Statue Weta Announces Barad-Dur

[The Josh]

I admit I'm very curious to see how quickly this sells out at $700.

 

[Adolfo]

I hope this doesn't sell out. Really want this but just can't justlfy the price at the moment. Hopefully it'll be available next month.

I dont believe it will sell out until a couple of months from now..JMHO of course...Thats alot of money...and even most die hards(myself included )had to think about it for a second or two at least...plus there is alot of stuff out there to buy...now more than ever in this statue collectible business

 

[Adolfo]

Got my verification email for the order and it states that I wont be charged till it's ready to be shipped

 

[The Josh]

YeaH, today wasn't an actual charge but a Pre-Auth. Which means it falls off but funds are deducted for "x" number of days unlike a permanent charge.

 

[cstojano]

YeaH, today wasn't an actual charge but a Pre-Auth. Which means it falls off but funds are deducted for "x" number of days unlike a permanent charge.

Whatever it is, if its Weta specific, they need to do something else because its not good business practice. Like I said above I cant imagine a large percentage of their business stays in New Zealand and I would think they could do something to implement and ease US and European buyers in terms of these payment logistics.

 

[The Josh]

I'm not a fan of the Pre-Auth thing either. NRD I can roll with but I'm not a fan of that money being held for in my case like 14 days (even though I get it back until it ships).

 

[willocrew]

Honestly I hate to rag on Weta but with the Hobbit license they need to up their game with the payment system and not be so insular with this New Zealand based banking payment system they use. Its not like the NZD is a major currency in the world (pounds, dollars, euros). Anyway I feel for those affected by this. Another thing I don't like is that they price in US but it actually charges in NZD which leaves us all at the whim of our bank or cc companies. For example, I had retroactively applied points to Orthanc which they forgot to apply before charging and shipping. Darren corrected it quickly but my cc used a different (worse) exchange rate to refund the difference to my card. Total BS.

Yeah, You don't get to enjoy the exact exchange rate that is listed on the internet; you only do if you're a bank.

 

[Mr Fell Beast]

So far the bigger is better approach for Orthanc and now Barad-Dur, has made me hold back on owning, only because the cost is more, and the scale is not the same as the other current enviros. So, I've saved myself $700, not to mention shelf space. I'll stick with my original Orthanc, and keep my DM Barad-Dur.

Something tells me the same will happen with the Minas Tirith.

DM Barad-Dur is very much a nice piece, now I think I am ready to order the preruin orthanc from weta.....

Its a much bigger piece as a whole compared to Orthanc which is no tiny piece either.

Actually if you look at the piece it has a 1-2" base, so that is the difference, at least it looks like it to me, was that the case when you saw it, I am really on the fence on this one.....

$7.

I'm SO glad I still have the Danbury Mint piece.

ME TOO!!!!!

 

[The Josh]

Well, the base does add some to it but I tower for tower Barad-Dur is bigger. The base basically just makes it a more overall massive looking piece. It is expensive but I don't think you'll ever see a better version done.

 

[Olórin]

Here's a response to all the uproar from Weta's Magnus:

Dear Flamers,

Thank you so much for your continued support of our LOTR environments. The onslaught this morning seems to have generated a few time-outs, but the website never stopped functioning or crashed, which we (and PARTICULARLY me) are very happy with. It means the last six months weren't totally wasted.

We want you guys to have the best experience possible.

Now, we also want to address some of the concerns that we've seen in your recent posts, and apologies for doing this here rather than individual email, although Darren will no doubt do so as soon as he can.

Pre-order authorisations
The Payment Card Industry (PCI) is (and rightly so) getting increasingly finicketty about credit card security and potential fraud. Every bank, in every country annually reviews the PCI compliance among its clients. Every year, the bar is raised another few notches and what was acceptable last year isn't necessarily kosher this year.

And we're eager to comply. We want to offer you the best possible credit card security and we have been working with our developers for six months to design a new system that safeguards your details to the extent required by the industry.

