The Holiday shopping season is quickly approaching and its time to start thinking about what to get that special Tolkien lover in your life. We’re pleased to to help ease your journey in by narrowing down what we feel are the top 10 Middle-earth related collectibles that fans can easily swing on a holiday budget. You can get any of these amazing collectibles from our friends at Weta Workshop, Artist Jerry Vanderstelt, Sideshow Collectibles, and The Noble Collection. These collectibles range from mini-sword letter openers to giant premium formats all of which help cover any Tolkien Collector in your family.
It is an exciting day for fans of LEGO® and The Lord of the Rings! As of right now, you can download the iOS game ‘LEGO® The Lord of the Rings’ from the Apple App Store! Check out the full release below as well as some screen caps. The game is only $4.99 and available for both iPhone and iPad. [Download]
As we march closer to the Holiday shopping season, we need ideas as to what we may want to buy our loved ones. Well, our friends at Weta Workshop in their most recent newsletter have given us several ideas on what from Middle-earth we can get.
Two new items were unvelied in this group with a huge yet cool looking Gollum 1:1 statue and some beautiful Elven Earrings for only $75.
If you’ve been waiting on some good deals on previously released items you can get Balin’s Mace for $150 (only 10 available for this price), Dwalin’s Axes $199.50 (Only 5 available at this price), free shipping on The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings Art Prints, and The One Ring for $85. These deals are good while these limited supplies last or until November 17th whichever comes first.
You can get the full run down of all the fantastic items Weta has on special right now on their Christmas Specials Page.
Yes, this story will be riddled with spoilers in it, and some snark.
With less than 2 months to go before The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, we at TheOneRing.net thought you might like a little survival guide if you happen to be Arachnophobic or Drakonophobic. The Lord the Rings: The Return of the King was a little hard on many avowed Arachophobe Tolkien fans, this reporter’s sister being one of them. She watched the entire Shelob sequence from behind her purse every time she saw it on the big screen. It was only when she saw it on DVD that she could watch it unfettered.
Long before Tolkien conceived of Sam fighting off Shelob to try and save Frodo, he placed an entire Colony of giant Spiders in Mirkwood to trap the Company of Dwarves for Bilbo to rescue. This was Bilbo’s first real challenge to help the Company and he rose to the occasion. Here you can see the fear on Bilbo’s face, but he conquers it to save the Dwarves, and you can conquer your Arachnophobia too.
As for Drakonophobia, that may have been made up word, not quite sure, but better safe than sorry. Now, to be fair, there are probably more Arachnophobes than there are Drakonophobes in the world simply because there are more spiders in the world than there are dragons. We have all those Knights in Shining Armor to thank for that. Except in China, where the dragons settled in the Rivers and became good luck symbols and come out every Chinese New Year. Gung Hey Fat Choy!!!!
Dragons as seen in Tolkien’s Middle-earth can easily instill Drakonophobia in man and beast alike , and Smaug is the most famous of those dragons. There was fear, mixed with anger and sadness when Thorin told the story of Smaug’s attack on the Lonely mountain, killing so many and driving out the few survivors. Thranduil would not risk his own people to help and Dale was completely destroyed. The entire area around the Lonely Mountain was called the Desolation of Smaug while the Men of Lake-town built their town on stilts over the lake in the hopes of surviving future dragon attacks. Smaug has not been seen in 60 years, and yet Drakonophobia is still affecting the people of Lake-town to this day. But no one is really sure he is still really alive since it’s been so long since he was last seen, at least not until Bilbo makes his fateful first burgal attempt.
So, without further ado, here are a few helpful pointers on how to survive your inner phobias when spiders and dragons appear onscreen.
1) Read The Hobbit before the film opens, familiarity makes it easier to handle shocks of this nature, at least the chapters in Mirkwood through Bilbo entering the Lonely Mountain.
2) Go with a really tall friend and sit behind them. If you have no tall friend, find a tall person in the theater and sit behind them.
3) If you prefer to see the film unfettered, then bring a jacket or purse to put in front of your eyes during the spider or dragon scenes.
4) Failing a jacket or purse, buy a soda or popcorn to raise up, my preference would be popcorn, because if you spill it from fright, it is less messy and certainly not cold or sticky.
5) Bring Litzi (Red Envelope with money or gold in it) purely to use as a Chinese New Year gift/bribe
6) Put on your Ring of Power and hide
7) Hold hands with your best friend, try not to cut off the circulation.
8) Run out of the theater during the scary bits (works for children)
9) If running out of the theater seems to be a waste of money, just close your eyes, but you may need to hold your hands over years ears too, those spiders seem to make some creepy noises. Smaug, on the other hand has a rather awesome voice.
Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards, here’s a great way to catch up on the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join the fun!
As you may recall we teamed up with Sideshow Collectibles to give away one of their massive Sauron Premium Format Statues. After many entries its time to finally announce the winner of this contest. The lucky Ringer who will be having one of these 3 foot tall pieces shipped from our friends at Sideshow Collectibles is Ben S. of Gurnee, IL. We want to thank all of you who took the time to enter and be on the watch for the next contest. You can still get Sauron from Sideshow Collectibles and if you’re unsure check out our review of one of the best The Lord of the Rings collectibles you’ll ever find.
The Holiday shopping season is quickly approaching and its time to start thinking about what to get that special Tolkien lover in your life. We’re pleased to to help ease your journey in by narrowing down what we feel are the top 10 Middle-earth related collectibles that fans can easily swing on a holiday budget. You can get any of these amazing collectibles from our friends at Weta Workshop, Artist Jerry Vanderstelt, Sideshow Collectibles, and The Noble Collection. These collectibles range from mini-sword letter openers to giant premium formats all of which help cover any Tolkien Collector in your family.
