We are now about halfway through the first Round of our Middle-earth March Madness, and some of the match ups are really close, while others have one contestant running away with the race. Because this year’s bracket has the newly added twist of featuring characters portrayed by the actors who brought our most beloved Middle-earth characters to life, this rundown will include a little about those non-Middle-earth characters.
The traditional match ups first: Boromir is facing off with Gimli in a close race, make sure you vote before the evening of March 22, this one is close enough that your vote will definitely matter. The contest between Samwise and Merry has the acclaimed gardener running away with nearly all the points on this one. Surprisingly, the other match up of Hobbits is unexpectedly close, with Frodo holding a slim lead over Pippin. To cap off the Fellowship match ups, Aragorn is soundly beating Legolas.
With the non-ME characters, there is just as much variety in vote percentages. Sean Bean’s portrayal of Eddard Stark in Game of Thrones has a narrow lead over Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner, from Pirates of the Caribbean. The next race is just as close, between Viggo’s portrayal of real life long distance, endurance horse racer Frank Hopkins with a slim lead over John Rhys Davies’ Sallah from Raiders of the Lost Ark. There is a neck and neck contest going on between Dom’s Charlie Pace, the recovering addict rock star from Lost has a very narrow lead over Billy Boyd’s Barrett Bonden, the coxswain on the HMS Surprise in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Not close is the fact that Sean Astin’s earnest performance of Rudy is decidedly running away with the race, leaving Elijah Wood’s Ryan Newman from Wilfred.
“You All Everybody” should get out and vote before 10pm et on March 22.
DIVISION II
In this division, the ME match ups are as follows: Galadriel has firm control of the contest with Eomer, the Lady of Light is not easily taken out of events. Faramir has a small lead over Old Bilbo, so you may still be able to give a helping hand to the Hobbit that found the One Ring in the first place. Eowyn and Gollum are nearly neck and neck, can the Shieldmaiden of Rohan defeat the sneakiness of Smeagol? Her uncle Theoden, however, is wiping the floor with Denethor, who became tainted by his contact with the Palantir.
The non-ME roles are proving interesting as well: Cate Blanchett’s Hela, the Goddess of Death from Thor: Ragnarok has a decent lead over Andy Serkis’ Caesar, the ape leader from Planet of the Apes. At the same time, Karl Urban’s Dr. ‘Bones’ McCoy is soundly beating Sir Ian Holm’s Ash, the rather inhuman android from the original Alien movie, who admired the xenomorph just a little more than he valued human life. There are two battles that are very close and would benefit from a last fit of voting on your part. Those are between David Wenham’s Carl from Van Helsing just edging out Bernard Hill’s Captain Smith from Titanic, who did his duty and went down with the ship. The other close battle is between Miranda Otto’s Mary Ann from War of the World with a slim margin over John Noble’s brilliant, but crazy Walter Bishop from Fringe.
DIVISION III
On the other side of the bracket, let’s see who is doing well for the traditional match ups: Believe it or not, Gandalf is stomping all over Young Bilbo, guess that is punishment for not telling the truth about finding the One Ring. Dwalin has a sizable lead over Radagast, but then, he does have a massive War Hammer, this is not surprising. Amongst the Dwarves from The Hobbit, Kili is slaying pick pocket Nori, while Thorin is not really faring well against Saruman. Feel free to give a boost to those you wish to support and share with your friends, it’s all in good fun.
The non-ME side of things has: Sir Ian McKellen’s Magneto soundly thrashing Richard Armitage’s John Thornton from North and South, the clever mutant is probably dismantling all of Thorton’s looms as this is written. Graham MacTavish’s Dougal from Outlander is all but finished at the hands of Martin Freeman’s Dr. Watson, it’s those modern Doctors he can’t handle, clearly. As expected, Christopher Lee’s Count Dooku from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith is trouncing Jed Brophy’s Dagda More from the Shannara, this writer would love to see this battle realized on screen. A little less expected, but even cooler for that is that Sylvestor McCoy’s Doctor has the upper hand on Aiden Turner’s Ross Poldark, Time Lords really do know how to come out on top when needed.
DIVISION IV
Last division match ups, for the traditional segment: Elrond has a decent lead over Smaug, which is fascinating to see. The Master of Laketown is no match for Tauriel, she saw his selfishness and is leaving him to his own ruin. There is a relatively close match between Thranduil and Bard, with the Elven King of Mirkwood edging out the Bowman of Laketown. Bard’s son Bain is faring even worse in his match up with Azog. This calls for some voter help, Bain came to his father’s aid while the town was burning under the wrath of an angry dragon, the least we can do is vote for them and see how things play out.
