PF license

Something just occurred to me. The 1/6 license expired in 2005 right? Was Sideshow unable to renew it or did they choose to let it expire? My last question is will Sideshow be able to release all the key PF characters (eg.Fellowship) in a fixed length of time before this license expires? I'm more curious about a situation where Sideshow would be unable to renew this PF license after say 3 years. I can remember from last summer when they announced "the end" of the LOTR line in the newsletter no real explanation was given as to why they weren't renewing the 1/6 license.

Can't remember about the newsletter, but I know several different SS peeps explained things here on the board and in the various SS chats following the announcement.

Basically, they and WETA decided not to renew the license. They figured the line had went as far as it should and it was time to move on to different projects. Of course even though they couldn't mention it at the time, I would imagine that the PF line and 12" line was already in the works. They just couldn't let the cat out of the bag at that point.


As far as the PF line goes, I'm don't remember seeing a time limit on the license, but I would imagine that as long as the line is successfull, they will be able to renew the license if needed. Same goes for 12" I would think.

Yeah, that was the official line. Of course, Weta was having very high hopes for the Kong and Narnia lines, and their hearts probably weren't into LOTR all that much anymore. I've said time and again that this decision will come to bite them in the butt -- and it probably will, especially where Kong is concerned.

But that's not Sideshow's problem. They've come up with their own replacement strategy, and as they're running it in-house now, I wouldn't be too worried about the licence expiring before they do exactly what they want with it. They know how to run a business, and they probably have a release schedule that covers the lineup as they designed it for the duration of the licence.

Of course they can always renew it, too...

Yeah, this will go on for as long as SS wants because LOTR is as much money as any line they have. I also agree I think Weta may regret not keeping the 1/6 poly line going but only time will tell on that.

Thanks everyone for the answers. I think this line will be a huge succcess for them and Sideshow surely deserves it.

jlcmsu said:

Yeah, this will go on for as long as SS wants because LOTR is as much money as any line they have. I also agree I think Weta may regret not keeping the 1/6 poly line going but only time will tell on that.

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I bet you're right. I doubt the Kong and Narnia lines will sell as well as the LOTR lines did.

The previous situation was a 3-way partnership with WETA, SSC and New Line. With the new license just SSC and New Line have be willing to renew and if the figures are selling I don't see that being an issue.

Darth Waller said:

I bet you're right. I doubt the Kong and Narnia lines will sell as well as the LOTR lines did.

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I haven't run into too many people who are as excited about King Kong as they were about any one of the Lord of the Rings films--let alone the entire trilogy. The new Weta Kong merchandise is nice, but my enthusiasm for the film doesn't translate into $$$ the way that it did with LOTR. Narnia seems more targeted towards kids instead of adults who spend hundreds of dollars on collectibles. Neither properties will achieve the level of success they had with LOTR.

The scale of kong and narnia items is nothing like LOTR , e.g helms, weapon sets, busts........
Weta is moving on to many other projects and a very bright future and i'm happy to have what i have from them, now sideshows PF 1/4 scale figs KEEP'EM COMING

Am I the only one who still keeps a flame burning for the renewal of the SS/W partnership on LOTR?

Like, just for half a season, pretty please...

I honestly don't think it would be feasible for WETA to step back in the LOTR race even if they wanted to. First and foremost WETA is an effects company. This lends itself very well to a collectibles market sideline since basically all you have to do is take the maquettes and other design/concept sculptures you have done during production of a film and then make and market a collectible line out of them.

But there comes a time when the company has to move on, because first and foremost they are an effects company and have to move on to the next project. This would also make it difficult to go back a revisit a previous project since it would take resources away from the prime job of the company.

I know you can expand the company and diversify with a collectibles marketing branch, but I personally don't think that would be a good model for most companies. I really think this was why the partnership with Sideshow was so crucial to the LOTR success. SS basically did the marketing and attracted the interest. Sure the LOTR fan base is huge, but even so it took 2 years before the SS/WETA really began to take off and attract interest. I know most people think that WETA's current collectible lines are not doing as well because of the subject matter and KONG and Narnia don't have as big of a fan base. This may or may not be the case, but I think a lot of it has to do with marketing. WETA knows the effects business, Sideshow knows the collectibles business. I really think WETA is missing this knowledge and there sales are reflecting that regardless of fan base. Not sure about Kong, but Narnia arguable has a very large fan base as well.


