from Weta:
Come, all ye Satyrs!
Weta wants to see more Centaurs, Satyrs, Demons, Gargoyles, Unicorns, Dragons, Minotaurs and other fantastical creatures roaming the earth! So we just launched Weta Legs with our good friend Kim Graham. If you are a performer, costumer or just want to change into a new creature, then Weta Legs will help you take your creativity to a whole new level (literally!).
The YouTube video has already been viewed 25,000 times in the last 2 weeks. Costume Actor Shane Rangi demonstrated a pair at the Elf Fantasy Fair in Holland on 24-25 April, and our good friend Meredith Yayanos will be showing them off at the Bay Area Maker’s Faire on 22-23 May in the US. These are the first digitigrade legs ever made available for the public. Here’s what Coilhouse Magazine had to say about them.
Now, take advantage of this SPECIAL OFFER! Order your Weta Legs by 25 May and you get an “Early Bird” discount of US$150!
Want to win an all-expenses trip to Weta Workshop in New Zealand?
Join in the digital rendering creativity at Dr. Grordbort’s Raygun Shootout. Entry is free. The challenge for April was to create the most “Futuristic Raygun”. Check out the awesome entries on the Leaderboard. The winners for April will be announced very shortly. There will be new competitions each month up until October. In May, your challenge is to create the finest “Alien Raygun” in the Universe. Get your entries in now. There are monthly prizes and spot prizes from Dr. Grordbort’s. If you are not into rendering you can still vote for your favourite entries. Just register your details, and vote for your favorites on the Leaderboard.
The Lord of the Rings
Middle-earth fans have got a range of new art to choose from:
Keep your own piece of Middle-earth close to your heart with engraved Stone Pendants from the South Island of New Zealand. Their journey began thousands of years ago in the mountains of the Southern Alps. Will they make their way across the globe to your home?
The first 3 of our miniature shields are now shipping from our warehouses in the US, UK and New Zealand. They can be displayed as collectibles or worn as a badge (there is a pin on the back). Stocks in our UK warehouse are already down to very limited numbers, so be quick. A fourth shield is already in production. Which will it be? Have your say on this thread at our fan forum.
Strider’s Sword from the Master Swordsmith’s Collection sold out very quickly. We will be shipping these beautiful works of art out to their 10 lucky owners in May (there are plenty of jealous staff in the Workshop who wish they could afford one!). If you have not yet seen the video on how these blades are crafted, it really is worth taking a look.
The Map of New Zealand as Middle-earth is proving very popular.
Pre-orders for the Bag End Collector’s Edition are racing along. Make sure you don’t miss out before it’s too late.
We will be sending out shipment notices for the Argonath next week. This item has already Sold Out, however you can put your name on the waiting list for cancelled orders by e-mailing us at info@wetaNZ.co.nz.
Please don’t forget if you are ordering 5 or more pieces at once, it pays to send us a note to see if we can reduce your shipping costs by packing them all in one bag.
District 9 fans — Watch Out!
We will be opening pre-orders for an all new D9 collectible in our next newsletter. So get your eyes off the cat food and watch out. The full scale Arc Generator gun sold out in only 4 days, so you don’t want to be late for this one. (You can still put your name on the waiting list for the Arc Generator). The Art of District 9 book is well under away and the design team are doing a terrific job. It’s full of never-seen-before art and tells the story of the design process. We are so excited about launching this book later in the year, we just might have to leak a few glimpses every now and again.
Weta Cave
The Weta Cave in Wellington, New Zealand is nearly 2 years old. We were thrilled to host 100,000 people from all over this world (and a few others) in the last 12 months. It’s a real motivation to all of us at Weta to know that people care enough to travel so far to come and say Hi. Please keep coming and please keep sharing in our obsession for creativity. Recently, we were delighted to host author Robert Rankin from the United Kingdom. We were geeking out about his books and were surprised to find out from his friend “Raygun”, they were both huge Dr. Grordbort’s fans. Huzzah!
We can confirm rumours of Trolls stomping around Wellington airport are true. Weta has a new shopping display at the Discover New Zealand store inside the airport. And yes, of course the trolls do come alive at night time. How else would they stay so well fed?
Dr. Grordbort’s
We are very sorry to advise the Superintendent of Grordborts Industries Misinformation Office has been replaced because of health (death by insect poisoning) reasons. However, on the positive side, we have now discovered where the last remaining live Blue Sacked Pillock was hiding. It has now been skewered through its sack and the new Superintendent is very pleased to announce another Venusian species has officially been made extinct. Our congratulations to the brave gentlemen and literate women at Grordbort Industries for bringing their combined total up to 814 species and counting. There are indications that more bugs are likely to follow in the footsteps of the unfortunate Pillock. Gossip is also rife in the Workshop at the moment. The doors to the paint room have been locked for days on end (luckily — that place stinks of heavy metals and nasty solvents), and the only visitors have been a space man, a well dressed gentleman with over-sized canines and a so called “graffiti artist” with rather loose fitting trouserage covering only the lower halves of his puny buttocks! Could there be more custom painted rayguns on their way? Look out for an imminent propaganda message from Dr. Grordbort’s for more misinformation.
Halo Console Auction
Weta recently created a Halo themed Xbox for our friends at Microsoft, which was auctioned off for charity on eBay. The winning bid was A$10,000. The piece was designed and sculpted by Weta Workshop’s Alex Faulkner. Check out the video! And the full range of Halo collectibles.
Comic-Con is Coming!
San Diego Comic-Con 2010 is only 2 and a half months away. We hope you’ve booked your tickets and will be visiting the Weta team at our booth. More news coming soon…