The Balrog Legendary Scale BustThe Balrog Legendary Scale Bust is now available over at SideshowCollectibles.com:

“Sideshow Collectibles proudly presents this fantastic new addition to The Lord of the Rings Legendary Scale Bust series. The Balrog has been expertly sculpted to capture every detail of the creature’s menacing visage and flaming hide. Hand-cast of the highest quality polystone, each bust is hand-painted and individually numbered. The Balrog Legendary Scale bust is the perfect addition to your The Lord of the Rings collection.”

And don’t forget the fact that its an insanely large 22″ H (559mm) and will ship in early 2008.

The Balrog Legendary Scale Bust Discuss

Here with this week’s news headlines from the wonderful world of Weta

Halo3 makes $170 million in sales in 24 hours
Third Halo short released online [Link II]
Hellgate: London giveaway at upcoming Horror Convention in US
Weta’s WOW Winner revealed
Winner of F.M.O.M acronym contest announced
Sydney Convention Rayguns promotion
Further design work from Hercules revealed
Weta Limited in Australasia for convention season next month
Lord Cockswain online comic: Part Two now available
Indecipherable Rayguns testimonial from a sailor / pirate? You decide…
Registrations now open for NZ effects symposium

Chocolate Fish Cafe to Close? It’s time for Wellington to honour its home-town heroes says communications specialist Roger Ellis who is standing for the Wellington City Council in the Northern Ward. In recent years Wellington has produced some exceptional people. The whole world knows what Peter Jackson has almost single-handedly achieved – a major league movie industry right here in the suburbs of Wellington. He has received a theatre-load of awards from the good and the great throughout the world. “Yet to date the Wellington City Council has done little to honour this outstanding favourite son. The same could be said for Weta’s Richard Taylor.

Tana Umaga Stadium, Peter Jackson Film Academy

Kristin Thompson & Rick Porras Booksigning TOMORROW Kristin Thompson, author of The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, writes: I am going to be doing a signing event for The Frodo Franchise in New York on September 27. It starts at 7 pm at Barnes & Noble Upper West Side, 2289 Broadway at 82nd Street (MAP), tel. 212.362.8835. It should be an exciting evening, since Lord of the Rings co-producer Rick Porras will be joining me for a conversation before the signing! We’ll talk for perhaps half an hour and field questions for fifteen minutes or so.

‘The Frodo Franchise’ Booksigning in NY

Mountain featured in ‘Lord of the Rings’ erupts WELLINGTON, New Zealand – New Zealand’s Mount Ruapehu erupted, spewing out ash and rock that injured one climber and forced around 50 people to be evacuated off the mountain, local media reported on Wednesday. The 10-minute eruption started at about 8.20 p.m. on Tuesday and sent a cloud of ash and dust to a height of 15,000 feet, Geological and Nuclear Sciences said.

Mountain featured in ‘Lord of the Rings’ erupts

Entertainment Weekly on 'Eastern Promises' Roheryn writes: The latest Entertainment Weekly article hails Viggo Mortensen’s infamous bathhouse brawl in the buff as the harbinger of a new age of naked fight scenes. Huzzah!

Buff and Tumble