Gentle Giant has released the next bust up for pre-order in their “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” mini-bust line: none other than Gollum himself. Gollum will be priced at $65 regular price and $58.50 for collectors who are members of Gentle Giant’s PGM program. No edition size has been set yet for Gollum but one should be set before the projected ship-date of the first quarter of 2013.
Category: Merchandise
“They were by far the most powerful of his servants, and the most suitable for such a mission, since they were entirely enslaved to their Nine Rings, which he now himself held.”
— Unfinished Tales, p. 338
One of Sauron’s most powerful servants is the seventh statue from Sideshow’s growing and spectacular The Lord of the Rings statue line. This awesome statue captures of one the darker characters in the whole trilogy and illustrates one of a key scene: the moment when the Witch King stabs Frodo one Weathertop.
This statue is crafted to show the point-of-view of anyone other than Frodo (Frodo sees something very different because he is wearing the Ring.) Sideshow is expected to release the other half of this scene early next year. Continue reading “Collecting The Precious: Sideshow Collectibles Ringwraith statue review”
Yet another fun, and interesting, thing for Hobbit fans to collect – this just in from the New Zealand Post: New Zealand Post is set to produce stamps and commemorative coins featuring some of the unique characters of Middle-earth later in the year. In an agreement with Warner Bros. Consumer Products, Warner Bros. Pictures, and the filmmakers, New Zealand Post also has exclusive rights to produce legal tender commemorative coins that celebrate Sir Peter Jackson’s trilogy of films based on The Hobbit, productions of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. New Zealand Post has revealed one of the stamps to give fans a sneak peek at what they can expect in November. We are the only country in the world with the rights to produce legal tender commemorative coins, featuring characters from The Hobbit Trilogy, and we are delighted to be involved and show support for the New Zealand Film Industry,” said Ivor Masters, Head of Stamps and Coins at New Zealand Post. Read More…
The 2013 Tolkien calendar naturally features ‘The Hobbit’ this year including the work of Alan Lee and John Howe. To celebrate, the Weta Cave in Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand will host Lee this Sunday to sign this and others of his works.
Lee and Howe have been working on concept art for Peter Jackson’s three-part ‘Hobbit’ movie, headed for a mid-December release but found time to produce some new work for this calendar.
The calendar features 14 paintings, including some created exclusively for this calendar by Alan Lee and John Howe, the two artists whose work has defined the look of Middle-earth over the last 25 years.
This is their first-ever collaboration since the official Tolkien Calendar began publishing 40 years ago.
Each month depicts one of the most famous scenes from The Hobbit, including Bilbo outside Bag End, Smaug the Dragon, the Great Goblin and Bilbo’s Front Hall. As well as classic illustrations from bo
th artists’ celebrated portfolios, the 2013 calendar includes brand new paintings, created by John Howe and Alan Lee exclusively for this calendar.
When: Sunday 9 September, 1-3 pm
Where: The Weta Cave, Miramar, Wellington
A range of Alan’s other titles including The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook will also be available in store. For more details including a map, click here.
Some cool news for sword-replica fans. Sword and knife retailer BUDK tells us they will be the exclusive premier dealer for United Cutlery’s licensed movie replicas of weapons used in The Hobbit movie trilogy.
The Hobbit line will consist of dwarven and elven weapons and arms replicas, along with iconic items such as the staff of Gandalf, Sting, and the sword of Thorin Oakenshield, Orcrist.
Each collectible will be replicated from the actual film props created by Weta Workshop for the film production. Sting and Orcrist swords and scabbards, and the new Gandalf Staff will debut in late 2012. Continue reading “Replica swords from Hobbit trilogy coming soon”
Since the Hobbit film trilogy began shooting principal photography 18 months ago, the production has played its very cards close to its chest, and Stone Street Studios has proved more leak-proof than the White House.
In light of this, speculation on the films — whether pertaining to structure or content — has the hallmark of paleolithic archaeology: not only are large inferences having to be made from an extremely small amount of evidence, but the legitimacy and relevance of the evidence itself is by no means certain.
With all this in mind, I’ll try and draw some tentative conclusions about the trilogy’s plot and structure — with particular attention to any evidence of departures from the book — from what we understand to be official biographical notes that will accompany the character figurines from The Hobbit.
While it is impossible to confirm that the descriptive information released with these figurines accurately reflects the film-makers vision, they are detailed and idiosyncratic enough to suggest there is a high degree of alignment.
Note that some of the biographies (Kili, Fili, Gloin and Dwalin, for example) are left out here. Where this occurs this is because, in my view, they offered no insight on the trilogy plot, structure, or departures from the source material. And if spoilers and speculation aren’t your thing, best to stop reading now. Continue reading “Playing Sherlock: a few Hobbit plot deductions from the figurine character biographies”