I found out about the SSW statues around August of 2001 while flipping through a collector mag in San Luis while on vacation with my family.
I bought Frodo and nearly bought the moria orc swordsman, but at the time, $125 a pop was pretty steep. I didn't get back into collecting until around the summer of 02, I believe, when the wiki statue went on sale. Of course, I passed on the wiki and bought GTG, RWOS, and the galadhrim statue. Since getting the RWOS, my spending habits have steadily increased...good for my collection, I suppose. Damn you RWOS.