The Summer of Smaug is in full go, as we get closer to Comic-Con 2013. We have had the first teaser poster, first trailer, and the first of Sir Peter Jackson’s Vlogs for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Now, we get the first product for the second film capturing a key moment in the Traveling Party’s journey to Erebor. The moment captured in this mini-statue is one of the participants in the barrel escape. The first character to be done in this series of mini-barrel riders is our loveable Hobbit Bilbo Baggins. This statue is a pre-release before the movie and shows the awesomeness of the collectibles to come from what we will see in the second film.
PACKAGING
The overall graphic for this mini-statue box is the same as we’ve seen from other statues for The Hobbit be it smaller than say a normal 1:6th statue box. Per the format we’ve come to know the front of the box gives you a great shot of Bilbo, the title of the movie (now saying though The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), a special wax looking stamp saying it’s a preview collectible, and of course the Weta logo. As we’ve seen before you get a couple of shots of the statue on one side of the box. However, the other side gives you information about the statue and how it’s tied to the second film. While the back of the box gives you a look at a couple of items that you can buy from Weta.
SCULPTING
Brigitte Wuest is a name many fans that have collected statues based on the characters of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit should know quite well. Ms. Wuest is back with another amazing piece. Doing a statue of this size and its smaller than even some of the previous mini-statues you’ve seen reviewed here before is a challenge. Well, the job done to make this statue detailed and capture a likeness was a successful one. When you look at this piece you see Martin Freeman and at a full 1:6th scale that’s a great thing, but even more so when you look at the size of this statue. Ms. Wuest did a superb job of making sure that we are able to have a great likeness of Mr. Freeman as he plays Bilbo in this moment.
The outfit is also very well done and there is great amount of detail within what you do see with this statue. His jacket very much looks like its real cloth, as do his pants. His hair also has some great detail in it very much looking like the hair he has on his head as we see it on screen. The barrel Bilbo is holding on to is a very detailed piece with all the little bits and pieces we see in barrels here in the real world. You also get the rushing water of the river, which we will see all these barrels making their way through. There is quite a bit of detail here when you examine the statue seeing how it’s made to look as if the water is a treacherous ride for the company.
PAINT
The skin tone on this piece is well done as usual by the folks at Weta Workshop. You look at Bilbo and you see someone who very much looks healthy and alive, which is something you want in your collectibles. Aiding the sculpting detail of the clothing is the paint job, which puts the final touches to create the cloth look we expect. The barrel as I said has a great sculpting job done to give it the proper details, but the job to put the cherry on top comes with the paint job. This allows for the barrel to look like its truly made of wood and something you would see in the real world. Of course you have the water, which is, has a great blue paint job creating the illusion of water. However, the coolest aspect of the paint job is the clear lacquer that’s been applied to this statue. In order to give it the proper wet look Weta applied a clear lacquer to the Bilbo, the barrel, and the water. Weta did a fantastic job of doing this so it has the proper wet look but not something that looked slimy.
Overall
Bilbo retails for $65, which is a fantastic price along with something most collectors can fit into a tight budget. The price will also make it much easier for collectors to get all the members of the Traveling Party. As I said the sculpt and paint on this statue is really well done and even more so when you factor in the size of the piece. I want to add that with every release in this line Weta is just continuing to show how great they with these statues.
SPECIFICATIONS
Bilbo is the first in this series of mini-barrel rider statues. He is an open edition and can be purchased for just $65.
Dimensions:
2.7″ x 4.1″ x 4.1″ (H x W x D)
6.8 cm x 10.5 cm x 10.5 cm
This is the year of Smaug for fans of Middle-earth. We’ve already had a great trailer giving us a solid look at the head of the Dragon and cool teaser poster. Weta Workshop has produced another exclusive again for this years Comic-Con and it follows the Dragon theme I previously mentioned. This year for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug they will have a T-Shirt with the title of the movie on the front and the eye of Smaug as we see it at the end of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The shirt will be limited to only 500 shirts and can be had at their booth 3513B.
Today is the big day! The first trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will be released worldwide at 1pm EDT/10am PDT (All Timezones).
TheOneRing.net’s staff will be on hand both LIVE and behind the scenes to digest, analyze and report on all the juicy tidbits from the new trailer. Will we see more of Smaug? Beorn? Many questions will be answered in just a few short hours. The anticipation is palpable, and our crack staff at TheOneRing.net will be ready to share all the juicy details as they are available.
Many people are asking us where the trailer will debut. We do not yet know precisely where the launch will occur. When we do, we will let you know! However, we do suggest keeping an eagle eye on the following in the meantime:
Mention Smaug, the classic storybook dragon of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” and a ray of delight flickers across Benedict Cumberbatch’s pale eyes.
Smaug, “a most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm” of Tolkien lore, is for many children their first encounter with fire-breathing, scaly dragons. “First one for me,” Cumberbatch is quick to add. “My dad read the book to me and it was a bedtime treat if I had done well. If I had been a good boy, I’d get two chapters as opposed to maybe one or none if I had been really bad.”
