Dominic Monaghan Unboxes The 30-Disc 'Lord Of The Rings' & 'The Hobbit' Collector's Edition Set

Last week, a limited collector's edition release of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies was revealed on Amazon. The set features the extended editions of all six films from director Peter Jackson in an impressive display of faux leather-bound books with all the bonus features you'd ever want. At the time, we only had one image of the set, but now you can get a closer look at it.

Dominic Monaghan played Meriadoc Brandybuck (aka Merry) in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and it appears he was the cast member with an open enough schedule to be able to record an unboxing video that shows us just how cool a set this is. However, it still may not be worth the price tag, especially because this may not exactly be the set that Peter Jackson truly wants fans to have. Find out more below.

Here's the unboxing video of The Middle-earth 6-Film Collection:

While I wouldn't necessarily call the wooden shelf that the movies sit on "ornate" as Monaghan describes it, I will say that the presentation of the set is still somewhat appealing. However, it's not appealing enough to convince me to spend $719.99 on it, which is how much you'll have to pay Amazon to add this to your collection.

Amazon will have the Middle-earth 6-Film Limited Collector's Edition as an exclusive starting on October 4, but if you don't like shopping online for some reason, you'll be able to get the collector's edition and also the standard theatrical version of the Middle-earth film collection will be released everywhere on November 1. But apparently this isn't truly the ultimate collection that Peter Jackson wants everyone to have.

Friend of the site Eric Vespe, better known as Quint over at Ain't It Cool News, is pretty chummy with Peter Jackson. Not only has he visited the sets of all Jackson's Middle-earth movies, but you can spot him as a passenger in a train car that gets smashed by King Kong in the director's update of the classic film. Vespe also appears as a Hobbit in an extended cut of one of The Hobbit movies. He posted on Twitter that Peter Jackson has (or had) plans for an ultimate edition that included tons more bonus content than what's been released so far, including stuff that you won't find on this new set:

It would be nice to be able to see whatever ultimate collection Peter Jackson really wants the fans to have, but we're not sure why Warner Bros. Pictures didn't want to make it happen. If they're moving forward with this expensive cash grab, then why not just give fans what Peter Jackson wants them to have? The best we can do is just hope it gets a release someday, maybe for the 25th anniversary of The Lord of the Rings movies or something like that.