Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards, here’s a great way to catch the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join in the fun!
Continue reading “TORN Message Boards Weekly Roundup – May 12, 2013”
Category: Return of the King
The EMP Museum in Seattle is just about the coolest museum ever, playing host to exhibits on Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Icons of Science Fiction, The Art of Video Games, The Lure of Horror films, and now Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic. The Fantasy exhibit just opened up a few weeks ago with loads of costumes, props and interactive experiences, and one true treasure. On loan for just the first 6 months are some borrowed pages from the original manuscripts of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” from Marquette University. Here are a few images of costumes from the exhibit, and in about 10 days this reporter will be visiting the museum and will post a full recap of all the things you can see and do while exploring all of the EMP Museum’s exhibits.
If you live in Seattle or will be visiting it in the near future, check their website for all the details on location, hours and entrance fees. The Iron Throne will be there for just the first 3 months of the exhibit, so if you wish to see either that or the Tolkien Manuscripts, plan carefully. EMP Museum.
General Manager of Weta Limited Tim Launder teased what’s to come from Weta Workshop over the next few months with a post at The Shadow and Flame message board. From his post there are some big things to come via The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit including something totally new for The Hobbit collectibles. If you love the work Weta does as much as I do this announcement has you super excited!
Shows
We had a wonderful time in April, attending 3 shows in Melbourne and the Gold Coast of Australia, and our first visit to CalgaryExpo in Canada. It was exciting to meet some new and old Flamers in person for the first time. We were especially grateful for the kind donations of chocolate for the crew !
Most of us just got back to work on Monday, a bit tired, but ready to get going again. And of course, we are only 2 months away from the Big Show; San Diego Comic Con. Time flies, we can’t wait ! We will be in the same booth space (3513B) as last year. This has now become our own Weta booth, we are no longer sharing someone else’s space. We will have our largest ever team of Weta crew at Comic Con this year. We’ll be announcing names soon. Please come and say Hi We are shipping out a container full of goodies to San Diego at the end of May, full of confidential, new stuff. We still have lots of work to do, as there are always a handful of items packed in at the last minute.The Hobbit – 1/6th scale polystone range
We have now launched the first seven pieces in the 1/6th scale range: Thorin, Gandalf, Bilbo, Dwalin, Balin, Bombur and Gollum. Thanks so much to all of you who have supported this range, we consider these to be the best quality sculptures we have created. This will be our signature line for The Hobbit trilogy of movies and we have several more outstanding pieces in production. A lot of thought has gone into the poses, and how the various characters could be displayed together. We expect this will become clearer over time. We will most likely unveil the next sculpture in the range in July.
Some of you have asked why there are no creatures launched yet ? The reason is that most of the creatures are created in digital form for the films, and the digital work is normally finalized very late in the film making process. So therefore we could not start work on these creatures until very late last year. But never fear, they are coming !
The Hobbit – Environments
We had hoped to have launched an environment by now. We were actually building a few pieces last year. But once the decision was made to change from 2 to 3 movies, we had to put them on hold until the second movie is released.
The good news is that we do have 2 new environments in production now, so you will be seeing them at some stage soon.
The Hobbit – New Polystone Product Ranges !
Over the next few months, we will be launching some new smaller scale pieces, priced under US$100, including a few special pre-releases from the upcoming movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Look out for these at Comic Con!
The Hobbit – Prop Replicas
Our Staves have been extremely popular. The first production of both the Staff of Radagast the Brown and the Staff of Gandalf the Grey, sold out even before they arrived in our warehouses. The second and final production run will take place over the next few months and we hope to release these final pieces before the end of 2013. We strongly suggest pre-ordering to ensure you don’t miss out.
The Key to Erebor is our highest selling item. We have sold out our stocks twice and are struggling to keep up with production
Daniel Reeve has had a great time creating hand made Contracts and Maps.
Jewelry from Middle-earth
Our new range of Jewelry from Middle-earth has been a huge hit, especially The One Ring in gold plated tungsten carbide, created by Jens Hansen Gold and Silversmith. We continue to struggle to keep up with supply for this item, the Evenstar and the Elven Leaf Brooch
We have a new Stone Pendant launching in the next week. Keep an eye out for it
The Hobbit – Maps and Art Prints
We now have a room in our office dedicated to storing tubes with all the Maps and art prints created by the artists who worked on the movies. We will continue to expand this range and would be grateful for a poll to vote on the scenes you’d like to see from LOTR and The Hobbit.
