Wow, now that looks very impressive! This could be one piece I look to buy, and it stands around 2 feet high! It will be quite a sight to behold

I have moved this thread to the Sideshow/WETA section since,this is a Sideshow/WETA piece and it belongs here.

Yeah... I got that update too. I must say that after months of anticipation, I am mildly disappointed with the look of the statue. Not that the detail isn't simply incredible... but does anyone else here think that Sauron looks just a little bit too anorexic? In every scene that he appeared in, Sauron had an impressive and menacing armoured bulk, yet the statue looks like some very skinny guy in Sauron's suit. I wish they had filled him out a little more. He looks so... not-menacing and the helm appears way out of proportion to the body.

Part of this too has to do with the pose they picked. While I like the idea, I don't recall Sauron being ramrod-straight in that scene either. He was actually leaning back some as he held the ring, and the pose was far more dramatic. I wish they had depicted that moment a little more accurately, but what I really wanted was an action pose of Sauron swinging his mace when he's battling, much like the Morgul Lord statue.

Ah well... just griping. I'm sure the finished product will improve my opinion.

Something else odd about the pose--in the movie he's facing straight forward toward the camera, holding his arm out in front him. In this statue, he's looking/gesturing to the side. Very odd, considering the interview claims they keep movie stills handy....

He does look a little stiff in those pix, even for a guy in a metal suit. Part of his fullness in the movie may be due to the leaning backwards that you mentioned--it makes your stomach stick out more. And considering I just finished my second Thanksgiving meal, I dare not lean backwards. Or forwards. In fact, I think I'll just go lie down a bit.

I am also not fond of the possision of sauron, but Im sure once its all done it will look really great. Ive never really been inbtrested in the Sideshow statues much, only the ones from the giftsets. How much might this cost (sorry, for some reason my computer is having a 'slow' day. I saw the pics yesterday, but didnt have time to read the info, so I do apoligies if Im asking somthing thats plain and clear on the sideshow link). This looks pretty intresting, and Im soon going to build a stand up sauron out of my costume, and maybe this piece would look very nice beside it:confused1
-wormtongue

Not to sound a note of discord, but I don't think they got the head too big. Remember, the helmet is significantly bigger than the head. It's long in front and comes down over the neck, plus it domes up higher than the top of the head on top. Those of you who bought the UC piece, put it on and you'll see what I mean.

I hear what you're saying, Olorin.., I have the UC helm also, but that is not what I meant. I know the helm is naturally very large, but it looks far more disproportionate to the body on this statue than it does in any film footage or photo I have seen of the actor in the actual suit.

It simply looks too big, and that may have to do with my first point that the Sauron statue looks far too skinny. It looks like the Dark Lord has been fasting on salads for the last ten years. He didn't seem that way in the movie.

Valkrist wrote:I hear what you're saying, Olorin.., I have the UC helm also, but that is not what I meant. I know the helm is naturally very large, but it looks far more disproportionate to the body on this statue than it does in any film footage or photo I have seen of the actor in the actual suit.

It simply looks too big, and that may have to do with my first point that the Sauron statue looks far too skinny. It looks like the Dark Lord has been fasting on salads for the last ten years. He didn't seem that way in the movie.

Which reminds me of my related point that I forgot to make in the earlier post. In the movie, most of the shots of Sauron are so quick that it's very hard to tell at all what he looks like. The first two shots--forging the ring--are a good example. First an extreme closeup of his face, then a fairly quick shot of him summoning up the ring (the leaning-back shot). Most of the battle scenes are extremely quick cuts. Until I got the Toy Biz Sauron figure, I'd have been hard pressed to describe his appearance. So, I'm willing to give Sideshow the benefit of the doubt on his build.

A much bigger concern for me is how good/bad will the paint job on the statue be? Remember our Morgul Lord discussions..... Doing touch-up painting on this Sauron figure would be a much huger and more daunting prospect.

Grima Wormtongue wrote:I am also not fond of the possision of sauron, but Im sure once its all done it will look really great. Ive never really been inbtrested in the Sideshow statues much, only the ones from the giftsets. How much might this cost (sorry, for some reason my computer is having a 'slow' day. I saw the pics yesterday, but didnt have time to read the info, so I do apoligies if Im asking somthing thats plain and clear on the sideshow link). This looks pretty intresting, and Im soon going to build a stand up sauron out of my costume, and maybe this piece would look very nice beside it:confused1
-wormtongue

The original retail price on the statue was $300.But it is now Sold Out.So,if you are interested in it,prepare to pay a hefty amount of cash for it in the secondary market.

