One of my favorite pieces from Comic-Con 2018 was the amazing Balrog bust that showed up Saturday of the show. I got to see this piece up close both as what you can order now and a pre-prototype. I have to say that I very much prefer what fans will be able to order. The clear resin flames that light up are so freaking cool and well done. Our friends at Weta Workshop have done a superb job of using the right paints to make sure these look just right, which is tough when you go for the clear resin on flames. Jamie Beswarick as usual knocks the overall sculpt of the Balrog out of the park and as a fan of the character I love his work on this creature. Fans can order this piece right now for $699 and with an edition size of 888 he won’t be around too long. As a bonus fans won’t have to wait too long to get him as he’s due to ship in November of this year.
Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s Balrog, Flame of Udun Bust Pre-Order”
Category: Shop
One of the new Mini Epics revealed at Comic-Con 2018 last month was my favorite creature within Middle-earth The Balrog. This guy has had me mesmerized ever since I saw it on the big screen, when I first saw The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I’ve got several collectibles of him in my collection and when it was pointed out that they had this one for sale at the show, I had to have him.
You can get the Balrog for $99 and depending on where you have him shipped from, can get him shipped right now. He’s a massive piece, quite heavy, and super well done. Added with the very cool anime style of this line, its another great piece from our friends at Weta Workshop. Also joining the review as a special guest, is a Mini Epic of the Ring-bearer himself. Frodo Baggins.
Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s Balrog Mini Epic Review”
Earlier this summer, TORn staffer greendragon had the great pleasure of going across to Edinburgh to meet with the good folks at Oscha Slings, a Scottish company who are our fellow licensees with Middle-earth Enterprises. This company, created by a father and daughter who are both big fans of Tolkien, makes beautiful fabrics, primarily for baby wraps, but also for wonderful throws, scarves and bags.
The company started after daughter Zoe fell in love with using a baby sling with her own children. She wanted to support parents who like the ‘baby wrap’ way of carrying (or even ‘wearing’!) an infant, and felt that most fabric designs were based on what the children would like, rather than what parents might like to wear. There was a gap in the market for elegant fabrics, and so Zoe and her graphic designer father began creating celtic, mythical and art nouveau weaves. As big fans for Middle-earth, they were delighted to be able to secure a license from Middle-earth Enterprises, and so begin dreaming up amazing designs, in a variety of art styles to represent the different races of Tolkien’s realm.
All of Oscha Slings fabrics are designed in Scotland and woven in England. They source their materials in the UK as far as is possible, and always make sure that anything they use is cruelty free, as organic as possible, and uses no harmful chemicals. (The company feel strongly that being as ecologically friendly as possible would be approved of by the Professor.) They have an army of fans, and when you see their incredible work, it’s not surprising! Many of the baby wrap fans are also Tolkien fans, and they are very vocal about what they want to see; one fan even designed a Mithril pattern for Oscha Slings! They have very active fans on Facebook, and 35,000 members in their international fan-run community – they’re no strangers to passionate fan bases!
Oscha also have plenty of items for those of us who don’t have babies to transport! Fans have even been known to hang their fabrics on the wall, as beautiful tapestries. Others have ordered smaller pieces of the fabrics to use for their own quilting projects.
We’re hoping to have some goodies from Oscha Slings for fans to look at (and maybe even take home) at DragonCon and New York ComicCon this year. Meanwhile, you can check out all the gorgeous items available at Oscha Slings here.
A week or so ago, we reported that Graham McTavish (aka Dwalin) is going to be directing his first movie, a horror comedy called This Guest of Summer. He’ll be joined in it by fellow dwarf actors Adam Brown (Ori) and Dean O’Gorman (Fili), along with Graham’s Outlander chums Stephen Walters (Angus) and Duncan Lacroix (Murtagh).
Having promised to keep TORn in the loop (and let us have behind the scenes access when filming gets going!), Graham has been in touch to let us know the crowdfunder has passed the halfway mark! They’ve also been adding many cool ‘perks’ along the way. For example, you (well, your photo!) could appear as part of the set dressing of the film. Or you could have a unique piece of art work created specially for you by a cast member (imagine if Dean O’Gorman wrote you a poem…!) Or – in the ‘Grand Perk package’ – you could have a special guided tour of Hobbiton in New Zealand with Graham himself!
Here’s Graham to tell you a bit more about the film:
And this is what Dean O’Gorman has to say:
Check out the Indiegogo campaign here, show the lads your support, and see what goodies you might like to claim! And watch TORn for news as filming gets underway.
Comic-Con 2018 is in the books, and if you followed us on Social Media you had a chance to see us share what was going on at our friends at Weta Workshop’s booth. Now that I’m back, I wanted to share all the pics I took of the wonderful things I saw at their booth. They had the jaw dropping (watch a recap of the Weta live video when they unveiled the new pieces) Master Collection Treebeard, new Balrog Bust, and the stunning Arwen on Asfaloth. All of these pieces were absolutely awesome and all may end up in my collection! The one piece we can all add right now is the Arwen on Asfaloth statue. She comes in with a price tag of $699 and an edition size of 750. However, fans will have to be patient until early 2019 to get her. In the meantime please enjoy the booth tour and various shots of what amazingness was at the Weta booth.
Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s Comic-Con 2018 Recap”
Easily one of the show stealing pieces last year at SDCC, Thranduil on Elk just drew you in when you visited the Weta Workshop booth. This had fans online chattering at just how amazing it looked through the pictures posted by TORn and other collectors at SDCC. Needless to say, all of us were looking forward to his arrival. There were some snags on the production version, making this a somewhat controversial piece within the fanbase. It’s still a super impressive and overall good looking piece and one that will look good in your collection. As always here are my thoughts on Thranduil on Elk.
Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s Thranduil on Elk Review”