As I mention in the video, one of the great things about Weta is that they listen to us, the fans, about which statues we want to see. They run polls via the Flame of Udun, the official Weta forums, which allows fans to chime in with something that means a lot to them and often enough those pieces eventually get made.
The Lady Eowyn of Rohan statue is one of the pieces that we’ve been asking for since The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers came out. This beautiful piece captures Eowyn just after she’s stormed out of the Golden Hall, looking out of Rohan in both frustration as well as sadness. If you’re one of the collectors that has the Eowyn as Dernhelm statue, you have a wonderful bookend set of two very pivotal moments for this character. If you’re looking to add this statue it is currently in-stock in the US and NZ Warehouses. For fans in the EU, it is in pre-order status until they get more in stock. Eowyn is priced at US$275 and has a small edition size of only 750 pieces worldwide. Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s Lady Eowyn of Rohan Statue Review”
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”
Adding to the list of rich foreigners who are buying land in New Zealand is singing sensation Justin Bieber. Fresh off a tour of NZ, during which he tweeted his love for the place, the ultimate Bielieber has entered negotiations to buy a substantial tract of land at Glenorchy, near Queenstown. The property includes various film sites from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies, and is where many Lothlorien scenes were shot.
“What the world doesn’t know is that Justin is a massive Lord of the Rings fan – but the movies only, not really the books which he’s never read,” says a source close to the singer. “Although he knows about Tom Bombadil, he thinks he’s hilarious. He’s seen some Bombadil fan videos online and he wants to create his own, but using these woods that appeared in the films.
“His plans are to build a replica of the horse-people hall and hold big Middle-earth parties exclusively for his friends – but he’ll likely want some local ring-ins as character props, so anyone who looks really hobbity will have a good shot at being invited.”
Bieber spent a few days in Queenstown after his concert in Auckland before jetting off to South America to continue his Purpose World Tour. The source added: “I can say for a fact that he was overheard having several phone conversations with a “PJ.” Whether that was ‘the’ Peter Jackson, I can’t really say. I just know the conversations definitely mentioned Bombadil, something called the Sil-merryland, and roles of interest to JayBee.”
Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien will recognize that the ‘Sil-merryland’ almost certainly refers to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, an epic compilation of stories recounting, in part, the struggle of the peoples of Middle-earth against the dark lord Morgoth. “Getting the film rights was apparently going to be a major hurdle” said the source. “‘Impossible’ and ‘a real long shot’ were overheard quite often.” But apparently Justin hopes to use his considerable influence to sweet-talk some of the members of the Tolkien family and Tolkien Estate who are huge fans, and devoted Bieliebers, to release at least limited rights to some of the Silmarillion stories.
Regarding possible roles for Bieber, one can only guess. Given that his physique doesn’t lend itself to playing the rotund Tom Bombadil, and Bombadil doesn’t appear in The Silmarillion anyway, fans can only speculate that it would have to refer to some other major role. Given Justin’s rather elfin features, the roles of the heroic Fingolfin, or even the proud Feanor come to mind. The mention of “growing acceptance of gender neutrality trends” was reportedly also overheard by our source, so the roles of Luthien or Melian can’t be ruled out completely.
Meanwhile, if the Queenstown land purchase goes ahead, the Mayor of Queenstown Lakes District has promised to name Bieber as an official inhabitant of Middle-earth. “I’m sure I can get Peter Jackson down here to dub him with a replica of Anduril – the guy owes me a favour for having to muck up all the horse poo he left behind after filming the charge of the Rohirrim,” says the Mayor.
As I mention in the video, one of the great things about Weta is that they listen to us, the fans, about which statues we want to see. They run polls via the Flame of Udun, the official Weta forums, which allows fans to chime in with something that means a lot to them and often enough those pieces eventually get made.
