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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One of my favorite moments from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was seeing Erebor finally come to life. The whole thing just simply blew me away but the detail and how cool the front gate look, really took my breath away. I’ve been awaiting some kind of collectible to come around and the first one landed this week from our friends at Weta Workshop. Created by artist Nick Keller fans can add The Front Gate of Erebor Art print showing the design of what we would later see in the movie. This print comes in at $50 and is available to ship right now. Don’t hesitate to add this great collectible to your collection!
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Courtesy of Ringer Oleander Took on the TORn messageboards, we have some exciting new merchandising key artwork to ogle. Continue reading “New key artwork for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with Bilbo and Thorin!”
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Comic-Con 2013 brought us multiple new items that are going to be released for sale over the course of the next year. One of the new items that you could purchase while at the show or order for in-stock purchase via the Weta Workshop website is the Bofur the Dwarf statue. Bofur is one of three new Dwarven statues that was displayed at Comic-Con, along with Kili (Kili Review) and Gloin ,who is due to go up for order later this year.
PACKAGING
The overall graphic layout for Bofur’s box stays the same as we’ve seen with previous entries in the line. Per the format we’ve come to know, the front of the box gives you a great shot of Bofur, graphic work for the title of the movie, and of course the Weta logo. The sides of the box for Bofur also present a familiar format with different looks at the statue. While the other side of the box presents some of the various products you can get in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey line of collectibles. The back of the box contains a great story on Bofur as well as information regarding details of the character and statue. The Styrofoam on the inside is typical with what we’ve become used to getting with these statues.
SCULPTING
Lindsey Crummett is back at it again with Bofur. This will be the third Dwarve she’s sculpted in this series following Baling and Kili. As we mentioned in our Kili review she is also responsible for the amazing Azog the Defiler on Warg we saw during Comic-Con 2013. As been the case so far with every item she’s worked on Bofur is another exceptional addition to our collections.
The likeness of Bofur is pretty darn good. You get the solid likeness that James Nesbitt has while wearing the entire getup to play Bofur and you also have that ornery smile that he has in multiple parts of the movie. The work on the hair is also nicely done once again giving the real life appearance as well as the work done on his very unique looking beard. Bofur’s outfit is a little closer to Bombur but you also get some nice blend of leather with the cloth. So you get some great design work on the edging of his outfit in the sleeve area and on his vest. His boots have a great fur design on them, which comes through from the actual costume. I also love the little details of this piece with the little leather pouch having great stitch work, his awesome scarf, and that cool hat which blends the wool/leather look.
Bofur also comes ready for battle as he’s about to swing that giant mace. I’m really impressed with the detail in this wepon. The wooden detail in the staff of this weapon has a great worn wood look to it and near the top it appears to be wrapped some leather. Of course the end has been recreated to match the prop from the movie in spectacular fashion. It has all the beat up metal markings sculpted into it that make it appear to have actually been used.
PAINT
Bofur continues the streak of very well painted statues from Weta Workshop. The skin tones use the proper paint mixture to not only make the statue look like a shrunken Dwarf. I also love the work done on the eyes of Bofur in that they help sell the ornery look that he has. Once, again I think after making sure that you create a mini-Dwarf is making the outfit look real. The paint department did this in spades. The outfit has a real dirty look to it that helps show off the wear and tear this outfit has scene, but you do not lose the little details in the outfit. You also get the proper color of the outfit as we saw it on screen. Bofur’s weapon also has a fantastic paint job with it helping to create a old used weapon. The wood has the proper worn look as does the metal piece at the top both working with the sculpting job.
Overall
Bofur retails for $249, which is in line with most of the statues so far in the line. I’ve loved Bofur from the start with his unique look and personality in the film. He looks great and helps create a really great looking Hobbit display. I want to add that with every release in this line Weta is just continuing to show how great they with these statues.
SPECIFICATIONS
Bofur is limited to just 1000 pieces worldwide and in-stock ready to purchase. Get your order in now before he sells out.
Dimensions:
10.6″ x 9.1″ x 5.9″ (H x W x D)
27 cm x 23 cm x 15 cm
Weight:
2.2 lbs (1.0 kg)
PHOTOS
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Weta Workshop has a couple of really neat items for you with their latest releases. These items are fantastic and they allow you to stretch that collecting budget all at the same time. The two newest collectibles from Weta are a very cool prop replica of Bilbo’s Acorn Buttons and a pin celebrating Durin’s Day. The buttons are an exact replica of the buttons used on the jacket by Martin Freeman. You can order one of these buttons for $11 or you can order them as a set of 5 for $45. The Durin’s Day pin celebrates the day that will be of the utmost importance to Thorin and company for getting into Erebor. The pin has some great looking Dwarvish script and a Thrush on it. Fans can order this pin from Weta’s website right now for $11. All of these items are in-stock right now and will be shipping from the New Zealand warehouse.
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Now this is some proper poster art. Fresh off the presses, enjoy this great teaser poster for The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug.
One observation, could Bilbo be on the Ravenhill? Though, perhaps it’s too close for that.
Plus now we know for certain, the teaser trailer will debut on Tuesday, June 11th, at 10am PDT (1pm EDT)! (Editor’s note: it does say PST in the original post, but I am going to assume that is a typo.)
If you’re not sure what time that is in your area, we’ve done up this little Event Announcer so you can look it up!
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