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So I was watching the Inspector Lewis series on Netflix, and I was struck by the fact that in 2 episodes so far there have been GW figures. One episode clearly had misc 40k and fantasy models, and another episode had a lot of LOTR models(and a lot of seriously awesome landscape). In both cases the models belonged to reclusive teenage kids(one of which was even 'saved' from his fantasy world).

Is GW notable enough in the UK that their models end up in more shows or was this just a fluke?

GW has a presence on most High (main) Streets in most large towns and cities. This means that while many will not know what it is most under 40's will have probably heard of Warhammer. Most over 40's probably will not know about it but may have seen those shops where the weird kids hang out.

That's not to say that GW appear allot elsewhere, you have noted the most prominent appearances I can think of. You might also see a newspaper article on them every few years but this is usually as a result of them being a publicly traded company. I did also see it featured in a story about using wargaming to engage children with Aultusm/Aspergers into social activities. I think that was on the One Show (a prime time magazine programme on the bbc).

Obviously this is far from the case in the Rest if the world.

No more notable than other historical miniatures (at least 6-7 pieces of coverage over different shows, ALL British). Old gentlemen fighting battles with napoleonic figures is a common one, for example - but with Historicals, maker isn't so much an important detail.

I think it was in the first or second season of "Big Bang Theory", they had a TSOALR T-shirt in the comic store.

Edit for after thought:

Made my heart a bit sad remembering the awesomeness that was that web comic.

darefsky wrote:I think it was in the first or second season of "Big Bang Theory", they had a TSOALR T-shirt in the comic store.

It's close, but not a TSOALR one. The 2 TSOALR shirts that they did said "FREEM!" in a spiky blast (The shirt you're thinking of I believe), and another that said "once you go 28mm you never go back baby!"

pk1 wrote:So I was watching the Inspector Lewis series on Netflix

There's been a murder, Lewis.

Fancy a pint?

Grimtuff wrote:

darefsky wrote:I think it was in the first or second season of "Big Bang Theory", they had a TSOALR T-shirt in the comic store.

It's close, but not a TSOALR one. The 2 TSOALR shirts that they did said "FREEM!" in a spiky blast (The shirt you're thinking of I believe), and another that said "once you go 28mm you never go back baby!"

I must have missed the 28mm one..... who wore it?

I can't remember the exact program, but it was a detective/murder mystery one (perhaps the one you mentioned) where they confront a teen in his hobby-shed and one of the investigators(?) gives some random advice above flanking with some Uruk Hai. That was a long time ago, though.

That and there was an old metal Khorne Beserker in a design and technology book at my high school, something to do with die-cast metals.

darefsky wrote:

Grimtuff wrote:

darefsky wrote:I think it was in the first or second season of "Big Bang Theory", they had a TSOALR T-shirt in the comic store.

It's close, but not a TSOALR one. The 2 TSOALR shirts that they did said "FREEM!" in a spiky blast (The shirt you're thinking of I believe), and another that said "once you go 28mm you never go back baby!"

I must have missed the 28mm one..... who wore it?

Sorry, I meant those were the shirts TSOALR produced, neither have been featured on TBBT AFAIK.

GW is also very inspiring and influential. SM made a big splash in the American video game community and suddenly peaple were asking me what War40k was. Whispers of the similarities between star/warcraft and Warhammer/40k flared up again and people were getting into the idea of a Warhammer40k MMO. GW is doing a good job of becoming more and more widespread and commonplace, I wouldn't doubt that we won't be seeing more things like this in the future.

There was a kids programme on a few weeks ago where a kid with autism was explaining Warhammer and his mother was describing how he'd made friends through it. They had all the models out and were playing it and talking about painting, it was more overt then any appearance in dramas like Lewis. I'm not sure what the programme was, sometimes they do these 'real stories' things and it was in the slot where Blue Peter usually is.

While it may initially confirm to some their prejudices about 'socially inept' gamers, it did show positives about it helping people make friends and socialise. Yet GW themselves seemed largely absent from it. While they can't advertise on the BBC they do themselves a disservice by not engaging with opportunities for publicity.

Where i live Space Marine wasn't a very popular game, and only one of my friends knows anything about Warhammer, so nothing has been spread about GW in Tucson.

I was really asking about the UK since its GW's home turf. In the US it tends to be very hit or miss. Most people are familiar through the DoW series, no one seemed to be swept in by Space Marine.

On a semi-related note, I believe i've seen at least one (where he's 'saved' from his own fantasy), if not both of the Lewis episodes the OP described (either that or they were Inspector Morse episodes that simply had miniatures in them, and i've attributed them to Lewis because of the recurring character; it is 04:20am here so my brain isn't working very well)

In fact, Lewis got me into Percy Bysshe Shelley's poetry, namely Love's Philosophy, which was also the subject of the first episode of the second series.

A very old episode of Taggart (one that actually had Taggart in it) had a scene in a war games club, and the figures in the foreground were high elf spear men (possibly the plastic ones) facing off against a dragon.

There was also a documentary on some time ago about some guy with an obesity problem, and it showed him in his room looking at his collection of Inquisitor models.

Ken boone used to drive past GW on his bike loads !

GW is quite notable in the UK due to its presence in most cities major shopping districts i would say, a good chunk of uk citizens will know of it for this reason, even if they do not know what its all about.

Jayce_The_Ace wrote:A very old episode of Taggart (one that actually had Taggart in it) had a scene in a war games club, and the figures in the foreground were high elf spear men (possibly the plastic ones) facing off against a dragon.

There was also a documentary on some time ago about some guy with an obesity problem, and it showed him in his room looking at his collection of Inquisitor models.

I'll have to wait for one of the ITVs to repeat Taggart from the beginning again; i've forgotten most of them.

DemetriDominov wrote:GW is also very inspiring and influential. SM made a big splash in the American video game community and suddenly peaple were asking me what War40k was. Whispers of the similarities between star/warcraft and Warhammer/40k flared up again and people were getting into the idea of a Warhammer40k MMO. GW is doing a good job of becoming more and more widespread and commonplace, I wouldn't doubt that we won't be seeing more things like this in the future.

Someone tried to convince me that 40k was a Starcraft imitation.

I've had that done to me too. I nearly died laughing.

there was a episode of highlander that had a gw store in it .

DoctorZombie wrote:Someone tried to convince me that 40k was a Starcraft imitation.

Just in case there's anyone out there who somehow hasn't seen this:

On a related note, if you watch the video for Disturbed's version of Land of Confusion, one of the tanks early in the video is based off the old Rhino design.

Its at about 0:20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV4oYkIeGJc&ob=av2n

Mad4Minis wrote:On a related note, if you watch the video for Disturbed's version of Land of Confusion, one of the tanks early in the video is based off the old Rhino design.

Its at about 0:20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV4oYkIeGJc&ob=av2n

Nice to see I wasn't the only one who saw that. Looked like a Vindicator variant
Nice to see another disturbed fan around here too.

There was once an American TV series I saw (some young detective thing from the 70's) that had some old boys playing with Napoleonic soldiers, then there was that episode of.... Midsomer Murders, I think, where some old folk has his horde of Napoleonic soldiers stolen. The bad thing was, I instantly recognised them as Victrix

Then again, It might have been Wallander (who watches that awesome tv show?)