Gentle Giant brought a few of their Mini-Busts for The Hobbit Trilogy to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Fans got a chance to see their Azog, Goblin King with Scribe, Bilbo Baggins, Gollum, and the 2013 PGM Exclusive Dwalin Bust. It was pretty awesome getting a chance to check out all of these busts, but I particularly liked Azog and the Goblin King with Scribe. Both of these busts are massive and looked superb! They are currently available right now from Gentle Giant. So make sure to get your orders in, so you can add these fantastic items to your collection.
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This thing all things devour:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stone to meal;
Slays kings, ruins towns,
And beats high mountains down.
– Gollum to Bilbo
The Hobbit – Riddles in the Dark
We’ve now reached the “we haven’t seen this before” phase of reveals for statues from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The first statue to make the scene in this phase is a familiar face to fans of Middle-earth. That’s right! Gollum our lovely precious Gollum as we saw him in the Riddles in the Dark sequence from the movie. This is also the first time we’ve gotten Gollum in traditional 1:6th scale as a regular release in a line of statues based on Middle-earth.
PACKAGING
The overall graphic layout for Gollum’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 Gollum, graphic work for the title of the movie, and of course the Weta logo. The sides of the box for Gollum 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 for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey line of collectibles. The back of the box contains a great story on Gollum 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
Greg Tozer is back at it on this piece and he got some help from Ben Mauro for bringing this version of Gollum to life. Gollum has been quite the achievement for Weta from the time we first got a great look at him in The Two Towers and ten years later he is even better looking with the new technology. This statue I think captures that improvement in how Gollum looks. The likeness is as good as you’re going to see and the rage Gollum has in realizing he’s lost his precious to Bilbo comes through quite clearly. On his face you get great definition in the wrinkles with how his face squishes together allowing the anger to come through. The body gives you great definition in the rib cage showing how malnourished Gollum is from lingering due to the ring. Two final features on the body that I found very cool are the lack of scars on Gollum’s back and the blood vessels on his arms. The lack of scars of course comes from this being 60 years before The Lord of the Rings and not being tortured by Sauron. While the blood vessels are subtle but a nice attention to detail by Weta.
Gollum really doesn’t have a traditional outfit as we’ve seen with previous releases in this line. He has a simple loincloth with little pouch that he keeps his precious in. The sculpt job done on these are really well done in giving them the look of real leather. Gollum is also the first statue to come with an addition to the base. He’s jumping off a rock deep within the Misty Mountains that makes up his little home area, and it very much comes across sculpt wise looking like the rocks we saw on screen.
PAINT
Gollum does not have the traditional skin tone we’ve seen with the other statues within this line so far. He’s been under the mountain for years with no sunlight so he has a bit lighter look to his skin tone. Weta has of course been able to do this successfully and it once again looks like the Gollum we’ve seen on screen. He even has the nice pinker tone around the eyes you see on screen giving the appearance of someone who gets little sleep. Another success of the skin tone is making sure you don’t lose the wrinkle detail or boney nature of the rib area. One area I mentioned earlier that could have been lost easily is the blood vessels, but they’re really enhanced I believe with the subtle job done by Weta.
Finally, going back to his clothes or lack there of with the loincloth. The paint job does a solid job working with the wrinkles in the sculpt to create the leather look of the loincloth. His rock area has a great worn looking pain job to it with a great lighter tone around the bottom.
Overall
Gollum retails for $249, which is in line with most of the statues so far in the line. Gollum just looks great and works well with the Bilbo statue creating a great scene on your shelf. Weta also did a fantastic job with Gollum making sure he’s able to hold the post by inserting a rod into his leg that goes into the rock. Helping give this statue a great look and feel of that moment in the dark.
PS: The answer to the riddle: Time
SPECIFICATIONS
Gollum is an open edition piece and can be ordered right now from Weta Workshop.
