Man at Arms

About

Man at Arms is a documentary web series featuring videos in which professional weaponsmiths and engineers showcase their skills by creating functional replicas of famous fictional weapons from a variety of TV shows, films and video games. Since its YouTube premiere in 2013 as a branded channel on AWE Me network, the show has garnered a massive following online.

Online History

The series first aired on February 11th, 2013, on the AWE me Youtube Channel. The show was originally hosted by Tony Swatton, a professional Blacksmith and Hollywood Prop Maker who has worked on over 200 featured films. The first episode was about recreating Jaime Lannister's Sword from the Game of Thrones series. As of 2015, the video has gathered more than 2 million views^[1]. The original show had a weekly schedule with the last episode airing on June 30th, 2014^[2].

Man at Arms: Reforged

On July 8th, 2014, The Awe ME network announced their new series titled "Man at Arms: Reforged," which takes the same formula of the original show with the twist that the weapons will be mashed up to create all new hybrid weapons. Tony Swatton was replaced by the team at The Baltimore Knife & Sword, a shop for stage combat properties^[3]. The first episode was uploaded on July 14th, 2014, about creating a hybrid Batman – Wolverine Claw. As of 2015, the video has gained more than 3 million views^[4].

Online Presence

Since its airing, the series has gain a massive online audience with its videos usually gaining more than 1 million views. The series also helped the AWE me youtube channel in gathering nearly 3 million subscribers as of 2015 with the Man at Arms series being the most popular^[9]. On May 20th, 2013, then Host Tony Swatton hosted an AMA on /r/iAmA which as of 2015 has gathered 1659 points and 565 comments^[6].

Media Coverage

The series has also been under the media spotlight with news articles from Kotaku^[10], Laughing Squid^[11], LA Weekly^[13], Paste Magazine^[12], Defy Media^[7], Times, The Hollywood Reporter^[5], etc. On March 18th, 2013, Time Entertainment published an article titled "Forging His Way: Q&A with Hollywood Blacksmith Tony Swatton" where the interview focuses on Tony Swatton's profession as a hollywood blacksmith and host of the series^[8].

Search Interest

External References