Jm419
Sr Member
Here's a review of three LotR props I picked up during the last few months. What with the semester ending about a week ago and the holidays occurring immediately after, I've not had much time to write up reviews of these props as they came in. I've had these for a while, now, but now that they're all here (the Ring didn't arrive until the 12th) and I have some quiet time this evening, I figured I would write these up together.
A friend of mine on another forum and I convinced each other that, due to the Hobbit's release this December, prices on LotR stuff were likely to soar, so we made our move to collect whatever we wanted before the premiere sent costs through the ceiling. I picked up the Shards first, then he got an Anduril and a MC Glamdring. At this point, I owned an Anduril, Narsil, Shards of Narsil, and a standard UC Sting - so my collection felt a bit off balance.
When my cohort got a MC Glamdring, I congratulated him, but I figured it was a bit out of my reach. I was looking on ebay one day when I happened to run across another MC Glamdring for less than $100. Knowing the price wouldn't stay there, I decided to watch it, and ended up bagging the sword for about $287, which was a pretty decent price considering the original retail was like $1200.
Here it is, Museum Collection Glamdring #696/1000. Pardon the photos; my golden retriever puppy got to the camera and damaged it, so I think the light sensor is a little out of whack.
The hilt is silver plated, and weathered to match the movie prop. It's really well detailed, and the work feels solid, clean, and elegant - like everything else I've owned from UC, this is really top of the line. There are real sapphires on the hilt, and the silver shines nicely. (I do have a question - does the carbon steel blade need any special care, or is gun oil once a month all it needs?)
Apparently there's a funny story behind these runes. They're actually reversed on the sword - while still "legible", they are out of order on the blade when compared to Tolkien's writings.
For instance, let's take the sentences: My name is James. I am twenty-one.
These two sentences are simply swapped on the hilt. While the original meaning of the sentence is as shown above, they would read, on the hilt,
I am twenty-one. My name is James.
I guess this isn't really an error, or at least, not one that injures screen-accuracy. The runes were apparently etched both ways on the original Hero Props, and Kit Rae can confirm this - the prop they received to model at United Cutlery had the runes as shown on their Museum Collection Sword, in the "reversed" format. However, a different Hero prop had the runes written correctly, so both versions are technically screen accurate.
Since I don't read Cirth, I have no problems with this. I think it's a bit of an amusing anecdote, but that's just me.
Note the fine grain of the metal in the first photo above. This really illustrates the quality of the sword; the finish is like this across the hilt, and it really looks like a 4,000 year old sword.
Anyway, continuing on...
These are some shots of the pommel. I always liked the geometry of the LotR sword pommels - all the sweeping curves, especially on Narsil - and Glamdring is no exception. The geometry is complex but aesthetically pleasing.
Here's the proof. The swords recently discovered by Redford films are in fact part of the original run of 1,000. They apparently had a problem - UC went bankrupt halfway through the run - so roughly a third to half of the swords were lost. My friend and I were initially skeptical that these were genuine, but they are, in fact, part of the original run. If you're still looking for a MC sword, pick one up - Redford Films has at least a few left, still in original UC packing.
This photo and the trademark photo show the edge of this sword. The standard line of United Cutlery stuff has a false edge, with some exceptions, but Anduril and Narsil are both false-edged. Not so on this blade. This is a real sharp blade, and the tip is very, very keen - just like it should be.
This is a real, wet-wrapped leather grip, and it feels like it. This is such a small detail, but it makes the sword feel like it should - real leather on the grip of a blade with real silver and real sapphire accents with a sharp blade and a full tang - this is truly one of the Holy Grails of LotR sword collecting. Aside from the MSSC, this is the best Glamdring available - if you're on the fence, jump on it. It's definitely worth the cash. :lol
These darn things are hard to photograph - they're gigantic!
Glamdring, however, was not the sword I always wanted. The other, way-out-of-my-wallet's-reach sword was the original run of 5000 Shards of Narsil. Unlike the Glamdring run, the Shards were completed and sent out, but each one is unique. They're hand weathered and distressed, and they sure look the part of the real prop. Take a look.
The edges of each Shard are cracked and distressed, unlike my original dremelled edges on my Pakistani knockoff. Well, those weren't perfectly smooth, but these breaks actually look like breaks - it looks like the sword actually shattered along these lines.