We found the best way to do that is leave it to the experts. While as a company we have a certain reputation for creating fantastical things for movies and collectors, Internet Security and Credit Card Compliance is the sort of work where we prefer to acquire the expertise from external sources. In this case the National Bank of New Zealand, through the payment gateway provider Paystation.

In fact, they're even being pro-active about the security and as I was typing this called to make sure all the activity on our account this morning was expected.

This is why you temporarily leave our site during the checkout process. They take this as seriously as we do. In other words - we don't retain any of your credit card details. This is how we stay PCI compliant and keep your details safe.

The way a pre-authorisation works is that our bank checks with your bank that your credit card is valid and sends us a link that we can use in the future to charge your card. So all we retain is this link and when an item is in stock and we have notified you via email, we can click the link to charge your card. For Barad-dûr we will not charge your credit card at all until it is in stock, estimated to be Dec/Jan.

And if your card expires between now and December, you will have to update the details yourself and we have provided this facility in your Collection and Orders. When/if a card expires you will be able to click a link to update it. So even if we wanted to, we couldn't see your credit card details.

Debit Cards
We understand that some people had concerns about debit cards, so we investigated further and these do work somewhat differently. Each bank (card issuer) may have different rules with regard to debit cards. That's your bank or card issuer. We were advised by Paystation and our website developers that some banks will put a "hold" on a pre-authorised amount for a number of days. This is of course not in our control and we strongly recommend you speak to your bank about it. We have no influence at all over how your bank manages your debit cards. I want to emphasise once again, Weta is not taking any payment at all from you for this Barad-dur pre-order at this time. We will only charge your card, when your order is in stock and ready to ship.

We do apologise if we haven't communicated this well enough and we do appreciate that you get in touch with us about these issues - of course the best and fastest way is to contact Darren on [email protected] if you ever have any concerns. There is a risk we'll miss it if you only voice your concerns in the forums.

European shipping
We continually review our shipping practices to make sure we offer the best possible combination of price, speed, insurance and security. Shipping from our UK warehouse to mainland Europe is often expensive, we know, and we are looking at various options to make it cheaper in the future.

We have double-checked our numbers and they are the same as we're being charged. We've never made money off shipping costs and don't add any handling charges.

As a small company on the other side of the planet, we can never hope to achieve the bulk discounts enjoyed by big e-commerce sites, but please rest assured we are doing all we can to get as close as possible.

If we do find better value, you guys will be the first to benefit. That's a promise.

So, as I said before - thanks for your enthusiasm this morning (and for not breaking our site...) and we're really looking forward to supplying an awesome environment come Dec/Jan.

My heart certainly skips a beat every time I walk past it. And it's a treat to see Dave, Leonard, Steven and the rest of the team positively beaming at how well their hard work has been received!

Thank you!

 

[Darth Rage]

My credit card shows a pending charge for the full amount as of Monday morning. Not good WETA.

 

[gagaliya]

a lot of companies do that, it's not a charge just pre authorization even though it looks like a charge online. Call your credit card company and they will tell you.

I dont get why weta does this though, just charge 10% NRD and/or have a paypal option to pay, instead of all this nonsense.

 

[Boromir]

I don't get it either. The whole shipping calculation, handling, combined shipping etc. is really unprofessional. I mean they know the size and weight of there items and shipping prices don't vary every day. It took me 1 week to convince them to ship my 5 Uruk helms in one package to reduce shipping costs to 1/5 of what they wanted to charge me.

 

[Spawn_de]

I don't get it either. The whole shipping calculation

Shipping for Bag End would cost me 50€, for Orthanc 18€

 

[Olórin]

Bag End is probably not in stock in their UK warehouse then.

