my nextdoor neighbours) and showed it to me

So we went down to the local GW and each painted a model of the fellowship and then gamed with them while our sisters and mums went shopping

Loved it ever since

Was not all that long ago, 6 months or something like that

First got some Rohan warriors, gamed with them at gw an realised that they weren't over good

So I got some high elves (now I have 100+ of them), although I am still trying to keep a small Rohan contingent going

Also started grey company a few weeks ago and they are in WIP at the moment

LordElrond

Nice story lord elrond, thanks for sharing

I remember I started in June/July 2008. Although I remember also getting the first issue for the BGIME with the goblins (mum said no to the next issue they were elves too...) But the real start was in 2008. My local shopping centre had a large extension done and one day after school my dad, brother and I had a look at the new additions. There happened to also be a new Games Workshop opened. I had a look and LOTR, LOTR everywhere. I started to save to get paints and Last Alliance set but then my dad was awesome enough to buy me the Mines of Moria set and even the hobby starter set because of my good school report. My mum flipped at my dad spending over $200 (on toys, she said) of course and started calling me a child because I was playing with toys (In some sense she has a point)
And yeah there you have it.

Although that Games Workshop closed in 2011 and they should probably have some sort of restrictions when hiring people, I swear one guy you could hear in the food court screaming ROLL A 6 AND THE SPACE MARINE SLICES THE ORC AND DECAPITATES IT AND THEN STICKS HIS HEAD ON A PIKE FOR THE OTHERS TO SEE THEN STOMPS ON HIS BODY AND CREATES A MESSY RED PUDDLE, etc, etc (and this was a very busy and large and shopping centre so you had to really be screaming) Also some other workers looked like if you didn't buy they'd drop you. Of course they had some normal employees and and they were some of the nicest people I've ever met
Also I feel you on the whole mum said I can't have a sword thing I really wanted a master sword
Yeah I definitely need to condense this...

Well, I'd just watched LoTR for the first time and absoloutly adored the films so a few weeks later we were on holiday somewhere (I can't remember where) when I looked around a book shop that stocked GW LoTR.

The very friendly owner of the shop saw me looking at the LoTR shelf and came over to give me a leaflet We got into a conversation about LoTR and his passion and enthusiasm won me over... I came back with a MoM box set and the starter paints set (and a complimentary pot o' skull white)

...and now I have over 200 models, over 50 paints and counting

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'Though my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior'
-John Newton

Thanks for posting Sid and imladris. Great stories.
Imladris, I think I can hear the screaming man now...
Sid, 200 models, that's a few.
Keep on posting guys

Watching the special extended blu ray triology like 100 times. I used to be a warhammer 40k/fantasy player when i was realy young anyway. I just got into it i guess

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You would of had me crawling on all fours like a BEAST!

I got into back when I lived in France, I got into in 2004 just after the rotk set came out, I had like 3 of my best friends all got into it and one of them let me paint some models for him and I was hooked and broke a deal with my mum to have 25euros a month pocket money and I still own my first models basically same paint job as first time the metal modor uruk hai
eventually it got out of hand when I moved to england and started receiving EMA for just attending college bought tons on ebay and now I have hundreds of models.

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http://grungehog.blogspot.co.uk/

Been in it right from the start since the original fellowship release. Darned hobby has cost me several thousand pounds over the years. but then I do have every piece of printed hobby text and thousands of lotr minis to show for it.

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You don't have to be great to start. But you do have to start to be great.

I got back into the hobby after wandering around town and finding a little independent store selling cheap paints and discounted warzone miniatures. A few months later I saw a tv advert for BGiME and was totally sold on the plastic elves.

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My website
@opponenttheory on instagram

Near the end of 2005 I coworker had been noticing my Orthanc background on my laptop and that I was listening to the soundtracks and asked if I did any wargamming. I let him know I had many, many years ago but hadn't touched the hobby in prob 15 years. After a few chats he loaned me the mini rule book and then invited me to our LGS where he let me take control of a couple hundred points of his Elves in a 500 point game. I was hooked.

