LOTR Exhibition in Houston

First off...


1000th Post!



Ok, now that that is out of the way...

Some of the Austin group, Adam (DSC), Machael (Migwit), Debbie (Nazgurl), Jamie (Oty) and I, went to the LOTR Exhibition in Houston on Saturday, followed by the Lord of the Rings Symphony. John (Elros) couldn't join us as he went on Friday as part of his vacation on the way to SDCC. All I can say is, if you can manage to get to the Exhibition in either of the two cities it will travel to in the US, do it! It was well worth the three hour drive! And if the Lord of the Rings Symphony happens to come to a city near you, it is also well worth going. At the symphony, we stumbled across Danny (TheWitchKing), who also went to the Exhibition and Symphony on Saturday.

Some of the highlights of the Exhibition for me were several pieces of original artwork from Alan Lee and John Howe, as well as several other artists who worked on the films. These pieces included original pencils, watercolors, acrylics and digital images. The original watercolors for the Alan Lee Rivendale print and John Howe Barad-Dur print were part of the exhibit and I have an even greater respect for the Sideshow prints now after having seen how close they come to reproducing the originals! There was also a John Howe watercolor of Gandalf arriving at Bag-End that would have made a spectacular print from Sideshow!

Other memorable pieces include Hobbiton Mill, Barad-Dur and Orthanc miniatures; 1:1 scale Cave Troll; costumes and weapons of Aragorn, Gandalf, Frodo, Arwen, etc.; armor and helms, including Sauron's armor; and all the important rings from the movies, including the Ringwraiths', Elrond's, Galadriel's, Gandalf's, Aragorn's and of course, the One Ring! The funniest and yet, most disturbing display was a case crammed full of prosthetics of orc ears, teeth, faces, hair, etc. It looked like a bunch of orcs from Helm's Deep were put in a compactor and compressed down!

Our only disappointment was that since no pictures were allowed, they missed a golden opportunity to have a guide or book filled with pictures from the exhibition for sale. Also, they had no CDs for sale at the Symphony, and Adam and I both were looking to pick up some.

I am planning to try to go see the exhibition again before it leaves; I hope everyone who can, get to go see it.

Congrats on 1k!!

I wish something like this would come closer to where I live. I would so enjoy this but sadly it never does.

Yes who would of thought 6 boardmembers were sitting right next to me. It was def a day to always remember.

Am green with envy! Am hoping to catch these someday before I die.
Glad you all had a great time! :yay

Congrats Larry on getting to 1K!! :toast :toast

Josh:

Being in Mo, why aren't you going to the LOTR Exhibit in Indianapolis (October 6 thru Jan 3,2006)?? This is the absolutely LAST chance to catch it before it retires to NZ and the hype is that it will be the most complete exhibit to date. They are even showing the Trilogy in IMAX at the museum.
Glad you had a gas at Houston, Larry. I can't wait for the Indy Exhibit. I plan on going the week of Oct 24th.

here's a link, Josh, for more info:

www.in.gov/ism/MuseumExhibits/lotr.asp

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sorry for all the extra space folks. I've been having all kinds of probs using Mozilla (Firefox) with this forum, so it looks like I'll go back to using good ole MS Explorer.

You beat me to it Gorthaur. I was about to post the same info about the Indiana exhibit dates. (By the way, it is Lonnie, not Larry, but not a problem.)

Josh, you have to go see it! I think the drive would be worth it.

I may try and go to that. I would probably fly. That drive really sucks done it a few times going to the Indy 500.

sorry about that Lonnie! I knew that.......must just be super tired tonight. won't happen again.......Mike

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No problem Mike.

Also, here is the official web site of the exhibition: TePapa

CONGRATULATIONS LCUMMINS!!!!!!

Yeah, The exhibition is AWESOME!:eek

I saw it when it was in Sydney (Australia..) at the start of the year...I flew down from Brisbane with the wife and kids, just to see it...And it was worth it..

How cool is the life-size Boromir in the elf boat...I tell you, it wouldn't have surprised me to see him open his eyes and wink!

But, you are right, they missed a HUGE opportunity to sell a collectable book of some kind detailing the exhibits etc. It was such a shame one couldn't take photos....I don't know the reason behind that, but I suppose it's up to them right?

Maybe they will do a book after the exhibit finishes touring. There is now a Weta Publishing division, so you never know...


And the Boromir! I could have sworn his eyelids fluttered once!

Congratulations on the 1000th! What did you think of the costumes? I saw the exhibition in Boston and was totally blown away by Saruman's robes! And, I do believe that Boromir winked at me from his boat! Yes, it did happen, I just know it did. :\

I saw the Exhibit in Boston myself last October with a friend, and we both really enjoyed it.

Sauron was my favorite.

Definitely worth going too, if you can swing it.

I missed out on this when it was in London
Nobody would go with me, and I aint taking a train on my own, down to London on my own, to wander round a LOTR exhibit on my own!
Even though I was desperate to see everything

One of my favorites was having 2 long lines of armor displays all lined up together. The Prologue Elven armor was just stunning. They also had a bunch of helms, and I quickly lamented that there were helms which will not be represented in the WETA line. Theoden's armor was displayed separately; quite beautiful.

The only disappointment for me: almost everything was from LoTR. Next to nothing in the way of prop or costume displays from TTT and RoTK.

And the prices on stuff in the giftshop was ludicrous. $125 for a NECA Aragorn or Gimli!! $400 for Gandalf on Shadowfax (Sideshow/WETA).

When does this exhibition end its tour in the U.S.? Any chance its coming to Florida? Thanks

I answered my own question - 3 city U.S. tour - none in Florida - sucks big time

What did you think of the costumes?

Click to expand...

Beru, I loved the costumes, especially Aragorn's and Gandalf's. I think I stood around Arwen's a little too long however... :smokin

And yes, I bet Boromir did wink at you. He really is that lifelike people!

I'm still in awe of the original artwork; I'm staring across at my Rivendale and Barad-Dur prints as I type this and thinking how much they look like the originals. The color reproduction is absolutely amazing!

Our biggest geek moment: Noticing and commenting that one of the framed drawings had been mis-labeled. It said "Prancing Pony" but it wasn't. We all commented on it almost at the same time; I'm sure the people behind us thought we knew WAY too much about the stuff.

It was, indeed, a wonderful day of LOTR! The exhibit was fabulous, and the symphony was beyond awesome. I was so teary eyed at the end when a soloist sang "Into the West" and I felt a little silly because I thought, "Look at me all weepy!", but Nazgurl said she thought there were a few OTHER teary eyed folk there!

So glad I got to go to the exhibit with fellow boardmembers as well as fellow LOTR geeks!!