Enough with the ramble, sometimes it is dangerous for me to pick up the keyboard.

I won't be surprise if WETA will announce sometime in the near future about resuming the 1:6 scale LOTR polystones especially since they now have their own WETA Collectibles division

Ox I think a lot of it has to do with the fan base. Maybe not so much with Narnia but for sure with Kong. They simply aren't as big as LOTR then you toss in the fact Dark Horse doesnt seem to market these real well and you've got what appears to be disapointing sales.

Seretur said:

Am I the only one who still keeps a flame burning for the renewal of the SS/W partnership on LOTR?

Like, just for half a season, pretty please...

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Maybe if The Hobbit ever gets made.

I think it's the fan base as well. With Kong, a lot of fans of the original film may not be willing to spend $ on pieces from the remake when they can by model kits, etc. based on the original. Plus, how many Kong pieces can you make? Most people will probably only want 1-2 tops.
With Narnia, it is based much more at a younger audience of kids who are not going to spend hundreds or thousands of $s on sculptures.
It's a shame Weta stopped the LOTR line early (as I see it) because they went on to do those two lines mentioned above and SS announced two LOTR lines so I don't think SS really wanted to see the end of it (in my opinion). I could understand ending the line before repeating characters (like they did do with Aragorn) but they could have continued for another year or two and have released some top notch pieces.

Faramir (statue or bust)
Denethor (statue or bust)
Eomer on Steed (statue)
Mouth of Sauron on Steed (statue)
Skully (statue or bust)
Mordor Orc (statue or bust)
Eowyn (bust)
Smeagol as "river folk" (bust)
Frodo and Sam (statue)
Haldir (statue or bust)
Barad-dur (environment)
Cirith Ungol (environment)
Grey Havens (art print)

...and so on and so forth.

And I'm sure they would've done them all, but for the fact that their hearts weren't into it anymore. As Oxbeard rightly said, Weta is an effects company, and their collectible output is more than dictated by the movies they're working on at the moment.

Then again, there is Weta Digital, which doesn't exactly seem overbusy after the completion of Kong, and there is Weta Workshop, which continuously works on a multitude of projects. Yet they're able to do collectibles on top of everything else. I think they did get a bit cocksure after the LOTR line took off and thought they could go at it alone, but in the end they might be sorry they didn't share some of the risk of this particular venture. And once the dust settles over Kong, and we get a clearer picture of the viability of the Narnia line, the artists at Weta will probably make a move toward reconsidering the LOTR collectible line on their own. Sideshow by then might very well dominate the LOTR market with their own lines, thereby eating into Weta's potential.

Of course, a Hobbit movie might change all that, but that's still a long way away, and is actually a separate issue.

Well, it's too early to speculate, anyhow. By the end of this year the picture will be much clearer, hopefully to the advantage of us collectors...

Seretur said:

Then again, there is Weta Digital, which doesn't exactly seem overbusy after the completion of Kong

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Huh? Weta Digital has some HUGE projects in the works. They did some work on X-Men 3 this year, plus they have Halo and Narnia: Prince Caspian in 2007. The latter two will both be major projects that I'm sure they are already preparing effects for.

The 2nd Narnia news came out about one month ago:

https://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=705&dl=7532925

Thanks for the update -- last time I checked was autumn last year, and they had nothing lined up then apart from Kong.

But it takes a lot of projects to keep a huge effects facility feasible. Helping out others on multi-vendor projects like X3 is peanuts in the industry -- ILM does it all the time -- and who knows how big Halo is going to be. Weta Digital did no work on the first Narnia movie, though, and we have no reason to believe they'll be involved with the second...

elwood49 said:

The 2nd Narnia news came out about one month ago:

https://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=705&dl=7532925

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Thanks for the link elwood. I kinda figured it was a lock after how well Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe is doing...

Weta is also working on the live action film of NEON GENESIS EVANGELION. The few pieces of production art that have been available so far look fabulous.