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”
The folks over at Monolith Studios released the official story trailer for the follow to the hit game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Middle-earth: Shadow of War picks up where the events of the first game end, with your two main characters Talion and Celebrimbor still looking for revenge against Sauron. This time our two main characters will create a “new” Ring of Power that they believe cannot be controlled by Sauron. In order to make sure of total victory, besides the new ring you will recruit followers who will help you in battle via the new large scale battle system. The trailer looks really cool and having played the first game I’m very much looking forward to playing this one.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War will be available for Xbox One, Project Scorpio, Windows 10 PC (Windows Store and Steam), PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro; the game is up for pre-order right now at all your e-tailers with Standard, Silver, Gold, and Mithril Editions. Currently Middle-earth: Shadow of War is due to arrive October 10th, 2017.
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”
Yesterday saw the publication of a new book – but not a new story – by J. R. R. Tolkien. Almost a century after the Professor first conceived his tale of immortal love, Beren and Luthien has been edited by his son Christopher, and illustrated by Alan Lee. It is published in the UK by Harper Collins, in the US by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and in multiple languages by different publishers across the world. Harper Collins tell us:
The tale of Beren and Lúthien was, or became, an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of the First Age of the World conceived by J.R.R. Tolkien. Returning from France and the battle of the Somme at the end of 1916, he wrote the tale in the following year.
Essential to the story, and never changed, is the fate that shadowed the love of Beren and Lúthien: for Beren was a mortal man, but Lúthien was an immortal Elf. Her father, a great Elvish lord, in deep opposition to Beren, imposed on him an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed Lúthien. This is the kernel of the legend; and it leads to the supremely heroic attempt of Beren and Lúthien together to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, called Morgoth, the Black Enemy, of a Silmaril.
Alan Lee’s beautiful back cover illustration
In this book Christopher Tolkien has attempted to extract the story of Beren and Lúthien from the comprehensive work in which it was embedded; but that story was itself changing as it developed new associations within the larger history. To show something of the process whereby this legend of Middle-earth evolved over the years, he has told the story in his father’s own words by giving, first, its original form, and then passages in prose and verse from later texts that illustrate the narrative as it changed. Presented together for the first time, they reveal aspects of the story, both in event and in narrative immediacy, that were afterwards lost.
The publication comes ten years after the last Middle-earth work of Tolkien’s to come to press, Children of Hurin. You can read more about this new release here. We’d love to read your reviews – share your thoughts in the comments below!
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.