I haven't bought anything from Weta for a while and I doubt I ever will. Last thing I got was the Key to Bag End on that one sale where shipping was free. The item is normally $50, but with the last of my Weta Dollars, I got it down to $7. With $0 for shipping, that sounds like a sweet deal, right? Wrong. After the unabashed pirates that UPS are dropped the tiny box off at my door, I also received a lovely invoice for $40, 90% of which was their absurd brokerage fees. Awesome.
My cup, as they say, hath runneth full.
![Cursing Red :cursing_r](./images/smilies/imported_cursing_red.gif)
I haven't gotten anything from FedEx in a long time, but if I recall correctly, they're not much better. People online say you can avoid the outrageous charges if the shipping retailer uses Air service instead of Ground (which is what incurs the bulk of the fees), but I'm positive Weta was using Air because the tracking route for my items was always the same: Seattle, LA, Vancouver, and given the times and dates, those boxes were on a plane, not a truck.
I guess the only way to test this out is to order something from them again, but I'm very wary of doing that.
As for your question to the cutoff, I know that from my experiences with shipping things myself, it's always Width x Length x Height, entered in any order. Whatever that total number comes out to, there is a scale that calculates the shipping rate once the weight is also factored in. I think the shields manage to squeak by because one of those three numbers is actually small? Same for the staves. Still boatloads more than it used to be though.