As you can see, the hilt shard is removable:
Here's a better look at the hilt shard. Pardon the lighting here - you can tell why I think the light correction sensor is going.
The weathering is very precisely done on this. Small rust spots have formed on the blade during its 3,000 year stay in Rivendell, and they're all over. The leather is even "dirty." All in all, it's very well done, and I'm remarkably pleased to have this in my collection. Now I own all three stages of Narsil: pre-break, broken, and post-break, or Anduril.
Here's the trademark on the blade. UC 1296 indeed. Bizarrely, this is on the "hero" side of the prop; this is the upwards facing face of the blade in the film, which means you can't have a screen accurate display. Ah well. I'll just leave it on the plaque - that looks pretty good to me.
Strangely, though, this does not have a steel blade, but rather cast aluminum. It makes sense, I guess, but it shines like aluminum, not steel, and the anti-corrosion coating is wearing off in places.
This is something else that I thought was awesome. I bought this from another RPF member, who can identify himself if he chooses, and he took very good care of this. The wooden plaque is in very good shape, as is the sword itself, but the really cool thing is the number. I know it's a high number, but I'm not overly concerned with that - the cool thing is that it's "round."
Ok - you'll probably think this is weird, but let me explain. I'm an engineering student, and we like round numbers - ending in 5, or 0, and numbers that break down from 1000 easily are even better (for metric conversions). 10, 25, 50, 75 - we like those numbers, and even better are obvious fractional equivalents, like 125, 250, 500, 750, etc. Imagine my surprise when this came out to be an awesome number - 4250. If I'd have gotten to pick a number, this would have been like number six or seven on my list, out of the original 5000. 1, 1000, 5000, 2500, 4750, 4500, 4250. So, yeah, seven. Isn't that neat? Out of all the numbers, it's a cool one to get. That just puts a smile on my face.
Now that you think I'm a weirdo, I'd better entice you to stick around for the third part of the review:
I picked up a nice One Ring replica from Weta. This is the new, Hobbit release, without the black-speech runes, which I preferred to the LotR version - the runes show on screen for like 2% of the Ring's entire screentime, so I wanted the "more" screen accurate piece - without the runes.
The box it came in is quite nice; it "smells good," because it's still outgassing from the laser etching process for the title on the top of the box. It's real, NZ wood, and it's kinda neat to think that I have wood that came from Middle Earth.
It's a Ring. How many ways can I photograph it? :lol I would like to point out that I did rotate the Ring, so these are two different photographs. You can tell because it shifted slightly. :lol
Honestly, while it's an obvious copy from the film, photographing this thing on a "blond" wood is the only way to go - otherwise, the color gets washed out. I've now owned like five One Rings, and this is a hard one to get right; the dimensions are off in one way or another in my cheap amazon "wedding bands", or the curve isn't right on the edge, or it's too thin, or something. This one, though, looks every bit the One - and it's heavy, too. Tungsten carbide has a molecular weight of 15.30 g/cc, compared to gold's 19.30 g/cc, so the Ring weighs about the same as if it were solid gold. It has a nice heft to it, and it's really nicely done. I wore it to the premiere of the Hobbit and got all sorts of compliments on it.
Even if it did take nine freakin weeks to arrive. :behave
I know this is a bit of a sore topic with folks, but I figured I'd do a full review. The info on the inside is, in fact, laser etched. It's fairly upsetting, yes, that they'd do this - it goes roughly halfway around the inside, too, so it's hard to display in a three-sided case. It's not a huge deal, but it is fairly irritating that the mark is engraved and that it covers so much of the space. I'd have been much more amenable to it were it only over, say, a fifth of the inner diameter, but half is just too much. It also can't be removed subtractively, which means a trip to the jeweler's is in order to hide the maker's mark. I'll probably just live with it, but I'd prefer it was more tastefully done.
The Ring is just supposed to be flawless and unmarked, so the mark's presence is a little out of line. I understand why it's there, but I wish it wasn't.
Still, if you turn the Ring around, it looks good from one side:
Even if you can see the "Wet" at right at the start of the maker's mark. Ah well; I enjoy it for what it is.
So that's it for me - these are the jewels of my Lord of the Rings collection. I spent more than I probably should have on LotR stuff in the past few months, but hey, I've got what I wanted, and before the prices skyrocketed due to the Hobbit's popularity. They're magical props - they really take you into the world they belong to. In terms of licensed props, UC does it best. Unless you go straight to the maker, of course.
