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Rivlorien or maybe Lothdell...
Rivlorien or maybe Lothdell...
I practically have to open a new category - Truth is Stranger Than Fiction - for this one...
Ages ago, I was contacted by the Toy Vault, who was doing a line of Middle-Earth Toys. Nothing blatantly commercial, mind you, all true to the spirit of the books and all that. I was asked to do some artwork for the blister packs. Naturally, the good guys would be on some good guys location, and the bad guys allotted some evil vista.
Now, here's where it got complicated; I wanted to draw flets and mallorns, but was asked to do a kind of hybrid thing that included elements of Lothlorien and Rivendell, as the "potential buyers need to identify with the salient features of the full extent of Elven culture". Huh? Like that makes sense, certainly. But, who was I to say, I'm just the lowly illustrator, all brushes, no business savvy.
So, I did a pretty big painting, of which they used more or less just the middle, printed with various colours of mud about twice the size of my original... Maybe THAT is why it warns of choking hazard on the package - I certainly did just that when I saw the proof. I'm gonna get on the horn to those dudes and give'em a piece of my mind thought I. Then I looked at the BACK of the blister pack. It said - I kid you not - "Package Design: Ten Angry Pitbulls". On second thought, maybe save myself the unwarranted expense of a long-distance call...
The toys themselves were hideous, conventional and just plain ugly, and it was a real relief when use of my picture was discontinued. I did come out of it with a couple of toys at least in the end, notably a most unusual Balrog of Kazad-dum that lights up. (I am sorry I missed the "Forest Balrog" though.)
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