Click for more, thanks to Myke for the images!
frodosgirl writes: I had a lovely time at Armageddon today in Wellington. It had increased in size by quite a bit, and the organizers are having some growing pains, but are managing to more or less pull it off. Walked around all the booths first and was pleased to come away with two finds. First off, the publishers allowed Dymocks special permission to sell Sean Astin’s new book at the conference even though it isn’t due out for more than a month. I snatched up a copy. I also discovered that Stansborough Fibres, the company that made the elvish cloaks, is now selling exact replicas of said cloaks. Before they were only allowed to sell scarves and shawls and a different version of a cloak, but Newline has given them exclusive rights to make and sell the cloaks from the movies. You can order online at stansborough.co.nz. The cloaks are really beautiful (I’m ordering mine tomorrow) and the people from Stansborough are so nice. You should all go buy a cloak as they are a steal for $795NZ.
Had the chance to sit through talks with Sean Astin, Andy Serkis and John Rhys-Davies. Sean talked of a number of things, from how much he loves NZ to his experiences on the lotr set to what his Daughter Alexander thinks of Goonies to his latest project, Hercules. Andy talked about Gollum (of course) and a bit about King Kong, including his recent trip to studies the gorillas in Africa. John talked of Gimli and the makeup difficulties plus thoughts on many of his various movies he’s been in, as well as giving us all advice on potential husbands and wives. All of them were very warm and courteous. They each dealt with the diffuculties with the current facility like the professionals they are. Before and after they signed many, many autographs. I had the pleasure of getting to talk to John a bit as things were closing up. He is such a gentleman.