"Elendil, wise and fair King and builder of the strongholds of Gondor, kept watch over much of Middle-Earth. For more than an Age, a great darkness covered the lands until Elendil united with Gil-Galad to form The Last Alliance of Elves and Men. Elendil led his men to victory against Sauron and his legions of orcs, in the Battle of Dagorlad. Then, on the slopes of Mount Orodruin, despite heavy losses, the Alliance managed to drive Sauron's forces back. Cornered there, Sauron himself took to the battlefield. After heavy battle, Sauron slayed the great King of Men, Elendil, and shattered his legendary sword, Narsil."







The packaging for this, and all United Cutlery Lord of the Rings products is well….sturdy. Nothing spectacular here, and definately not eye-catching. The plain cardboard box with a slip on graphics cover reveal little more than a very displeasing sky blue color scheme and the same picture of the product that has been used on every website that has this item available. There’s a relatively nice photo of Elendil himself on either side of the box, but the back panel where it specifies what other UC products are available only show movie stills for the most part, which isn’t really showing off their line of products. There is some nice info on Elendil though, which they definitely get points for adding.

If nothing else can be said of the packaging however, this can: it serves its purpose. If you’re buying life sized high end replicas of movie props, you’re not buying them to keep them in the box. I think United Cutlery realizes this, and makes its packaging accordingly. The box is study, and keeps the product safe all the way to your doorstep.







Please consider this more of a "Design/Accuracy" category, it will include the base, the materials used, and the Helm itself. I believe that UC was allowed access to the original prop while making this. In most respects, it’s very accurate, in others, albeit subtly, it’s not 100% accurate. At first glance, one might think that this item should receive a 4 or even 5 in this category, but although it’s inaccuracies are tiny, they are also many, and they add up quickly.

Let’s start with the most obvious feature, the crests. These as far as I can tell are almost 100% accurate, the stamped details on the outer set of feathers is there, the nose guard has the white tree design, and the feather count is accurate. The back crest however has a slight problem. The brass centerpiece, which on the front crest constitutes the nose guard, is not a different design from the front crest. In fact, it appears to actually be another nose guard piece, but cut to fit the basic shape of what the back piece it supposed to be. I honestly have no idea if this is accurate to the original prop, but I seriously doubt it judging from the Sideshow Weta Elendil bust (picture below). To me this hints at corner-cutting for the mass production.



The second most obvious inaccuracy is with the random details and designs which go around the brow of the helmet and the neck guard. On the movie prop, these were acid etched into the actual helm. On the UC version, these details are stamped on strips of metal, then nailed/glued onto the body of the helm. Again, this appears to be a mass production tactic, so if a mistake is made they won’t have to destroy the main body of the helm.

The third inaccuracy is the chin strap buckle. I searched far and wide for a photo of the movie prop version only to come up empty handed, but once again, I went to the Sideshow Weta bust for the answers. The buckle on the UC version is pretty much a standard buckle you could find on most things. The bust however depicts a distinctly designed buckle, much more ornate than what we get on the UC helm (picture below).



The materials used for this helm are primarily Iron, Brass and Leather. I believe the original prop was the same combination except for having Steel instead of Iron (correct me if I’m wrong). Overall, the Iron keeps the cost down without making too much of a noticeable difference, so it’s not really a fault. However, there is a glaring inconsistency that many people have already noticed. United Cutlery went to great lengths to make this helm appear to have a certain level of wear and tear. This is done generally to a great effect. However the large crests are not worn at all. This is a striking visual diversion, as the crests are shining brightly, and the rest of the helm is a dull luster.

The leather aspect of the piece is pretty much what anyone would expect. The leather lined interior does it’s job of keeping heads comfortable while wearing it, and the chin strap works well and is tightly attached to the inside of the helm, so it won’t snap off anytime soon.



All UC products come with some sort of display rigging (except scabbards), and the helm line is no exception. For the most part the display is functional, it has no problem holding the helm straight, and looks good on the shelf or where ever one might keep it. It does have 2 major drawbacks though. First, the bottom of the stand is completely bare wood. I scratched my shelf within 3 seconds of setting it there. A cloth bottom or at the very least some rubber stoppers would have gone a long way.



The second problem is the slight lack of quality. The post which holds the helm up is extremely loose (I’m not sure if this is a quality issue or done intentionally to allow rotation of the helm without moving the base), and the metal medallion of the base is digging up the paper-like covering of the wood display on mine. Tsk Tsk.







There’s not a whole lot of paint work on this Helm, mainly just what appears to be a black paint wash over the brass portions. They’re a little sloppy, but lend themselves to the battle worn look of the piece.





Overall I felt the quality on the helm was high (the base is another story). The only real issue with the helm I’ve been having quality-wise is the cheek guards seem to be attached in a rather dubious way. They flex and scrape the helm in places, as if only a single peg is holding them on. This is something to be careful of in the future. Also, a major quality flaw which appears to be on every single one of the 5000 edition size, is also associated with the cheek guards. The brass feathers are cut out very jaggedly towards the middle feathers. They’re cut out fine on the top and bottom, but once you hit the middle they’re like shark teeth, mine isn’t too bad in this regard, but I’ve seen helms where the jagged cuts have completely missed the feather patterns and really screwed things up. I have no idea why they’re like this. See the photo below.







Prices for this piece on various websites range anywhere from $200-$350. I happen to have gotten a great deal on ebay for mine, but I’ll base this category on the average price of around $250. At that price, yeah, it’s a good deal, not spectacular though, especially with the stand problems.






Even though I’ve spent much of this review dwelling on the negative aspects of the piece, it truly is a fantastic Helm. Despite the little inaccuracies and perceived quality flaws, it’s still a striking version of Elendil’s helm, and clearly the best version that will ever be produced. But were the buckle accurate, the back crest center an original piece, the crests and helm the same luster, and if the cheek guards weren’t cut by monkeys, it would have been a perfect score. As it stands, it’s still a fantastic entry into what I hope will be a long and fruitful helm line.