Age of Sigmar Baleful Realmgates Unboxing & Review

Games Workshop's Warhammer Age of Sigmar has been dominating the releases for the last couple of weeks and hidden in the background of many of the shots was a whole new line of pretty cool looking scenery.
Well the first of it has been released today; the Ophsidian Gate and the Baleful Realmgates, both quite detailed and a whole new look for Games Workshop terrain.
Games Workshop have had terrain for some years - but it's never really taken off, probably due people not wanting to spend large amounts of money on scenery.
The look of the Baleful Realmgates has changed a bit since we first saw them - originally they had green spooky stuff coming out of them, making them look similar to the Nagash releases, but in the past week or so they have changed that colour to yellow.
Last week we discussed that and the eerie similarity these gates now have to an iconic sci-fi character.
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The Baleful Realmgates (you get two complete gates in the pack) are packed almost fully assembled in plastic trays. The Gates are in halves, but could quite easily be a solid archway.
The base and stairs are then packed into plastic bags (below)

The pieces for the base are very simple, a three piece base already roughly trimmed from their sprue and the very top of the Realmgate itself. Having a look at the completed Realmgate I thought there would be more pieces, but no, it's all very straight forward!

The archway itself is two sided (as all three dimensional objects are - little science lesson there) and as I said earlier, in two pieces. You can see the join (above right) in the inside of the Realmgate rather nicely hidden where the spooky stuff is spewing from.
Speaking of the spooky stuff - when compared to the Nagash releases which used identical kind of ethereal-ness (not a real word), this does not seem as detailed or as deep. I wonder how the washes and highlighting will go on these sections which were so crisp on the Nagash releases from last year.
The plastic is quite thick and strong and feels different from the normal Games Workshop plastic somehow. According to the box this has been made and packaged in China, tad unusual.
Details on the archway itself are crisp and clean and also deep, perfect fro drybrushing and aging.
One side of the Realmgate has magical rune-style things along the top and the other side depicts a battle...

I must admit - this is what sold me; a battle between these humans and the skeletons. 
I could be drawing a long bow here, but the armour and look of these humans is not something we have seen in the Warhammer universe. They look like Normans, or even Vikings (same/same really) with their scale armour and simple skull caps. I'm wondering if this might be a pointer to the look of the Bretonnians soon to be released or maybe the new Empire troops as Games Workshop move away from the puffy pants and frilly hats of previous years - thank God!

Verdict

I'm going to be honest here and say I bought this because I didn't want to miss out on getting them, but having now opened them, I am wondering why they were $100...
They are very simple, and though nicely moulded and certainly a great piece of scenery, it seems that this too is another high priced item in the Age of Sigmar releases. The fact there were two in the set is great - such a brilliant idea that really does add value - but if you were desperate to see these, then look at the simplicity of them and work out if $100 is worth it to you. 
Granted, they aren't that price everywhere, so again geographic pricing comes into play.
I'm looking forward to painting them as they should look great. 
From a fluff point of view, this Realmgate is an interesting turn for the Warhammer universe - lets hope Daniel Jackson doesn't come wandering out of one...