MORIA — As we reported yesterday, the bracket is finalized and the match-ups are set. Our annual Middle-earth March Madness is now underway!
A note on voting: This is a tongue-in-cheek attempt to ‘crown’ a victor of Middle-earth. Each one of you will participate in your own manner. Some may take it very seriously and do your homework to try and scholarly determine who would actual win the battles. Some of you will simply vote based on popularity. Heck, some of you will vote randomly! However you participate, we encourage you to have fun with it. We encourage you to make your case for a certain combatant in the comments, our forums, Facebook or twitter.
For those of you confused by some of the names, educate yourself by simply googling the name. We found that Wikipedia has a plethora of information on each character/object.
Voting ends at 10pm ET on the final day of the round. In this case, voting for the first round match-ups will end on March 20th. We will then calculate the winners, and post a new bracket on March 21st.
Need a bigger version of the bracket? [Click here]
MORIA — TheOneRing.net’s selection committee has been hard at work, delving too deep into lore and frivolous fandom to bring you the third? another edition of Middle-earth Madness! The top seeds in each bracket are predictable and Hobbit-book-centric, with fan favorites Thorin, Bilbo, Gandalf and Smaug each holding the top spot in their respective brackets. Smaug anchors the LONELY MOUNTAIN bracket, Bilbo is at home in BAG END, while Thorin heads EREBOR and everybody’s (most everybody’s) favorite wizard and 2013 champion lands in MIRKWOOD. (Don’t expect it to all make sense, we are after all voting for fictional characters based on no specific criteria in a bracket format made popular by NCAA basketball in the 20th Century. Just go with it.)
Smaug is a repeat one seed but in the 2013 version of the contest, the other tops spots were The One Ring, Balin (who lost his opening round match with Pippin, a sixteen seed, by .05 percent) and Galadriel. In 2012, with a smaller field, Gandalf and Bilbo were top seeds along with Legolas and Glorfindel. The first winner was Sam in 2012 with Gandalf snagging the Maiar community a trophy in 2013. Can the wizard be stopped in 2014?
New to the bracket is Tauriel, the elf maiden entirely made up by filmmaker Peter Jackson’s writing team. The bad-muther elf has the potential to face Gandalf in the Mirkwood bracket if they each win their first four contests. Tauriel must first fend off Saruman’s Palantir. Thranduil, Beorn and Bard are the other second seeds and each seems just fabulous enough to be real contenders. Bard, in the same bracket as Smaug, just might be in the right place to pull an upset. Meanwhile his Black Arrow faces the Watcher In The Water in the Bag End bracket. Another object making its first appearances and likely offending purists and bracketologists alike, is the Bunny Sled. In a tough matchup, it must face Angcalagon, known as “The Black” and the greatest of all winged dragons from Middle-earth’s first age. He was likely the largest dragon that ever graced Middle-earth and could likely use Smaug as a toothpick, but could be erased by a sled – pulled by rabbits.
The Erebor branch of the bracket is filled with dark creatures and objects including rings and The Arkenstone. Once a champion, Sam is now a #10 seed and faces Azog. But the white CGI movie Azog or the vengeful creature from the LOTR appendicies? Only voters can decide who will prevail. If Samwise can down Azog (he was a ring-bearer after all) he may prove Tauriel’s undoing in the second round. Beren (a symbol for J.R.R. Tolkien himself) and Luthein (the author’s wife Edith) each made the field and are always a tough out.
Be sure to follow the complete bracket to see which imaginary character gets an imaginary mithril shirt engraved with MIDDLE-EARTH MADNESS across the chest.
Many fans will know this guy as ‘Skully the Orc’! Fans got their first look at Skully, (real name, apparently, ‘Guritz’), during The Return of the King back in December of 2003, and eleven years later we’re finally getting a chance to add a figure of this character to our collections. Skully joins a quickly growing list of characters from Asmus Toys in their expanding collection of characters from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. As with the other figures in this line, he has 36 points of articulation, various fabrics making up the outfit, a spot-on likeness to the character, and a very cool Orc Flag. You can place your pre-orders for Skully right now from various online retailers, like our friends at Alter Ego Comics for only $137.99.
Peter Jackson stands on the set of Lake-town. In our latest Library feature, TORn columnist Timothy Furnish writes about his reaction to The Desolation of Smaug and why he feels it is the least “true” of the five Middle-earth films that Peter Jackson has produced so far.
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
Asmus Toys is proud to present the next figure in their 1:6th action figure line for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Previously Asmus released two bad guys, the Morgul Lord and Gothmog. Now we get the first good guy in Gandalf the White. Gandalf comes with a really good likeness to Sir Ian McKellen, Glamdring, staff, hands galore, and a very cool severed Orc head that will fit on a regular 12″ body. No word yet on when Gandalf will go up for order or price but once he does, we will certainly let you all know.
The full breakdown for Gandalf the White looks like this:
Authentic and detailed fully realized likeness of Gandalf the White from The Return of the King.
Asmus Toys KP01A+ male body
Approximately 30 cm tall
Over 36 points of articulation
Features :
An authentic likeness of actor from the film.
One pair of relaxed posture hand
One pair of weapon holding hand
One pair of random posture hand
One Orc head (can be equipped on regular 12” body)
Sideshow Collectibles have released a production sneak-peek at the next items to be released in their The Lord of the Rings Premium Format line. Joining the ranks of the amazing 1:4 statues is a statue of the role played perfectly by Sir Christopher Lee, which is none other than Saruman the White. No word on when this will be up for order but we did get this amazing video showing what is in-store for all of us. Once we get more information we will pass it on to you.
MORIA — As we reported yesterday, the bracket is finalized and the match-ups are set. Our annual Middle-earth March Madness is now underway!
