IMG_6909One of the most beautiful pieces at Comic-Con 2013 came to us from our friends at Weta Workshop. This statue is a real eye catcher with a great likeness, amazing detail, and a fantastic mix of grace/power. The character that Weta created that mixes all of these together is the King of the Mirkwood Elves Thranduil. This was also a special release granted by Warner Brothers so fans could see the character and start getting pumped for the awesomeness that is to come in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

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AzogUnited Cutlery has announced several new products that are some of the coolest looking prop-replicas you will find for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. These prop replicas range from the Bow of Tauriel to the Mace of Azog all of which allow you, the fan, to rip Middle-earth off the big screen and bring it into your collection. All of these items are currently up for pre-order so make sure to hint to your loved ones to get a last minute holiday gift added to your list.

Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – United Cutlery The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Product Announcements”

signed posterAs part of our fundraiser a few months back, Sir Peter Jackson and 3Foot7 kindly showed their support for TheOneRing.net by very generously donating to the website a poster, signed by pretty much ALL the cast from the three Hobbit movies! This is an extraordinary item, and a true one-of-a-kind. The regular movie sized poster shows Bilbo outside the front door to Bag End, and has simply, ‘There … and Back Again’ as text. It’s a beautiful image, and not one which was available to buy. But then it gets even better! Here’s a list of the cast members who have signed the poster – 31 in total:

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11075407484_dc31c00c1c_o You might recall that we’ve previously profiled the incredible Middle-earth LEGO dioramas of Blake Baer here on TheOneRing.net.

Now he’s back with his biggest piece yet — a 56-inch-tall model of Erebor made from 80,000 pieces of LEGO that weighs close to 200 pounds! This time he’s working with fellow LEGO aficionado Jack Bittner.

When we saw the first movie last year, we loved it too much not to build a scene from it. Of course, we couldn’t build any thing less than the iconic dwarf city. So here it is, our third and latest collaboration (our first was Amon Hen, our second was Rivendell). We chose Erebor for many reasons, not the least of which was that we love building mountains [sarcasm]. This build was a ton of fun, and we hope you enjoy it. And now, it is our pleasure to present Erebor, the dwarven hall of kings.

We had the chance to ask Blake a few questions about his and Jack’s Erebor diorama. Here’s what he had to say:

TORn: How big is it? Is it your biggest yet?

Blake: It most certainly is our biggest yet at 56″ tall, and close to 80,000 pieces totaling close to 200 pounds of LEGO.

TORn: How long did it take?

Blake: It took my friend Jack Bittner and I close to 400 combined hours to get the model designed, built, photographed, edited, and uploaded.

TORn: How difficult was conceptualizing the design?

Blake: We had the movie to rely upon for reference, so a lot of the design stages was just us watching the movie, haha. It obviously isn’t an exact replica, but it captures the essence of Erebor. We had the general layout of where we wanted Dale, the rivers, the mountains, etc. to be, but much of that changed as we built. We didn’t work off of any blueprints, so we were converting directly from imaginations to bricks, so many changes occurred.

TORn: What inspired the concept?

Blake: Large amounts were drawn from the movie portrayal of the Hobbit. The style of the facade of the gates of Erebor, for example, were drawn from the movie. In addition, representing Dale as a Sicilian-style city with terracotta roofs was drawn from the movie.

TORn: Will you be showcasing it anywhere?

Blake: We currently don’t have any plans to put it on display, but we hope to keep it together for a while so that we can possibly take advantage of any possibilities that may arise. The public unveiling was at Brickfair, VA, earlier this summer, but Erebor hasn’t seen any action To get an idea of the scale, check out the photo below that Blake supplied us. Amazing!

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You can see even more photos of Erebor by Blake and Jack on their Flickr account.

Bane of Durin headshotFBSome of my favorite moments from The Lord of the Rings are the moments within the Mines of Moria. I especially love when we meet the Balrog. That moment on screen I know blew many of us away. Now, our friend and amazing artist Jerry Vanderstelt has created a stunning print of this really cool looking creature. This print captures the Balrog as he roams around Moria showing off all his power. You can get The Balrog right now for $75 for the Paper Edition and $180 for the Canvas Edition. The Balrog is yet another stellar print from Jerry Vanderstelt joining prints like Sauron, Aragorn/King of the Dead, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, and of course The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

IMG_6696Comic-Con 2013 brought us, at this point, one of the most polarizing characters we’ve seen in The Hobbit Trilogy. Before she ever uttered a line, Evangeline Lilly’s Tauriel had fans picking sides. Collectors got a good look at the character when the amazing artists at Weta Workshop unveiled the 1:6th statue of Tauriel. This was a special release granted by Warner Brothers so fans could see the character and start getting us pumped for the awesomeness that is to come in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

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