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.
As we posted recently, the folks at Funko have announced they’re back in the Middle-earth game, and they announced it with several pretty dang awesome The Lord of Rings Pops. San Diego Comic-Con is coming up in July, and virtually every company there has exclusives for the show. Funko announced today via their blog they would have something representing The Lord of the Rings. The Comic-Con 2017 Exclusive will be Aragorn and Arwen two pack. As of this posting there is no word on price or how these will be distributed, but as soon as we have that information we will update this post. Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Funko Comic-Con 2017 Aragorn and Arwen Exclusive 2-Pack”
One of my favorite subsection of statues within the whole Middle-earth statue line from our friends at Weta Workshop is the rider line. This line obviously includes statues that involve someone riding a creature from Middle-earth. There are things like Legolas/Gimli on Arod to Gothmog on Warg. The Hobbit line of course has the amazing and large Azog on Warg, but not anyone from the good guy/gal side of things. That is until Dain IronFoot on War Boar showed up during Comic-Con 2015. Dain was a 800 piece statue and came in at a price tag of $499, which is now sold out from Weta. However you can still get this guy on the secondary market if you’re really hoping to add this to your collection. Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s Dain IronFoot on War Boar Review”
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.
Geekery can be fun and it can also be educational. In the case of the two-day Wizarding Dayz near Salt Lake City, it hopes to be both while helping with literacy and charity as well.
TheOneRing.net will be join what promises to be a magical event Friday and Saturday Feb. 24 and 25, presenting panels and representing Tolkien in the realm of the wizard-themed gathering. It takes place in the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy, Utah.
“We threw it out to the community to nominate the charities. We came up with these three charities because they are all based on kids, kids’ needs and kids that don’t belong. That is Harry Potter,” she said.
Walker, heading up Wizarding-Dayz with Carrie Rogers-Whitehead, hopes the first-year event brings out those who love Potter, Tolkien and fantasy in general, and especially those who enjoy reading.
“This event is made definitely for book lovers, people who love reading, people who want to go to a place where there are the things they love. It is good for all ages but for adults you are going to get to go and have good discussions,” Walker said.
TheOneRing will be included in those good discussions with three official TORn presentations:
* How To Travel to Middle-earth
* J.R.R. Tolkien vs. George R.R. Martin
* Tolkien and the Great War
There is other Tolkien content as well, including an over-the-internet panel for Tolkienites (or TORnadoes) to ask expert Michael Martinez ANY Tolkien Question. In fact, if there is interest, perhaps TORn will do a Facebook Live for portions of some of these panels.
Wizarding Days has no shortage of educational material, including from sponsors Utah Humanities and the STEM Action Center of Utah.
For those not aware, STEM is a science-based curriculum based on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics taught all together in an applied approach. In the wizarding world that means discussions and interactive panels rather than just lectures.Water at Hobbiton Movie set
“We are not calling them panels. We want people to come and have discussions about these things they like or dislike. We have great topics that dive deep,” Walker said. “We aren’t skipping a rock across the surface.”
There are also a lot of hands-on items patrons can make and take home including wants, wizard pouches, rune pouches and of course, spell books.
Walker said she took extra care creating a space that isn’t mundane, including the vendor areas, which including roaming performers, but is all planned with a pleasing, welcoming, fantasy theme.
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.
