We are now taking pre-orders for our latest official TheOneRing.net t-shirt – Peter’s Dragon! This black shirt, designed by Chris Lyons, features a stylized ‘Peter’s Dragon’ logo and the imposing eye of what we all hope will be the most magnificent Dragon to ever grace the screen! It is a geeky way to share your anticipation for ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.’ Shirts can be pre-ordered from now until Tuesday, April 9th 2013. For those of you not familiar with pre-order, this means the shirts will not be produced until all orders are in. We will then print and ship the shirts as soon as possible. And as a small aside, if you enjoy TheOneRing.net, purchasing shirts are a great way to support the site. The money we collect from making shirts goes directly to site expenses. Thank you for your support! [Purchase Peter’s Dragon T-Shirt]
Category: Clothing
Some of the Middle-earth clothing from Black Milk has made a splash on our Facebook page but with fashion and popular culture taking center stage this week leading up to our own One Expected Party on Oscar night, it seemed a good time to share it here. Will we see a Doorway party dress? How about Witch King leggings? While we kind of want to chastise the company for not hyphenating and not making the e lower case in Middle-earth, its pretty cool to see a company take geek culture in mainstream directions. Its R2-D2 dress is well-known on websites like Tumblr, Twitter and Pinterest. The Australian company gets our kudos for making geek, chic. In the meantime, if you want to or plan to be in the Los Angeles area this weekend and want to join us for the party, we would love to have you, even if you aren’t wearing all the names of the dwarves on your leggings. Tickets remain and with food and entertainment like One Man LOTR and Billy Boyd’s Beekcake on the musical menu, and Hobbit Oscar nominations for visual effects, hair and makeup and production design, it will be a night of legend.
There is something pretty special about banding together with fans in your area and fans world-wide to experience The Hobbit collectively. Following the tradition of Line Party events held a decade ago, our shirt designer Chris Lyons put together a shirt for TheOneRing.net’s fourth party experience. Modeled after a concert tour shirt while still celebrating dragons and dwarves, we want to make this one available to as many attendees as possible. Following tradition, this is our LP4 shirt, following our LP3 shirts from 2003 that we still get requests for and that some members of our staff rarely take off. (We are really hoping they will replace them with these newer, cleaner ones.) The city names on the back will be replaced with actual Line Party cities (join or start a line today!) and we would like to add a corporate sponsor as well. In fact, contact us if you would like to get your brand out to the most die hard fans and have it worn around for a good, solid decade. Our hope is to make these shirts extra affordable and ship in time to wear to the December 13th midnight screenings across the land.
If you are familiar with Line Parties, we have a primer (Line Party 101) to give you the basic info on how to start or participate in an event near you. In 2003, with the momentum of three LOTR films, our line party organization reached well over 10,000 sign ups which usually represents only a small fraction of those actually attending. We know of people attending events in 2012 that have purchased 20 tickets but with only one sign up. We supported the most active lines with gifts or items from corporations or individuals as the opportunity arose. The largest lines, in Utah and Arizona, numbered more than 1,000 people and brought great costumes and media attention with them.
2001 was ‘The Fellowship of the Line’
2002 featured ‘2002 Towers’
and 2003 was LP3: The Return of the Line. We also declared, on a shirt and way before it was an internet meme, “One does not simply walk into theaters, there are geeks there that do not sleep.”
In fact the line party movement shares a common theme with Star Wars fandom, known for its weeks-long commitment to camping out and waiting in lines to be the first to see new installments of that franchise. Keep your eyes peeled for these to go on sale and thanks for all of your support. Join today!
Spy report from Dimli:
Many Tolkien and Peter Jackson fans have pondered this vexing questions for over 10 years and from the LOTR movies may secretly be rather disappointed from what they have seen on the big screen.
TORN’S Elven super sleuth Dimli has been delving deeply and can now tell you the story so far. There are quite a few interesting clues along the way.
Tolkien’s simple but graphic description from the ‘The Hobbit’ concisely tells us what Gandalf looked like – “- – an old man with a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, a silver scarf over which his long white beard hung down below his waist, and immense black boots’.
From the LOTR trilogy-the hat, the cloak, the beard & the boots are now well imprinted in our memories. But, the equally important Silver Scarf has, somewhat MAGICALLY, disappeared off the very face of Middle Earth.
A seemingly major omission from Peter Jackson. Or was it?
Here is what Sir Ian Mckellan has to say about it from his blogs way back in 2000 when he had just started filming on LOTR.
“Peter Jackson has ensured that Tolkien rules the enterprise. So, in working out Gandalf’s description we went back to the few terse descriptions in the novel …….. At last Ngila Dickson placed her pointed, blue grey hat on top. Out of the blue, I remembered the silver scarf that he wears in the book. Somehow it has been overlooked or decided against. Until I looked the part I hadn’t missed it either. And there’s a thing to ponder – what does a man with an umbrella for a hat and a warm cloak need with a scarf? The book starts out in autumn. We are filming in summertime. Weather conditions aside, I thought he might have the scarf as much as he has the pointy hat – to DISGUISE himself. The Gandalf, who visits his old friends Bilbo & Frodo has lots of props. Already I have to cope with his staff, his toffees, his pipe as well as Clyde – why not a scarf to do some MAGIC with?