Over on the final division of non-ME characters: Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock is so soundly beating Stephen Fry’s Oscar Wilde, it’s almost as if something very large has been dropped on him. This writer’s favorite match up in this round is Luke Evan’s Gaston from Beauty and the Beast against Hugo Weaving’s Agent Smith from the Matrix. A battle of the bragalicious Gaston up against the master manipulator within the Matrix is just something that should be onscreen. Right now, Agent Smith is defeating Gaston. A match that is all but over is that of Lee Pace’s Ronan from Guardians of the Galaxy wiping the floor with John Bell’s Young Iain from Outland, poor lad never stood a chance. And the very last match up to get coverage tonight see’s a near tie between Evangeline Lilly’s Kate Austen from Lost squaring off with Manu Bennet’s Deathstroke from Arrow, another match up I would love to see on screen.
Last chance to vote in Round 1 is 10pm et on Thursday, March 22. Round 2 will begin on Friday, March 23.
If, like many of us, you heard about the making of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies before they even started production (and were old enough to read at the time, haha), you probably remember the good old days of endless debates and discussions around casting rumors! Was Sean Connery really considered to portray Gandalf? Was Sylvester McCoy considered for a role long before he brought Radagast to life in The Hobbit movies? This interesting article over at moviepilot.com puts a number of those rumors to rest.
Do you think Patrick Stewart would have made a good Gandalf? What about Jake Gyllenhaal as Frodo? If there are any rumors left over from the olden days that aren’t covered in this article, let us know in the comments section and we’ll see what we can find out. Read the full article here.
August is a busy month for birthdays in the LOTR/Hobbit movie-verse. So from all of us here at theonering.net, we’d like to wish everyone a very Happy Birthday.
Our first glimpse of Colorado came with the Rockies where what appeared to be the Lonely Mountain peeked out of the cloud-cover. As the three of us travelling together (my sister, Fili, and our mother “Dis”) are known by Dwarven names, we took this as a good omen. After all, the people of Colorado are mountain folk.
Upon descending on our eagles, we took some time to adjust to the lay of the land before the start of the convention. Having only really experienced the 150k strong crowds at San Diego Comic Con, we didn’t know what to expect from DCC. As it was, the massive line waiting to get in on Friday morning was intimidating. However, upon seeing a Gandalf among the cosplayers, our nerves were set to rest. We were among our people. Our mom even made up her own Dwarven costume for Dis!
We joined up with Bofur (Justin!) and hosted our first panel of the day that discussed the history of TheOneRing.net. Given that this year is the site’s 15th anniversary, there was a lot to cover! Many of the folks who attended enjoyed reminiscing about the old days of anonymous set reports that often spurred fan rage online. With time comes perspective, and it was fascinating to look at the response Arwen’s intended presence at Helm’s Deep received vs. the introduction of Tauriel in the new Hobbit films.
From the 31st October till 2nd November, Malta’s major annual fan event on the world of films, comics and video games will take place; and it has been announced that Sylvester McCoy (Radagast the Brown), will be one of the special guests during the three-day event.
The actor, who portrayed the seventh Doctor in the popular TV Show Doctor Who, will take part in a group of activities which bring together all the fandoms into one, highly-entertaining hub. This will involve Q&A sessions with the actor and autograph signings.
One of the showstoppers at Comic-Con 2013 was a character I had been looking forward to seeing since the The Hobbit Trilogy was announced. Being pretty pleased with how this character was done left me looking forward to finally adding a statue of him to my collection. Thankfully that wish came true when I made my voyage to the Weta booth during Comic-Con last year. I was really blown away by the job done on the Radagast the Brown statue and just how spectacular a job was done to translate the onscreen character into a 1:6th scale statue.
PACKAGING
The overall graphic layout for Radagast’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 Radagast, graphic work for the title of the movie, and of course the Weta logo. The sides of the box for Radagast 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 line of collectibles. The back of the box contains a great story on Radagast as well as information regarding details of the character and statue. The Styrofoam on the inside is typical with what we’ve come used to getting with these statues.
SCULPTING
The task of sculpting Radagast the Brown was handed to the ultra talented Steven Saunders. He has once again shown why he is a master of his craft with the skills needed to bring the movie to life within your collection. The Istari would be proud to have Mr. Saunders sculpting them I believe.
