Dang! That helm looks great! That's going on my Christmas list, I'd love to have one. Nice job, Kit.

Fingolfin wrote:Dang! That helm looks great! That's going on my Christmas list, I'd love to have one. Nice job, Kit.

Not trying to cut in here Fin, but maybe you might consider a Theoden helm on your Christmas list and tell your parents, I mean Santa, you'll throw in your $300 from your Guthwine savings

Ah man, a guy can dream! To be fair, I'd rather have the Theoden helm!

Thranduil wrote:

Fingolfin wrote:Dang! That helm looks great! That's going on my Christmas list, I'd love to have one. Nice job, Kit.

Not trying to cut in here Fin, but maybe you might consider a Theoden helm on your Christmas list and tell your parents, I mean Santa, you'll throw in your $300 from your Guthwine savings

That's a master idea.

Is there any chance that the LOTR line will include Boromir's Shield?

No updates from Kit in quite some time. Either he got some well-deserved time off for the holidays; been hard at work on new stuff; or maybe a bit of both?

I'm pretty sure any further news on the Mirkwood sword and polearm are now up to UC to announce some kind of release date on, but just curious how the Moria staff is coming along, and if there's anything new that can be gleaned on possible future projects already brought up, such as the frog for Thranduil's sword, as well as Bard's sword? Where will UC take the Hobbit movies from here on, or will they focus on tying up a couple of loose ends from LOTR instead?

I'm also curious about those ends, especially the Moria staff. I've been waiting on that forever; I'm ordering as soon as I see it!

It's in the works, as are some of those other items, but you won't see anything until later this year.

Yesssss... he lives! Thanks for the tidbit, Kit, we are simply starved for any news.

Yes, thanks for the update Kit! Very good to hear from you. Can't wait for more LotR goodness to drool over!

Perhaps this has already been asked before, but now that UC had dabbled in Polyresin for the bows/regal swords... what are the odds of getting UC to do something like the Horn of Gondor?

That is the only major prop that's not a weapon/armor that I am dying to get my hands on!

Good to see you Kit! Hope all is well on your end this new year! very good news, too!

Draven, I'm certain Kit can shed further light on this, but I'm not sure if UC's current license would extend to something like the Horn of Gondor. It's one thing to have a license that covers swords and bows, and one that covers helms and shields, but a prop like that might require an entirely separate license, and I'm not sure if they would pay for one so late in the game to make just one item with it.

Here is an early tease of the work progressing on the Dain Helm and Display. It still needs some tweaks, but getting close to doing a paint master soon.

Draven_of_the_Shire wrote:Yes, thanks for the update Kit! Very good to hear from you. Can't wait for more LotR goodness to drool over!

Perhaps this has already been asked before, but now that UC had dabbled in Polyresin for the bows/regal swords... what are the odds of getting UC to do something like the Horn of Gondor?

That is the only major prop that's not a weapon/armor that I am dying to get my hands on!

United could do it, but I'm not sure they would want to invest in the tooling to do the metal work in real metal, which mean it would be poly - but there is already a decent polyresin model out there, so...

That's rather impressive. It will be a huge piece and take up a fair amount of space. Was it traditionally sculpted, cast from an original or 3D printed?

N2darkness wrote:That's rather impressive. It will be a huge piece and take up a fair amount of space. Was it traditionally sculpted, cast from an original or 3D printed?

Fully agreed. It's looking like it will be a stunning piece, but it and the companion Hammer are going to send me into a display space crisis if I decide to buy them.

Edit: Forgot to add - Kit, is there still a chance UC will make Thror's Crown? This sounds like an item that Noble would have jumped on back in the old days, but they seem pretty much out of the game for a couple of years now.

Thror's crown . . . now there's an item I'd definitely be interested in seeing made.

N2darkness wrote:That's rather impressive. It will be a huge piece and take up a fair amount of space. Was it traditionally sculpted, cast from an original or 3D printed?

It's a mix, but mostly traditionally sculpted. The prop differs from the CGI helm seen in the movie, so I did not want to cast that, but I prefere never casting directly off a Urethane prop, unless it is something like Gandlaf's staff. This is kind of a mix of the CGI helm and prop, in that the battle damage and face shape from the front will follow the CGI model, but will follow the prop more on the sides and back.

It is big! About 2' from nose to the tail of the crest. The display will be made smaller, closer to the size of the Rivendell and Mirkwood helm displays, not the size show here.

