Weta Exhibition at Leeds Royal Armouries - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Lalwendë · 09-19-2008, 02:53 PM

Just seen that Royal Armouries in Leeds have a big exhibition on of weaponry made by Weta for the LotR films, along with stuff from Narnia, Hellboy, The Last Samurai and King Kong.

It's free and on until 16th November.

I might go next week. I love the armouries anyway because of all the mad stuff and the chance of seeing some jousting and falconry going on, so this might have me making another trip up t'road. Civil War re-enactment mentalists The Sealed Knot are there next weekend too.

Quote:

Arms & Armour from the Movies:
The Wonderful World of Weta

Leeds
Saturday 12 July – Sunday 16 November 2008
Open daily 10am – 5pm

Free Admission

A stunning exhibition of the skill and craftsmanship of the multi-award winning Weta Workshop.

Even if you have never heard of New Zealand’s Weta Workshop you will have witnessed their craftsmanship in blockbuster films including The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, The Lord of the Rings, Hellboy, The Last Samurai and King Kong.

In our major exhibition for 2008, the Royal Armouries is proud to present a unique display of the actual arms and armour that Weta made for these epic movies.

Featuring over 200 iconic pieces including the weapons of Gandalf, Frodo, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli from The Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as Peter’s armour and the White Witch’s dagger and wand from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. There is also a selection of weapons from The Last Samurai, King Kong’s Skull Island plus Hellboy’s iconic revolver ‘The Samaritan’.

http://www.royalarmouries.org/what-w...-world-of-weta

Lalwendë · 09-25-2008, 01:37 PM

We went to see this today, and it's well worth a visit!

The exhibition room is hard to find so if anyone goes, it's on the top floor and you must follow the gallery all the way around the edge of the Oriental Room until you get there. No photos allowed but I did get a couple of Lurtz and a Cave Troll that were in the general galleries (I'll post them if they come out OK). All free of course.

There's the Narnia stuff first, after you pass by a load of furs hung up on the wall echoing the Freudian imaginings of Lewis

Oh, and the snippy little mare of a guard who was sat there stopping you ging the wrong way...ahem. This is pretty interesting, and they had made the gallery feel extra cold. However as you go round the display you spy the rounded Bag End replica entrance to the LotR stuff and go "Ooooooooooooh! Bag End!" and forget all about Narnia (or I did anyway, hehe).

All the weapons are there, plus loads of costumes, and some interesting descriptions and snippets of info. The main thing is just how detailed everything is. Incredibly so. It goes to show that the weapons designers must have included some genuine Tolkien nerds.

Boromir's shield has seven stars and waves around the boss. There is an intricate design of seven stars and the white tree on Isildur's armour. And many of the weapons have inscriptions along the blades - there is a rhyme in Tengwar on Aiglos for example. Even Sauron's armour is etched with plant tendrils.

My favourite part was seeing that Eomer's helmet has an inscription on the leather neck piece, reading: "This helmet belongs to Eomer, of the realm of King Theoden." Brilliant!

I was intrigued that Legolas's quiver is embroidered with a peacock! And Easterling armour is literally covered in inscriptions. Eowyn's helmet as Dernhelm was based on the Sutton Hoo helmet and designed to look a little like spectacles. Theoden's armour is supposed to show a hunting scene but I couldn't find that as that piece was overlit. Merry's Rohirrim scabbard straps (do these have a proper name?) were very nice, with a little scene of men hunting etched into the red leather, very like scenes from the Bayeux tapestry.

We also saw Arwen's helmet, quiver and arrows, for the scenes which were eventually (thankfully) cut. She was also supposed to have worn armour. This stuff was being shown for the first time. They also had the original design for the Witch-King's helmet which was more like Sauron's, straight up spikes on top and a big hole for the mouth covered with strips of iron (very Slipknot!). However 'in the flesh', the helmet used for the Witch-King is really quite unpleasant and frightening.

There have been a couple of days where one of the guys from Weta has been in and given talks and people have been able to 'play' with the weapons (Sting is apparently very heavy, according to some guy in there having a look round), but these have been and gone. But there is a special event upcoming (10th or 11th October?) where there will be a talk, Q&A etc.

Strangely there wasn't much in the shop. Other people were in and asking about it too. The shop assistant said Weta hadn't seemed to want to supply anything people could buy, not even any postcards, which she seemed to think was bad form seeing as photos were forbidden (you can take photos freely all over Royal Armouries normally).

I imagine it was fun taking part in putting the displays up, playing with Glamdring and whatnot. If you go, make sure to be like Sean Bean as Boromir wandering round Elrond's armoury and muttering about the Shards Of Narsil, heh.

Oh yes, and when you are done you can go and look at Henry VIII's armour, falconry, jousting and stuff like that, and watch actors doing re-enactments and talks so there's plenty of other things to make you footsore.

Note, take a taxi from the station. It has turned into some alienating, bleak Ballardian landscape round that bit of Leeds in the past five years with all the glass and steel apartments and office blocks and skyscrapers that look like Daleks. It's a maze trying to find the museum. I preferred the post-apocalyptic rubble that used to surround Royal Armouries.

Lalwendë · 09-25-2008, 03:55 PM

Heh, me again...

