[quote=""Valkrist""].....I really don't wish for this to become a theological debate on the nature of good versus evil, I was merely trying to e xp lain why I don't mind collecting replicas of things that others seem to perceive as evil, or remind them too much of evil at the very least. ....[/quote]


This is great!
Val, you should move all these posts to a new thread and name it something like "The Metaphysics of LOTR Collectibles"

Nope, not going to start a new thread for these posts because I wish this discussion to end here. Not saying I need to have the final word, but I would encourage it to wind down because this type of debate leads down a very slippery slope. I really have no wish to debate this against four people.

I tried to place things into the perspective that we are talking about replicas of fantasy items and characters that have no bearing on reality, but it's the other side of the argument that is being seized upon. I suppose it is my fault for quoting Legend. My intention with that was to simply say the same thing that the movie says: Darkness was a mere externalization of the thing that resides in all men's hearts, something we can never be wholly rid of, and history is replete with examples of why that is.

As for your statements, Aragorn, I would say that is one of the best examples of a circular argument there is. To argue in favour of something which has an exact opposite, you can't state that the reverse situation does not apply. One does not exist without the other. All you have left without either is status quo, not one or the other.

[quote=""Valkrist""]Nope, not going to start a new thread for these posts because I wish this discussion to end here. Not saying I need to have the final word, but I would encourage it to wind down because this type of debate leads down a very slippery slope. I really have no wish to debate this against four people.

I tried to place things into the perspective that we are talking about replicas of fantasy items and characters that have no bearing on reality, but it's the other side of the argument that is being seized upon. I suppose it is my fault for quoting Legend. My intention with that was to simply say the same thing that the movie says: Darkness was a mere externalization of the thing that resides in all men's hearts, something we can never be wholly rid of, and history is replete with examples of why that is.

As for your statements, Aragorn, I would say that is one of the best examples of a circular argument there is. To argue in favour of something which has an exact opposite, you can't state that the reverse situation does not apply. One does not exist without the other. All you have left without either is status quo, not one or the other.[/quote]

Uhhh Val, read the first chapter of the Sil.

"Light" (Good) DOES exist without darkness. Iluvatar existed before anything else. He made Melkor/Morgoth and he even made chaos.
Tolkien believed in Genesis and that is why he made his ME creation myth the way he did.

Again, that is ONE perspective... which is also contingent upon your religious convictions, something Aragorn wisely pointed out.

...anyway back to the WETA products, I don't know how WETA decides upon the scale of each item, but if the Orthanc that some of us just bought would be a reference guide, how big for Barad-dur be in relation, I guess what I am asking is how much bigger is Barad-dur in "real life" and how big would it be if it was scaled down to the Orthanc sitting in my room.

Much as I would love to have a Barad-dur scaled to the current Orthanc, I'm not sure that's feasible from a selling cost perspective, especially when you factor in shipping for something that big and heavy. Of course, they could make it a Limited Edition item and run only about 500 of them for the hardcore collectors. Sideshow's Premium Format statues are pretty massive and there's obviously a market for them or they wouldn't have bothered, so who can say?

I think everyone saw that one coming!

[quote=""RevAnakin""]I think everyone saw that one coming! [/quote]

Yeah, especially since I read it like...two weeks ago. Sorry, word gets around faster on the Shadow and Flame. On the flipside, UCF members have to e xp lain everything about UC products and TH prospects to the Shadow and Flame, so it's an even trade. I should really start sending more product news to this forum for the Weta section.

I don't frequent SF and I rarely log in to my Weta site account to see what's new. I'm counting on you guys to come into this thread, trumpets blaring, as soon as Barad-dur is announced for pre-order.... please!

[quote=""Valkrist""]I don't frequent SF and I rarely log in to my Weta site account to see what's new. I'm counting on you guys to come into this thread, trumpets blaring, as soon as Barad-dur is announced for pre-order.... please! [/quote]

Trumpets...yes, that can be arranged! But I will put up a new thread for each new environment announcement if I can remember. They may start doing some smaller ones too, based on a few polls I made on the S&F, with much interest from the Weta crew. The most likely canidate is an environment with the Green Dragon, Bywater Bridge, and the Hobbiton Mill. Here's the links for the polls:

http://www.wetacollectors.com/forum/sho ... hp?t=38723

http://www.wetacollectors.com/forum/sho ... hp?t=38722

Also, a little teaser for you Val. Just put this up: http://www.wetanz.com/overcoming-the-fe ... of-sauron/

Nice! Thanks, Fing, that was a fascinating read.

This is going to be the pride and joy of my collection, evil or not.

