SAN DIEGO – To goof just a little on a movie classic, “I love the smell of geek in the morning.” Day Two of Comic Con 2003 was a intensification of Day One but with a lot more breathing room with a big dose of geek in the air. Instead of a three-hour tour of the convention, patrons could enter the great hall at 10 a.m. and stay on the main floor until 7 p.m..
With a solid number of Con attendees settled into the skyscraper-forest of downtown San Diego, many patrons of the pop-culture super event rubbed the fantasy dust from their eyes and trudged or shuttled down to the more than 400,000 square feet of convention floor space.
Yes, 400,000 square feet of wild and wooly buying, selling, wandering, head-turning displays and head-turning costumes from all conceivable genres. Naturally one can buy comic books but an almost unbelievable myriad of other items are everywhere including toys, posters, weapons, games, magazines, cards, photographs, music, lunch boxes, furniture, clothing and more uncommon items than you can shake a staff at.
As predicted, TORn ran out of its Day One and Two buttons and had to quit selling t-shirts temporarily because demand was much greater than supply. Copies of “The People’s Guide to J.R.R. Tolkien” moved briskly with our own Ostadan and Quickbeam on hand to personalize copies to happy fans who reveled in the atmosphere thick with all things geek. The film crew for “Ringers” continued to pack in fanatics to its “confessional” to record fans’ passions for all things Tolkien.
Six WETA crew men, including the incomparable Richard Taylor, showed up early in the day fresh off a plane from New Zealand to deliver an amazing new display-only, life-size Gollumn statue to the Sideshow area (TORn’s neighbor) before the floor opened. Sideshow’s CEO Greg Anzalone was delighted to add Gollumn to the terrifying life-size collection which includes a cave-troll head, a mounted wraith and Lurtz.
According to Anzalone, Gollumn was the WETA crew’s carry on luggage from all the way across the world and a few weeks ago it wasn’t clear if Taylor would have time to create the display because apparently he is busy working on some movie about a king or something.
“That is how committed they are to making this (Comic-Con) a special experience for fans. This is the ultimate gathering of fans because it is a true cross section of fans of pop culture.”
Taylor later did a signing in the New Line pavilion and on Day Three he will again be a part of New Line’s main presentation at Con’s 5,000 seat upstairs room. Last year of course WETA’s almost legendary make-up demonstration and guest appearances by a couple of Hobbits and some big bad villains.
“This is the country’s leading pop-culture show and it is an honor to be a part of it,” Anzalone said.
“The Lord Of The Rings pavilion, made up of eight key companies (Sideshow, TORn, Houghton-Mifflin, New Line, The Noble Collection, Decipher, EA Games, Games Workshop) is great. Fans are having experiences with creators.”
Fans were also having experiences with Gollum, getting their picture taken next to the life-like statue by the hundreds. TORn senior Tolkien fan Ostadan called it “the most impressive piece of Tolkien art that I have seen in 30 years of fandom.”
Just upstairs from the millions of buyers marching up and down isles was a day full of presentations including a one hour TheOneRing.net panel. TORn gave away a fantastic “Orc Brute” statue made by Sideshow/Weta Collectibles along with several copies of the people’s guide. Quickbeam, Tookish, Ostadan and Flinch entertained the crowd with a fan-led discussion which implemented the fans’ own comments and questions which ranged from the future of TORn, to possibilities of a Hobbit movie, to the elvish language and potential submersive on-line games set in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
A fandom show-of-hands poll revealed that a few in the audience had never read Lord Of The Rings and glob of others had read the book because of the Peter Jackson movies. The youngest reader who had finished the work was 12 years old and the longest-time reader was a veteran since 1958.
Tomorrow there are no scheduled Lord of the Rings panels, but TORn is planning on selling more t-shirts and doing a few giveaways at the booth. Photos and another report to follow.
