One of my favorite lines our friends at Weta Workshop produce is the environments line. Why? Well, I’d love to actually visit Middle-earth, but being a fantasy world, that seems unlikely. I’d love to visit New Zealand – and that may happen someday, but getting there from Missouri isn’t cheap. So collecting these amazingly well done pieces of the places we love is as close as I can get for now; as I’m sure is the case for many of you as well. We now can add three new environment pieces to our collections.
The first is a massive Bag End with that awesome green front door that opens and closes. When you open this door, you’ll be able to peek in and see the main hallway. That’s not all though! It also has a light up feature, giving the feeling that Bilbo or Frodo is at home. You can pre-order this right now through December 22nd for $1,199(USD), with the edition size being determined by the numbers of orders placed. If you want something Bag End but maybe slightly cheaper, there is a hobbit hole sized piece of Bag End for only $99(USD). Both of these pieces ship during the fourth quarter of next year.
The folks over on The Digital Bits have unearthed a breakdown of Warner Bros. forthcoming “Middle-earth 31-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition”. If you’re a collector, you’ll want to have a read of this before committing your hard-earned.
The Digital Bits says that Warner Bros. are close to an official announcement. They also report the set will include “the Theatrical and Extended versions of all six Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films on both 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray (including the remastered Lord of the Rings films on Blu-ray).”
But, here’s the kicker.
They says that the new content is expected to be one Blu-ray bonus disc containing the 26-minute presentation reel shown at Cannes in 2001, and the Alamo Drafthouse cast reunion.
Further, The Appendiceswill not be included in this new set.
All that will set you back a total of 196 quid. Release is slated for October 26.
Staff reactions to the report are a bit mixed. Personally, I’m much more stoked for the Evangelion box sets that TDB mentions in the same article, while Staffer Earl suggests that:
So after waiting 20 years, the “ultimate” edition ends up having just the Cannes reel and some newly filmed reunion footage hosted by Colbert (hope it’s not some late night show format with his jokes and display of Tolkien knowledge)?
Uh oh! I sincerely hope that ain’t all.
To be honest, I’m inclined to think if this is it, then why bother with the 20th anniversary at all. But maybe this is great for truly hardcore fans who can afford to splurge on yet another version and can’t wait another 5 years.
Well, we’re back – with Episode 2 of our collectibles themed podcast. (If you missed it, you can find Episode 1 here.) In this episode, we talk about the importance of having a clear concept of what you want your collection to be, what you want in that collection, and being open to when a special piece crosses your path. We think this topic is important when collecting, because it’s very easy to feel the need to have everything, and thus get overwhelmed and burned out. We hope you enjoy the podcast – and we’re already working on episode 3!
We here at TORn are very happy to introduce something new within the collectibles arena. We’ve been doing reviews and news blurbs under ‘Collecting The Precious’ for a decade now; so we’ve decided to branch out and add something new! MadeyeGamgee and myself (Elessar) are excited to sit down and talk about various collectibles topics, ranging from new collectibles and interviews with the artists, to tips to help new and old collectors alike. The very first episode is on YouTube now, and you can watch it below. In this first episode we cover mostly the cool things that came out of San Diego Comic-Con at Home 2021. We hope you enjoy this first episode, which comes in at just a little under three hours.
The awesome folks at Diamond Select Toys were cool enough to send us something pretty sweet to take a look at, and let you all know what we think. As we’ve mentioned in the past, they are doing a great action figure line in the same scale, for those who collected the Toy Biz figure line when the movies were out. These figures of course are updated, and created with today’s technologies; and it shows in how cool they are. The folks at DST sent us what started out as an unlikely friendship in Legolas and Gimli. These figures are out now, and come in at a price of $29.99. If you’re like me and have a copy of their 2021 SDCC Exclusive, they’ve let folks know what the packaging will look like and you can find that here. They’ve also announced a solo Gollum figure, and shown all the cool stuff it comes with along with a price; there’s a link to the blog post mentioning that here.
A review is never late, fellow Ringers; it arrives precisely when it means to! Our friends at Asmus Toys sent us this awesome Gandalf the Grey Crown Series figure to review. The first thing we want to do is thank them! Gandalf is easily one of the coolest 1:6 figures I’ve owned. The headsculpt alone is worth the price ($350, if you want to know…), and when you add all the other detailing aspects you get one heck of a great figure. He’s out now, so you should be able to order him and have him quite quickly to your door, ready to invite you on an adventure.
One of my favorite lines our friends at Weta Workshop produce is the environments line. Why? Well, I’d love to actually visit Middle-earth, but being a fantasy world, that seems unlikely. I’d love to visit New Zealand – and that may happen someday, but getting there from Missouri isn’t cheap. So collecting these amazingly well done pieces of the places we love is as close as I can get for now; as I’m sure is the case for many of you as well. We now can add three new environment pieces to our collections.
