The thought of 10,000 orc belt buckles boggles the mind.

My guess is that they are in fact planning to sell some of the actual props to collectors at some point in the future. Going to the trouble of making them look realistic makes them worth a lot more on the collector market and probably will more than justify the expense.

It's a shame that the for-sale replicas from the movie are only available as stainless steel, blunted swords mounted to a plaque. There are those of us out here who collect swords, and it would've been nice to see a nice replica.

The armory and costume folks are interviewed on the Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition DVD set. Fascinating stuff. The disk also has close-up stills of each character's gear, plus development sketches.

It is not only cool, but encouraging, that filmmakers take such care with the details of a "sub creation."