Watching the LOTR movies reminded me of one of my favorite days ever. Years ago, as guests of @armageddonexpo, we were invited to tour @WetaWorkshop in the middle of their work on The Hobbit films. I believe the first film had come out, but not the second. Two fun things...

1/

I was excited, as a huge LOTR nerd and a fan of the films, and the WETA people could not have been nicer, even though they were obviously at crunch time.

You arrive, and the three trolls are in the little garden area outside the entrance, from the first Hobbit Film. :)

2/

We had to agree not to discuss anything confidential if we happened to see anything, which of course, we all agreed. Turns out there's different rooms with different levels of security at Weta, and because we were guests, we would get to see a lot more than the usual tour.

3/

It was incredible, the craftsmanship and care. Room after room of swords and armor. You don't realize while watching the films, but even amongst, say, the elves, there would be different themes to a set of bows and knives, for different clans. Same with each race.

4/

One of the most astounding things was a room where they had the 'bigature' of Minas Tirith, which was massive...even knowing it was not full size intellectually, from across the room, it looked like a real city, like it was in the distance, not in HO scale, as it were.

5/

They ALMOST walked us into a huge warehouse room and someone stopped the guide and said no no no no, you can't go in there!

Apparently, SMAUG was in their in some manner, and if we'd seen it, they would have to kill us.

6/

Okay, the two most weirdly memorable things for me were...we went into one room where they had huge wheeled tubs, I think, and we couldn't see what was inside til we got closer...

It was feet and hands. Dozens of feet and hands.

7/

Specifically HOBBIT feet and hands. They were the prosthetics worn by the actors every day, all day long. Each hair on each foot was inserted by hand, and there were an UNTOLD number.

They asked if I wanted to try one of the hands on...

8/

They were masterfully made, just incredibly believable even without anyone in them. So, I said yes, of course, because hobbits.

The hands actually had 'flesh,' some sort of heavy latex, all the way up to the elbow. It felt bizarre and constricting.

9/

After just a minute, I couldn't wait to get it off, it felt like you're pulling your hand out of an octupus' tentacle embrace, it was genuinely unsettling. And the actors had to where these on their hands and feet every day for YEARS.

10/

The gentleman guiding us said that these were vastly improved and more comfortable than the ones from the first set of films. He said those were more akin to torture.

I will never disrespect actors again, that must have been hell.

11/

The other thing that happened was kind of funny. There was still a lot of discussion about which characters might show up in the Hobbit, since they had gone so far off the book's direction. Tom Bombadil? Who knows.

But I was hoping for Beorn, one of my favorite characters.

12/

But all of that was hush hush at this point. We were taken to a room and they were explaining something. I think it was orc weapons.

And I noticed a size comparison chart on a wall, out of the way, most people probably didn't give it a second glance.

13/

It had a drawing of several characters, from smallest to tallest. I believe it started with Gollum, went to a hobbit (to be honest, I don't remember the order) and then ended up with, I think a troll.

But the NEXT tallest...was a full body sketch of Beorn.

14/

So I was staring at that, knowing I wasn't supposed to see it, and knowing it was a secret and the internet was still speculating on him being in the movie, and here's proof he is AND what he looks like...

15/

I must have been staring like a goofus because someone came into the room, looked at me, looked at the poster, moved to stand in FRONT of the poster, blocking the view, and he says...

"You didn't see this."

16/

I paused a moment and then gave the blankest expression I could...

"Didn't see what?" I said.

But he knew, and I knew, and I thought that was the coolest thing of the entire visit, somehow.

17/

Final note, Beorn is a bear and bears are cool.

The end.

:)

Ps. This is what just outside the entrance to Weta looks like.

PPS., thank you, @WetaWorkshop for being so lovely that day, but more, for your incredible contribution to film and fandom.