Sideshow/Weta LOTR Collectibles (1 Viewer)

[Kami]

My minas morgul finally shipped but I sold it a while ago (with elessar crown) for an astonishing $400 US. I can't believe people are willing to pay this.

My plan was to pick up one off ebay once prices drop but I've been hearing more and more negative reactions - not so sure anymore.

 

[Joel Walker]

Thankfully, my wife thinks these things are pretty cool.

She draws the line at the Master Replicas lightsabers though. She makes fun of them because its just the handle. For $300 it should have a stick! I explained how it's better to have just an exact prop replica because it *could* be a lightsaber if you only pushed the button (which you would never do ). But if it had a blade, you *know* it's not real. She's not buying it.

 

[Mark-W]

Joel,

I don't collect Gentle Giant pieces, but I have owned two: the Darth Vader mini-bust and the Yoda mini-bust.

While I was impressed with ALL of the human figures' facial features (Mace REALLY looked like Mace, etc,) I thought they botched Vader's mask: The faceplates were too boxy, making his "cheeks" and "jaw" look (to me) like he was crossed with a boxer dog.

I kept looking at it and thinking, "It doesn't look enought like Vader," I sold it for more than I paid for it after I had had it for a few weeks.

Yoda, to me, didn't make a good mini-bust subject, only because of his height he seemed more like he had suffered from Maul's plight and had his lower body chopped off.

Still, I continue to be impressed with their work. I was thrilled to see that they were doing a full body Darth Vader in his most famous pose, asking Luke to join him, and promptly pre-ordered one. Funny thing is, it has now disappeared from StarWars.com's store webpage.

I just hope they have a different sculptor doing the face on Vader this time. The other thing with Gentle Giant, is that their proto-types can be different than the final product in pose, and you have to know that going in.

As for the Master Replicas Darth Vader's lightsaber, I bought one of those for my full scale Darth Vader. Funny thing is, even with my other Vader stuff, I didn't feel like I had crossed a line into true "Geekdom" until I had the lightsaber.

It is impressive as far as really being just like the one in the film, which was just made from a kind of flash device...MR even put the little numbers on it as if the one they were selling used to be a flash device as well.

Regards,

Mark

 

[Sean Bryan]

Got my Gandalf on Shadowfax yesterday.

Beautiful statue!

Anyone else pre-ordering Pipin tomorrow? I am.

 

[Chazz_S]

Yep, you damn right I am!

12 Noon PST tomorrow- be there or be square!

 

[Joel Walker]

Definitely excited about Pippin - The number one 'must have' not yet sculpted, IMO.

 

[Craig S]

Yup, I'll be there this afternoon (2 PM CST) to pre-order Pip.

My Gandalfax shipped last week, so should arrive in a couple of days. Can't wait!!

 

[Matty P]

my Minas Morgul showed up over the weekend, I'm happy with it, not as much detail as Minas Tirith but a nice companion piece, I've got them bookending my LOTR EE dvd's in the movie room...happy to get a low number as well, 254/8500!

-matt

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Right now words cannot described how pissed off I am about Sideshow's inability to put up a website that won't crash when they put a limited edition of 2000 on sale. They should cancel all the web orders and have a lottery because successfully submitting an order at their website in the moments between crashes involves just as much luck.

 

[Chazz_S]

It seems to have stabilized, try it again Wayne.

 

[Craig S]

There's no doubt the SS website was a major disaster today. When I finally got in about 5 PM (CST) I went round and around in circles - adding Pip to my cart, checking out to be told my cart was empty, adding him again, etc., etc., all being punctuated with continuous prompts for my SS ID & PW.

After trying off & on for several hours, I finally managed to get an order placed at about 9 tonight.

Whoever is running their commerce site needs to be fired immediately. It's 2005 - this stuff should just work by now.

 

[Malcolm R]

Sideshow screwing up a limited offer? Imagine that!

The entire marketing and promotional staff should be fired.

 

[DougWright]

I am in Canada and got my Minas Morgul today, anyone else have to pay FedEx 26 bucks in fees? I really think that should all be taken care of up front.
Then again looking at the tracking information my environment saw more of the US than I have (twice) so maybe that's a cheap ride...

 

[Sean Bryan]

Well, I've been trying to order Pippin through their websire for over 24 hours now with no luck.

I keep going through the same circles described above. Add to cart, try to checkout, and keep getting asked for username and password over and over again.

It is an endless loop. My computer is slow and I'm using a dial-up conncetion which is also slow. This is really lame. I've given up.

I used their customer service "contact us" form and told them I had been trying to order and cannot. I also called the number they provide to order by telephone, and I get an automated message the takes a message. As per their website instructions, I did leave my name and user name and told them I wanted this statue and they should place the order and put it on the card I have on file. I'll see if I hear back form them, but I'm not expecting much now.

 

[Joel Walker]

I had some real trouble on a dial up yesterday too - for about two hours. Very glad to have finally gotten the figure though. I guess people should have known it would be 'ok' to wait 5-6 hours for the traffic jam to ease a bit, but I'd hate to risk it myself.


All the trouble I know of was pages not loading and server error messages. This sounds different Sean, and the server load is greatly diminished by now. Is it possible you have cookies turned off? Or any chance to access a different computer? I would bet the phone order will work though.

Joel

 

[Joel Walker]

Also - Gandalf on Shadowfax came through today.

Absolutely STUNNING!

I love when a figure exceeds my expectations. Shelob was also this way for me.

From an engineering viewpoint, this must be the most impressive figure to date. Lovely to look at as well, and much larger than I expected. I should have known the horse would be massive, but it still caught me aback. Also, the musculature and veins/hair texturing of Shadowfax are just amazing.

 

[Sean Bryan]

As I said, Craig described having the same problem above.

This has been happening on two different computers.

Sideshow has not yet returned my call to confirm if the order went through from the telephone message I left.

I'll not by from them again unless I'm forced to with an exclusive. I'm dealing with Fireside from now on (already canceled sideshow's Sauron and ordered from Fireside because of the better price).

Shouldn't be this freaking hard to give someone your money.

 

[Nick Sievers]

I must have been lucky because my order went through fine. I just happened to be browsing the site when pre-ordering began, i'm on dial-up and the site was a lot slower than it usually is.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Sideshow finally contacted me by email

They were actually responding to a question from several days ago, but I took the opportunity to ask them to place the order in my reply.

They got back to me and said they put the order though. Finally.

And yes, Gandalf on Sahdowfax is really a spectacular statue.

 

[Craig S]

I got Gandalf on Shadowfax this week as well.

Short review - it is my new favorite SSW statue.

Finally, we have a good guy that can stand with all the cool SSW baddies. And it's my favorite LotR character to boot!

After some missteps early last year, I think SSW has been on a roll lately, with the Morgul Lord, Elessar, Mines of Moria (great detail), Shelob (much nicer than the online pics with a great paint job), and now Gandalfax. I've really enjoyed the Last Alliance & MoS busts as well. The quality on all of these has been high as well. Let's hope the streak continues with Eowyn, Pip, and Sauron.