Ringer-spy Rosie-with-the-ribbons sent us the following report from this years RingCon.
Last weekend there was another RingCon in Bonn, Germany, the 11th RingCon to be precise.
In the last few years more and more fandoms have been invited to attend. And this year we were very happy to greet a big number of Game of Thrones-stars and their beautifully costumed fans to the event. But I am going to focus on all the LOTR-stuff that happened.
Emil Johansson is the brains behind LOTR Project. His site, you may recall, brought us the Middle-earth family tree.
Now he’s unveiled an extension to the project that collates population statistics from extant Middle-earth resources, and explores various age and life-expectancy trends. Johansson describes it as an exploration of the world of Tolkien through numbers.
EDIT: It seems as though the site is experiencing heavy demand. So please be patient, and maybe try again later?
The Warner Bros. legal team has shut down the development of a free Lord of the Rings mod for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
The all-volunteer, unpaid team of game enthusiasts behind the mod say they repeatedly attempted to negotiate a compromise that would allow them to proceed in some form, but Warner Bros. rebuffed all of their proposals. Warner Bros. first requested that the 40-person-strong development team cease all work on the project, called MERP (Middle-earth Roleplaying Project), in July.
“Modding” is a term used to describe when users unofficially adapt or alter a game beyond its original specifications. Modders will often create new characters, character skins, plotlines and dialogue, music or even entirely new worlds for their favourite games.
Mod developer Alasdair Hurst believes MERP’s main problem could be that people need to buy Skyrim first.
Tolkien’s impact on the lives of communities worldwide is not limited to just the English language. We here at TheOneRing.net are always willing to highlight and partner with sites that show the same enthusiasm and passion for Tolkien as we do, but are created and published in a non-English language.
With that in mind, we are proud to welcome Tolkiendrim.com to TheOneRing.net community as our official French language partner! Click below to read more about their website and take a moment to share with your French speaking friends!
Welcome to our latest “Getting to know” questions that need answering. This month we’re talking to the one and only Balrog Showgirl, Nicole Roberts.
Hi Nicole and a very big thank you for taking part and for being so patient with me.
This first question is from Rosie-with-the-ribbons who’s latest costume for RingCon has been inspired by your Balrog Showgirl costume.
R-w-t-r: Do you make your costumes yourself?
Nicole: Rosie – that is awesome! Yes, for the most part the costumes I’ve been running around in for the past several years have all been of my own making. I only started sewing back in 2004, after I moved to Los Angeles and started hanging out with even more LOTR people. The first costume I made was to wear to Comic Con that year – I was the Mumak Mahud (the guy with the black and white painted face who steers the oliphaunt in ROTK), so you could definitely say I’ve always leaned towards costumes that were a little off the beaten path! I’ve done some costumes that were direct recreations (“Barf” from “Spaceballs”is the most well-known one), but as I’ve gotten more into the sewing, I really like doing things that are more of an original design, like the Balrog Showgirl. As someone who is not of supermodel proportions (and seriously, those chicks look like scary walking lollipops anyway), I like to have the opportunity to design something that I think is more flattering to me, and I always like to learn how to do something new, like dyeing feathers for the showgirl headdress.
Blake conceptualises and builds his own custom LOTR-lego diaromas from scratch. He’s created a few really cool sets previously, including ones of Amon Hen and Laketown. But I reckon this one of Rivendell may just be his coolest yet. You can see more images in his Flickr photostream, or just watch the very cool video below.