Having just received the Gandalf the Grey Statue, I can see that this statue IS ABSOLUTELY HUGE!!!!


Who ever gets this is going to need a hell of a lot of room!

Good Luck to you!

Wow... I take back everything I said previously about this statue. It looks perfect now and I'm ever so glad I was able to order one before they sold out. I have one concern left still and that is the quality of the paint job. While the prototype looks amazing, I hope that translates well when the piece goes into mass production. This is a very monochromatic sculpture, just like the Morgul Lord statue was, and they really got sloppy on that paint job, so if the quality on the Sauron statue slips like that, I will be hugely disappointed.

This statue will be,without a doubt,the most impressive Sauron-related collectible ever produced.He looks magnificent,and his size will be a sight to behold.This is, the HOLY GRAIL of Sideshow.

If the production models live up to the prototype photos, this will be well worth the exorbitant price we're paying for what's essentially a dust-collector. And if not, I still have my ToyBiz Sauron that cost like $20 and talks!

To anyone interested: Sideshow just announced that due to some cancellations before the pictures of the statue were revealed, that they are now recalling the wait list for the Sauron statue. What does this mean? It means that if you want a chance at getting Sauron, this is your last and best opportunity because there are confirmed cancellations.

Sideshow has announced they e xp ect the Sauron statue to ship during 4th quarter 2005. That sounds like a long way off, but at least it will give me time to figure out where I'm going to display it.

Sideshow's newsletter says they e xp ect the Sauron figure to start arriving in US warehouses in September.

I'm in serious need of clearing out a lot of stuff to make space. I have six 7' bookcases in my spare bedroom/computer room/library/office (it's kind of a multipurpose room, you know). I'm afraid I really need to get rid of a bunch of books. Realistically, I know I have tons of them I'll never read again, but it's just so hard to part with them. However, all these cool statues just keep coming.....

Mostly I hope they did a better paint job on Sauron and I don't have to repaint him like I did the Morgul Lord (and like I plan to do the 1/4 scale Sauron helm).

Yeah, looks like someone got lucky really early. I just received two notices asking me to update and confirm all my address and billing info seeing as I ordered my statue back in February of '04. Good thing too, because I have moved since then.

I e xp ect them to be shipping this at any moment.

I just got a predelivery notice from FedEx. It didn't include the Sideshow order number, but from the package weight--30 pounds--it can only be the Sauron statue. So it looks like I'll be having it in about a week or so.

I'd be more excited if I hadn't just bought two new pairs of shoes on the same credit card the statue will be on....

lol... I feel your pain. All I'm using the credit card that I ordered my statue with currently is for gasoline for my car. However, with the prices of oil at insane levels right now, that's not necessarily a good thing. :rolleyes_

just curious... how much was that thing?

The preorder with Sideshow was for $300, though there is a website now that sells UC products and some of the WETA statues and is advertising it for $285. I've always wondered how some of these retailers are able to secure enough statues to sell to the public since Sideshow Collectibles has a policy of not allowing this and limiting two pieces per address. My guess is that these guys probably have everyone that works for them order two statues and then put them up for sale to the public.

I hate it when I accidentally hit the back arrow and delete my post!!!!!

Anyway, I got my statue today. It's a mixed bag, as is usually the case with Sideshow. The sculpt is good and I like the pose, but the paint is indifferent at best. The pix that were posted in this thread must have been of the prototype or something, because it has colors not found on mine. At least bronze, anyway. Mine is silver on black. Period.

When I first got it out of the box at work, I was pretty disappointed. Once I got it home and assembled, I liked it better, but for the price of it, they could have done the paint job a lot better. I keep reminding myself this was probably painted by some poor kid in China manacled to a table and making less than dirt for a wage and I shouldn't even be buying these things. In any case, this is almost my last purchase from them. I have the war helm of the Morgul Lord still coming, but that's the last one.

Well, despite Necromancer's optimism I tend to share a more discerning and skeptical eye with Olorin, so overall I find this disappointing news. I suspected the paint job might be on the same level as the Witchking since those two statues share pretty much the same colour scheme. I was holding out hope that given the size and price of this statue that they would do a better job, but it seems not. Oh well, guess I will have to wait and see. I've not yet received a shipping notification so I wonder what's going on. Guess they are doing US first and Canada after. Europe usually gets the shaft until a couple of months down the road. :p

I get what you're saying. I only have one statue left on order after this, and that is the Aragorn at the Black Gates piece, so hopefully that will be the end of my streak of disappointments with Sideshow:

- Terrible paintjobs on their pieces (including Sauron.)
- Missing out on Minas Morgul because of that harebrained internet-code idea of theirs and overall scarcity of the piece vs the number of dvd collectors.
- Closing the line without releasing a Barad-dur statue.

