LOTR - Sword of Isildur

It will look nice on a wall, but that's all it's good for.

I'm skeptical that the elves would have completely reforged the hilt when they put the blade back together. This sword doesn't jive with me after the awesomeness of Anduril.

Oh. I feel silly now. Reading "Isildur" and seeing "Narsil". *bangs head on table*

I'm still not in love with this one.

I would love to have an XIIa like Anduril, except XIIa length instead of over 50 inches. The cross guard and fishtail pommel have always been very atractive to me.

I think it looks good, too, but I've been familiar with it for quite a while. UC didn't design it, the folks at Weta did--it's in the movie, though only for a frame or two.
I used to have a book about all the weapons they made for those films--Denethor even had a real, "hero prop" sword, though it is never even drawn on screen. They wanted him to still feel the power of having the sword. You can see it here and there bouncing across his hip when he's going beserk.

Anyway, if I remember, they designed this sword to parallel Narsil, being a less....Kingly version of his father's sword.

Jon, a Type XIIa usually runs between 44-48 inches in overall length, the extra 2" will make negligible difference if its done right. Besides, I wonder if this sword falls in that category as there's no fuller at all to speak of which would lead me to believe this one would more likely fall in as a XVIIIa, diamond shape cross section...I'm guessing at that cross section. From the shot I saw, it looked more akin to those cheap Crusader swords with the gold hilt and black leather banded grips...ugly, very ugly.

It's got a fuller, it's just kinda hard to see in the pictures. Or, as the blurb states, "a heavy blood groove down its length." I hate that "blood groove" nonsense... So a XIIa?

Neat looking but I would like the guard and pommel to be a bit narrower. Also there is the thing about them not being anything more than wallhangers.

Years ago I bought all the swords from the trilogy to sell them. I bought two of each. My Glambdring actually broke at the tang. I noticed it was a little loose and rattly so I went to tighten the tang. I'll be a Santa in snorkel gear if the tang and pommel didn't snap right of with very little effort. These were the UC versions, not the cheap ones. All the rest were fine though.

Still, as a wallhanger, I almost bought this when it first hit the market.

I actually love the look of this sword. The only problem I have (aside from it being a fall-apart SLO), is its grip: It's FAT! I handled it at KOA the other day, and I could barely fit my hand around the upper half. Still, I like how it looks, and I'd love to see Brenno do something with the design.