A friend of mine on another forum and I convinced each other that, due to the Hobbit's release this December, prices on LotR stuff were likely to soar, so we made our move to collect whatever we wanted before the premiere sent costs through the ceiling. I picked up the Shards first, then he got an Anduril and a MC Glamdring. At this point, I owned an Anduril, Narsil, Shards of Narsil, and a standard UC Sting - so my collection felt a bit off balance.
When my cohort got a MC Glamdring, I congratulated him, but I figured it was a bit out of my reach. I was looking on ebay one day when I happened to run across another MC Glamdring for less than $100. Knowing the price wouldn't stay there, I decided to watch it, and ended up bagging the sword for about $287, which was a pretty decent price considering the original retail was like $1200.
Here it is, Museum Collection Glamdring #696/1000. Pardon the photos; my golden retriever puppy got to the camera and damaged it, so I think the light sensor is a little out of whack.
The hilt is silver plated, and weathered to match the movie prop. It's really well detailed, and the work feels solid, clean, and elegant - like everything else I've owned from UC, this is really top of the line. There are real sapphires on the hilt, and the silver shines nicely. (I do have a question - does the carbon steel blade need any special care, or is gun oil once a month all it needs?)
Apparently there's a funny story behind these runes. They're actually reversed on the sword - while still "legible", they are out of order on the blade when compared to Tolkien's writings.
For instance, let's take the sentences: My name is James. I am twenty-one.
These two sentences are simply swapped on the hilt. While the original meaning of the sentence is as shown above, they would read, on the hilt,
I am twenty-one. My name is James.
I guess this isn't really an error, or at least, not one that injures screen-accuracy. The runes were apparently etched both ways on the original Hero Props, and Kit Rae can confirm this - the prop they received to model at United Cutlery had the runes as shown on their Museum Collection Sword, in the "reversed" format. However, a different Hero prop had the runes written correctly, so both versions are technically screen accurate.
Since I don't read Cirth, I have no problems with this. I think it's a bit of an amusing anecdote, but that's just me.
Note the fine grain of the metal in the first photo above. This really illustrates the quality of the sword; the finish is like this across the hilt, and it really looks like a 4,000 year old sword.
Anyway, continuing on...
These are some shots of the pommel. I always liked the geometry of the LotR sword pommels - all the sweeping curves, especially on Narsil - and Glamdring is no exception. The geometry is complex but aesthetically pleasing.
Here's the proof. The swords recently discovered by Redford films are in fact part of the original run of 1,000. They apparently had a problem - UC went bankrupt halfway through the run - so roughly a third to half of the swords were lost. My friend and I were initially skeptical that these were genuine, but they are, in fact, part of the original run. If you're still looking for a MC sword, pick one up - Redford Films has at least a few left, still in original UC packing.
This photo and the trademark photo show the edge of this sword. The standard line of United Cutlery stuff has a false edge, with some exceptions, but Anduril and Narsil are both false-edged. Not so on this blade. This is a real sharp blade, and the tip is very, very keen - just like it should be.
This is a real, wet-wrapped leather grip, and it feels like it. This is such a small detail, but it makes the sword feel like it should - real leather on the grip of a blade with real silver and real sapphire accents with a sharp blade and a full tang - this is truly one of the Holy Grails of LotR sword collecting. Aside from the MSSC, this is the best Glamdring available - if you're on the fence, jump on it. It's definitely worth the cash. :lol
These darn things are hard to photograph - they're gigantic!
Glamdring, however, was not the sword I always wanted. The other, way-out-of-my-wallet's-reach sword was the original run of 5000 Shards of Narsil. Unlike the Glamdring run, the Shards were completed and sent out, but each one is unique. They're hand weathered and distressed, and they sure look the part of the real prop. Take a look.
The edges of each Shard are cracked and distressed, unlike my original dremelled edges on my Pakistani knockoff. Well, those weren't perfectly smooth, but these breaks actually look like breaks - it looks like the sword actually shattered along these lines.
As you can see, the hilt shard is removable:
Here's a better look at the hilt shard. Pardon the lighting here - you can tell why I think the light correction sensor is going.