Val, I would highly recommend ordering the Danbury Mint Barad-dur. It's very well painted, the LED eye effect is pretty cool (tho the Eye is a cheesy idea), and at $99 the price is definitely right. At this stage in the game, I'm GLAD Sideshow didn't do a Barad dur because it would have cost twice as much and been half as good.

Jason, I don't have a digital camera at home so unfortunately, I can't post any pix of the Sauron statue. It's not terrible; it's significantly better than the Morgul Lord statue was, and there is some red color in the lava base that's pretty good. It's just that it's not nearly as good as it could have been, or as the prototype pix were.

I wasn't aware the Danbury Barad-dur was still available. I heard it was a fairly limited piece. I think I will look into it then. Thanks.

Jason GSux wrote:Okay, I'm terrified now. I'm even thinking about canceling my order, if it's not too late (Europe, and not just Europe, 8utth0l3 of Europe). Olorin1, some pics maybe? Pleeeease? Please guys, some help here! When I read this paintjob sentence, I crapped my pants. Almoust.

N2darkness posted these pics in the galery a few days back...click to enlarge...

photopost/showphoto.php?photo=3055
photopost/showphoto.php?photo=3054&pass ... t=500&page=

~wormtongue

That actually looks fairly decent. Thanks for the links, Grima.

Pictures do not due this statue justice at all. It does suffer a little from the Morgul Lord issue but if you cancel this you will be sorry. I own a very very large portion of the Sideshow weta line and I'm very extremely impressed with peice, I can't stop looking at it, it's like a mini suit of armor. If you can find it cheaper go for it, but if you have any reservations about the paint job order it direct from Sideshow as they have a pretty good customer service department.

My Sauron finally arrived this afternoon, so I can now post my own thoughts on the final product. Overall, I must say I am pleasantly surprised. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I was bracing myself for something substandard, or perhaps my original high e xp ectations were actually met. Whatever the case, I must say I really like it.

The statue has an imposing size and is sure to be a dominating piece wherever it may be placed, and well it should be for the Dark Lord would settle for no less. The paintjob, while showing a little bit of room for improvement here and there, is far more consistent and of higher quality than that of the Witchking statue. The metallic highlights on the armour are nicely done throughout, the mud-spattered boots are very impressive, as is the lower half of the cape, which actually shows some variations in colour, unlike the Witchking's. The base is also nicely done, though I was e xp ecting the red veins in the rock to be a little more vivid, but this is a minor gripe. If I do have one word of complaint about the statue, it is to do with the head/helm piece (which you must attach yourself.) Instead of clicking firmly into place, the helmet simply rests upon the neck without very little support. This is made worse by the fact that since it is completely hollow, it is so light that the slightest touch can move it and unseat it from the shoulders of the statue. I find this annoying, because while I don't plan on moving the statue around at all, I would still prefer that it were a more solid fit. I do have a cat, and some people inevitably like to poke at things while they admire them, and with the delicate spikes on the helm, I would hate for it to accidentally fall off and break. If you live in an area prone to earth tremors or have children, I strongly suggest using glue to secure the head to the body. Since this is a complicated piece that would be a royal pain to carry around in its assembled form if you are moving however, you may wish to forego the glue so you can unassemble it and repack it in the original box.

Couple of last notes. The box was curiosly devoid of the typical artwork prints that the rest of the LOTR line had, being completely black except for one side. Also, the now familiar Sideshow catalog and occasional goodies like keychains and promo dvds were also absent. I found this very telling of the fact that the LOTR line is drawing to a close and they are focusing on other things. Well, that concludes my review.

I got #2049 of 9500 - what did everyone else here get?

I neglected to look under the base to check the number before putting it all together and am reluctant to turn it over now to look. I'm not too impressed by the mounting of the figure onto the base--all that weight and just two little pins to hold it.

It sounds like your paint job was a lot better than mine. On mine, there's almost no paint at all on the helmet, and not much on many other parts of it. The only parts that look good are the chain mail and the Ring. It really confirms my theory that there's next to no quality control on these things--it's all luck of the draw as to who painted yours. At least you got a good one!

I also noted the plainness of the box (though I hadn't thought about the lack of a catalog, and they've NEVER put any DVDs in my previous orders). It really sounds like they're not putting even one extra nickel into what's clearly now a dead line.