As I mention in the video, one of the great things about Weta is that they listen to us, the fans, about which statues we want to see. They run polls via the Flame of Udun, the official Weta forums, which allows fans to chime in with something that means a lot to them and often enough those pieces eventually get made.
The Lady Eowyn of Rohan statue is one of the pieces that we’ve been asking for since The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers came out. This beautiful piece captures Eowyn just after she’s stormed out of the Golden Hall, looking out of Rohan in both frustration as well as sadness. If you’re one of the collectors that has the Eowyn as Dernhelm statue, you have a wonderful bookend set of two very pivotal moments for this character. If you’re looking to add this statue it is currently in-stock in the US and NZ Warehouses. For fans in the EU, it is in pre-order status until they get more in stock. Eowyn is priced at US$275 and has a small edition size of only 750 pieces worldwide. Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s Lady Eowyn of Rohan Statue Review”
One of my favorite pieces to come out recently is the Uruk-hai Swordsman from our friends at Weta Workshop. This made its debut at San Diego Comic-Con 2015, and I was stoked to see another Uruk-hai – and specifically one from The Battle of Helm’s Deep. Up to this point the only piece we’ve had is the Uruk-hai Berserker, which came out a little over a decade ago. Now we get to expand that with this piece, and hopefully more coming at Comic-Con this year. Collectors can still add this piece to their collections as he is still in stock. The Uruk-hai Swordsman comes in with an edition size of 1500 pieces and a price tag of $299.
Our friends at Warner Bros. Home Entertainment let us know that they are celebrating the launch of The Lego Batman Movie by taking over the iTunes store! The store movies homepage will feature exclusive ‘Lego-ized’ images of fan favorites, including The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Other films re-imagined in bricks and minifigs include The Wizard of Oz and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Head on over to iTunes and take a look – the ‘Lego-ized’ movie posters scroll across the top of the movies homepage. Here’s a sneak preview of The Two Towers image:
One of the things I love the most in my collection are all the behind the scene books, art books, making of type books. It’s so much fun getting a chance to see the process of how these fantastic films were brought to life. Our friends at Weta have a brand new book that fits this genre of book with the Middle-earth: From Script to Screen. This 512 page book covers the world building Sir Peter Jackson and the crew at Weta did to build what we saw in both The Lord of the Rings Trilogy as well as The Hobbit Trilogy. Written by Daniel Falconer with assistance by our own Happy Hobbit Kili (done under her pen name KM Rice) this richly illustrated with thousands of film frames, concept art and behind-the-scenes imagery, many previously unseen, Middle-earth: From Script to Screen follows in the footsteps of the Fellowship of the Ring and the Company of Thorin Oakenshield, visiting the realms and landscapes of Middle-earth and uncovering their secrets. You can Pre-Order this fantastic book right now for $75, and if you do so straight from Weta you will receive a set of exclusive prop replica set dressings by 3Foot7 Calligrapher Daniel Reeve.
One of the companies out there that has some really neat items from various movie franchises is Funko. They’ve touched upon Middle-earth before, with some items from The Hobbit Trilogy as well as a Sauron Funko Pop from The Lord of the Rings. Well last week Funko announced they’re going back to Middle-earth, with even more items from The Lord of the Rings. This time we’re getting the likes of Frodo, a chase variant Frodo, Gandalf, Saruman, Nazgul, Samwise, and my personal favorite The Balrog (this will be a 6″ super pop). These are going to be a blast to collect and will look awesome on the shelf. Fans can pre-order these from various places now, and they’re due out in June of this year. If you want to check out the full release you can go to the Funko Blog.
Almost three weeks ago we began our battles in this year’s Middle-earth March Madness. Each year, we try to mix things up a bit by creating different brackets; this year the categories were Books Only,Movies Only, Wider Mythos and Movie and Book, giving us four sets of varied characters from Tolkien’s realm. We also let previous champions Gandalf, Galadriel, Samwise Gamgee and Thranduil sit it out in a ‘Champion’s Hall of Fame’ – so we knew we’d have a first time victor this year.
Before we announce the overall winner, let’s look back over the five rounds which led up to the Final:
In Movies Only, the Moth Messengers made their first appearance, but were quickly squashed under the trotters of Dain’s Boar. Sebastian the Hedgehog, however, in a blow for small mammals everywhere, vanquished the Goblin Scribe; and there were brief hopes that he might make his way onwards to win the group. Alas, in Round 2 he came up against Tauriel, and he was no match for the elf warrior.
Figwit unruffled as ever
Alfrid Lickspittle, to the relief of many, was hastily dispatched by Figwit; the immaculate elf cruised through to the Sweet Sixteen Round 3, only to be defeated there by mighty stallion Brego. This fiercesome mount was the overall victor of the Movies Only group, having beaten Tauriel in the Elite Eight round.
Brego faced the winner of the Books Only section; a tough group, featuring such legends as Goldberry, Glorfindel, Elrohir, the Barrow-wights and Quickbeam. Small wonder that Fatties Bolger and Lumpkin were unable to get past Round One! In Round Three we had the first awkward pairing of the tournament, when Tom Bombadil had to take on his wife, Goldberry. Perhaps he overcame her, or perhaps she graciously allowed him to win; either way, it was the creature in yellow boots who went on to secure the division.
Not surprisingly, some of the most popular figures appeared in the Movie and Book bracket. Here the likes of Bilbo, Pippin, Faramir and Boromir had to battle Merry, Thorin, Aragorn and other heroes. Even the villains had tough match-ups, with Smaug facing the Witch-king and Sauron up against Shelob – and these were all just first round fights! By the Sweet Sixteen, Sauron was the only bad guy still in the mix – but Elrond did what he could not at the end of the Second Age, and vanquished the Necromancer; only to fall to the section winner, Aragorn, in the Elite Eight.
That fourth round also saw our second difficult ‘lovers’ tiff’, with Beren coming up against Luthien in the Wider Mythos division. Their journey to that point had seen them conquer such worthy opponents as Feanor, Earendil, Glaurung and Varda. Even Morgoth and Eru himself couldn’t make it past Round Two! In the Elite Eight match-up, mortal man Beren was no test for his elf spouse; she won their battle with an overwhelming more than 70% of the vote, making her winner of the Wider Mythos section.
In the Semi Finals, Luthien wasn’t able to defeat another devotee of elf-maidens; she was conquered by the Ranger from the North. The other Final Four battle brought disappointment for those of us hoping for a Brego vs Aragorn final; Tom Bombadil beat the steed, taking almost two thirds of the vote.
And so Aragorn was in to his second Middle-earth March Madness final, facing a somewhat unknown quantity in the strange and ancient creature from the Old Forest. The 2200+ votes have been counted, and the winner is…
As I mention in the video, one of the great things about Weta is that they listen to us, the fans, about which statues we want to see. They run polls via the Flame of Udun, the official Weta forums, which allows fans to chime in with something that means a lot to them and often enough those pieces eventually get made.
