NOBLE COLLECTION LORD OF THE RINGS FULL

The price may be attractive now, but sooner or later you'll buy your first UC and you won't know what to do with that junk you can't exactly throw it away cuz you paid $50 for it, but on the other hand it looks so crap next to the UC. They are just a waste of space and money. Whatever you do, stay away from those cheap knock offs. But so long as you don't hack at something, the blade won't fly out of the hilt. You can certainly get away with light Non-contact swinging but anything more and you risk getting something loosened overtime and rattling inside the hilt. From memory, striders sword which also has a rat tail is much more sturdy than the other rat tails (based on some hilt pics collectors have taken when they stripped their sword down). Most of the UC LOTR swords are of rat tail tang construction and they vary in terms of the quality of the construction. Noble Collection's gandalf staff and rings and necklaces are really nice though, but if you want swords and axes i suggest going for UC. Noble Collection's weapon line aren't very good considering the fact that you can get a United Cutlery LOTR sword for less and i personally think they look much better. a short history of what is out there, as far as I know. Because they are lucky, and i'm jealous, and wants the precious too. Then there are the weta swords, that are like 10 per run, and cost 10,000+ most of the time.

NOBLE COLLECTION LORD OF THE RINGS FULL

Both came with big glass display cases, nice COA's, made of carbon steel, full tang i think, and very top notch quality for a replica. The only TRUE museum collection swords they did were Glamdring, and Sting. It's made of the stainless steel the other swords are made of, and is unworthy of the title. The newest was Sam's museum collection sword from weathertop. Then you have the museum collection UC swords. the uruk blade obviously is just one hung of metal. There are a few items from UC that are not rat-tails. I wont risk it! So if you want something to swing around, and/or use for a fanfilm, the knockoffs are great, as long as you are aware that they will break pretty easily and becoming whirling shrapnel! A few soft 'swoosh swoosh''s and i'm all done. I have been known to hold Anduril in the moonlight of the full moon just to gaze upon the ruins and the light shining from the blade. So don't do it! I take mine out every once and a while and play around. They can loosen, they can break the thread inside the pommel or wherever it happens to be attached, and fly off and kill you or a loved one or fido. But slashing, hacking, or fast movements, even in mid-air, are going to be bad for these. It wont hurt to usually wave it around gently outside for a bit of enjoyment. These swords are not to be swung, or battled with. Most of the UC items have rat tail tangs. Some of the rare items like the shards of narsil, LE anduril, museum sting, and museum glamdring are very hard to track down, but can still be found for a high price. They are usually pretty faithful to the props, and decently priced for what you get. United Cutlery produced a HUGE amount of the swords, shields, helmets, etc. Most knockoffs are like mirrors, and you can see yourself in them pretty clearly from my experience. UC swords are shiny, but they have a wonderful stainless steel look. The difference that really bothers me is the VERY bright shine to the metal most knockoffs use. This does not bode well for how they will hold up.

Most of them tend to be held together with some super glue, plastic threads, cheap crap like that when you break them open. But there are also a lot that are atrocious. I've seen some good ones for decent prices. You have to make sure if you want a UC sword that it says UC and they should mention certificates, or should show the boxes, the etchings on the blades, etc. You can find knockoffs for anywhere from 25 bucks to 100 bucks and up.

So the other items are probably even more expensive to track down. And it looks to me like on their site right now, only sting and the axe are on there still. which is about what I paid for my MUSEUM COLLECTION sting from UC. But yeah, I would be weary of the swords from noble. I love their jewelry and have the ring of barahir, the evenstar, the crown of king elessar, the elven brooch, etc. HOWEVER, noble did some great replicas of the other props. I liked the appearance of the axes, swords, and other items much better when it came to United Cutlery. There are also some issues with scale if I remember correctly, however I can't say, because due to all the negative comments from other collectors that I read back in the day, I didn't even bother with the noble collection weapon replicas. There is Noble Collection, who did only a few items, and their quality is. There are really four types of replicas out there that I know of.

Noble collection lord of the rings