During Toy Fair 2010, Sideshow Collectibles announced they would be going back to their roots in their The Lord of the Rings license by once again doing maquettes of the characters in Middle-earth. What Sideshow told us was that this line would give us different aspects of the characters we have grown to love. Also during the video (view it here) from Toy Fair we got a tease of the concept drawings of several early pieces in the line.

Then in December of last year, during the twelve days of Sideshow, we got a beautiful look at protos of the pieces to come. The image included: Aragorn as Strider, Gandalf The Grey, Arwen, Legolas, and a hidden character in the back. The hidden character was Gimli, Son of Gloin and shortly after we got a great preview video of the upcoming Boromir maquette. We’re now two pieces in hand for this line with Aragorn already in our collections and now Gandalf the Grey joins him.

Continue reading “Collecting The Precious: Sideshow Collectibles Gandalf the Grey Maquette Review”

Owen from ClassicFM.com (who needs a spy name, suggest something below) sends this along: I thought I’d send you a quick note to say we (at Classic FM) have just begun our vote for the greatest movie soundtrack. Howard Shore’s LOTR score won last year, and wondered if you wanted to let your readers know they can vote for him again if they want? Vote

Circa writes: See this piece of contemporary art (Epic Journey, 2010, video installation 11 hours) by Canadian artist Kevin Schmidt which uses the LOTR EE as two boats tied together travel along the Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada. Really cool. More..

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and the upcoming 2011 videogame The Lord of the Rings: War in the North invites the general public to a special event at 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 23, during Comic-Con 2011 week. In the heart of San Diego’s Gaslamp District, at 5th Avenue and J Street, fans can experience Middle-earth like never before with a special surprise spectacle, and play the new The Lord of the Rings: War in the North video game months before its official release. Beginning on Wednesday, July 20, fans can text WITN to 82257 or log on to www.warinthenorth.com/comic-con for more details about this not-to-be missed event.

To help promote the event, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment joined with other Warner Bros. divisions in sponsoring the hotel key cards at 36 hotels in the San Diego area during the ‘Con. See below for the full details and press release regarding this activity. Continue reading “War in the North to Host Special Event During San Diego’s Comic-Con”

We reported last week that EMPIRE would be featuring The Hobbit on their Aug 2011 cover. Today, they have posted those images on their website for your viewing pleasure! The first is a very similar image to what we’ve already seen from EW.com. However, in this version Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins is facing the camera and we get a much clearer view of the Dwarven document in his hands. The second pic is of Ian McKellen as Gandalf standing in an empty Bag End. Check them out at the EMPIRE website and don’t forget to pick up your copy on newsstands!  [EMPIRE]

Well folks…the journey is complete. Last night, the final film in the trilogy screened in the US and NZ. Now we are left with our brand-new, excessively high-quality Blu-Ray sets to satisfy our LOTR needs. But before we leave the trilogy screenings in the dust, let’s take a moment to thank Warner Bros. and Fathom Events for making these screenings available to the US market. Wouldn’t it be great if they did this once every few years? And if they could arrange for international viewings as well? We’ll work that angle and report back! Just like with the extended editions of FOTR and TTT, we are looking for your reactions to seeing The Return of the King Extended Edition on the big screen. Please feel free to send those reports to spymaster@theonering.net and make sure to include your theater name and location. Below are the first few that have trickled in this morning. [TORn on Facebook] [WBshop.com]

Continue reading “ROTK Ex Screening Experiences – Fan Reaction”