If you’ve seen much of the various bits of footage of Smaug’s hoard, you’ll have gotten the feeling that Smaug’s hoard is pretty large. Over on Wired, Rhett Allain has attempted to use algebra to calculate the size (and modern worth) of Smaug’s hoard.
It’s a valiant attempt, but having seen more of the hoard shown on screen at the Fan Event, I think he underestimates the vastness of Smaug’s hoard. I have to emphasise that it is simply immense, spanning the breadth and length of the entire throne room in several mountainous mounds.
Factoid: the amount of mined gold estimated to exist in the world today in total is put at a cube roughly 25 metres (about 82 feet) on each size. Smaug’s hoard, as Wired estimates it, is far larger — 158 cubic metres!
Now I know this is just a fantasy worlds, but that must mean that the total amount of gold in Middle-earth must be simply enormous. Consider the even-vaster wealth of Moria, long since looted by Orcs. Yes, the “wealth of Mora was not in gold or jewels”, yet they must have had a great store of it even if obtained through trade. The Dwarven mines of the Grey Mountains were also fruitful, until the dragons came, and the wealth of Gondor even in its waning must have been substantial. Where is all this wealth? Was much of it lost to the peoples of Middle-earth through wars, buried deep (such as Moria’s lower treasuries) or simply hoarded by Sauron?
If it wasn’t, such an immense amount of gold would surely dilute its real value. After all, the value of these things is in proportion to their scarcity. The more common gold is, the less its value (this is why de Beers used to hoard its diamonds). Certainly the Lake-folk in The Hobbit speak of rivers of gold once flowing from the Mountain but that’s metaphor … and possibly a bit of handed-down exaggeration.
How much gold is in Smaug’s hoard?
I guess dragons love gold. In the recent trailers for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (YouTube clip) you can get a glimpse of all the gold Smaug has. Why does a dragon need this much gold? I don’t get it. Maybe Smaug doesn’t actually like gold but he just wants to keep it away from other people.
Whatever his motivation for hoarding, I am going to try to get an estimate for just how much gold is in the Lonely Mountain.
Scale
This is the hardest part. How big is the dragon? How big is a hobbit? We need some value here. My original plan was to look at a section of the trailer that shows gold pieces flying through the air. If I measure the acceleration of one piece of gold as it falls, I can assume that it has Earth-like acceleration of 9.8 m/s2. From this, I could find the scale of something in the scene.
Well, that didn’t work out too well. Instead, I am just going with plain estimations. Here is a shot of Bilbo sliding down a pile of gold.
I previously estimated that a hobbit was about 1.3 meters tall. That would put this gold hill with a slope side at least 5 meters long inclined at 20 degrees above the horizontal. I think that actually, this gold pile might even be much larger than this estimate.
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It seems even Hollywood elves get worried about packing on the weight over the years!
When Orlando Bloom was asked how it felt to portray Legolas in The Hobbit trilogy after a decade, knowing he’s 60 years younger than he was in Lord of the Rings, he was justifiably anxious.
“The first thing I did when I got to New Zealand was try on my old Legolas costume, because I wanted to see if it would still fit,” the 36-year-old joked at yesterday’s live Hobbit global fan event. Continue reading “Orlando Bloom worried he wouldn’t fit into old Lord of the Rings elf costume after 10 years”
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Someone at Warner Bros, may have been taking their inspiration from history in naming their latest marketing effort for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. It’s called The Tapestry. Possibly a bit of a nod toward the famous Bayeux Tapestry, possibly not.
Regardless, what’s indisputable is that it’s big and bold. Continue reading “Check out The Tapestry, a new scenic overview of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug!”
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In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ed Sheeran talks about his experience down in New Zealand working with Peter Jackson on “I See Fire” for the end credits of The Desolation of Smaug.
“He [Peter Jackson] was fantastic. At every point where I’d be adding something, I’d play him the song afterwards. I was there for three days, and at the end of every day he would come and listen to the song and give me notes.
He knows what he wants, but he doesn’t pretend to be musical in any way. He let me go on with it, but he also knows his movie, so he would tell me something needs to be less energetic, or more relaxed, or whatever. He knows the colors and templates of what the song should be rather than how the melody should go.”
