My Pictures of the Hobbiton set – July and November 2010

At midnight last night I saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. As usual, the teams at WETA and Stone Street Studios and 3 foot 7 Productions have done a really fantastic job. I was able to visit the Hobbiton set in Matamata, NZ while they were beginning to rebuild it for the film. At the time I had to agree to a contract saying that I was not allowed to post pictures online because at the time it was still not certain if the film was going to go off (This was in July and November of 2010 – the actor’s union issues and Guillermo del Toro pulling out happened around these times and so it was tricky). I was able to see firsthand there the amount of work the people were putting into the set. It was incredible. So many tiny details! I remember walking by a man painting lichen onto the doors of the hobbit holes by the Water. You never see close ups of these holes, but they still put those details in. Now that I’m allowed to share them, here are the some of the pictures of the Hobbiton set that I took on July 1, 2010:

The Party Tree

The Green Dragon

Bag End at the top of the Hill

Hobbit holes along the Water

And in comparison, my pictures from early November of 2010:

Overview of the Hobbiton set

Sagewood enters Eregion – with outfits!

Later this week I’ll be making a post about the things I’ve gotten for Christmas (Some of which are Lord of the Rings related of course), but I wanted to make a post about LOTRO specifically because I’ve been playing it a lot this week since my winter break started. I got 3200 TP as a Christmas gift, which I used to buy the new Fleet-Footed Goat for Cithryth. I think it matches her outfits quite well, just like the Grey Horse.

I’ve also managed to snag a pretty cool light armour chest piece from the auction house. I believe it comes from one of the new instances, but I’m not sure. All I know is, I love it for Sagewood, and Herefara:

I’ve been mostly playing Sagewood since I’ve been home. I’ve always loved the hunter class. My first character (created exactly 4 years ago today!) was actually a male elf named Liras on the Brandywine server. I then ‘lost’ him because I switched to Windfola (LOTRO was my first MMO and I didn’t understand the concept of different servers. I also had a hard time reconciling the fact that I couldn’t pause or ‘save’ the game).

I’ve just hit 48 on Sagewood and finished up about half the quests out of Zigilgund in Forochel. I decided to move her on to Eregion since it is easily my favorite region to quest in. The flow from hub to hub is very nicely done, the quests are pleasant (a nice mix of kill x of y, gathering, and mini-boss slaying), and the scenery is gorgeous as well as easy to maneuver through. I’ve taken a few screenshots of Sagewood in her newest outfit while questing around Gwingris:

I’ve also been working on her repertoire of outfits and I think I’ve finally got a set I like. Here they are, labeled for what I plan to use them for:

We’ll see how long they last. Knowing how often I like to switch around outfits, I give it a month.

Skyrim Got Me

Remember when I was all like “Yeah I’m totally getting back into LOTRO!”? It’s becoming more and more obvious that I may never play at the same level as I once did. I used to log in every day. A day without LOTRO felt strange. Now, I can go weeks without it, and have easily. It’s not any one thing and I don’t even think it’s LOTRO’s fault. It’s just hard playing one game for years and years almost every day. Variety is good. Life also has been getting in the way.

But this weekend I have been playing Skyrim. I had never even played any of the other Elder Scrolls games, but the past few weeks I got caught up in the hype and bought it on Friday. And I love it.

I’ve tried to re-create Cithryth in Skyrim as much as I could. It’s pretty easy because the first main town, Whiterun, is so startlingly like Rohan – they even have a horse on their banners!

So here is Skyrim-Cithryth:

She uses a greatsword (like LOTRO-Cithryth), wears heavy armour, and is working on her healing spells (like a captain should). The only big difference is that Skyrim-Cithryth can also use a bow, something I’ve always wanted to be able to do with LOTRO-Cithryth.

It’s a really fun game so far. I’ve only just gotten to level 10. Everyone I walk by says I look sick, I’m not sure why. My roommate’s boyfriend says that I probably have a disease or something, but I have no idea where I would see if that is true or not and then how to cure it.