One of the most beautiful pieces at Comic-Con 2013 came to us from our friends at Weta Workshop. This statue is a real eye catcher with a great likeness, amazing detail, and a fantastic mix of grace/power. The character that Weta created that mixes all of these together is the King of the Mirkwood Elves Thranduil. This was also a special release granted by Warner Brothers so fans could see the character and start getting pumped for the awesomeness that is to come in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
PACKAGING
The overall graphic layout for Thranduil’s box stays the same as we’ve seen with previous entries in the line. Per the format we’ve come to know, the front of the box gives you a great shot of Thranduil, graphic work for the title of the movie, and of course the Weta logo. The sides of the box for Thranduil also present a familiar format with different looks at the statue. While the other side of the box presents some of the various products you can get for The Hobbit line of collectibles. One of these products was a new sneak peak at the Staff of Thranduil, which I would expect we should be seeing very soon. The back of the box contains a great story on Thranduil as well as information regarding details of the character and statue. The Styrofoam on the inside is typical with what we’ve come used to getting with these statues.
SCULPTING
The task of sculpting Thranduil was handed to two people Craig Campbell and Brigitte Wuest. When fans get a chance to really look at Thranduil, I believe they’re going to be blown away by the job done. Needless to say the Elves we saw from Weta at Comic-Con did these characters justice.
The likeness of Thranduil is pretty darn superb. I really believe you’re going to be hard pressed to deny that this looks just like Lee Pace. The sculpting work on the hair does help give a nice real look to Thranduil’s long flowing locks. Thranduil has the most unique look we’ve seen of any character created so far within this line of statues. In the trailers and pictures we’ve seen his outfit is a highly detailed silk gown. Luckily the task was not too big for our friends at Weta and what you see in the pictures has been translated very well into 1:6th scale. One of my favorite bits of this statue is the crown Thranduil wears. In the book it’s the one of the only things about the character that is really given any detail. The job done on this crown is fantastic and outside of missing the berries matches how it’s described in the book.
Thranduil must like Jewlery because he is wearing multiple rings. Obviously, it’s hard to put every last detail into items this small but these still look really well done. Thranduil does come with fewer weapons when you compare him to the Tauriel statue. The only weapon you get is his very elegant looking sword. The sword reminds very much of a Samurai sword and works with the statue to help create a sense of elegance and power. The sword has a lot of little details in the blade as well as the handle, which goes well with the all-metal look of the sword.
I wanted to quickly talk about the pose of the statue. We know Thranduil is a great king with lots of power and by rule we know Tolkien’s Elves have some serious elegance about them. Weta has done a fantastic job of capturing both of those within this particular statue. Thranduil appears from the trailers to be a no nonsense King who gets what he wants, and when he’s done with you he’s done with you. We saw this in the clip released recently of him dealing with an Orc prisoner. In one swift motion he deals with the mouthy orc and this statue I think is from that exact moment. He takes care of this problem with a great mix of power and elegance, which again I think you get int this statue. The look on the face also works with the pose of this statue giving you the feel that he is not wanting to hear the nonsense coming from the Orc.
PAINT
Thranduil continues the streak of very well painted statues from Weta Workshop. As has been the case Weta has found the right balance of paints to create a super healthy looking skin tone. It goes a long way to making it feel like Thranduil jumped off screen to my collection. Thranduil has very blond hair and this statue matches that perfectly.
As I mentioned earlier the outfit is really exceptional. The fantastic part of the paint job really stand outs here because not only do you not lose the intricate detail of the outfit, but you get the shimmering of the outfit as we’ve seen in all the pictures of Thranduil. Creating the metallic look of the sword could have been a real challenge, with the fact it’s an all-metal sword. Well, This turned out to be no challenge at all for the folks at Weta. His crown also looks really good. The way his crown is described with the fall leaves comes through with the fading paint job of the leaves in the crown.
Overall
Thranduil retails for $275, which makes him more than the Dwarves but he is as detailed with the outfit alone as anything we’ve seen. I’m very intrigued by Thranduil and am very much looking forward to seeing him in action when the movie comes out..
SPECIFICATIONS
Thranduil is limited to just 1000 pieces worldwide and is in-stock for the New Zealand Warehouse with more coming to the US/UK warehouses in December. Get your order in now before he sells out.
Dimensions:
13.4″ x 11″ x 7.1″ (H x W x D)
34 cm x 28 cm x 18 cm
Weight:
4.2 lbs (1.9 kg)
PHOTOS
