Those of us who are anxiously awaiting the upcoming The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit LEGO sets get an additional tease today! Hot off the presses, here is LEGO The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Aragorn Poster. I think it is safe to say that Viggo never looked so good as a LEGO! If you were not aware, LEGO has announced recently they will be producing items for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the upcoming The Hobbit films. Collectibles are set to be released this coming Summer. Jump on over to LEGO’s official site for The Lord of the Rings and keep watching TheOneRing.net for more updates! [Official Site] [Download the Poster PDF] [Read the Announcement]

WizKids Lord of the RingsThe WizKids product brand, under various owners, has been publishing the ‘HeroClix’ series of collectible miniature boardgames for several years now; they are move-and-fight combat games played on maps with miniature pre-painted figures whose movement and combat statistics are recorded on a dial that clicks to (usually) lower values as the figure receives damage. The most popular and numerous HeroClix products have been based on Marvel and DC superhero franchises, though there have been other settings as well.

Their newest product is a Lord of the Rings game. There are (at present) two ways to buy: an ‘Epic Campaign’ starter set, which contains eight characters (Sauron, Witch-Kingm ‘Ringbearer’ (Frodo), ‘Esquire of Rohan’ (Merry)m ‘Guard of the Citadel’ (Pippin), Strider, Captain Lurtz, and Olog-Hai), as well as rules, six largish maps, ‘Horde’ tokens representing generic Orcs or warriors, dice, character cards, and other play aides; and the standard ‘booster’ style in which one of an initial set of 21 figures (with various degrees of rarity) and its associated character card is purchased sight unseen. You might get a common ‘Frodo’, or a rare Gandalf the Grey. There will undoubtedly be many expansions with additional figures and maps before long.

Continue reading “WizKids The Lord of the Rings”

The Arkenstone of Thrain was created and treasured by the Dwarven Longbeards clan of the Lonely Mountain.  The Arkenstone was described by Thorin Oakenshield as “a globe with a thousand facets; it shone like silver in the firelight, like water in the sun, like snow under the stars, like rain upon the Moon!”   When Bilbo Baggins discovered the Arkenstone on the top of Smaug’s treasure horde, “it was tinged with a flickering sparkle of many colours at the surface.”  The stone filled his tiny Hobbit hand, yet he was able to secret the Arkenstone away in his deepest pockets.

The Arkenstone replica is made from fine K9 Crystal which has been treated with an Aurora Borealis plating, giving the the orb a magical glow. The stone exhibits a variety of color depending on what type light its under. The Arkenstone replica comes nestled on a black velvet pillow inside a Dwarven crafted wooden treasure chest. The runes stamped on the name plate on top of the chest read Arkenstone, written in the same Dwarvish runes found on Thorin’s Map. The Arkenstone measures approximately 59 mm (2 5/16″) in diameter — big enough to fill a Hobbit hand, but small enough to hide in a deep pocket. The chest measures approximately 4 1/8″ long, 4 1/8″ wide by 4″ tall (104.3 mm x 106 mm x 100 mm). The Arkenstone replica and Dwarven treasure chest weigh approximately 3/4 pounds (12 oz.).

This item is kept in stock for immediate shipment.

Here’s the link to the description and purchase area:
http://www.badalijewelry.com/smaug.htm#arkenstone

And here’s the link to the slideshow of images of the box and stone:
http://www.badalijewelry.com/animated/ARK-01.gif

QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND — Queenstown has a powerful international flavor. Stop and listen on the streets and you are as likely to hear a language from Europe or Asia as English and even that comes in several flavors: Kiwi, Aussie, British with the occasional Yank thrown in.

It is a city of tourists that include backpackers and couples in retirement years soaking up all the world has to offer including the incredible scenery of the amazing Queenstown by Lake Wakatipu. This is great of course, but young travelers and those in the golden years aren’t the best demographics for movie collectibles.

So it might surprise some to find Hugh Clark and Sarah Dobson carving out a niche with high-end items made by the likes of Weta Workshop and Sideshow Collectibles at their Reel Collectibles shop. But there they are in the Queenstown Mall on Beach St., selling superhero items, Lord of the Rings stuff (a given in that part of the world) and Star Wars swag. Expect an avalanche of Hobbit stuff when the films hit the world a year from now. Continue reading “Reel Collectibles keeps fandom alive in Queenstown”

Jonathan Moormann wrotes: I was lucky enough to spend my Saturday at the New York Chocolate Show, running from November 10-13 at the Metropolitan Pavillion. You can check out Ology’s photo diary or the chocolate fashions featured at the event, but I think the highlight of my visit was the work of chocolate sculptor and chef Håkan Mårtensson…Most of Håkan’s work tends to be more like the clown than ABBA, though. Whether it’s a sneering Gollum or the wolf eating Red Riding Hood​, his pieces draw heavily on fantasy and horror themes with a little twinge of morbid humor. Since moving to New York, he’s also started carving a lot of skulls. “Skulls are everywhere in New York,” Håkan said. “You go down the street, and you see one on someone’s shirt, one on a sign, one in some graffiti on a wall. All of that goes into my inspiration.” He also draws heavily on movies and books, especially J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit​. Since Peter Jackson cast Swede Mikael Persbrandt as Beorn, Håkan can’t wait to get some movie stills of the skin-changer and create a chocolate homage. More..

Warner’s has announced numerous new video games they’ve got planned for the end of this year and well into next year. Their Interactive Entertainment unit is one of the few tied to a Film Studio that has proven profitable in recent years, and this new lineup promises to be equally successful. On the horizon are two games based on Tolkien’s work, you can read the rest of the article here:

LA Times – Warner Interactive

The key quote for Tolkien fans is:

Warner will launch a new Lord of the Rings game in November and a Hobbit title in 2012 before Peter Jackson‘s movie “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” comes out that December. The game is one of the studio’s top releases for next year, along with a Lego Batman sequel and a game featuring a superhero from Warner’s DC Comics unit that Tremblay wouldn’t name.