 

[NAZGUL-KING]

Did not order. I think it looks fantastic but at $700.00 I will be more than happy to settle for the Danbury Mint version. I know I'm probably in the minority, but I just don't care for this whole "bigger is better" mentality lately with Rivendell and now Barad-Dur. I guess that it comes down to the fact that I would rather concentrate on statues as the primary focus of my collection and have environments as more of an afterthought. I've always been satisfied with the Weta Minas Tirith that came with the ROTK DVD set as well as Minas Morgul and have no plans to ever replace them with larger versions. I was always hoping that a small version of Barad-Dur would have been made to accompany the DVD set Minas Tirith.

I like Weta's products but I usually avoid ordering directly from them unless I have to just because it's a pain in the ass a lot of the time. If these pre-order events are too much for them to handle without causing site crashes and confusion of putting people's funds on hold etc... why don't they go back to using a distributor again like when they were partnered with Sideshow Collectibles? This whole deal of the funds being put on hold in people's bank accounts is simply ridiculous, especially when the price of the piece is not announced ahead of time and when the whole "pre-authorization" process is not explained before placing an order.

 

[Boromir]

I think the problem is the free easterling shield, it's actually not free as you have to pay around 35$ shipping + 35$ shipping for Bag End.
I don't get why they can't ship both items in one package.

 

[roguebaron]

well, I really like it, but at this price point I`ve decided to pass. There`s just to many other things I`d like to do with that amount. I didn`t order the droids pf, or the ringwraith on steed and both are comparable in priice, and both are higher on my want list. Congrats to those who ordered, I`ll wait to see all your pics.

 

[Mr Fell Beast]

Did not order. I think it looks fantastic but at $700.00 I will be more than happy to settle for the Danbury Mint version. I know I'm probably in the minority, but I just don't care for this whole "bigger is better" mentality lately with Rivendell and now Barad-Dur ....CLIP.......

I've always been satisfied with the Weta Minas Tirith that came with the ROTK DVD set as well as Minas Morgul and have no plans to ever replace them with larger versions. I was always hoping that a small version of Barad-Dur would have been made to accompany the DVD set Minas Tirith.

I like Weta's products but I usually avoid ordering directly from them unless I have to just because it's a pain in the ass a lot of the time. If these pre-order events are too much for them to handle without causing site crashes and confusion of putting people's funds on hold etc... why don't they go back to using a distributor again like when they were partnered with Sideshow Collectibles? This whole deal of the funds being put on hold in people's bank accounts is simply ridiculous, especially when the price of the piece is not announced ahead of time and when the whole "pre-authorization" process is not explained before placing an order.

I hear you I am really on the fence on this one, the DM Barad-Dur is not as bad as the complainers whine about, forget the eye, the sculpt is there! Did you get the DM Minas Tirith, it is every bit as good if not better, I love that one, it goes to show you that you do NOT have to be the originators to create something special, so along with your "bigger is better" thing, so is the "they created it so they will do it better" thing. The CC thing is a bunch of bunk, if Sideshow can do the flex pay type of plan WITHOUT the preauth on a card then they need to get their acts together as I am with you I will not order from them for that reason and the shipping can be at times stupid. I will find a retailer who will have them and do it the right way w/o all of this crap, WETA get it together!

 

[NAZGUL-KING]

I hear you I am really on the fence on this one, the DM Barad-Dur is not as bad as the complainers whine about, forget the eye, the sculpt is there! Did you get the DM Minas Tirith, it is every bit as good if not better, I love that one, it goes to show you that you do NOT have to be the originators to create something special, so along with your "bigger is better" thing, so is the "they created it so they will do it better" thing. The CC thing is a bunch of bunk, if Sideshow can do the flex pay type of plan WITHOUT the preauth on a card then they need to get their acts together as I am with you I will not order from them for that reason and the shipping can be at times stupid. I will find a retailer who will have them and do it the right way w/o all of this crap, WETA get it together!

I actually had the DM Minas Tirith and it was great but I sold it since I was happy with the tiny Weta one.
I am bummed that I sold my DM Barad-Dur but I'll find another when I'm ready. As I said before - the Weta version is great but the DM version is more than good enough. Especially when you consider the fact that it was only $99.00 originally.