Two more days in Hobbiton – the forecast is for sunshine which will sparkle on my silver scarf’
So, it is pretty important to both Ian McKellan and Peter Jackson. But, what do we see in the LOTR trilogy? Virtually nothing. Only one single scene where we get just a glimpse of it. What is going on? An oversight? Obviously not. Just a bold decision that might upset the fans. But an important enough reason to not include it. Maybe great foresight.
Now lets jump forward eleven years to Ian McKellan’s blog in March 2011, when filming had commenced on ‘The Hobbit’ movies, he lures us onward.
“The original costume I wore in LOTR now hangs mournfully on a stand by the camera. I can’t wear it in ‘The Hobbit” because it has been noted as of ‘historic status’. Ann (Ann Maskrey – the costume designer for The Hobbit) has made 2 changes … which please me because they relate to Tolkien’s introduction in ‘Fellowship of the Ring’, where he mentions a silver scarf & black boots.
In the (LOTR) film a scarf appeared just once, tied to Gandalf’s cart at Hobbiton. But now I have A SUBSTANTIAL, MAGIC LOOKING SILVERY SCARF TO WEAR AND ACT WITH & PERHAPS FIND SOME PART OF ITS OWN TO PLAY. I’VE ALREADY TWISTED IT INTO A STYLISH TURBAN”.
The plot definitely thickens. Lots of mystery. Elvish magical properties? Does it protect Gandalf in some way? The questions go on…maybe one of you can enlighten us?
Will we have to wait to see the movies to find out? Possibly not.
A quick check on online now reveals quite some incredible authorised images of Gandalf wearing an absolutely amazing silvery scarf as part of his costume for The Hobbit. Hard to tell from the stills but it definitely sparkles & shimmers like moonlit silver. It is substantial. Probably 72 inches (2.8M) long & quite wide.
Could the dwarves of Khazad-dum have discovered another source of the priceless web like veins Mithril to create this startling effect?
We will definitely have to wait & watch the movies to answer this one. Or will we?
The inexhaustible Dimli has done the incredible. In his own words “In the very Middle of Middle Earth in Wellington, New Zealand you can find ‘The Galadhrim Elves’ aka ‘Stansborough’, the weavers that created many of the fabrics for the LOTR Trilogy and discovered that they are also the designers & creators of Gandalf’s magical silver scarf”.
Even better, Gandalf’s magical silver scarf has just been released online.
I have already checked out their website & ordered my scarf to wear to the premiere –
Can’t wait until I get it. Will post more then.
Happy Hobbiting
Weta Workshop has released even more items for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The new items range from some awesome T-Shirts to a great replica of Thorin Oakenshield’s Dwarven Ring. Thorin’s Map obviously plays a big role in The Hobbit and now you can wear it with this fantastic looking Thorin’s Map T-Shirt.
Also, Weta has put up a really good looking t-shirt with the Red Dragon Logo of the and only Smaug. Barad-Dur: Fortress of Sauron will start shipping in the near future from Weta, and what better way to show your excitement for that item than to also buy the Barad-Dur t-shirt. The final t-shirt from Weta also has a matching pin celebrating The Hobbit’s world premiere on the 28th of this month.
All of these shirts come in at $30 and are well worth the purchase. If you’re in New Zeland or know someone there make sure you get the World Premiere Shirt and World Primiere Pin. Finally, fans can order a sterling silver version the Ring of Thorin Oakenshield which is set to ship in early December for a great price of $189.
Update from Dom Post: Sir Peter Jackson has stepped in to ensure Hobbit fans who fell victim to an Embassy Theatre ticketing error see the movie ”possibly even a minute or two before anyone else”. Tolkien Society New Zealand chapter founder Jack Machiela was one of about 60 people who queued outside the Wellington cinema to be among the first in the world to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on The Embassy’s giant screen when public screenings begin at midnight on December 12. But when the ticket office opened, all the tickets to the first screening on the big screen had been snapped up online. [Read more] [Discuss]
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The Embassy Theatre in Wellington opened the box office at midnight last night to sell Hobbit first-screening tickets – but unfortunately midnight screening tickets went onsale online a few minutes before the box office opened, and no tickets were set aside for sale to fans who were waiting. Seats were sold out before most people there could get to the head of the queue. I was there, and can vouch for the fact that people who had waited there for hours were furious and very disappointed. The DominionPost has a full report.
Given the box office debacle, it’s a good thing we had a visit from the cheerful Barry and his son from Stansborough Mill,who were showing off their loom-woven woollen cloaks and new Gandalf scarf (with mithril!) They’re 2.5 metres of sparkly goodness.