I found some nice links about the exhibition so 'ere they are:

Piece from Look North (local news) on the exhibition:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5UroKv...eature=related

Weta website which has lots more info on it, including a gallery and details of some events.
http://www.wonderfulworldofweta.co.uk/index.html

Apparently this is a one-off thing, as the curator of Royal Armouries is friends with Richard Taylor of Weta. A special LotR 'evening' is being planned for November too.

EDIT - pics aren't that exciting, I wish I'd put some pants onto the head of Lurtz now

However I'm quite pleased with the photo of the Cave Troll. Very Ballardian, like the creature has been trapped in some dystopian vision:
http://pics.livejournal.com/lalwende.../pic/00053a99/

vincejebsen · 01-29-2009, 07:17 PM

i wish i could have gone. maybe next time.

09-25-2008, 01:37 PM	#2
Lalwendë A Mere Boggart Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: under the bed Posts: 4,814	We went to see this today, and it's well worth a visit! The exhibition room is hard to find so if anyone goes, it's on the top floor and you must follow the gallery all the way around the edge of the Oriental Room until you get there. No photos allowed but I did get a couple of Lurtz and a Cave Troll that were in the general galleries (I'll post them if they come out OK). All free of course. There's the Narnia stuff first, after you pass by a load of furs hung up on the wall echoing the Freudian imaginings of Lewis Oh, and the snippy little mare of a guard who was sat there stopping you ging the wrong way...ahem. This is pretty interesting, and they had made the gallery feel extra cold. However as you go round the display you spy the rounded Bag End replica entrance to the LotR stuff and go "Ooooooooooooh! Bag End!" and forget all about Narnia (or I did anyway, hehe). All the weapons are there, plus loads of costumes, and some interesting descriptions and snippets of info. The main thing is just how detailed everything is. Incredibly so. It goes to show that the weapons designers must have included some genuine Tolkien nerds. Boromir's shield has seven stars and waves around the boss. There is an intricate design of seven stars and the white tree on Isildur's armour. And many of the weapons have inscriptions along the blades - there is a rhyme in Tengwar on Aiglos for example. Even Sauron's armour is etched with plant tendrils. My favourite part was seeing that Eomer's helmet has an inscription on the leather neck piece, reading: "This helmet belongs to Eomer, of the realm of King Theoden." Brilliant! I was intrigued that Legolas's quiver is embroidered with a peacock! And Easterling armour is literally covered in inscriptions. Eowyn's helmet as Dernhelm was based on the Sutton Hoo helmet and designed to look a little like spectacles. Theoden's armour is supposed to show a hunting scene but I couldn't find that as that piece was overlit. Merry's Rohirrim scabbard straps (do these have a proper name?) were very nice, with a little scene of men hunting etched into the red leather, very like scenes from the Bayeux tapestry. We also saw Arwen's helmet, quiver and arrows, for the scenes which were eventually (thankfully) cut. She was also supposed to have worn armour. This stuff was being shown for the first time. They also had the original design for the Witch-King's helmet which was more like Sauron's, straight up spikes on top and a big hole for the mouth covered with strips of iron (very Slipknot!). However 'in the flesh', the helmet used for the Witch-King is really quite unpleasant and frightening. There have been a couple of days where one of the guys from Weta has been in and given talks and people have been able to 'play' with the weapons (Sting is apparently very heavy, according to some guy in there having a look round), but these have been and gone. But there is a special event upcoming (10th or 11th October?) where there will be a talk, Q&A etc. Strangely there wasn't much in the shop. Other people were in and asking about it too. The shop assistant said Weta hadn't seemed to want to supply anything people could buy, not even any postcards, which she seemed to think was bad form seeing as photos were forbidden (you can take photos freely all over Royal Armouries normally). I imagine it was fun taking part in putting the displays up, playing with Glamdring and whatnot. If you go, make sure to be like Sean Bean as Boromir wandering round Elrond's armoury and muttering about the Shards Of Narsil, heh. Oh yes, and when you are done you can go and look at Henry VIII's armour, falconry, jousting and stuff like that, and watch actors doing re-enactments and talks so there's plenty of other things to make you footsore. Note, take a taxi from the station. It has turned into some alienating, bleak Ballardian landscape round that bit of Leeds in the past five years with all the glass and steel apartments and office blocks and skyscrapers that look like Daleks. It's a maze trying to find the museum. I preferred the post-apocalyptic rubble that used to surround Royal Armouries. __________________ Gordon's alive!

09-25-2008, 03:55 PM	#3
Lalwendë A Mere Boggart Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: under the bed Posts: 4,814	Heh, me again... I found some nice links about the exhibition so 'ere they are: Piece from Look North (local news) on the exhibition: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5UroKv...eature=related Weta website which has lots more info on it, including a gallery and details of some events. http://www.wonderfulworldofweta.co.uk/index.html Apparently this is a one-off thing, as the curator of Royal Armouries is friends with Richard Taylor of Weta. A special LotR 'evening' is being planned for November too. EDIT - pics aren't that exciting, I wish I'd put some pants onto the head of Lurtz now However I'm quite pleased with the photo of the Cave Troll. Very Ballardian, like the creature has been trapped in some dystopian vision: http://pics.livejournal.com/lalwende.../pic/00053a99/ __________________ Gordon's alive! Last edited by Lalwendë; 09-27-2008 at 10:40 AM.

01-29-2009, 07:17 PM	#4
vincejebsen Newly Deceased Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 1	i wish i could have gone. maybe next time. __________________ If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done? eve online isk