The Last UnicornFor those of you who aren’t aware, TORn friend and award-winning author and screenwriter, Peter S. Beagle, has been on tour for a few months offering a Q&A and screening of the movie: The Last Unicorn based on his best-selling novel of the same name. I was lucky enough to attend a screening a few months ago and it was well worth it! This month, the tour goes to Bakersfield, CA, Fort Collins, CO and a number of cities in New Mexico. Check below for the full January schedule courtesy of Peter’s publicist, Connor Cochran, and check out the tour’s website for future screenings near you.

The first screening is this Saturday, at noon, at the Southside Works Cinema in Pittsburgh, PA. (Less than 48 hours away!) Any fan who wants to buy a ticket should go to https://southsideworks.ticketsclevelandcinemas.com/, select Saturday from the dropdown date menu, scroll down until you see THE LAST UNICORN showing listed, and then click on the time.

AS FOR THE REST OF JANUARY…

• Friday January 17, 7 PM: the Reading Cinemas Valley Plaza 16 in Bakersfield, CA

• Sunday January 19, 1 PM: the Harkins Flagstaff 11 Luxury, with the signing session afterwards at the local Barnes & Noble store. (This one is also different than usual because all ticket sales have to be directly through us, instead of the theatre. People wanting to buy tickets in advance should call 650-728-8098 or email  flagstaff_tickets@conlanpress.com.)

• Wednesday, January 22,  7:30 PM: the Loft Cinema in Tucson, AZ

• Saturday, January 25, 11 AM & 6:30 PM & 9 PM: the Jean Cocteau Theatre in Santa Fe, NM. (And at 5 PM, as a separate ticket, there will be a special live-on-stage “fantasy summit” as Peter and George R.R. Martin interview each other!)

• Sunday, January 26, times to be announced, at the Lyric Cinema Café in Fort Collins, CO. (They may be showing the Bakshi LORD OF THE RINGS as well — still waiting to hear.)

In the gaps we’re still trying to set up shows in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Las Cruxes/El Paso. Still in January, but after Fort Collins, we are working on possible shows in Denver, Colorado Springs, and Salt Lake City.

Tolkien Artist & Illustrator book coverJ.R.R. Tolkien was born on this day, January 3rd, 1892. During his lifetime, he created a world that came to life in our imaginations, and that we’ve come to love and cherish. While many of us can recite some of his prose an poetry by heart, and are familiar with his illustrations that appear in his books, there’s a whole treasure trove of lesser know drawings and paintings by the mulit-talented man. The folks over at brainpickings.org have a nice little tribute on their site celebrating the amazing artwork of The Professor as presented in the beautifully illustrated “J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator” by Wayne G. Hammond and Christian Scull. Have a look and join TheOneRing.net in a resounding: ‘Happy Birthday Professor Tolkien!’

 

Frodo and Samwise Diorama from SideshowCollectibles.comAfter reaching 200k fans on Facebook (we’re now up to 223k!!), Sideshow Collectibles‘ generously gave us one of their Sam and Frodo dioramas as a giveaway. Today we are pleased to announce the winner!

Congrats to Brenden R. hailing from the United States!

The winner’s favorite scene in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy?

“I can’t carry it for you – but I can carry you!”

Special thanks to all who participated and please take a moment to check out The Lord of the Rings collectibles from are contest sponsor, Sideshow Collectibles.  [View all LOTR Collectibles]

 

25aForum member Dwalin has returned again this year to give us a thorough review of the second wave of figures from The Bridge Direct. These figures are pretty awesome and, I believe, after reading Dwalin’s review you’ll see why fans are so fond of these figures. Thanks to Dwalin for helping us out with this review.

Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Dwalin Reviews The Bridge Direct’s The Hobbit Wave 2”

HobbitDOSthranduilsstaffa2Our friends at Weta Workshop have released two new products from the hit movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. One of these new products just happened to be teased a while back for any of us who bought the statue of the Elven King Thranduil statue, where we saw a sneak peak of the Staff of King Thranduil. This fantastic prop joins a range of prop replica’s from The Hobbit Trilogy. You can snag this replica right now for $179 with an expected release date of February 2014. The other item announced by Weta is a new book in their awesome series of art books for The Hobbit Trilogy. This book is all about one thing and that is the greatest dragon we’ve ever seen, Smaug the Terrible! Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon is written by author Daniel Falconer contains 96 pages of all the details that went into bringing this dragon to life. For only $19.99 you can get this book to add to your collection.  If you order by the end of March you can get a signed copy of the book.