As we posted recently, the folks at Funko have announced they’re back in the Middle-earth game, and they announced it with several pretty dang awesome The Lord of Rings Pops. San Diego Comic-Con is coming up in July, and virtually every company there has exclusives for the show. Funko announced today via their blog they would have something representing The Lord of the Rings. The Comic-Con 2017 Exclusive will be Aragorn and Arwen two pack. As of this posting there is no word on price or how these will be distributed, but as soon as we have that information we will update this post.
Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Funko Comic-Con 2017 Aragorn and Arwen Exclusive 2-Pack”
Category: Conventions
One of my favorite subsection of statues within the whole Middle-earth statue line from our friends at Weta Workshop is the rider line. This line obviously includes statues that involve someone riding a creature from Middle-earth. There are things like Legolas/Gimli on Arod to Gothmog on Warg. The Hobbit line of course has the amazing and large Azog on Warg, but not anyone from the good guy/gal side of things. That is until Dain IronFoot on War Boar showed up during Comic-Con 2015. Dain was a 800 piece statue and came in at a price tag of $499, which is now sold out from Weta. However you can still get this guy on the secondary market if you’re really hoping to add this to your collection.
Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s Dain IronFoot on War Boar Review”
The schedule for Wondercon went public yesterday, so we are finally able to confirm that we are indeed hosting a panel on Sunday at 10:30am. Below you will find the posting from the Wondercon schedule website, but since the panel was presented, we have added one more panelist.
Mike Urban, also known as Ostadan, will be joining us. He is one of the author’s of TORn’s book “The People’s guide to J.R.R. Tolkien” and will help flesh out the discussion on the upcoming release of a standalone “Beren and Luthien” book. Continue reading “TORn goes to Wondercon in Anaheim, April 2”
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Geekery can be fun and it can also be educational. In the case of the two-day Wizarding Dayz near Salt Lake City, it hopes to be both while helping with literacy and charity as well.
TheOneRing.net will be join what promises to be a magical event Friday and Saturday Feb. 24 and 25, presenting panels and representing Tolkien in the realm of the wizard-themed gathering. It takes place in the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy, Utah.
The three charities, the Utah Parent Center, Canines With a Cause and the Human Rights Education Center of Utah, get a portion of the proceeds according to co-organizer Valerie Walker.
“We threw it out to the community to nominate the charities. We came up with these three charities because they are all based on kids, kids’ needs and kids that don’t belong. That is Harry Potter,” she said.
Walker, heading up Wizarding-Dayz with Carrie Rogers-Whitehead, hopes the first-year event brings out those who love Potter, Tolkien and fantasy in general, and especially those who enjoy reading.
“This event is made definitely for book lovers, people who love reading, people who want to go to a place where there are the things they love. It is good for all ages but for adults you are going to get to go and have good discussions,” Walker said.
TheOneRing will be included in those good discussions with three official TORn presentations:
* How To Travel to Middle-earth
* J.R.R. Tolkien vs. George R.R. Martin
* Tolkien and the Great War
There is other Tolkien content as well, including an over-the-internet panel for Tolkienites (or TORnadoes) to ask expert Michael Martinez ANY Tolkien Question. In fact, if there is interest, perhaps TORn will do a Facebook Live for portions of some of these panels.
Wizarding Days has no shortage of educational material, including from sponsors Utah Humanities and the STEM Action Center of Utah.
For those not aware, STEM is a science-based curriculum based on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics taught all together in an applied approach. In the wizarding world that means discussions and interactive panels rather than just lectures.
“We are not calling them panels. We want people to come and have discussions about these things they like or dislike. We have great topics that dive deep,” Walker said. “We aren’t skipping a rock across the surface.”
There are also a lot of hands-on items patrons can make and take home including wants, wizard pouches, rune pouches and of course, spell books.
Walker said she took extra care creating a space that isn’t mundane, including the vendor areas, which including roaming performers, but is all planned with a pleasing, welcoming, fantasy theme.
Tickets start at $5 for kids with family passes available and single tickets on sale for Friday and Saturday. A two-day adult ticket is only $25. Click here for more information and to buy tickets.
Donations are also accepted on the ticketing page with all donated funds going directly to the charities according to Walker.
DragonCon, the annual pop culture convention held on Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia has announced that there will no longer be a Tolkien’s Middle-earth programming track. Instead, any Tolkien-related content will be absorbed into other programming tracks, such as Fantasy Literature, Costuming, and Main Programming.
This is a huge blow to the thousands of Tolkien fans that have attended DragonCon over the years. The Tolkien track has been a staple of DragonCon’s programming, long before Peter Jackson’s films were released. Over the years the track has presented quality panels on the books, films, music, and costuming. They’ve hosted actors from ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ trilogies, as well as Tolkien artists and scholars. Bonds of friendship and love have been forged from time spent in the track room and for many friends it is the one time each year they get to see each other.
For the last 9 years, TOR.n staffer MrCere has been Tolkien’s Middle-earth track director. Yesterday he announced the end on the Tolkien Track’s Facebook page:
In my personal opinion, this is a terrible decision. In brief I told DragonCon:
* I think Tolkien shouldn’t be lumped into fantasy, for his sake and for dominating the rest of the fantasy content
* There is scholarship about Tolkien that differentiates him & his works from every single other Fantasy creator
* Tolkien content is still coming out new, at a solid rate, including a new book in 2017
* 80 years of fandom and counting, not a fad or trend
*Tolkien brings mainstream respectability to the whole convention and transcends just fantasy / just generally geekery
* Guest potential (Weta Digital & Weta Workshop & actors)
* Because good things are worth fighting for
* It harms Dragon Con by removing it
I hope WE can be united as a fandom, of which I am a member. It would be nice to form something of a Fellowship to Vote Bilbo — if some of you know that reference.
The Tolkien track would love to continue as long as DragonCon does, but at the very least they’d like one last year to hold a proper goodbye. If you would like to voice your support for the Tolkien track, PLEASE contact DragonCon and let them know (politely)! Click HERE, and select DragonCon Office under the list of departments. As Tolkien fans have proven time and time again, even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
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Below are a very small selection of photos taken at Tolkien track panels and events throughout the year; photo credit has been listed, but if any are missing, please let us know!
It really was the best of times. Not just the opening night of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (or whenever you saw the film for the first time). What about when you first found out that Lord of the Rings films were being made? Maybe, like staffer Garfeimao, it prompted you to start searching the internet and you found TORn. Perhaps, like staffer Magpie, you had been longing for something different and/or better than the animated movies (no matter how sentimental and quaint they seem now). Perhaps you were a lifelong fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, and had misgivings like deej and JPB. For me, it was all of the above!
Please enjoy reading the memories and impressions of some of our core staff, and share your own memories of how you learned of the LOTR movie, how you found TheOneRing.net and/or what your first impressions of FOTR were, either in the comments section, or on our Lord of the Rings Movie discussion forum.
Continue reading “Fellowship of the Rings 15th anniversary: TORn staff share their memories”