Weta Workshop returned for the second time to New York Comic Con, and I may be a little biased, but they easily had the most beautiful booth there! Not only did attendees get to see many familiar products from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films, there were some new ones to obsess over. Last year their booth could be spotted thanks to a giant Smaug head, this year they went with Dain and a couple dwarf soldiers along with costumes from LOTR (previously seen at San Diego Comic Con earlier this year).
Every day Daniel Falconer, Isaac Hamon and Monique Hamon were available for book signings — something I definitely took advantage of! They were all happy to personalize anything you gave them and talk about their experience on the films. Warren Dion-Smith, award winning hair and make-up artist, applied elf and hobbit ears to attendees and did epic orc and dwarf transformations.
One of the new items unveiled at NYCC was Yazneg, available to preorder now for $279. I never quite appreciated his clothing and weapons before seeing the statue in person. Fans also got an advanced look atWeta’s new Smaug bust, which is awesome by the way. Nine were available to purchase at the convention but it doesn’t go on general sale until November, click here to preorder.
The other new items come from LOTR, one being a statue of an elven warrior. You’ll recognize the armor from the prologue scene from The Fellowship of the Ring during the War of the Last Alliance. The other item was, I admit, the one I was the most excited about…Grond! (GROND GROND GROND GROND GROND!!) These two products are not on Weta’s site yet but judging from the Tolkien community’s reaction, people are already starting to save up their pennies.
Weta has a line of leather cuffs available on their site, and a new one featuring the One Ring’s inscription was released at NYCC. It doesn’t seem to be on the site yet, but in the meantime you can check the other cuffs: Elven Leaf, Scrolls of Rohan, Dwarven Decoration, and Dragon Scales.
A new acorn pendant was released at NYCC as well, you can see it in the middle of the other rings and pendants shown below. Ever since seeing The Battle of the Five Armies I can’t look at an acorn without feeling at least a little emotional.
Weta released a new map of Hobbiton print and if you purchased it, you had the chance to get the artist, Daniel Falconer, to sign it! If you’re like me, you consider the Shire to be “home” so this was definitely a must-have item for my Tolkien collection. You can use the map to “walk through the paths” of Hobbiton, all the way from the Green Dragon to Bag End. Unfortunately it’s not available on their site (yet) but we’ll be sure to let you know when it is!
An exclusive NYCC t-shirt was available to purchase as well, it features Smaug, some gold coins and what I’m assuming is the Empire State Building. It was being sold for $35 but the price was lowered to $25 on the last day of the convention so of course I picked one up!
