Galadriel, Dark Queen

Last and greatest of the High Elves of old, Galadriel is wise beyond reckoning and possessing of powerful magic. Yet for all her gifts even the Lady of Lothlórien is drawn by the power of the weapon of her enemy, the One Ring. When Frodo comes to her home bearing the Ring, Galadriel must confront her greatest temptation. Long have her thoughts lingered on the Ring, but until now it has always been beyond her reach.

The prototype for this 1:6 scale figure was expertly sculpted at Weta Workshop by Brigitte Wuest, lead sculptor on The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Brigitte is familiar with the Elven Queen: the very first collectible she sculpted at the Workshop was a 1:4 scale bust of the Lady Galadriel. Nearly two decades later, Brigitte revisited the character - this time sculpting the filmmaker’s terrifying vision of Galadriel, should she be tempted by the One Ring and succumb to its corrupting influence.

In this charged scene from The Fellowship of the Ring, Galadriel transforms before Frodo into an ominous vision of the future. Her robes billow about her as she is flooded with the corrupting power of the One Ring. To capture the tension and movement of this iconic moment, Brigitte Wuest used traditional techniques to develop Galadriel’s pose and costume through clay. Each individual stand of sculpted fabric was built up over a mini armature of spring steel and aluminium mesh; layer upon painstakingly textured layer. 50 individual strands make up the sculpted garment on the prototype.