Valkrist wrote: Edit: Forgot to add - Kit, is there still a chance UC will make Thror's Crown? This sounds like an item that Noble would have jumped on back in the old days, but they seem pretty much out of the game for a couple of years now.

Always a chance, especially if the helm and war hammer do well.

Wow Kit, really impressed with the Helm! That's something I'd be really interested in upon release. And Thror's crown has always been a favorite of mine. The crown and Regal sword would be really awesome alongside Dain's hammer and helm.

It's a bit ironic and a sign of the times when you look at how much different the stuff coming out of UC is these days when compared to when most of us began our collections. Back then it was all metal, wood, and leather, with them only really dipping their toes into the polyresin and urethane when complicated items came along, like the Elven helm and shield, and the Sauron and Wiki helms. Still, those were the exceptions rather than the rule. Nowadays, with cost of materials shifting and the refinements made in sculpting and casting techniques, it's metal products that have become the exception rather than the rule. One look at UC's (rumored) upcoming lineup and only one item in there is made of metal (or non-resin): Bard's sword. Perhaps Thranduil's frog will be metal too but who knows what they will decide.

Nothing to do with the times. Everything to do with the movie designs, but 9 out of the 10 steel bladed Hobbit weapon replicas United produced that could be made with steel blades were made with steel blades, and the ones that had leather wrapped grips, were made with leather wrapped grips. Plus one more steel bladed sword on the way (Mirkwood), and hopefully Bard's sword next year, which is leather and steel. The Thranduil frog, which is confirmed now, will be cast metal with leather straps, which is really the only way it can be done.

In the old LOTR days almost all the weapons were fairly 'real world' designs - standard steel bladed swords or dagger builds with wood and leather grips, standard leather covered wood scabbards, and standard formed sheet metal helm builds, for the most part. The Hobbit had practically nothing like that in it. Totally different cultures and weapon design aesthetic than LOTR, using a lot of fantasy materials that don't exist in the real world, and designs definitely not based on anything real world like in LOTR. That's just the hand United was dealt with this license. If you wanted an Azog mace made with real bone blades taken from some fantasy Middle-earth animal, I'm afraid you will have to go find a way to get that made yourself

The 'sign of the times' part is that in the old days, almost all the non real world weapon designs from TH that were not possible to make in real materials, or not possible to do in mass production at all, would simply not have been made at all.

You're 100% right and you have mentioned more than once how challenging, expensive, and downright near impossible it would be to bring almost all of those Hobbit replicas into production using conventional materials and production methods.

I guess aside from the production design shift from one movie series to another, I was merely pointing out how the scales completely tipped the other way from what it was originally. I just wasn't looking at the real reasons that well. Having said that, it is a known fact that the cost of metal has risen quite a bit since the old UC days, and weren't rising production and labour costs part of the reason for the change in manufacturing from Taiwan to China? I don't know what the exact dollar difference is, from concept design all the way to retail, between two identical replicas, one made in metal and the other in resin, but I would hazard a guess that the metal one would be more costly.

In all honesty, this musing was prompted by looking at that photo of the Dain Helm and thinking back to the day when I pulled that first UC Helm out of the box many years ago, Elendil's Helm, feeling its awesome weight and thinking: "Wow! This thing feels... real!"

As amazing as that Dain Helm will look, I will never get that feeling by touching it. Just nostalgia, I guess, but don't mistake my words as I'm grateful we are getting one at all, whatever it's made out of.

It would be great to have a real steel one (although you would need a forklift to move it !) but that Dain helm would never have been possible to make in steel, even in the old days. Plus, no one could pay me enough to work with that particular factory again on a metal helm - the one that made the FOTR prologue helms. Uhg!

As far as material and labor costs, everything is always going up, as it always has, but from what I see, it's the insane tooling costs and high MOQ's that price things out of the market these days. The move from US manufacturing for United (which never existed here for any of this type of stuff to begin with) to Germany and Japan, then to Taiwan, then China, was all driven by rising labor costs and over regulation - happens everywhere, including China now. Lots of factories are going under there. I heard that's what happened to a certain Elven polearm that never made it to production. There are still quite a few good builders still going strong over there though.

Weren't those first helms made by Windlass for UC? I seem to recall you or someone else mentioning something like that once.

On the elven polearm: is that the most recent news, or are you just referring to what happened originally? If it's the former then I am extremely disappointed because the latest thing we heard was that UC was back on track, if late, to finally getting around to releasing that polearm. I hope that hasn't changed yet again.

