Posted by FrostyOur resident plastic expert, Ryan, has sent in some words for all of you who dig on toys. Back at ’04 Comic-Con, in San Diego, I was able to check out the prototype of this toy, and man is it HUGE. If you have any interest in getting the Balrog, order now, as I heard it will be very limited and probably sell out immediately. But enough out of me, here is Ryan.
Hey Frosty,
Disperse this info if you like. Finally FINALLY NECA has made the HUGE Balrog available for pre-order. The FIRST place that has the pre-order up is: http://www.cornerstorecomics.com
Why I'm taking such an interest in this is two fold: 1) It is a massive undertaking and I know this company very well. This Balrog will surpass ANY iteration of the character thus far... and you know how much I love the Sideshow Toy version. 2) There needs to be a CLEAR message sent to NECA, toy manufactures, and the collecting community in general we WILL support the bigger and better visions this industry presents us with.
I know it may be easy to laugh that last statement off as a bit verbose (and it is to some extent), but the hobby of collecting beautifully sculpted toys is no different in my mind than collecting a great sculpture. It is a work of art. Now I know the price tag may scare some of you off at first. The price is $99.00. But the scale of this thing is STUNNING. Trust me, the 30" wingspan should only suggest what we're talking about here in terms of size. And forget size for a moment and consider the details. I have in front of me the Epic Scale Gandalf figure, and out of the box, it rivals anything Sideshow is doing right now. Actually, it surpasses Sideshow in my less than humble opinion. Now the link I have in this e-mail (once again kids: http://www.cornerstorecomics.com)... please note I have NO affiliation with these people past the fact I'm a customer and they always do right by me. And hey, they're local sorta. Anyway, I know this was a deeply rambling thing and NECA should be paying me to espouse the virtues of their long planned masterpiece, but I tell you as my final salvo.. the toy industry is at a critical place right now. Too much shite has been made and too many great products have fallen away for fear the market won't support them. Trust me, there are amazing products Hasbro, Mattel, Toy Biz.. all of them, have made, and had to pull out for lack of retail support and frankly, lazy consumers. Toy Biz had a pretty nice Balrog themselves ready for the market two years ago, but due it it's size (a tiny lil thing compared to this NECA version) and the fact it was considered a demon by WalMart... they can "employee" children to work for slave wages in Bangladesh but god forbid they sell a Balrog 'cause it's "evil." Oh well. There you are. I've done what I can do. I pre-ordered two of them myself (one for me... one for a close friend... my closet). A last lil note to collectors: The Sideshow Toy Balrog (the first one) not only sold out in record time, it is fetching, when you can find one, upwards of $3000.00 on ebay. And this NECA Balrog is going to be VERY limited and it's 4 times the size of the Sideshow version... with all the detail. Ryan
