Hi Everyone,
We have just returned to New Zealand after an incredibly exciting time at Comic Con. We wanted to share some background information with you, which I hope will help explain some of the the things Weta are doing.
Firstly, I want to sincerely thank all of you for all your comments on this forum, both positive and negative. We think it's absolutely wonderful there are so many passionate LOTR collectors out there who want to express their views on this forum. We really do appreciate your feedback and criticism. Please keep it coming !
LOTR License
At the time of the movie trilogy, Weta could only afford to get one license for LOTR merchandise. As you well know, this was the range of polystone collectibles that became so popular. We really enjoyed sculpting them and we hope you enjoyed collecting them (our staff collect them as well !)
Since the premiere of The Fellowship of the Ring, we have received countless requests for all sorts of other authentic props / weapons / costumes / collectibles from the movies. We would have loved to have met all these requests, however we have had to bide our time and be patient until other licenses have expired.
The opportunity has now come for Weta to return to Middle Earth. And we are very excited to be able to start offering a wider range of LOTR art and merchandise, for both collectors with higher budgets and those with lower budgets (like most of us !). We are very grateful to the kind folks at Warner Bros for providing us with this opportunity.
Our new license was only finalised 2 days before the start of Comic Con. So it was a mad rush to get the first few products out on display in San Diego.
We understand and sympathise with some of you that some of these products were priced at the higher end of the spectrum, and there were not enough products at the lower end of the price spectrum. Fair enough.
I can assure you there will be more LOTR products coming at the lower end of the spectrum. We just did not have enough time after the license was finalised to prepare these for launch. It takes much more time to launch higher volume products (where 3rd party manufacturers are involved), than it does to launch low edition, made to order products (which we can just create in the Weta Workshop).
Also, we want to consult with collectors to listen to your preferred product categories for more affordable collectibles. For example: please feel free to join the voting poll at the Shadow and Flame forum which started today,
https://www.wetacollectors.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33592, or start your own poll. We want to hear your suggestions and ideas.
Why have we launched products at the higher end of the price spectrum ?
There have been many, many LOTR licensed products launched at the mass market over the last several years. However there have been very few highly authentic, fine art items, created by the original artists, available for those customers with higher budgets.
We have been receiving requests from these customers since the launch of the Fellowship of the Ring. And they have been left unfulfilled for several years. So we are simply trying to meet this unfulfilled customer demand. In doing so, there is no intent to disparage or ignore customers with lower budgets. We are sorry if some of you felt disappointed. This was certainly not our intention.
Over the next 6 months, we will be launching more products at both the higher end
and the lower end. Please note some of our products will have to be limited by sales territory (as per our license) to New Zealand only. Sorry about this, but it is a requirement of our license.
Pricing of Swords / Cloak
Some of you have questioned the pricing of our LOTR swords and Gandalf the Grey Cloak.
I do not intend to tell you how to think. Everyone is entitled to their view. However please take the following points into consideration...
These swords are individually hand crafted by Peter Lyon at Weta Workshop. Peter has been making swords for 20 years. He crafted the original hero swords for LOTR, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Samurai, Indiana Jones (and we hope will create the hero swords for The Hobbit). In our view, he is the leading swordsmith in the movie world. We consider his swords to be the fine art of a Master Swordsmith. His swords are made using old world techniques. They are crafted in the same blacksmith where Peter created the originals. These are not factory made swords made to look nice for display. These are bladed weapons made for sword fighting. The weight distribution is finely tuned for skillful use in battle. It takes Peter 3-4 weeks to craft one sword. They are made with the same dedication, passion and attention to detail, which Weta applies to all our projects, whether they be movies, TV, collectibles, public art, etc. Please see the video of how the swords are made here :
https://www.wetanz.com/want-to-see-a-master-swordsmith-at-work/
The Gandalf the Grey Cloaks are created by our friends at Stansborough in New Zealand
https://https://www.stansborough.co.nz/sb/index.cfm. They are exact replicas of the original, made from the same wool, from the same breed of sheep, from the same farm as used for the original cloaks. It took over 10 years to create this special wool breed of unique grey sheep known as the 'Stansborough Grey' and now they are the only kind in the world. The wool is spun and then woven on 1890’s looms at the Stansborough Weaving Mill. These are not factory made garments. They are artisan crafted cloaks, made to order by a small family run business, and totally authentic to the original worn in the movies.
The Art of John Howe - Sculptures from Middle-earth
This is a personal project for both John Howe and Richard Taylor. They have been planning these sculptures for 10 years. John has long dreamed of taking his two dimensional art into a three dimensional sculptural form. Please read the sample excerpts from the book which comes with the sculpture here
https://www.wetanz.com/assets/pdf/johnhowebook/JohnHoweBookWebEdit.html. The license comes from the lovely people at Tolkien Enterprises.
Each sculpture took approx 26 weeks to sculpt under the art direction of John Howe and guidance from Richard Taylor (The coins which make up Smaug's treasure were placed individually, one by one). Casting these sculptures in bronze will be a highly complex artistic process in it's own right.
We hope to shortly announce that these sculptures will also be available in a more affordable faux bronze. We were unable to announce this before Comic Con, as we needed to finalise a few points in the license.
The choice of bronze and faux bronze is both an artistic choice (by John and Richard) and a requirement of our license.
Summary
Weta is first and foremost a creative company. We are owned and led by highly creative people. Rightly or wrongly, we have a relentless pursuit for creative perfection, whether it be our movies, TV shows, fine art, collectibles, public art displays, charity work, private commission, etc. We are just as happy creating art for customers with lower budgets, as we are for customers with higher budgets. It is the creative journey which gets us excited, not the price point. Hopefully you can see the results in our work.
So please do not expect us to behave as other companies do. We will do our best to meet your expectations, just as we do our other customers. However we will always prefer to be original and authentic, rather than fit in with the norms of the market. Sometimes we will get it right, and sometimes not.
The intention of my note is not to try and tell you what to think. I just want to provide you with some background information to consider.
Please keep giving us your feedback and suggestions
And keep up to date with our latest news by signing up for our free newsletters here
https://www.wetanz.com/insideweta/newsletter
Kind regards
Tim from Weta
PS : Sorry about the very long note !