The weathering is very precisely done on this. Small rust spots have formed on the blade during its 3,000 year stay in Rivendell, and they're all over. The leather is even "dirty." All in all, it's very well done, and I'm remarkably pleased to have this in my collection. Now I own all three stages of Narsil: pre-break, broken, and post-break, or Anduril.
Here's the trademark on the blade. UC 1296 indeed. Bizarrely, this is on the "hero" side of the prop; this is the upwards facing face of the blade in the film, which means you can't have a screen accurate display. Ah well. I'll just leave it on the plaque - that looks pretty good to me.
Strangely, though, this does not have a steel blade, but rather cast aluminum. It makes sense, I guess, but it shines like aluminum, not steel, and the anti-corrosion coating is wearing off in places.
This is something else that I thought was awesome. I bought this from another RPF member, who can identify himself if he chooses, and he took very good care of this. The wooden plaque is in very good shape, as is the sword itself, but the really cool thing is the number. I know it's a high number, but I'm not overly concerned with that - the cool thing is that it's "round."
Ok - you'll probably think this is weird, but let me explain. I'm an engineering student, and we like round numbers - ending in 5, or 0, and numbers that break down from 1000 easily are even better (for metric conversions). 10, 25, 50, 75 - we like those numbers, and even better are obvious fractional equivalents, like 125, 250, 500, 750, etc. Imagine my surprise when this came out to be an awesome number - 4250. If I'd have gotten to pick a number, this would have been like number six or seven on my list, out of the original 5000. 1, 1000, 5000, 2500, 4750, 4500, 4250. So, yeah, seven. Isn't that neat? Out of all the numbers, it's a cool one to get. That just puts a smile on my face.
Now that you think I'm a weirdo, I'd better entice you to stick around for the third part of the review:
I picked up a nice One Ring replica from Weta. This is the new, Hobbit release, without the black-speech runes, which I preferred to the LotR version - the runes show on screen for like 2% of the Ring's entire screentime, so I wanted the "more" screen accurate piece - without the runes.
The box it came in is quite nice; it "smells good," because it's still outgassing from the laser etching process for the title on the top of the box. It's real, NZ wood, and it's kinda neat to think that I have wood that came from Middle Earth.
It's a Ring. How many ways can I photograph it? :lol I would like to point out that I did rotate the Ring, so these are two different photographs. You can tell because it shifted slightly. :lol
Honestly, while it's an obvious copy from the film, photographing this thing on a "blond" wood is the only way to go - otherwise, the color gets washed out. I've now owned like five One Rings, and this is a hard one to get right; the dimensions are off in one way or another in my cheap amazon "wedding bands", or the curve isn't right on the edge, or it's too thin, or something. This one, though, looks every bit the One - and it's heavy, too. Tungsten carbide has a molecular weight of 15.30 g/cc, compared to gold's 19.30 g/cc, so the Ring weighs about the same as if it were solid gold. It has a nice heft to it, and it's really nicely done. I wore it to the premiere of the Hobbit and got all sorts of compliments on it.
Even if it did take nine freakin weeks to arrive. :behave
I know this is a bit of a sore topic with folks, but I figured I'd do a full review. The info on the inside is, in fact, laser etched. It's fairly upsetting, yes, that they'd do this - it goes roughly halfway around the inside, too, so it's hard to display in a three-sided case. It's not a huge deal, but it is fairly irritating that the mark is engraved and that it covers so much of the space. I'd have been much more amenable to it were it only over, say, a fifth of the inner diameter, but half is just too much. It also can't be removed subtractively, which means a trip to the jeweler's is in order to hide the maker's mark. I'll probably just live with it, but I'd prefer it was more tastefully done.
The Ring is just supposed to be flawless and unmarked, so the mark's presence is a little out of line. I understand why it's there, but I wish it wasn't.
Still, if you turn the Ring around, it looks good from one side:
Even if you can see the "Wet" at right at the start of the maker's mark. Ah well; I enjoy it for what it is.
So that's it for me - these are the jewels of my Lord of the Rings collection. I spent more than I probably should have on LotR stuff in the past few months, but hey, I've got what I wanted, and before the prices skyrocketed due to the Hobbit's popularity. They're magical props - they really take you into the world they belong to. In terms of licensed props, UC does it best. Unless you go straight to the maker, of course.
