At the end of the second week in September a cart came in through Bywater from the direction of Brandywine Bridge in broad daylight. An old man was driving it all alone. He wore a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, and a silver scarf. He had a long white beard and bushy eyebrows that stuck out beyond the brim of his hat. Small hobbit-children ran after the cart all through Hobbiton and right up the hill. It had a cargo of fireworks, as they rightly guessed. — From A Long-Expected Party, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
In Peter Jackson’s LOTR film, the first moment of Gandalf arriving in Hobbiton and finding Frodo waiting on the trail were critical because it established two essential characters and the setting of Hobbiton. It also introduced audiences to the scale of Hobbits with human-sized characters including forced perspective of Frodo riding in Gandalf’s cart.
The meeting serves as the entry point for Lord of the Rings LEGO as well with set 9469 introducing important characters in an easy-to-build kit that is also easy to afford at $12.99 retail in the U.S. It will likely find itself as birthday present to and from friends many times over. Because it is recommended for ages eight to 14, I enlisted Logan (8) and Dresden (10), to assist with the build of the kit. Continue reading “Product review: LOTR LEGO ‘Gandalf Arrives’ set”
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Today, Weta Workshop put up their most detailed environment yet. The Barad-Dur: Fortress of Sauron has gone up for order and after seeing this at Comic-Con just last month this is something fans will want to make sure to figure out how to get into their collection. Barad-Dur took the team at Weta over 1,500 hours to complete and when you get a chance to see this you will be able to see why.
This environment is a perfect rendering of what was on screen and will take you right to the moment we first saw Barad-Dur on screen. Barad-Dur comes in with a price tag of $699.99 and an edition size of only 1,000 pieces world wide which are sure to sell quickly.
You do have time to save though as this environment will not be shipping until December this year or next January.
[Pre-order your Barad-Dur]
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Our final look at the booths of Comic-Con 2012 ends with Gentle Giant.
Gentle Giant will be doing busts of many of the characters appearing in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Until Comic-Con we had not had a chance to see just what Gentle Giant would have in store for fans. Their booth did not disappoint.
The four characters making an appearance at Comic-Con were: Thorin (Comic-Con 2012 Exclusive), Gandalf The Grey, Gollum, and Dwalin (2012 PGM member exclusive). All four of these busts looked great and I think their quality means fans will be jumping all over this line. Plus the ballpark figure for this range of collectibles will run $70.
Continue reading “Collecting The Precious: Gentle Giant’s Comic-Con booth”
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Our HobbitCon (aka Comic-Con) recap continues with a look at the Sideshow Collectibles booth. Featured this year we many of the items that you have seen reviewed in this column as well as some great upcoming items to further your Middle-earth collection. The new items included the Ringwraith Statue (shipping in August), the Twilight Witch-King statue, and the imposing Ringwraith on Steed Premium Format. They also had two items that we know very little about: The Sauron Premium Format and the Frodo/Sam in Orc Armor statue. Both of these items ranked among the very best at their booth and are sure to be items that any The Lord of the Rings fans will want to add to their collection. As we get more information on these two collectibles you can count on TORn giving you the scoop on how you can add these to your collection. Follow the break for a video tour of the booth as well as our complete gallery! [Sideshow Collectibles]
Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Comic-Con 2012 Sideshow Collectibles Booth”
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Part 2 (see Part 1) of our Weta Workshop Comic-Con 2012 coverage is an comprehensive video of their booth. This is an official booth tour given by Tim Launder, Business Manager of Weta Workshop. In the video below, you get a great explanation of the entire booth layout and the products that Weta featured, including items from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films. Thanks to WETA for providing this unique opportunity! [Weta Workshop]
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As, we continue our HobbitCon coverage we have a two part experience at the Weta Workshop booth. With Part 1 you’re gonna seeall the pictures and a video of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey statues as well as The Lord of the Rings collectibles at the booth. The statues from The Hobbit looked off the charts great with so much detail, great likenesses, and a great touch by putting the Dwarven map on the elegant simple black base. The Lord of the Rings collectibles at the booth were equally as impressive including a couple items I was eagerly looking forward to seeing in person. The items I looked forward to seeing the most were the Barad-Dur environment and the Fellowship mini-statues. Barad-Dur is the coolest environment I’ve seen and it will absolutely catch the eye of anyone looking at your collection. So don’t miss out on this amazing piece when it goes up for Pre-Order July 31st. The other item or items that stood out to me from The Lord of the Rings section as the three part Fellowship statues which have already started Pre-Ordering. This set is something we’ve all waited a long time to order and seeing them all together in person was a highlight for me at the show. These are must have items if you’re a hardcore Ringer like me. Read the full story below for the video and gallery. [Weta Collectibles]
Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Comic-Con 2012 Weta Workshop Booth – Part 1”
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