If you are coming to Comic Con in July, this would be a great opportunity to get some of these art prints signed.
You can also expect to see something new from Daniel Reeve soon too
The Lord of the Rings
There are a couple of items in production from LOTR.
The Fellowship of the Ring – Set 2 starts arriving in our warehouses over the next month, and will be followed up by Set 3 in a few months time. All three sets look fantastic displayed together, with a mirror set behind them, as we have done in the Weta Cave
We will also be releasing a new sculpture of Arwen soon, as part of the range of smaller scale pieces; Gollum, Gandalf and Strider
Next shipment
Our next shipments arrive in our 3 warehouses in the US, UK and NZ over the next month, including new pieces such as:
- The Fellowship of the Ring – Set 2
- The Pipe of Fili the Dwarf
- The Staff of Gandalf the Grey (already sold out)
- Gollum Enraged
Changing Warehouses in the US
In late May / early June, we will be changing our warehouse in the US. So if you are planning to make any orders in the near future, we recommend making your order in the next 2 weeks.
And for customers in North America, we will be announcing a range of special offers early next week, to help us reduce our inventory before we move to the new warehouse. Watch out for this in our next newsletter !
Cheers
Tim
Several strongholds of elves and men are besieged while Frodo and Sam are trudging laboriously through Mordor to Mount Doom. In particular, Lothlórien repels three such assaults before Galadriel and Celeborn finally lead a counter-offensive against Dol Guldur.
“…the assaults were driven back; and when the Shadow passed, Celeborn came forth and led the host of Lórien over Anduin in many boats. They took Dol Guldur, and Galadriel threw down its walls and laid bare its pits, and the forest was cleansed.” Appendix B, Lord of the Rings.
That last sentence has often puzzled; people wonder exactly how Galadriel might have accomplished such a task. More, why is she doing now what ought to have been accomplished when the White Council drove Sauron from Dol Guldur years before? Continue reading “Dol Guldur’s destruction. Why Galadriel succeeds where the White Council fails.”
Middle-earth March Madness round 2 ends at 10pmET tonight, so get your votes in. [Vote] [Round 2 Bracket]
Here is how Round 2 is shaping up right now…
The Shire Division
(8) Huan is being handed his walking papers by (1) Galadriel, while the most powerful of the Ainur (4) Morgoth has a solid lead over the eldest ent (5) Treebeard. (6) Luthien seems poised to take down (3) Bilbo Baggins. But the closest story in this round appears to be the match between the Mirkwood Elvenking (7) Thranduil with a slim lead over the head of the White Council (2) Saruman.
The Erebor Division
The current Cinderella seed (16) Pippin is soundly beating ‘Hot Dwarf’ (9) Fili, can the Heir of Durin put in a late push? Last year’s champ (12) Samwise Gamgee is facing an uphill battle with (4) Beren. The owner of the Last Homely Home, (6) Elrond, is currently leading against (14) Eowyn, unless she can get some support from other Warrior Women. Can she make to the Sweet 16, possibly against Aragorn!? Speaking of (7) Aragorn, he is soundly trouncing the windlord (2) Gwaihir.
The Mordor Division
(9) Gil-galad, the high kind of Noldor, seems destined to lose to the number one seed (1) Smaug. The Dark Lord (4) Sauron is handily beating his dwarven opponent (5) Dain Ironfoot. (11) Fingolfin has a slim lead over (3) Thorin Oakenshield, where is his ARmy? (2) Beorn seems ready to send (7) Shelob packing. If things keep going this way, we could have Smaug and Sauron in the Sweet 16.
The Angmar Division
Not quite a fair battle, but (1) The One Ring seems ready to abandon (8) Frodo Baggins. The Eldar King (12) Manwe, has a very solid lead over a descendant of Girion in (4) Bard the Bowman. Some call him ‘creepy’ and ‘sneaky’ (3) Gollum, but he’s got a lead over the imposing dwarf (6) Dwalin. And last but not least, (10) Merry seems rather outranked and outclassed by (2) Gandalf the Grey.
Voting continues until tonight at 10pm ET. [Vote Now!]
In this interesting feature, Tolkien scholar Michael Martinez answers what on the surface seems a very simple question: why is the land of the Hobbits in The Lord of the Rings called The Shire? Continue reading “Why is it called The Shire?”