A week has already passed since we launched this year’s Middle-earth March Madness – and now the contest is down to just sixteen collectibles of special magnificence. Let’s take a look at the bracket now:
Connecting to Middle-earth through favourite figures
This region was really tough – sculptural masterpieces facing off! The Balrog defeated Sauron; Bilbo conquered a Ringwraith; and perhaps most surprisingly, the Argonath beat Theoden and Snowmane. Now we’re wondering who will win when, in a repeat of the scene from the story, the Fellowship take on the demon of the ancient world…
Argonath bookends
Experiencing Middle-earth in Print and Music
Well here’s a lesson in humility! The biggest defeat in Round Two was found in this bracket. To be fair, a t-shirt probably didn’t really belong in this group; but TORn’s Prancing Pony Club shirt couldn’t even muster 10% of the vote against The Lord of the Rings soundtracks. Harsh but fair.
Our Prancing Pony Club shirt – soundly vanquished!
Inhabiting Middle-earth through Environments and Replicas
The pairings in this region were very close; how does one choose between the Phial of Galadriel and the Arwen Evenstar pendant? The Noble Collection’s necklace was the ultimate winner; but there was only 10% in it. Even closer, only 6% separated the Illuminating Gandalf Staff from the Red Book of Westmarch replica; the highly detailed book survives to go up against Weta Workshop’s Edoras environment in the Sweet Sixteen round.
The Noble Collection’s Evenstar Pendant of Arwen
Playing in Middle-earth with toys, games and other curiosities
Can anything defeat the might of LEGO Rivendell? Surely a strong contender for Grand Champion this year, in this round the LEGO set easily conquered LotR Trivial Pursuit. Monopoly, however, held up the banner for board games, very narrowly beating the pinball machine.
Is Gandalf a pinball wizard?
How the bracket looks now:
The Sweet Sixteen bracket
Time to vote! But how does it work, I hear you ask. Simple! Click on the button below. This will take you to the voting site, where you can view the entire bracket, region by region. Click on each pairing of items, to view all the details – and there place your vote. Let’s get voting!
You have until the end of the day Saturday April 4th to vote in Round Three; on Sunday April 5th we’ll launch our Elite Eight round! Will your personal favourite for Grand Champion for 2026 still be in the mix? Do your best to make it so – VOTE NOW!
Let us know YOUR thoughts – join us on TORn Tuesday each week during the competition, and tell us how you’re making your choices. And if you want to discuss the votes with other fans, head on over to the Collectibles channel on our Discord.
We hope you placed your votes in the first round of Middle-earth March madness: Clash of the Collectibles! It certainly was hard to choose amongst all those treasures – so many things we’d like to have on our shelves… But half of them have been voted out, and we’re down to 32. Let’s see how Round One played out:
Connecting to Middle-earth through favourite figures
In the first of our four brackets, we gathered statues and figures in a range of styles – even including Royal Selangor’s beautiful pewter goblets, crafted to present their own versions of various well-loved Tolkien characters. The closest dual in this bracket was between two stunning pieces from Weta Workshop – their Smaug the Terrible figure vs the charming image of Gandalf and Frodo, as the wizard arrives ‘precisely when he means to’ at the Shire. Bucolic delight triumphed over fearsome majesty, but only by 2%. At the other end of the range, a tabletop figure of the Rankin Bass Gollum was totally overwhelmed by those Argonath bookends we all know and love – only 8% of the vote went Gollum’s way!
Royal Selangor’s Aragorn goblet
Experiencing Middle-earth in Print and Music
Calendars and LPs and maps, oh my! From Howard Shore’s epic soundtracks to Alan Lee’s stunning art, there were incredible works to choose from in this bracket. It’s really hard to see some of these beauties go! But choices had to be made. The closest face-off in this bracket saw TORn’s own ‘Prancing Pony Club’ t-shirt take on the sheet music for Donald Swann’s musical settings for seven of Tolkien’s poems. That was tough competition for our shirt to face! – but somehow the apparel snuck through with just over half of the vote. Personally, this writer is sad to see the Rankin/Bass Hobbit LP fall at the first fence – I have many fond memories of listening to that LP as a kid! But coming up against The Professor’s own art, it’s not really surprising it should be defeated; it did well to secure even 18% of the vote against an item which could well go on to be this year’s Grand Champion.
The Rankin/Bass Hobbit LP
Inhabiting Middle-earth through Environments and Replicas
For many, replica props are the most coveted collectibles. Who doesn’t dream of wielding their own Sting, or wearing their own Evenstar pendant? Familiar companies such as The Noble Collection, United Cutlery and Badali Jewelry went up against the might of Weta Workshop in this bracket. This section of the round saw the most tight contests, with many vote percentages in the 40s and 50s. Even the Ring itself (as made by Jens Hansen) could not overcome Weta’s incredible Edoras environment – but it was close, with Rohan taking just 52% of the vote.
The ‘movie ring’ from jeweler Jens Hansen
Playing in Middle-earth with toys, games and other curiosities
Can anything defeat the might of LEGO in this bracket? The stunning Rivendell set took over three-quarters of the vote (against the beautiful playing cards from Kings Wild). There were some fabulous vintage items in this section; alas, the buttons from the 1960s could not defeat the pinball machine, though it was a closely fought dual! And once again, this writer was sad to see a personal fave vanquished so early in the contest – those Burger King goblets hold a special place in my heart, but only one-third of voters agreed with me! So out they go, defeated by the worthy Hobbiton Green Dragon mug.
