from Weta:
Earthquake Relief Art Exhibition in Chengdu — The Exceptional Exhibition
Richard Taylor has organised to take a unique collection of art, props and sculpture to Chengdu in China. This exhibition will also premiere a significant collection of fine art paintings from Greg Broadmore, the creator of Dr. Grordbort’s — a property that Richard Taylor and Partner Tania Rodger have developed with Broadmore over the past four years. Read more about the exhibition on our site!
Get your Christmas cards from our new Zazzle.com Dr. Grordbort’s Emporium!
Zazzle.com is an online marketplace that allows us to get closer to you. We supply the designs and they make it and sell it. You can currently get Dr. Grordbort’s Christmas Cards or a t-shirt, sweatshirt or hoodie with Dr. Grordbort’s logo. Check out the local stores for North America, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. Some of the stores are offering free shipping before Christmas!
Technology? Covered! Get Weta Gelaskins for your gadgets!
Together with our friends at Dark Horse Comics we’ve made a few of our Dr. Grordbort’s designs available on the GelaSkins.com website. They come in various sizes customised for different brands and models of mobile phones, laptops and personal gaming devices such as Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. Check them out — it’s an awesome way to protect your valued gear!
News from the Shire
Ian Brodie and the team at Hobbiton Movie Set and Farm Tours will be giving us updates on what’s happening in their neck of the woods. We got the first update this week!
Another update on the work on the Bag End environment from Daniel Falconer
Weta has started work on a collectible environment of Bag End, Bilbo’s and subsequently Frodo’s home in Bagshot Row in the Shire. We haven’t seen much of Daniel recently and his update sheds some light on the reasons for that:
Work on the Bag End mini environment continues apace. One of the biggest tasks so far has in fact been the amassing of reference material. It’s surprising how little actually exists, and what does exist tends to be imagery from the same angles, but we’ve turned up some gems and found some interesting details we didn’t know about before. Approvals on the basic design have come from the studio and we’re deep into making the designs into a physical reality.
Miniature Pearce is here!
“Shiny” — was our test panel’s first reaction to the Pearce 75 Atom Ray Gun. And equally shiny is its minisculized counterpart. It is unique in that it has been miniaturised from a prototype. This is risky business, but who are we to argue with the scientists? At one quarter of its original scale, this finely detailed piece captures all the elaborate detail of its full scale counterpart and, like those larger guns, is made from metal. You simply MUST check it out here!
Richard Taylor’s and John Howe’s Forum Blitzes — check out the replies!
Both Richard Taylor and John Howe have recently been on the Weta Forum on The Shadow and Flame to answer questions from fans. Check out what they had to say. Richard Taylor here and John Howe here. And of course, there is plenty of opportunity to ask questions of other Weta crew, such as Daniel Falconer and David Tremont.
John Howe signs two new books at the Weta Cave
Tolkien and Fantasy illustrator and artist, John Howe, has two new books in the works, Fantasy Drawing Workshop and Lost Worlds by John Howe. John will be signing these books at an exclusive event at the Weta Cave in Wellington on Sunday 6 December. We’ll see you there!
Halo and Texas — what’s the connection? Now we know!
After our plea in the last newsletter, we had a few responses as to why more than half of the Halo Master Chief Sterling Silver Rings we’ve sold have gone to Texas. We reckon Deborah summed it up well:
I would say Texas is more of a state not afraid to stand up for what it believes in. And that means, if you’re a big businessman spending your days securing expensive contracts for your company, but you also like to kick back at night and play some Halo 3 with your friends, you’re not afraid to admit it! You would wear that Halo ring to work with pride, not afraid to fess-up to your geekdom.
Texas really does have a strong nerd base. And that nerd base is not just limited to the young crowd — people of all ages decide for themselves what they enjoy, not what people expect of them to enjoy or promote. There is a fairly broad spectrum of people who enjoy the Halo universe, as well as other games/movies/etc, and they aren’t afraid to proclaim it! Here you’re likely to find people just as proud of their vintage “Strongbad” t-shirt as you are somebody strutting around with their $3,000 handbag.
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