As his father, actor Timothy Carlton, brought the colorful characters of “The Hobbit” to life, a film played out in young Cumberbatch’s mind – decades before he would be cast as Smaug in Peter Jackson’s own film “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.” [Read More]
Bilbo set against Smaug by Ringer Skaan. Last night I stumbled on this very clever post on TheOneRing.net’s boards. In it, user Skaan suggested that the promotional picture of Bilbo sprawled atop Smaug’s hoard could offer a guide to the size of Jackson’s version of Smaug (the Magnificent).
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
Update 1: According to some sources, this is a sculptural representation of the Dragon from the cgi animated show ‘Jane and the Dragon.’ The show, co-produced and created by WETA Workshop is a likely candidate for something to appear in the Roxy, but upon further review of the Dragon from the show, it looks nothing like this particular sculpture. [seen here]
Update 2: The ‘beak’ of this Dragon does not seem to resemble the very brief ‘nose’ we see at the end of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. [Seen Here]
Update 3: The largest piece of evidence that this is NOT Smaug is the fact that our phones are not ringing off the hook from official entities. That is a pretty clear indicator that we are not shedding light on something that is ‘top secret.’ They are all probably sitting back and having a good chuckle as our fan community goes a little crazy for a few hours 🙂
Potential Spoilers Ahead! We cannot imagine a scenario in which the production would release an image, or in this case, a sculpture of Smaug prematurely. Yet here we are with an image from a theater in Wellington of a large dragon statue. Here’s the full report from the Ringer Arowin:
So, we went to the new Star Trek movie last night at Roxy Cinema here in Miramar, Wellington and when we came out a statue was sitting in the middle of the foyer which either we missed or was put there during the movie. Not saying it’s Smaug or anything, but I took a picture for you to make your own mind up about it!
The statue placement is usually reserved for statues of characters from PJ films. THey’ve had TinTin, Gandalf, Gollum etc
We are including the image after the break in case you don’t want to be spoiled and this is actually Smaug from “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”!
Do we think this is Smaug? If you look closely at the eye in the picture and compare it to the eye from the end of “An Unexpected Journey” there could be similarities, but ultimately the fact that this statue is existing for all of the public to see right now in Wellington, makes it highly unlikely this is the real thing. That would just be crazy!
If you are in The Roxy soon, snag some more pics and send them our way!
The Summer of Smaug is in full go, as we get closer to Comic-Con 2013. We have had the first teaser poster, first trailer, and the first of Sir Peter Jackson’s Vlogs for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Now, we get the first product for the second film capturing a key moment in the Traveling Party’s journey to Erebor. The moment captured in this mini-statue is one of the participants in the barrel escape. The first character to be done in this series of mini-barrel riders is our loveable Hobbit Bilbo Baggins. This statue is a pre-release before the movie and shows the awesomeness of the collectibles to come from what we will see in the second film.
The overall graphic for this mini-statue box is the same as we’ve seen from other statues for The Hobbit be it smaller than say a normal 1:6th statue box. Per the format we’ve come to know the front of the box gives you a great shot of Bilbo, the title of the movie (now saying though The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), a special wax looking stamp saying it’s a preview collectible, and of course the Weta logo. As we’ve seen before you get a couple of shots of the statue on one side of the box. However, the other side gives you information about the statue and how it’s tied to the second film. While the back of the box gives you a look at a couple of items that you can buy from Weta.
Brigitte Wuest is a name many fans that have collected statues based on the characters of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit should know quite well. Ms. Wuest is back with another amazing piece. Doing a statue of this size and its smaller than even some of the previous mini-statues you’ve seen reviewed here before is a challenge. Well, the job done to make this statue detailed and capture a likeness was a successful one. When you look at this piece you see Martin Freeman and at a full 1:6th scale that’s a great thing, but even more so when you look at the size of this statue. Ms. Wuest did a superb job of making sure that we are able to have a great likeness of Mr. Freeman as he plays Bilbo in this moment.
The skin tone on this piece is well done as usual by the folks at Weta Workshop. You look at Bilbo and you see someone who very much looks healthy and alive, which is something you want in your collectibles. Aiding the sculpting detail of the clothing is the paint job, which puts the final touches to create the cloth look we expect. The barrel as I said has a great sculpting job done to give it the proper details, but the job to put the cherry on top comes with the paint job. This allows for the barrel to look like its truly made of wood and something you would see in the real world. Of course you have the water, which is, has a great blue paint job creating the illusion of water. However, the coolest aspect of the paint job is the clear lacquer that’s been applied to this statue. In order to give it the proper wet look Weta applied a clear lacquer to the Bilbo, the barrel, and the water. Weta did a fantastic job of doing this so it has the proper wet look but not something that looked slimy.
Today is the big day! The first trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will be released worldwide at 1pm EDT/10am PDT (
