According to PlayForJapan, System Administrator Joseph Holley (Blizzard Entertainment Greater China) has placed his WETA Wolfrider Statue into auction on eBay to donate the money to the Red Cross in Japan to benefit those affected by the earthquake and the tsunami.
This special and unique statue was given to all Blizzard employees, based on the giant statue adorning the central plaza of the Irvine campus. The statue in auction is optionally signed by Nick Carpenter, Blizzard Entertainment Exec Art Director.
Blizzplanet mainly covers Blizzard licensed products news, previews and interviews for all fans who love Blizzard games’ collectibles and lore. Thus, I encourage all of of you to bid and donate generously to the Japan cause. Visit the eBay auction of this WETA wolfrider statue.
- “Joseph Holley of Blizzard has been kind enough to put up an auction for an exceptionally rare employee-only item: A Warcraft Orc Statue designed by WETA and signed by executive art director Nick Carpenter.
This is an auction for a Orc Wolfrider statue. It measures approximately 20 inches from bottom of base to tip of axe, and about 20 inches along the long axis of the oval base, and about 10 inches along the short axis of the base. Although it’s a relatively small statue, it has the most fine detail of any piece of game memorabilia I’ve ever seen. I don’t know what the statue is made of (I assume some kind of heavy resin), but the base is definitely made of very heavy solid wood. This statue was never available for sale, and was a limited production of 2986 (of which this is numbered 286 on the bottom). It was made only for employees of Blizzard Entertainment in 2007. It was sculpted by Eden Small and Daniel Cockersell of WETA (of Lord of the Rings movie fame) in New Zealand. To my knowledge, only a couple of these have ever been auctioned before. This is your chance to have a very rare piece of Blizzard and Warcraft history and help Japan at the same time. 100% of the proceeds of this auction will go to the American Red Cross to aid in Japan relief. Please bid generously!
The auction will end on April 1 at 13:48:34 PDT. Blizzard will donate all proceeds from this sale to the American Red Cross.”
eBay Message
“This auction is part of the Play For Japan campaign, a video game industry initiative to raise money for earthquake and tsunami relief in Japan. To find more info on this initiative, and to learn how to participate, visit us at http://www.playforjapan.org.
This is an auction for a Orc Wolfrider statue. It measures approximately 20 inches from bottom of base to tip of axe, and about 20 inches along the long axis of the oval base, and about 10 inches along the short axis of the base. Although it’s a relatively small statue, it has the most fine detail of any piece of game memorabilia I’ve ever seen. I don’t know what the statue is made of (I assume some kind of heavy resin), but the base is definitely made of very heavy solid wood. This statue was never available for sale, and was a limited production of 2986 (of which this is numbered 286 on the bottom). It was made only for employees of Blizzard Entertainment in 2007. It was sculpted by Eden Small and Daniel Cockersell of WETA (of Lord of the Rings movie fame) in New Zealand. To my knowledge, only a couple of these have ever been auctioned before. This is your chance to have a very rare piece of Blizzard and Warcraft history and help Japan at the same time. 100% of the proceeds of this auction will go to the American Red Cross to aid in Japan relief. Please bid generously!
In addition, I have spoken to Nick Carpenter, Executive Art Director at Blizzard, who has generously agreed to sign the statue if the auction winner chooses. Nick poured an immense amount of time and creative effort into the project to create this statue, working closely with the sculptors at WETA to produce a statue up to Blizzard standards.
One of the wolf’s nails was damaged in shipping of the statue, as visible in the picture. I have the bit that broke off and will send it with the statue. It’s very small and hard to notice, and I’m sure that a small dab of super glue will re-attach it and make it all but impossible to see that it was ever damaged. The little brushed bronze “Blizzard Entertainment 2007″ plate on the front looks strange in the pictures – that’s because it came with a piece of protective plastic screen on it that I never took off. It should be flawless underneath.
I’ll cover domestic shipping, and if shipping it internationally costs less than $75, I’ll issue you a refund for the difference.”
Update: The statue was sold for $1,700 !!!