The last news I posted was here back in November, saying they had started production, so this must have happened immediately after that. I just found out a few weeks ago. The folks at UC were crushed, as this project has been going for over 2 years now. It took forever to find a casting factory that could cast those blades, keep them relatively straight, and do the finish correctly. Now United has to start all over, so I'm not sure it will ever happen at this point. That factory was doing some of the parts on the Mirkwood hilt too, which is probably why those took so long to get into production.

I think the biggest "sign of the times" is Peter Jackson's shift to less real world materials and drifting closer to high fantasy with The Hobbit trilogy. But that's a discussion that's already been had (again, where's that beating a dead horse smiley?). Shame about the factory that's casting the polearm. I'll hold out a hobbit's hope that they find a new place; there's never been a great hope for it anyway.

They have another blade caster already, but it will be like starting over again as the processes to make this particular blade are well outside the norm.

United just posted this on Facebook, so I'll throw it up here too. Dain War Hammer unpainted prototype and display.

Dang, that thing looks massive! Good thing it will be in the correct Dwarf-scale. Dain's gear is shaping up to be quite the space hogs. Good thing UC is not doing a replica of the hog itself, lol.

It's still big. Around 34" long. The hammer head is about 19".

Hog armor maybe

I do really like it. I guess it won't be out until 2018 but I will be getting one,

How is it likely to be painted Kit - distressed or pristine?

Idril wrote:How is it likely to be painted Kit - distressed or pristine?

If you look closely at the surface on both business ends of that hammer, you might see some clues that will answer that question...

Oh yes, thanks Val. I took them to be dwarven runes.

Yes, they kind look like they are, which makes it all the more cooler.

I expect United will have this on the market by mid 2017. They want it this year, but I'm not sure that's going to happen.

No runes on this one, just battle damage. The plan is for it to be painted exactly like the digital model, so we'll see.

That looks really good. I may be forced to add it to my want list.

Some news for those of you waiting on the Mirkwood Polearm - it's back on again!

I just reviewed some pre production sample photos from the new factory and it looks like they got a good match to the factory sample I approved last year, so they are finally going into production. With any luck, we should see these shipping int the next 4-5 months.

That's good news, Kit. I've looking forward to the polearm for a long time. Do you know if the Mirkwood sword is still on track for release soon?

I know it went into production a few months back, or it may be finished by now. The first run is probably heading to United.

Excellent news, Kit. Thanks for shining a ray of hope once again on that seemingly cursed project, the elven polearm. I know even you had given up on it more than once. Glad UC didn't give up.

Kit, what's happening with Thranfuil's scabbard?

Glad the pole arm is going back into production though, it's one of the last things on my list

I mentioned it about 20 posts up. It's going forward. In the CAD stage right now.

Nasnandos wrote:I know it went into production a few months back, or it may be finished by now. The first run is probably heading to United.

Even more good news. Thanks, Kit.

WOW. That hammer is sweet. Looks really good!

I might buy the pole arm when it comes out just to prove to myself it really does exist.

Even though my movie room is getting filled, I would make space for that sucker. LOVE it!

A few things arrived at the office today. First, here is a Mirkwood sword from production. The first run of these is shipping to dealers this week. Sorry for the harsh lighting. My photo booth was too crowded today so I shot these outside in the sun.

Overall it's OK. The grip came out a bit too plastic-like - but of course that's what it is. It's not really even close to the hilt I finished for the original factory to copy a few years ago, but it does the job. It will look good with the rest of the Mirkwood collection, but it feels the least "real" of all of them. I will definitely be reworking the grip finish.

Thanks for the pics! The handle looks fragile but I guess it will be fine in my house hanging on the wall.

Christian - if you read this. Sent you a PM re ordering it fearing my emails are not getting through.

Yes, thanks for the photos Kit. I saw they were in stock on BudK and will probably order next time they offer free shipping. I figure it is a must to go with the helmet.

What are the biggest differences in the handle finishes between the production piece and the prop?

Color, primarily, and texture.

After waiting three days for a shipping notice, I called BudK to inquire about the status of my *December 2014* preorder...only to discover that it had beemn mysteriously "cancelled." I was forced to reinstate the order. Hopefully, I'll see the Mirkwood Infantry Sword sometime next week.

BudK just gets stanger and stranger with each order I place with them...