So, anyone going to be in San Diego on the 11th?

Ah, if only. I may actually go next year, all things depending upon dem monies. I'm gonna be refreshing pages like a mad man on preview night though, I want to see every picture from SDCC!

Tim from Weta says there are new Hobbit exclusives to be revealed tomorrow! Keep your eyes peeled.

Tomorrow!?!?!?! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOOO! Need more money

The first collectible from The Hobbit is here!
The name of the statue is called Thorin Oakenshield with Shield. For some reason the title is in black.

Those are going to go super fast!

I personally don't think it looks of highest quality. It looks like my old Weta Sideshow Polystone statues, and now that I compare everything to the new line of Sideshow polystones, I just hate those bases. I also think they could have done a more creative pose.

Am I missing something? Where is this shield they're referring to? Or is that a picture of the version without shield?

LOL, I wondered about that too! Maybe it's slung across his back. What's that thing sticking up behind his right shoulder?

[quote=""Olorin""]LOL, I wondered about that too! Maybe it's slung across his back. What's that thing sticking up behind his right shoulder?[/quote]

That is Orcrist's scabbard

Nice catch Val! I was thinking the same thing when I got the email originally but forgot about it when I came over here. Maybe they meant, "with shield later?"

[quote=""RevAnakin""]I personally don't think it looks of highest quality. It looks like my old Weta Sideshow Polystone statues, and now that I compare everything to the new line of Sideshow polystones, I just hate those bases. I also think they could have done a more creative pose.[/quote]

I love it! It looks exactly like the old SSW statues, which is exactly what it should look like! The old SSW line blows all the recent SS lines out of the water and out of the time space continuum, in my opinion. See, the bases look classy to me. They make it look like fine art. You can focus on the statue more instead of all the junk on the base. And I also like the poses on these 1/6 scale statues better than Gandalf Parting the Red Sea in the Maquette line. Ironic that I'm usually the one defending those "action poses", because it works for that line. It's something different. But this is Weta, not SS. This should be a continuation of that classic look, not something entirely new. Just my two cents.


[quote=""Valkrist""]Am I missing something? Where is this shield they're referring to? Or is that a picture of the version without shield? [/quote]

I take it this is the no-shield version. I'm assuming the shield exclusive will be revealed at Comic Con. After all, that's where the exclusive is to be "exclusively" sold. Makes sense when you really think about it hard. Sorry to be cynical but no one on either forum has been able to figure that one out, lol. I figured it right away.

[quote=""Elvenguard13""]That is Orcrist's scabbard[/quote]

That is correct.

[quote=""Fingolfin""]I love it! It looks exactly like the old SSW statues, which is exactly what it should look like! The old SSW line blows all the recent SS lines out of the water and out of the time space continuum, in my opinion. See, the bases look classy to me. They make it look like fine art. [/quote]

I'm sitting here comparing my current sideshow polystones to the Weta Sideshow and to me there is just so much less wow factor in the painting. For me, less statue should mean less money so if these statues were sub $200, I would be all for them.

I agree with you Rev, I think the price is a little for a 1/6 scale statue of a dwarf. If this were Smaug or Beorn I could see paying that amount, and now I'm really scared at how much thous will actually be. All this has done for me is to be very picky of what I want to collect. I'm thinking the sword replicas will end up being cheaper than the statues.

For me, my new Boromir Statue is almost 3-5 inches taller and with an environment around him: broken stones, walls ect. Now, the detail is about the same on both when it comes to casting, I find the paint jobs on the new Sideshows exquisite compared to my older SSW.

Having never bought any of the newer SS statues, I can't really comment on their quality. I do like my older SSW ones, and this one seems to be on par with those, at least judging by that sole photo. Money is pretty tight though as I finish my UC collection and it's also time to start putting money away for the Hobbit weapons. I think I'm going to confine my Weta purchases to environments only for now (Barad-dur ), and possibly splurge on a Smaug, if they do one.

I'm thinking (or mabye just praying) that the reason this is so e xp ensive is because it's the pilot piece for the entire The Hobbit line, not even just the statues, and it's an SDCC exclusive. But even so, inflation is not kind. Things are going to be more e xp ensive than they once were, so will all the UC products. We'll just have to make it work. And I think with SS passing out PF's for $4-500 these days, Weta can justify $250 for something a lot more unique.

For me, I look at ebay. I see many of the similar SSW Aragorns, Legolas s, ect with the black base going for $40-$150. And the newer SS stuff is holding its value fairly well and doubling in value if you have a SS exclusive.

