Well, today for me as a collector and fan of LOTR and SSW is the best day ever!! Through the workings of a couple really good people I have landed the Original Balrog to my collection. As some of you know Tom (MottMorgul) from S&F with the help of someone who I don't think wants identified I landed the hardest item to land IMO. This deal has been in the workings for a couple of weeks now and mainly it's been Tom letting me figure out how I was going to be able to afford this. So I canceled some orders for Kong and Narnia items and pushed forward on this item. Tom and I agreed on a price and how the deal would shake down with help of a certain someone.
Needless to say I'm in awe of how cool this statue is and to me personally it's worth every penny I spent on it. Since, I saw the FOTR when it first came out the section of the Trilogy dealing with Moria was really my fave. When the Balrog came on screen I was like holy
that is just freaking awesome. Of course at the time I still didn't know about SSW or I would have bought it back then but when I did find out I wanted this piece badly. So I was pretty sad to see it sold out. It's been one of my three major goals to complete and I have no done it!!
The detail in it is sweet!! All the cracks of orange breaking through his black skin and the fire flowing down his back are just cool. The massive area that his wings cover are just down right cool. The whip is also a dam nice touch!! His pose though is the coolest part as it appears it's straight from the FOTR. Also another fave of mine is the base with the crumbled part of Moria that has managed to squish one of the Orcs.
I have the 2004 Rog as well and it's a dam nice piece also but I'm not going to lie that it really doesn't touch the Original in coolness for me personally. For those that don't want to spend 2k+ for the Original the 2004 is a dam nice fill in but for me I just had to get this piece one way or another.
As far as where he fits in my all time faves I think it's safe to say I have a tie at the top. Sauron and the Rog are just two of the absolute best pieces SSW ever made.
Needless to say I'm in awe of how cool this statue is and to me personally it's worth every penny I spent on it. Since, I saw the FOTR when it first came out the section of the Trilogy dealing with Moria was really my fave. When the Balrog came on screen I was like holy
that is just freaking awesome. Of course at the time I still didn't know about SSW or I would have bought it back then but when I did find out I wanted this piece badly. So I was pretty sad to see it sold out. It's been one of my three major goals to complete and I have no done it!! The detail in it is sweet!! All the cracks of orange breaking through his black skin and the fire flowing down his back are just cool. The massive area that his wings cover are just down right cool. The whip is also a dam nice touch!! His pose though is the coolest part as it appears it's straight from the FOTR. Also another fave of mine is the base with the crumbled part of Moria that has managed to squish one of the Orcs.
I have the 2004 Rog as well and it's a dam nice piece also but I'm not going to lie that it really doesn't touch the Original in coolness for me personally. For those that don't want to spend 2k+ for the Original the 2004 is a dam nice fill in but for me I just had to get this piece one way or another.
As far as where he fits in my all time faves I think it's safe to say I have a tie at the top. Sauron and the Rog are just two of the absolute best pieces SSW ever made.