Who could forget those Burger King goblets?
How the bracket looks now:
How the bracket looks now – down to 32!
Time to vote! But how does it work, I hear you ask. Simple! Click on the button below. This will take you to the voting site, where you can view the entire bracket, region by region. Scroll down to find the buttons to click (under ‘Open Voting’) to view each pairing of items, in all their glory – and there place your vote. Let’s get voting!
You have until the end of the day Tuesday March 31st to vote in Round Two; we’ll take a look at how the vote is going on TORn Tuesday this week, and then launch the Sweet Sixteen the next day, Wednesday April 1st. The choices will get tougher with each passing round – which precious item do you hope to see crowned Grand Champion for 2026? Rally the troops to vote for your favourites – and VOTE NOW!
Let us know YOUR thoughts – join us on TORn Tuesday each week during the competition, and tell us how you’re making your choices. And if you want to discuss the votes with other fans, head on over to the Collectibles channel on our Discord.
It’s that time of year again! Time when hares are boxing, Spring is springing, basketballs are being thrown, and TheOneRing.net brings you our annual Middle-earth March Madness contest.
This year our theme is Clash of the Collectibles.
Are your shelves and walls filled with Middle-earth masterpieces? What are your most treasured works? Do you have items from the First Age of Fandom, before even the faintest whiff of a Peter Jackson movie? Do you stroke an Etsy-crafted piece, muttering ‘Myyy Precioussss…’? Or perhaps you are particularly enjoying a Renaissance in your collection, snapping up every new release from Weta, or revelling in the work of artisans and artists who continue to add their ‘other minds and hands’ to the legacy of the Professor?
Whatever your collecting style, no doubt some of the goodies you love will be included in our bracket – and no doubt you’ll be outraged by some with have been overlooked! Remember how hard it was to choose from all the amazing artworks in our bracket last year? Our team of volunteer staffers have been grappling for weeks, to come up with a list of 64 varied collectibles to start you off. Now it is up to YOU!
The entire opening bracket of 64 treasures!
How does it work, you ask? Simple! Click on the button below. This will take you to the voting site, where you can view the entire bracket, region by region. Scroll down to find the buttons to click (under ‘Open Voting’) to view each pairing of items, in all their glory – and there place your vote. (A word of warning – some items will have links where you can buy them – so maybe lock your wallet away before you check out the bracket!). Let’s get voting!
You have until the end of the day Saturday March 28th to vote in Round One; on Sunday 29th voting will open for Round Two! But – I hear you ask – how am I supposed to choose from such an embarrassment of riches?? HOW you choose is up to you – pick the items you own, or the ones you long to own, or simply toss a coin. Vote how you wish – but VOTE NOW!
Let us know YOUR thoughts – join us on TORn Tuesday each week during the competition, and tell us what we SHOULD have included. And if you want to discuss the votes with other fans, head on over to the Collectibles channel on our Discord.
Our friend Jerry Vanderstelt has an amazing new print out – if you haven’t already added this to your collection!
This gorgeous print captures the beautiful Rivendell – but from a different viewpoint than his previous print of the same location. We see a quiet moment between Aragorn and Arwen, most likely before Aragorn sets out to help Frodo destroy the One Ring. Fans can purchase this print right now, ranging in sizes from 16×24 to 24×36, with prices between $85-170 USD depending on the size chosen. If you know Jerry’s work you already know this is another home run piece by him. Get it now, as the paper editions have an edition size of only 2000 pieces.
The good folks at Mondo (who have history with regard to creating beautiful Tolkien related posters) are releasing a trilogy of posters featuring stunning art by painter and illustrator Riccardo Federici. Here at TORn we’re thrilled to have the exclusive reveal of one of them! Behold – The Fellowship of the Ring poster:
‘It was in this moment, when all hope had faded, that Isildur, son of the king, took up his father’s sword.’
This dynamic image shows Sauron – as we know him from Peter Jackson’s films – bearing down on Isildur, who grasps the hilt of Narsil.
The poster is part of a set – one each for Fellowship, The Two Towers (featuring Treebeard), and The Return of the King (featuring the Witch-king). They’ll all be available for a limited time, individually or as a set – and there is also a limited edition Variant set, showing Federici’s tight pencils of all three posters.
Set of three postersVariant set of tight pencil sketches
All of the posters will be available for pre-order next week, from December 10th (11am CT) through December 19th (11am CT) only – pre-order yours here! Posters will retail for $95 each, $270 for the set, with the variant pencil sketch set going for $300. Treat yourself – ’tis the season…
We have one more trip around San Diego Comic-Con 2025 for you. In this episode of the Collecting The Precious Podcast Jim and I, along with very special guest Matt from Nerd of the Rings, talk about the fun that was SDCC 2025. We cover how cool it was, and that despite there wasn’t a film or show coming out this year, that there was awesome stuff to be seen from Weta Workshop, Vanderstelt Studio, Middle-earth Enterprises, and Cliff Cramp Illustrations. That’s not to mention how freaking awesome our booth was.
