“Frodo, the Argonath! Long have I desired to look upon the kings of old. My kin.“
– Aragorn to Frodo while sailing down the Anduin February 25th, 3019 TA
As we approach the Christmas Holiday the truly awesome folks at Weta have given fans a chance to get items that they may have missed. One of the items was the Argonath environment, which came back as part of their first Christmas Special last week. This was great for someone like me who had missed it before and was kicking myself for not ordering it.
The Argonath, which portray Isildur and Elendil, relatives of Aragorn, marked and guarded the northern boundary of Gondor. This was inform strangers they could not come south of the Argonath without permission. As the power of Gondor declined these imposing figures could no longer be enforced. As the Fellowship came upon the Argonath, Frodo would notice that Strider no longer was sitting beside him, but instead it was Aragorn, son of Arathorn, a King who was returning from exile.
PACKAGING
The graphics on the front of the box has a very nice but simple look to it; The Lord of the Rings logo appears in the upper left hand corner; A screen capture of the Argonath from The Fellowship of the Ring is in the upper right hand corner. In the center of the box you have a impressive picture of the Argonath piece itself with the name of the collectible under it. On one side of the box you get another feature image of the Argonath while the other side has text explaining about the piece with more imagery. The back of the box has multiple images of other The Lord of the Rings related items that you can find on Weta’s website.
SCULPTING
Mary Maclachlan is the superb talent behind sculpting this piece. She has taken what we saw on screen and shrunk it down for us to own. The beauty of this collectible is in how the polystone has been transformed to appear as rock from which these two majestic kings of old were carved. Then of course you have the detail of the faces, that while appear to be rock, have tons of detail in each human face representing Isildur and Elendil. Another very cool detail that I’m glad they added is the rock quarry from which the Gondorian’s would get the stone required to build the Argonath. Finally, to complete the scene, and put the finishing touches on an amazing collectible, the water and boats given to the Fellowship by Galadriel.
PAINT
The paint-work on the Argonath is as exceptional as the sculpt work. All the work done to sculpt the polystone to resemble rock isn’t
lost in the paint as it does look like aged stone. You also have great detail work to add bits of moss in different areas of the piece giving an appearance of age. Lastly, you have the great job done painting the water to appear as if it’s actually water. It has a great wet look to it and works with the sculpt to give the appearance of moving water. This is helped by the little areas painted white to create the look of the foam created when water crashes against an object.
Overall
The Argonath costs $200 retail but will set you back a bit more when looking for it on the secondary market. Having missed this the first time around and getting a chance to own this for retail was a no brainer. Already owning Bag End and having Rivendell along with Orthanc coming, I’m pleased to watch Middle-Earth expand even more within my collection. Do yourself a favor and make sure to track down Bag End, the Argonath, pre-order Rivendell, and Orthanc.
SPECIFICATIONS
The edition size of the Argonath is 500 world-wide but the few pieces that came back are now sold out. The Argonath specs are as followed: 6.3″ x 11.” x 7.5″ (H x W x D)
16 cm x 28 cm x 19 cm
PHOTOS