Dimensions:
9.1″ x 14.2″ x 5.9″ (H x W x D)
23 cm x 36 cm x 15 cm
Weight:
2.2 lbs (980g)
PHOTOS
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Six new clips have surfaced from The Hobbit all at once. These aren’t TV spots, and they’re not teasers. They’re full-on sequences of action and dialogue lasting for as much as a minute and a half. It’s so revealing that your head will spin. See as much as six minutes from The Hobbit right now. Warning: some heavy spoilers. We’re not kidding here. Continue reading “OFFICIAL: Six incredible video clips from The Hobbit”
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As we reported earlier, today is The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit day at Comic-Con 2012 (aka #HobbitCon) and LEGO® was kind enough to send us this exclusive image of a brand new ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ Playset! The set is called ‘An Unexpected Gathering’ and features Bag End with six mini-figures. As you can see in the image above, we have Bofur holding an axe, Bombur with a sausage and knife, Dwalin wielding a really large weapon and knife, Balin with chalice, Gandalf the Grey with walking staff, and Bilbo Baggins. As you can see the set is highly detailed with greenery, vegetables and much more. From the looks of the image we’ll have a nice inside component to play with as well. Stay tuned as we report more from Comic-Con 2012! [Live Coverage]
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‘…There are Orcs, very many of them,’ he (Gandalf) said. `And some are large and evil: black Uruks of Mordor. For the moment they are hanging back, but there is something else there. A great cave-troll, I think, or more than one. There is no hope of escape that way…’
I think back on my relatively young life and can fondly recall a few events that I would consider highlights: My marriage to my beautiful wife; the birth of our daughter; TheOneRing.net Oscar Parties from 2002-2004; Finding my dream job with Sideshow; and that time I got to see 26 minutes of The Fellowship of the Ring at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001. As you can read in my original report, I was blown away by the revelation of Peter Jackson’s vision of The Lord of the Rings on the big screen, especially when it came to the infamous Mines of Moria. Sure it was different from the books, but visual execution seemed to transmit my own visions of Middle-earth and put them on the big screen. So many years later, it is now my privilege to relive some of that sequence through the ‘Mines of Moria’ LEGO® Set, now available at most retailers.
As a preface to my review, I need to remind you all that I am not a LEGO® Set expert. My first experience with LEGO® Sets in many years was building the ‘Shelob Attacks‘ set I reviewed last month. So if I get some terminology wrong, please don’t hold it against me :P.
There are a few obvious differences between the ‘Shelob Attacks’ LEGO® Set and ‘The Mines of Moria.’ First, and most obvious, is that the set is much larger and more complex. Whether it is the ‘action’ elements in the gate and right side piece, or it is adding the detailing stickers just in the right place, you will find this set takes anywhere from 3-4 hours to piece together. Let me say…that is not a bad thing! I’m quickly finding myself addicted to the enjoyment and plain old fun of LEGO® Sets again! (After the break I’ve got 84 pictures of the set!)
Continue reading “Product Review: ‘Mines of Moria’ LEGO® Set”
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…the most loathly shape that he had ever beheld…Most like a spider she was, but huger than the great hunting beasts…Great horns she had, and behind her short stalk-like neck was her huge swollen body, a vast bloated bag, swaying and sagging between her legs; its great bulk was black, blotched with livid marks, but the belly underneath was pale and luminous and gave forth a stench. Her legs were bent, with great knobbed joints high above her back, and hairs that stuck out like steel spines, and at each leg’s end there was a claw…
Shelob.
For every Tolkien fan, the name leaps from the pages (and screen) of Middle-earth to invade a commonly held fear in our everyday life – the fear of an impossibly large, eight-legged, creepy-crawly finding us in the dark. *shiver* According to Wikipedia, it is estimated that 55% of women and 18% of men are Arachnophobic. You can count me among those with a mild fear of spiders, which basically means I have to ‘act’ the role of father/husband when it comes disposing of them. I can’t very well unleash a high-pitched scream and run away now can I…
So when I first saw the ‘Shelob Attacks’ LEGO® Set at the 2012 Toy Fare, I have to admit…I was a bit creeped out. Yes, its LEGO® blocks, but the piece is still surprisingly life-like. In fact, one of the reporters getting the sneak peek at this set could not go within 5 feet of the display. Yes, he was that Arachnophobic!
Before we get to the meat of this review, I will warn you ahead of time, that I am in no way a LEGO® Set expert. To be honest, I haven’t touched the popular construction toys for possibly 10 years, so I’m a bit behind the times when it comes to the licensed themed sets. However, I can tell you, within 1 minute of opening the box, the wonderful memories of LEGO® set building came swooping back.
Continue reading “Product Review: ‘Shelob Attacks’ LEGO® Set”
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Gentle Giant brought a few of their Mini-Busts for The Hobbit Trilogy to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Fans got a chance to see their Azog, Goblin King with Scribe, Bilbo Baggins, Gollum, and the 2013 PGM Exclusive Dwalin Bust. It was pretty awesome getting a chance to check out all of these busts, but I particularly liked Azog and the Goblin King with Scribe. Both of these busts are massive and looked superb! They are currently available right now from Gentle Giant. So make sure to get your orders in, so you can add these fantastic items to your collection.
