Howdy everyone. My name is Ron and I am a collectoroholic. Thanks for letting me join the forum! I've been creeping here for a couple of months now and it's great to finally be signed up. I've been looking for a forum that focuses more on Hobbit/LOTR items and I'm not sure how I only just found this place recently but I'm glad I did.
I'm actually way late to the Tolkien collecting party only just having started in 2017 with my first piece being UC Anduril. Before that I was mainly a Star Wars replica prop collector. I would have loved to have started back in 2003 when UC began the line but I didn't exactly have the disposable income that I do now. It wasn't until about a decade later that I decided I was ready to start collecting and I began with Star Wars props, specifically Master Replicas lightsaber hilts. Now by that point Master Replicas was no longer in business (though they're back now but I don't think they have the Star Wars license anymore) so the hilts were now harder to find or way too expensive to buy. Sadly these things I dreamed about since I was a child were out of my reach again. However, it turned out to be a blessing as I soon after discovered fan-made custom replica props that were more accurate and to me more faithful to the original film used props than the licensed ones were. I would never go back to licensed props again. So fast forward a couple of years and I decided it was time to begin collecting LOTR swords. Bearing in mind my experience with Star Wars props, I didn't even bother looking at United Cutlery swords as I no longer wanted anything licensed; a decision I came to regret. So I started searching for custom fan made swords. Accuracy is my number one priority when buying a replica and while there were some nice ones out there, none were accurate enough for me or they were well out of my budget as I discovered most custom swords are. So I came back to the UC line to give a second look starting with Anduril. The sword looked great, was super accurate, and had great reviews. So I bought it not sure how much I would like it but one thing I remembered from reading reviews and watching videos was that you don't realize how great it is until you hold it in your hands. When it arrived and I opened it, I had the same look on my face that Aragorn had when he first held it...just awe-struck. I could not believe a licensed product could be this nice at this price. I was very happy indeed.
Originally I only wanted Anduril. But then it starts..., "Hmmm, I always liked those Legolas fighting knives. Maybe I'll just get those and that's it" "Oh, someone is selling the Gimli battle axe on ebay? Well, I need to have it to go along with the sword and knives of course. Which of course means I'll need Glamdring too." "And I have to also have Sting to almost complete the Fellowship. Okay that's it" "Wait, there's a Hobbit line too?! Well, I gotta have Orcrist at least!" "Sting WITHOUT the Elvish writing? Yeah I better have it to fit the timeline." "Fighting knives of Tauriel? Was she even in the book??? Dah, whatever, I'll take'em!".
And here I am about 30 pieces in and completely hooked. Not all the items have been great. Gandalf's white staff was very disappointing (glad to see they're trying it again and from what I understand, it will be one piece). But other than that and a couple of others, they've mostly been very nice. I still have a lot of catching up to do as I missed out on a lot of great pieces. But it looks like I arrived at a good time as it seems like they're reissuing some of those older pieces as well as adding newer ones. Hopefully this keeps up. The top of my wish list is, like I'm sure a lot of you, the Lothlórien bow. My reissue wish list would be the Witch-king sword and the Boromir sword. Other than, scabbards, scabbards, and more scabbards.
So that's pretty much it. Other things I like that I'd love to be able to collect: cars, guitars, firearms. But I'm sticking to stuff I can afford for now . Those Weta statues are lovely too but I just don't have the space for it.
I also belong to RPF and Rebel Armory forums. Haven't joined Flame of Udun yet bet I eventually will. I find this forum easier to navigate and more focused on UC. I apologize from now if I ask a lot of questions or get post happy. You guys help so much with figuring this stuff out. Thanks again.
Ron
EDIT: I'm not sure how those smiley faces got so big but I promise I'll never use them again lol.
Greetings from the West (California)
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Last edited by Ronin on Sun Mar 24, 2019 9:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.