I personally think the likeness to actor Sylvester McCoy with all the makeup he wore is pretty much spot on. You’re going to be hard pressed, I think, to deny that this isn’t an excellent reproduction of the character. This goes all the way down to his nose being just a little crooked. As we know Radagast‘s appearance is a total mess, which is wonderfully shown on this statue with his beard going every way possible.
One of the things I love the most about Radagast is the unique look he has with his hodgepodge of an outfit. It is one of my favorite things about him. His coat has some amazing details in it with little plants or flowers on the back of his coat, which just happens to be fraying at the ends of it from the constant wear and tear. His vest and undershirt appear to be the same type of material along with looking exactly the same. Both of these are also fraying/tearing at the end from him wearing them all the time, as is the case with Radagast’s entire outfit. One small detail I love on the vest is it being held closed by just one simple button, which has some nice details within those buttons. Radagast’s pants which now resemble capris from most likely being the only pants he wears as he roams Mirkwood. The one detail that I think I love the most about his outfit and did not notice until after seeing the movie is he wears two different shoes. This reminds me of a neighbor that used to live by me that always had on two different pairs of shoes. They’re totally different designs with one having fir at the top and leaves while the other is a plain black leather looking shoe. He also carries with him a worn out bag that appears to be made out of the same material as his coat.
Radagast lives a simple life style so he doesn’t really have weapons or jewelry that we’ve seen on other statues from this line. He does have his unqiue hat that like the rest of his outfit is made of cloth with the little cloth fiber details that make up the hat. Wizards really don’t need too many weapons, but one you can bet they will have is a staff. The staff has the little wood grain details put into it, which when painted help create a real wood looking staff. It also at the top of it has the crystal that he used to help save his little pal Sebastian when we first meet him in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Speaking of Sebastian he joins Radagast on this statue climbing the log that has fallen on the ground making up part of the base. This little addition may be the part I love the most as that moment when Radagast saves Sebastian made me think of how much I love my puppies. Those are not the only animals that help make up this statue with a cute little mouse and robin that is landing on Radagast’s outstretched hand.
I think Weta has done an excellent job with the poses on these statues allowing them to gives us a look inside these characters. As I mentioned in a previous review the Elves have both a power as well as a beautiful elegance. The pose for Radagast shows his care of nature and love of the animals that make up his world. As an animal lover myself it really is the cherry on top of this statue.
PAINT
The streak continues by Weta with how the factory paint came out on Radagast. The overall skin tone on Radagast I think is really well done, and very much looks like a healthy human should look. The one issue with my statue is the redness is a little on the strong side but overall doesn’t take away from the statue. The grey coloring of his beard does a great job highlighting the hair detail and matching what we saw on screen. When put into my collection cabinet his paint apps look great along with the rest of the collection.
As I mentioned earlier the outfit is really exceptional. I love the way they used the various shades of browns to help create the worn look of the clothes. It’s also great that the browns highlight the detail within the outfit and don’t hide the details that were sculpted into the outfit. His shoes have a great paint job with the one having some cool gold painted leaves on the shoes while the other does have the old worn leather look. The animals and parts of Mirkwood that make up the rest of the statue stays at the high level as Radagast himself when it comes to paint detail. They even did a nice job on my least favorite part of the character with the bird poop in the proper spots.
Overall
Radagast retails for $275, which puts him inline for the non-Dwarven characters. I really love this statue! I love the character and just how well done this statue is. Again, I think this is a statue you must see in person to appreciate how beautiful this statue really is. I was also lucky recently to get Mr. McCoy’s autograph here in Kansas City’s Comic-Con to add something to my Radagast statue.
SPECIFICATIONS
Radagast is limited to just 1000 pieces worldwide and is ready to order now from our friends at Weta. As we wind down The Hobbit Trilogy this is going to be a hard statue to get a hold of so don’t wait an let it pass you by.
Dimensions:
11.8″ x 9.1″ x 5.5″ (H x W x D)
30 cm x 23 cm x 14 cm
We are now about halfway through the first Round of our Middle-earth March Madness, and some of the match ups are really close, while others have one contestant running away with the race. Because this year’s bracket has the newly added twist of featuring characters portrayed by the actors who brought our most beloved Middle-earth characters to life, this rundown will include a little about those non-Middle-earth characters.
August is a busy month for birthdays in the LOTR/Hobbit movie-verse. So from all of us here at theonering.net, we’d like to wish everyone a very Happy Birthday.