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Well, until New Line had a hissy…we were going to show you the King Elessar statue. Doh! Instead we have a great look at the bronze Gollum bust. So here is your first look at a Gollum bust from Sideshow/Weta Collectible. Use the following url to see an image that is updated every 30 seconds as we rotate this figure. Click here for the WebCam
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Calisuri writes: Thursday at Comic Con 2003 started with a bang as Sideshow/Weta and WETA Workshop premiered a life-sized Gollum statue and some great Gollum busts. Our good friend from Houghton Mifflin also stopped by and said hello. More pictures will be posted later. [More]
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SAN DIEGO – On-line Tolkien fans already know that TheOneRing.net is the center of all things LOTR, but on Comic-Con 2003 Day One, that reality became literal instead of just figurative. Inside the giant expanse that is the Comic-Con’s exhibit floor, the Lord of The Rings pavilion sits in the heart of it all. TORn has taken up residence in the middle of the middle, flanked by Sideshow Toys, New Line Cinema and EA Games. [more]
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SAN DIEGO – On-line Tolkien fans already know that TheOneRing.net is the center of the Tolkien Universe, but on Comic-Con 2003 Day One, that reality became literal instead of just figurative. Inside the giant expanse that is the Comic-Con’s exhibit floor, the Lord of The Rings pavilion sits in the heart of it all. TORn has taken up residence in the middle of the middle, flanked by Sideshow Toys, New Line Cinema and EA Games. [More]
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SAN DIEGO – On-line Tolkien fans already know that TheOneRing.net is the center of all things LOTR, but on Comic-Con 2003 Day One, that reality became literal instead of just figurative. Inside the giant expanse that is the Comic-Con’s exhibit floor, the Lord of The Rings pavilion sits in the heart of it all. TORn has taken up residence in the middle of the middle, flanked by Sideshow Toys, New Line Cinema and EA Games.
Close neighbors include LOTR publisher Houghton-Mifflin, the Noble Collection’s of LOTR themed products, Decipher and Games Workshop. This collection of Tolkien-loving floor space stands as one of the most brilliant, if not the best part of the garganutan (and that is not hyperboyle) event.
Wednesday night, titled preview night, is a chance for fans registered for all four days to canvas the exhibit floor and canvas they did. A significant number of fans made a bee line for the TORn booth to hob-nob with friends and snag one of three TORn buttons specially produced for the event. Wednesday and Thursday feature the green “TheOneRing.net is Hobbit forming” which fans gobbled up lightning fast, leaving only a handful for Thursday.
Also featured at TORn’s booth are three t-shirts which also miraculously disappeared as Tolkien fans took advantage of the $15 preview night price. Most popular was the green shirt with the following on the back:
“I WAS…
chased from my house,
stabbed by a wraith,
assaulted by a mutant octopus,
speared by a troll,
stalked by a creepy little man,
drawn into a corpse-filled swamp,
poisoned by a giant spider,
rendered unconscious…
I even lost my RIng,
AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS
LOUSY T-SHIRT
New Line Cinema, promoting its elite DVD’s, including LOTR of course, has a giant screen atop a faux-rock stand,flanked by Orthanc – as seen on the live web cam that updates from Con every 10 seconds. Many TORnados have stopped by with a cell phone to call friends and family at home and prompt them to logon to TheOneRing.net to catch a glimpse of them, smiling from Con. Meanwhile, the TORN staff watches “Austin Powers” highlights and moments from “Dumb and Dumberer” over and over and over – and this is but day one.
Also on playing at the TORn booth is “Sauron Speaks – Fat Beats From The Dark Tower,” which is a independantly produced record from Morgan Phillips knows as DJ “Supergenius.” Phillips produced the disc before he ever found TheOneRIng.net but while promoting his record he discovered TORn and its dominance of Tolkien fandom on-line.
He describes his compositions as “slightly abstracted electro rock” which is an hour blended from Bashki, Rankin-Bass, Led Zeppelin and other Tolkien themed music. Who will like it? Phillips things there is quite a list.
“…hard core fans, fans of art, hip hop, classic rock, epic fantasy…it is a spin on a whole genre.”
Phillips has been a Tolkien fan since his childhood when his mother read the books to him. He is passionate about the books and for his taste, Jackson’s movies depart too far from the source. His works are available at suckadelic.com.
Neighbor Sideshow has its famous display stone troll head-and-hands up with its fantastic collection on display including its new “Bronze Gandalf,” a whole new level of spectacular by any standard. Thirty-six statues were made for the public but four of those were sold by early Thursday morning. Retailing at over $5,000, these amazing creations are sure to become legendary. We will post the image shortly but cover your ears, this is mind blowing. Sideshow trotted out a new life-size creation on Day Two to go along with its Day One Lurtz and Black Rider.
Day One was chaos and the friendly hoards descended on TORn’s Rohanian tent. If you haven’t made plans to be here, chide yourself, read and weep. If you are coming or haven’t decided yet (Californians) turn off your computer now and get a move on. Time and traffic are your enemy. WETA is in the house.
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