Re: legolas fighting knives

6
Hi guys,

This is far from being a new issue, as the Knives of Legolas are now at least a four-year old product, by my count, if not older. The subject of the coloured handles was discussed quite a few times on these forums back when the Knives were released, but unfortunately the threads don't seem to be around anymore, and the search engine is bugging out.

I will try to summarize it for you: the Knives of Legolas, as seen throughout most of the three movies, and in the LOTR Weapons and Warfare book by Chris Smith, do indeed appear to have white wooden handles. However, when UC received the WETA prop for design and production, they got a pair of knives that had the orangey (caramel) coloured handles. This was an e xp lanation that was offered to us by a representative of UC right here on these forums, though I can't remember for sure if it was Kit Rae or one of the others. Part of the e xp lanation also made mention of the fact the handles only appear white in the movies due to the lighting used during the shooting of certain scenes, and that in some other scenes, the handles appear much darker. Having watched the movies looking for this detail, I can confirm only that the handles do seem to shift in colour somewhat, but whether this is an effect of the lighting in the scenes or a different prop being used from scene to scene, is too difficult to say.

The problem comes, as you guys noticed, with the box art, which shows the white coloured handles. Apparently UC's marketing department created the artwork for the box from photos of the white knives before they even realized that the prop they were going to be working from had caramel handles. So there you have it: the box art was a mistake, and UC's claim is that due to lighting, the actual prop was darker in colour and only appears lighter in the movies. WETA issued them a movie prop with dark-coloured handles, and that is what they reproduced for sale to us.

Of course, as often happens with these things and when rabid fans are involved, conspiracy theories arose that the white handle knives really do exist and that UC chose to go with a darker colour for some unknown reason, or that several props of differing colours were used in filming, and that WETA sent the dark ones to UC, rather than the white ones. This is probably closer to the truth ( though only conjecture on my part,) since it was well known that many of the props used in the movies, especially the weapons, had different versions, some using different materials. Quite possibly WETA did make different coloured versions of the Knives of Legolas, but it is the white handles that we see most in the movies. Due to some oversight or possibly because the white-handled knives were no longer around, the caramel handle prop was sent to UC, and thus that is what they gave us.

That's all about that came out of it, and UC declined to comment any further. I think that in the intervening years, most collectors of this item have accepted the fact that we have caramel handles instead of white, and have learned to live with it. I know I have, and once I got over it, it's one of my show pieces that I love the most, despite any colour issues.

Hope that clears it up somewhat for you guys. :)

Re: legolas fighting knives

8
You're quite welcome. :)

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing (as you did,) that in order to obtain the lighter coloured handles that UC produced later, as shown in Rick's picture, you would have to get one of the last productions runs from before UC went out of business. I would assume they would come in the brown-black packaging that all later products had, rather than the blue ROTK box the initial run of the Knives came in.

Curiously, I don't think it was ever e xp lained why they made the lighter coloured versions after. Did they quietly admit to a mistake being made with the original release of the caramel handles, and then corrected the colour in future runs? Did they give in to collector's requests and make a second version for those that wanted the white handles? Or did WETA contact them and confirm that indeed there had been more than one version of the handle colours in existence and used in the movie? I guess we'll probably never know. I'm happy with my originals, and while the lighter coloured ones also look nice, I still think they have too much of a yellowish tint to them, and are not like the ivory-cream coloured ones that we see in the movies and on UC's original box art.

Re: legolas fighting knives

10
I own two sets of the Legolas knives and they are both the Taiwan production runs with the carmel/orange handle color. This was always a dissapointment to me, and I wished they had made the handle color lighter.

Seeing the picture of the "new" runs in this thread with the cream colored handles has rekindled my desire for what I believe is a more accurate replica. I've been exchanging emails with Derek from SmithBlades to try and get a new set from China with the lighter handles. Nothing confirmed yet, but crossing fingers.

Re: legolas fighting knives

13
Re: the brown scabbards - we were basically fed the same excuse as that of the caramel-coloured handles: that it was the colour of the props that UC was given. Now, we've all seen very clear photos that show white handles, and the pearl-grey scabbards. Assuming that UC was telling the truth, there were different props used in the movie (not unheard of,) and for some reason they got the dark-coloured versions at UC, and that's what they reproduced. The only thing that stinks up this whole excuse is that the box art for the LFK shows the white handled knives displayed on the UC plaque, so UC was clearly planning to make the handles white. They either changed it after because the prop they received had darker handles, or they did it for their own mysterious reasons. Either way, the box art was never changed to reflect this alteration, which cheesed people off quite a bit because it was essentially false advertising. Getting wrong coloured scabbards later was almost an afterthought than a disappointment.
This Space for Rent

Re: legolas fighting knives

14
I'm not sure about the handle color, but they change throughout the film
too, and I assume it's only because of digital grading in post-production. I
would say UC got white handles and decided to color them to reflect ones
we've seen on screen - but only in some scenes (wrong, obviously). This is
just an idea.

Concerning scabbards, they are correctly replicated, as Legolas had two
sets. First he had silver/white (the ones many of us prefer), and in Lorien,
along with a new quiver, he got matching brown scabbards - those that
UC made. Not only color makes them different.
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