Read the entire interview over at EW.com.
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We’ve started to see more and more products announced and launched tying into The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. One of the companies turning out some pretty cool stuff for film two is our friends at The Bridge Direct. The collectible we’re covering today is Radagast the Brown, from their 6” line of figures. After seeing this piece at San Diego Comic-Con this past summer, I was quite excited to get this; and I have to say this figure lived up to my expectations.
PACKAGING
The layout for the box design for Radagast is exactly the same as we saw with wave one of the figures, for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The new figures differ in the graphics, as well as the coloring of the box. The images show the company climbing what I would assume is the Lonely Mountain, with another view of that same Mountain in the background. You also have a blue tone to the coloring, which suggests the darker turn the movie will take, compared to how wave one and movie one matched up.
On the bottom of the box you have a cardboard slip with the character’s name and a picture of the character all rendered in the same coloring. The back of the box has a great little breakdown of the second movie. They not only do this in English but also in French, which I have to say I really got a kick out of. You also get a look at the three 6” figures in wave two: Radagast, Legolas, and Azog.
Accessories/Articulation
Radagast is simple when it comes to the number of items you get with him; he comes with his hat and his staff. However, this matches exactly what we see him with during the movie, so you get to create the exact look of what we saw.
The articulation on this figure as a whole is really good. You have great movement in the hands, elbows, shoulders, and ankles. The only area which I found had any kind of limited movement is the head, but that is due to his beard. Overall, you can have some real fun with this figure, creating some of the craziness we could imagine Radagast getting into.
SCULPTING
I love the sculpting job on Radagast. I really think the likeness on this figure is pretty darn close to a dead ringer for what we saw on screen. Within the facial likeness, the little bird’s nest is also there and can be shown or not depending on if you have him wear his hat. The detailing doesn’t stop there, as his outfit has some amazing fine points in it, even with little things I didn’t notice in the movie when I’ve seen it several times. Radagast comes with a couple of extras, which are the hat I just mentioned, and his trusty staff with the blue crystal that he uses to save Sebastian the hedgehog.
PAINT
As I’ve said before in other reviews, the paint can make or break the sculpting work. I really think The Bridge Direct nailed the paintwork on Radagast, giving the character the proper ‘on screen’ look. The skin tone looks like his movie counter part and has a nice natural, alive tone to it. His hair has the proper brown and grey mix as we saw on screen. That’s not my favorite part, though, of what was done to his hair. One of the things I don’t care for with Radagast is the bird poop in his hair – it’s just something I really wish they had left out. Luckily, the way it’s painted on the figure it just looks like a large area of grey hair, and I love it. Much better than what we actually got! His outfit is also painted very nicely, allowing for all the sculpted details to come screaming through.
Overall
Radagast is a fantastic figure. You get a great sized figure and tons of detail. You can get Radagast exclusively at Toys R’ Us for $14.99, along with Azog, Legolas, and the Mirkwood 5-Pack. We want to thank The Bridge Direct for this chance to give our readers a look at this pretty cool figure.
SPECIFICATIONS
Radagast costs $14.99.
PHOTOS
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Peter Jackson has written a lengthy post on his Facebook concerning Ed Sheeran’s end credits song for The Desolation Of Smaug, “I See Fire”, and the music video for it. A few excerpts follow:
“We have a tradition in our Tolkien films of having a song over the closing credits. It’s very important that the song feels right for the world of the movie – and also carries the emotional resonance of the end of that particular film. The Desolation of Smaug is no different. The ending of this film requires a voice and sensibility that will allow an viewer to process what they have just experienced.
Ed watched the movie at Park Road Post, immediately went into a room, and started writing and singing. Much of what you will hear on this song was recorded that same day, with a few overdubs and tweaks the following day. It was a great experience, and what you will see in this video are moments captured by our behind the scenes team during the creation of the song.
But the images are only supporting Ed’s wonderful song. This is his direct emotional response to seeing The Desolation of Smaug, written and performed on the same day he saw the movie.”
You can read PJ’s entire post and watch the video over at his Facebook. Or you can catch just the video on good ol’ YouTube.
The song features on the OST for The Desolation of Smaug, to be released on December 10, and is available for purchase on iTunes as of today.
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