Weta Workshop Tour Review in Wellington, New Zealand

Last updated: February 24, 2023

Overall review: It’s cool. Short, fast, you get to touch stuff. I recommend this tour to anyone visiting Wellington, even if you’re not a fan of movies like The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. The tour kept my attention, there’s a lot of stuff to see packed into the warehouse, and you get to hold a bunch of cool movie props.

Visitors arriving to the Weta Workshop
Visitors arriving to the Weta Workshop

Room 0: Bag Check, Video Intro

This is the entry room where you can check your bags and get a safety and security briefing. Lots of swords on the walls.

We watch a 3-minute video introduction by Richard Taylor, Creative Director of the workshop and the co-founder and co-director of the Weta companies. Includes a highlight reel from some of their most famous film projects such as Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and Avatar.

Rules: No touching, and no photos.Despite the No touching rule, we touched a bunch of stuff.

Tour guide talking about props at the Weta Workshop (press photo)
Tour guide talking about props at the Weta Workshop (press photo)

Room 1: Prop Design Process

Our first look inside the Weta Workshop: an open industrial warehouse with about 3,000 sq feet dedicated to this tour. The concrete floors are painted gray. Nice white walls over exposed cinderblock.

It feels like every inch of available wall space is filled with props. I count 29 distinct props in this first room, plus display cases at foot-level filled with prosthetic masks and puppets.

The walls were covered in real movie props, such as:

  • Orc axe from Lord of the Rings
  • Númenórean steel longbow
  • Animatronic sheep
  • Gun and holster from Hellboy

Each prop was accompanied by a museum-like label that included:

  • Name of prop (ex: Orc Moon Shield)
  • Movie (ex: The Lord of the Rings)
  • Years used (ex: 2001, 2002, 2003)
Display cabinet in the Weta Cave. You can see the labels by each prop
Display cabinet in the Weta Cave. You can see the labels by each prop

A significant portion of this room focused on the movie prop design process, featuring a gun from the movie District 9. Across several informational posters, we see how it goes from sketch to final product.

Design > Digital Modeling > Machining > Model Making > Moulding & Casting > Painting

Each of these concepts has its own poster with descriptive text and behind-the-scenes photos.

Fun fact: They added a steel rod to the gun from District 9 to give it added weight, and a hydraulic pump for kickback after firing. “We make props that help the actors act better.”

Room 2: Sauron Armor

Next up was a room featuring life-size costumes, such as an exo suit life-size prototype for District 9. We got to hold two props here, and now’s a good time to note all the cool stuff we got to put our hands on.

Into the armory at Weta Workshop (press photo)
Into the armory at Weta Workshop (press photo)

Props That I Held

  • District 9 Guard Gun
  • Concealable Ray Gun from Dr Grordbort’s Infallible Aether Oscillators
  • Mace of Azog, from The Hobbit
  • Real chainmail, plus injection-molded plastic chainmail

Fact: Weta Workshop has the largest collection of skulls and bones in the Southern hemisphere.

Room 3: Armory and CNC

BTW: Weta is pronounced like “Wet-uh,” not “Way-tuh.”

This room has lots of armor, a real working Warthog car from Halo, more swords, WotWots animatronics, a CNC area featuring Phyllis (they name each of their CNC machines), and a 3D printer that was definitely an afterthought in the room layout.

Example of armory that Weta is famous for. I took this photo in the Weta Cave, not in the Workshop, bc there's a strict No Photos policy in the Workshop.
Example of armory that Weta is famous for. I took this photo in the Weta Cave, not in the Workshop, bc there’s a strict No Photos policy in the Workshop.

The guide made a few comments which made it clear that Weta is very proud that most of their staff has no formal training. We heard several examples of this “Do It Yourself” or “Number 8 Wire” culture (that’s a New Zealand cultural reference for you). Things like self-taught armory captains and self-taught CNC machine experts were badges of pride among the staff.

Room 4: Chainmail

Pretty self-explanatory. We got to hold a bunch, including the real stuff (super heavy) and some amazingly light injection-molded plastic.

There were also three elaborate display cases in this room, with numerical labeling on each object, holding a bunch of assorted props. Perhaps these will be helpful in the upcoming New Zealand Film Museum.

Rooms 5, 6, 7: More Stuff

I had to leave a few minutes early, but there was more stuff. You should go check it out!

Tour Group and Misc Info

  • Tickets are $25 for adults (Feb 2016)
  • We had 8 people in our group and 1 guide
  • It felt like we had the whole space to ourselves, even with another group starting 30 minutes after us
  • The tour is supposed to last 45-60 minutes.
  • Recommended!

BONUS TIP: Unless you’re a Thunderbirds fan, you can definitely skip the Thunderbirds Are Go add-on experience. I’ve never seen the old Thunderbirds or the new one, so the tour felt extremely drawn-out to me at 60 minutes long (would have been great at 15 minutes).

More Information

Your's truly, outside the HQ offices
Your’s truly, outside the HQ offices

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