I had never bought a Weta piece until PreRuin Orthanc, for money and space, I don't think now is the time to start collecting characters, I will stick with environments, like Val, possibly Barad-dur.

Yeah, there was a time when I really wanted to collect all of the major characters but I got into that game very late and thus missed out on many of them, mainly the LE ones, and the after-market was way too pricey.

I still ended up getting these from SSW:

Gandalf the Grey
Saruman the White
Legolas
Morgul Lord
Sauron
Aragorn at the Black Gates
Balrog (non LE)

I stopped there and switched to enviros only.

Heck the only SSW I have is Legolas and Aragorn Coronation.

[quote=""RevAnakin""]For me, I look at ebay. I see many of the similar SSW Aragorns, Legolas s, ect with the black base going for $40-$150. And the newer SS stuff is holding its value fairly well and doubling in value if you have a SS exclusive.[/quote]

The Aragorn Fellowship statue goes for like $400 and is rarely ever for sale. Legolas doesn't hold it's value much though. But I can see where you're coming from. I guess you just have to be a real Weta dork like me to love the old line. There's just a spirit to them, made at the time of the movies as part of the original run of collectibles, as opposed to the SS ones coming out eight, nine, ten years later ya know? I don't really know what it is.

vs.



The detail in the clothing is definitely there in the old ones, and there is a true nostalgia to it as well, but I think the facial casting has improved drastically.

Definitely very cool stuff!

Check it out! Comic Con time! Wooooooooohooooo! New statues from Weta, and MSSC Orcist in the works, along with trolls and dwarves and close ups of the props!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theonering ... otostream/

Check out all the photos in tORn's photostream!

Look at the Sauron, his arms and legs seem kind of skinny and girlish. That pose just makes me laugh, it's like he is about to do Jazz hands but he has a mace in his hand instead.

Yeah, that Sauron compares very poorly to the original SSW version. Something about the pose looks very awkward and the whole thing is not helped by the fact that the shot is slightly out of focus.

I'm also slightly confused by Balin's weapon. The picture labels it a mace, but it is far from a traditional weapon of that category. To be honest, it looks more like a very strange sword, even in the way he is holding it. It almost looks like the part leading up to the head could be sharpened, like a blade?

Lastly, those three trolls look nothing like the ones we saw in FOTR.

I was thinking the same this about the "mace." It definitely is sharpened and flat edged like a sword, but looking inside it is as thick as Gimli's axe. So its body probably made it a "mace." Although, to me a mace has to have at least four sides of "spikes" for a 360 degree hit.

As of the Trolls: I think they look a lot alike. I mean the pose isn't the same, but the ones at SDCC right now haven't turned to stone yet. I would just say the the newer ones are a bit bigger and fatter, but nothing stone weathering wouldn't take care of.

Statue from ~2003 based off of movie:


SDCC 2012:

I dunno... to me the faces are not the same. Also, the LOTR ones have no facial hair, though one could argue such a thing would not turn to stone and probably just fall off. Then there's the issue of the rudimentary clothing, which has been mentioned elsewhere.

Honestly, it's not a big deal for me. This is one of those minor continuity glitches between both sets of movies that one just has to accept. I'm pretty sure Jackson and co. were not thinking about shooting the Hobbit when they placed those trolls in FOTR. Likewise, I don't think they were overly concerned about making them match exactly the second time around.

The sword/mace hybrid-thingamajiggerwhatchumacallit definitely looks interesting though. I think I would buy that one if it gets produced.

Sauron is a little awkward for me as well. I thnk the spikes are a little out of place and his head is just a little too big. But the base he stands on is really sweet!

Gotta love some dead elves!

Now this is an awesome display:

Oh my god, that booth is a work of art in and of itself.

I know right? Once I buy a house, the wife and I have already agreed that we are going to re-plaster the walls like that. I like how the swords/axes' cases are embedded into the wall rather than sticking out. Going to do this for sure!

Finally a picture of Thorin "Oakenshield" exclusive. It is on his hip, hidden.

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2012/07 ... en-shield/

Just got Uruk-hai generals helm # 277/500

Here is a few pics with size comparison.

Wow, it really does look great doesn't it? Fits nicely with the old helms. Can't wait for more of these!

N2, your collection continues to amaze and inspire!

Just out of curiosity, has anyone here pre-ordered or is planning to buy the new 3-piece Fellowship statues set? I'm pretty intrigued by it and seeing as I never completed my set of individual Fellowship statues from the original run, this would be a cool way to have all nine walkers.

http://www.wetanz.com/the-fellowship-of-the-ring-set-1/