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Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

It was the summer of 2004 or 5, I was still into Toybiz LotR figures when on a day out in Blackpool, I stumbled past a GW which on its display, they had a Ringwraith on Fell Beast and a Mumak. I was immediately enthralled. Went in playtested, used Mordor Orcs & a Cave Troll against store guy's WoMT. Liked itm found out there was a GW closer to home. Recieved the Mordor Orcs paintset which contained 12 Orcs, a brush and enough paints (RRP £12) as a gift. Since then, I've expanded.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

I played a WWI game at a tank museum (that place is amazing, they've got pretty much every tank from WWI and WWII with a few others) and had a great time. I then started looking into wargames, with the hope that I could find a LotR one, but I kinda gave up and started playing with the little Pirate ships that you can put together and stuff, it was a great game. I also sated my LotR appetite with the LotR TCG. Fast forward to 2 and half years ago and I played a game of LotR with some guys in the NC gaming group and I had a lot of fun, and one of the guys gave me a BUNCH of minis. After that, my mom got me a good selection of minis, which took me about 6 months to actually get painted. Then I got the MoM set and started playing with some friends.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

Started off with Fantasy, eventually a little 40k here and there and somewhere along the line ended up with some LotR for painting. Only when the return of the King book came out did I try it and it was a bad way to try - store game where the good side was horribly outnumbered (with almost as many monsters as we had models!) and Gandalf the Grey died, then reappeared 4ft away as Gandalf the White, but got squished when one of the store guys randomly added a Mumak to the field. On his head...

Anyway, didn't really try again until just before The One Rulebook and didn't see the point in buying it when it cam out. Eventually got the mini book from MoM, but never really had the opponents. Loved every second of WotR though, but nobody seems to play it

Always struggled with SBG because I like armies a little more than warbands and even warbands need to be more than I have digits - problem being, 500pt+ games slow down a bit too much for me (not so much now) and 750pt+ i think you may as well play WotR because it's too slow. I know almost everyone will disagree, but oh well, lol

Thanks for sharing everyone, great stories
Keep them coming

I was in love with LotR since I read it in 2001 on a plane trip to England (I live in Australia). I made myself read the books before seeing the movie and I was hooked.

After seeing the Two Towers with a friend in the cinema, we dropped into the local GW (I had dabbled with bretonians and skaven in the past - 20 clanrats was my biggest project up until then) and had a look at the newest releases for SBG. He was in love with Rohan where my heart belonged to Gondor. Ever since seeing the splendid Numenorians at the battle of Dagorland, I belonged to the White Tree and the Seabird's wings.

My first models were Isildur and some Numenorian spearmen. We didn't have sand when we painted them, so all my models were based by putting glue on the base then dunking them into static grass.

Since then, my collection has been steadily growing. I now have a sizeable Gondor force and am currently working on models representing my friends to use on the tabletop.

Seeing the game in the Games Shop (small GW outlet) After finishing the book a third time

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'You would die before your stroke fell!' ~Legolas

Check out my WIP!

I stumbled upon an Independent Stockist back in 2005, I left with Mines of Moria and when I finished painting them (horrible!) I bought the Muster of Rohan, which included a lot of models for a cheaper price.

If only they released such sets again, aah good memories.

Then I quit playing and painting, until recently a little time before The Hobbit film came out I started again, making terrainboards and such and finally starting to paint the unfinished models.

Wow great stories, well i began back in the 1980s with MERP and the orginal Citadel minatures.

played alot of different game systems over the years, had kids who played for while, now grown up. Still play against a few friends, but mainly paint (a couple of hours every night, find its a good stress relief from the pressures of work)

Started collecting LOTR again with the GW release of FOTR, like a few above have spent alot of money since then. I have several hundred painted figures, even more unpainted. only need a handful to complete the collection. Also have every publication GW have made for LOTR, takes up a whole shelf.

Still mad and passionate about this hobby and was so pleased when The Hobbit was annonced as of course this means more figures for the collection.

Great idea this thread.!

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Harfoots-The first of the Hobbit people to cross over the Misty Mountains and enter Eriador.

I loved LOTR books but I was a 40k fan.
When I went to uni alot of my mates turned LOTRs. They spent 6months trying to convince me then a very good mate of mine who had a shop said he would do me a super discount on khand and any good army I picked to start me off.
So with 50% off khand and 30% off Dol Amroth I began. Quickly to discover the system is amazing and the style really fits my view of middle earth