[MOC] LOTR Argonath: King of the Western Shore

[ShaydDeGrai]

"Then he saw that they were indeed shaped and fashioned: the craft and power of old had wrought upon them, and they still preserved through the suns and rains of forgotten years the mighty likenesses in which they had been hewn." -JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring.

You'd think that after building, rebuilding and occasionally breaking The King of the Eastern Shore that creating the companion figure would be easier. As it turns out, the left hand ws the only part of the original design that ported over directly. The left foot was similar, but not exact and the head had to be explicitly reworked from scratch as there's not a lot of detail there and they keep looking like twins with one of them wearing a fake beard.

I'm still not entirely happy with the beard. I've lost track of how many times I've torn off his head and rebuilt it, but I figure sooner or later you just need to step back and take in the whole thing rather than fixate on a dozen or so bricks. (But I reserve the right to rip his head off and try again later...)

Like its companion piece, the King of the Eastern Shore stands roughly two feet tall. I've totally lost track of the piece count at this point but despite being mostly hollow, it weighs more than Olie the Dragon but less than the Statue of LIberty so I'd guess it would break into several thousand parts were I to drop it.

The hilt and right hand proved particularly tricky. I had one prototype that I really liked, but them I realized that the hand was bigger than my own and if I'd kept going at that scale the statue would stand over eight feet tall, so I had to think smaller. In the end I had to sacrifice a lot of detail (and fill it with more SNOT than a kindergarten class in cold season) but I think it hit the essential forms.

I'd imagine that this must be what it would be like to sail past this monolith in the early morning with the rising sun gleaming on the hewn and polished stone.

Now that I've got this one done I think I'll be reworking the first one (again) to make them look a hair more like a set. Once that's done, I'll post some fresh photos of the two of them together to get the full effect. In the mean time, if you like what you see and would like TLG to produce Ultimate Collectors Series kits along these lines, please support my proposal over on Cuusoo. Thanks.

[SheepEater]

Great work!

Would be a great idea for a UCS Lord of the Ring set :)

[Fives]

This is absolutely stunning! Great work! Any chance we could see a minifig standing by it's feet, so we can see the scale?

[Niku]

This is absolutely stunning! Great work! Any chance we could see a minifig standing by it's feet, so we can see the scale?

I second this post.

[Parrothead Rasmus]

This is absolutely stunning! Great work! Any chance we could see a minifig standing by it's feet, so we can see the scale?

I third it.

Great model!

[lightningtiger]

Totally AWESOME design 'ShaydDeGrai', detailing is wonderful....UCS for sure !

I too would like to see a minifig next to it.

[JackJonespaw]

Amazing MOC! This is really great! Are you going to put the river with the minifigs in boats between these?

[Dapper-D2]

I’m not really a LOTR fan, but your statues are gorgeous! Great work!

[Piratedave84]

Wow! The level of detail is outstanding!

The model is instantly recognisable and quite realistic!

I can only imagine how much of a pain on the Megablocks the hand and hilt might have been!

Excellent work!

[Legoman of War]

It never fails to amaze me the level of creativity and imagination I see on this board everytime I come on here. This is an awesome creation!

LMW

[Athos]

I wish your photography was better. This is a great MOC. I'd love to see some more scenery around them. These were one of the things I was most interested in seeing in the FotR movie. The description in the book really captured my imagination.

Steve

[Angeli]

wow, great arhitecture... well done, my friend

[Faefrost]

That's not a MOC. That's pure straight up sculpture using Lego as a medium. I am in awe sir.

[Scubacarrot]

This is amazing, but for some reason I can't stop thinking "Stop, Hammertime".

[TheLegoDr]

This is amazing. The detail is spot-on. The hands look like human hands even! You should redo it with a lego hand

Just kidding. This is beautiful. Be proud of what you created.

Keep up the great work!

[Watchman]

this is brilliant - you've done a great job, would love to see this as a set (UCS ?)

[LauraC]

Wow, that's impressive! Looking forward to seeing lots of LOTR MOCs, especially if they're all as impressive as this one!

[Bilbo Baggins]

Wow!! This is amazing.

[redcodekevin]

InCREdible. Immediately recognizable and simply sweet-looking.

I say go to Cuusoo, let TLG steal your model so that we all can buy it

EDIT: hoho you already did... adding my support

Edited May 19, 2012 by redcodekevin

[ShaydDeGrai]

InCREdible. Immediately recognizable and simply sweet-looking.

I say go to Cuusoo, let TLG steal your model so that we all can buy it

EDIT: hoho you already did... adding my support

Thanks! I know the CUUSOO proposal is a long shot - only 9,956 votes to go before TLG officially tells me that this isn't an appropriate kit for a six year old but until then I'll count every vote as a victory.

Thanks again for your support and be sure to tell your friends ( I could use all the support I can get... )

And for those of you that have asked for better photos and/or something showing a mini-figure for scale, I'm putting together a new photo set of the Argonath complete with both figures and a couple mini-figures and I'll be sure to post it here when I'm happy with it. Thank you to all who have taken the time to look and comment on this guy.