The Hobbit: A Long Expected Movie, and Costumes

So we went and saw The Hobbit: An  Unexpected Journey.




And it was awesome.

I loved it! With all my heart and soul of Tolkien nerdiness, I loved the movie. I was dissapointed about a few things, but not enough to freak me out to much. I can't wait to see it again, and see the new movie!

We stood in line with our large group most of the afternoon, then headed into the theatre to dance, sleep, party, and hang out.

 




Left to Right: Oin, Fili, Gandalf, Kili, Elrond, Balin, Gloin, Radagast, and Dwalin

Of course, we were all in costume, courtesy of yours truly. I worked for a month or so beforehand, all the way up to the morning of, preparing a massive pile of costumes, with the help of my wonderful mother and my 13 yr old sister (with only a little annoyance at her enlistment).  I did a lot of shopping at Goodwill and The Arc. :) Many of the costume pieces, though, are handmade, including the vast array of the weapons. Several of them are hand carved wood... those took me forever.

First up, we have Radagast and Gandalf, me and my friend Matthew. He bought the beard for himself, but I made the robe for him, and supplied the staff. As for my own Radagast costume, I made the hat out of felt, and used several robe pieces, fingerless brown gloves, carved a stick, and with the help of my mother weathered a beard we bought at a downtown costume shop.

Kili and Fili

These two costumes were actually quite last minute. I did the beard for Fili, which was a brand new experiment with spirit glue and fake hair... it turned out alright, I was happy with it. You really can't see Kili's costume here, except for the leather jacket, but there is a hooded blue tunic and a leather jerkin underneath the main jacket. I also did the paint on both weapons, and made the bow out of PVC.

These two were REALLY last minute. Oin was a beard we bought the day before, and some sweaters, big boots, and a stick. It wasn't my best. Gloin, on the other hand, turne dout well, partially thanks to my sisters excellent job on the beard. The axe my brother made with cardboard and ducktape.

And here we come to two of my favorites, Balin and Dwalin. Both my younger brothers happily obliged to be these two really awesome dwarves. Dwalin's hammer and axes were hand carved and painted. He used a raccoon hide from a coon we killed last summer for his shoulders, and I made the leather harness and belts. Balin was actually mostly just organized by me. I made a great deal of the  robe, but my mom actually did a lot of the work, including the edging. The wig and beard were leftover from a Thorin costume from Halloween.

Elrond, who you can see in the top picture, was fun. He supplied me with curtains, with which I made his robe. I am quite proud of it. I made a cloth sash, and he wore a few other elvish parts we had gathered from other costumes.

Huzzah!

Aidan