Statue The Crack of Doom Diorama

[Darth Rage]

If Sideshow called this "Sammath Naur", you guys would be all totally like, um.

Oh, you mean that place where Sauron forged the one ring? You're not the only one that read the books.

 

[Corwin]

Looks Good.

Have to see some pics and get the scale and price before saying Yea or Nay on ordering it.

 

[Dusty]

*sigh* How old are you guys?? 8?

 

[Bannister]

*sigh* How old are you guys?? 8?

I turned 9 in October.

 

[The Josh]

Likeness is awesome on both! I'll be getting this one for sure. Very classy looking piece. Glad to see another awesome line of LOTR coming to collect.

 

[Bannister]

*sigh* How old are you guys?? 8?

Seriously though, like this thread is any less mature than some of the Star Wars 12" figure threads *****ing about about monkey arms and other nonsense.

 

[Bannister]

Likeness is awesome on both! I'll be getting this one for sure. Very classy looking piece. Glad to see another awesome line of LOTR coming to collect.

I agree with you 50%.

 

[carbo-fation]

I agree with you 50%.

 

[tomandshell]

This to me is a very sad moment to depict--possibly the lowest point of the trilogy and the time in the plot where evil is most triumphant. Our hero has finally given in to the lure of the ring, and the seduction and temptation it represents have finally prevailed over the "fool's hope" that a little hobbit could summon the will to destroy it. Rather than a climactic struggle between good and evil, we have here a struggle between two sadly fallen creatures who are both overcome by the power of the ring and are lashing out violently in an attempt to possess it. It is a kind of celebration of everything that Sauron stood for.

Ironically, in the end good was unable to triumph over evil--evil ultimately destroyed itself by sheer accident. This moment represents everything tragic about the Lord of the Rings saga. Gandalf prophetically stated in film one that, "There is only one Lord of the Rings, and he does not share power." That selfish greed and debilitating lust for power are what this moment represents for me--the point where Frodo says, like Gollum before him, "The ring is mine!" and in so doing, becomes the very evil he set out to destroy. It was a shocking and painful statement to read in the book, and although altered somewhat by PJ, the film still portrays the failure of Frodo as he succumbs to corruption. Having an angry and violent Frodo abandoning his sense of pity and hope of redemption and striking out against Gollum to reclaim the ring sums up all of this high drama quite nicely.

The question remains--is that how I want Frodo immortalized in my collection?

 

[SolidLiquidFox]

I like it. I'm buying it!

Gollum looks very good and Frodo is not bad.

 

[Bannister]

This to me is a very sad moment to depict--possibly the lowest point of the trilogy and the time in the plot where evil is most triumphant. Our hero has finally given in to the lure of the ring, and the seduction and temptation it represents have finally prevailed over the "fool's hope" that a little hobbit could summon the wil to destroy it. Rather than a climactic struggle between good and evil, we have a struggle between two sadly fallen creatures who are both overcome by the power of the ring and are lashing out violently in an attempt to possess it. It is a kind of celebration of everything that Sauron stood for.

Ironically, in the end good was unable to triumph over evil--evil ultimately destroyed itself by sheer accident. This moment represents everything tragic about the Lord of the Rings saga. Gandalf prophetically stated in film one that, "There is only one Lord of the Rings. And he does not share power." That selfish greed and debilitating lust for power are what this moment represents for me--the point where Frodo says, like Gollum before him, "The ring is mine!" It was a shocking and painful statement to read in the book, and although altered somewhat by PJ, the film still portrays the failure of Frodo as he succumbs to corruption. Having an angry and violent Frodo abandoning his sense of pity and hope of redemption and striking out against Gollum to reclaim the ring sums up all of this high drama quite nicely.

The question remains--is that how I want Frodo immortalized in my collection?

Since we are apparently all 8 year olds in this thread I have no idea what you mean.

 

[Wetanut]

very nice synopsis of the scene Tom. And yes, I want that exactly.

 

[DarkArtist81]

*sigh* How old are you guys?? 8?

 

[Deadly Dagger]

*waits for a different diorama* classy vid but pass...

 

[The Josh]

very nice synopsis of the scene Tom. And yes, I want that exactly.

Very nice job on the synopsis. That's why I want this piece it captures the moment when everything was in the balance of that struggle.

 

[RoboDad]

With all due respect to Sideshow and Peter Jackson, there is absolutely no way I will ever have this travesty of a piece in my collection. As I have said before, if it doesn't capture the book as well as the movie, for me it's an...

 

[FlyAndFight]

I couldn't see enough of the piece to make an honest evaluation. But what I did see certainly has my attention.

Looking forward to Toy Fair and more complete pics.

 

[Trevolver]

This was really cool to see! I think the video is nothing short of amazing! what a swwwwweeeeeeet way to preview a piece. kudos!

This was a fun piece to sculpt. very challenging. I really like what Tom said about it a couple messages back.

When you're sculpting something you're often asking yourself what's going on in a character's head, and in this case, what's the purpose behind the struggle. It's definitely not a celebration of human triumph, but I really got into the idea of weakness.

And yes, the title of that portion of the dvd is Crack of Doom, I remember!
Trev

 

[Mookeylama]

i think it looks incredible!! u sculpted this Trev?! sweet! u really got Wood down. really wish the PF looks that close.

 

[RoboDad]

This to me is a very sad moment to depict--possibly the lowest point of the trilogy and the time in the plot where evil is most triumphant. Our hero has finally given in to the lure of the ring, and the seduction and temptation it represents have finally prevailed over the "fool's hope" that a little hobbit could summon the will to destroy it. Rather than a climactic struggle between good and evil, we have here a struggle between two sadly fallen creatures who are both overcome by the power of the ring and are lashing out violently in an attempt to possess it. It is a kind of celebration of everything that Sauron stood for.

Ironically, in the end good was unable to triumph over evil--evil ultimately destroyed itself by sheer accident. This moment represents everything tragic about the Lord of the Rings saga. Gandalf prophetically stated in film one that, "There is only one Lord of the Rings, and he does not share power." That selfish greed and debilitating lust for power are what this moment represents for me--the point where Frodo says, like Gollum before him, "The ring is mine!" and in so doing, becomes the very evil he set out to destroy. It was a shocking and painful statement to read in the book, and although altered somewhat by PJ, the film still portrays the failure of Frodo as he succumbs to corruption. Having an angry and violent Frodo abandoning his sense of pity and hope of redemption and striking out against Gollum to reclaim the ring sums up all of this high drama quite nicely.

The question remains--is that how I want Frodo immortalized in my collection?

While that may be how the scene is portrayed in the movie, that isn't what was intended in the book, at all. I hope Seretur doesn't mind me quoting his eloquent and profound post from S&F:

As for this LOTR line, I don't actually want anything that's not from the movies -- as I highly respect the design work that went on at Weta, which would be lacking from other scenes. But I'd love to see more movie designs and situations that follow the book (amazingly, some did).

Or at least some that didn't represent full-blown character assassionations. Tolkien wrote the scene in Sammath Naur as a treatise on the meaning of The Lord's Prayer -- specifically, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil".

If you think about it -- and Tolkien thought about it for a decade -- that's what the entire story of Frodo's relationship with Gollum and the Ring is. (You don't even have to be Christian to see it, of course.) It's as profound a moment in literature as they come.

PJ, of course, didn't understand diddly squat of it all, and cared even less. And now Sideshow is immortalising his folly in poly.

That sums up exactly what is wrong with this piece for me, and why I will never own it, even were it to be given to me.