At the end of the second week in September a cart came in through Bywater from the direction of Brandywine Bridge in broad daylight. An old man was driving it all alone. He wore a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, and a silver scarf. He had a long white beard and bushy eyebrows that stuck out beyond the brim of his hat. Small hobbit-children ran after the cart all through Hobbiton and right up the hill. It had a cargo of fireworks, as they rightly guessed. — From A Long-Expected Party, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
In Peter Jackson’s LOTR film, the first moment of Gandalf arriving in Hobbiton and finding Frodo waiting on the trail were critical because it established two essential characters and the setting of Hobbiton. It also introduced audiences to the scale of Hobbits with human-sized characters including forced perspective of Frodo riding in Gandalf’s cart.
The meeting serves as the entry point for Lord of the Rings LEGO as well with set 9469 introducing important characters in an easy-to-build kit that is also easy to afford at $12.99 retail in the U.S. It will likely find itself as birthday present to and from friends many times over. Because it is recommended for ages eight to 14, I enlisted Logan (8) and Dresden (10), to assist with the build of the kit. Continue reading “Product review: LOTR LEGO ‘Gandalf Arrives’ set”
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As you probably know, Games Workshop creates tabletop war-gaming miniatures. One of the licenses it holds is for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
The clever folks on our message boards have very recently unearthed on Pastebin a list of film-related gaming miniatures that GW is set to release in the near future. This is potentially of interest not only to tabletop gamers, but also to film spoiler hunters.
It’s hard to to know far one can legitimately extrapolate from this list to scenes, and creatures, that might make it into the movies, but there is certainly heaps of food for thought here! If you want to put in your two cents, head on over to our message boards where a healthy discussion is going on about the implications.
Full list below the cut — and, be warned, plenty of potential spoilers too! Continue reading “Games Workshop minatures list holds Hobbit spoilers?”
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Author Elizabeth M Stephen‘s new book focuses on Aragorn the hero-king of The Lord of the Rings, although he is one of the pivotal figures of Tolkien’s mythology, a detailed examination of this popular character has been a notable omission from the spectrum of existing study. The book is published by ADC books.
Hobbit to Hero: The Making of Tolkien’s King, is a uniquely detailed study of the character “Aragorn” unraveling his evolution from hobbit ranger to Numenorean King and exploring how this unexpected transformation enabled Tolkien to fulfill some of the profound functions of his wider mythology.
Thanks to ringerspy Liz for the heads up. For details on the official book launch and for pre-ordering read more here.
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Ringer Combee alerts us that it appears that the pre-order bonus for the Lego Lord of the Rings game is an Elrond mini-figure from the battle of Dagorlad. French site Lord of The Brick has more details.
Update: We also now have this translation courtesy of Ringer Elpidha.
And it is Amazon.de that releases information about the Special Edition version of the videogame LEGO Lord of the Rings now in preorder (release date: October 2012). We discover that the minifig of Elrond will be included as a bonus with the collector’s edition of the game, and it is indeed the same minifig that was seen in the minigame available on the line’s official site (see that article).
The minifig is a success, no doubt about it. It remains to be seen if it will also be available in a future set or if it will be necessary to go to Bricklink or eBay to buy it separately.
[Original French]
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Spies tell us that eyewear manufacturer Oakley is creating a special, limited edition run of 3D glasses for The Hobbit. The branded, high-quality 3D glasses will retail for $150.
Our spy, Ringer Irish Man, tells us they will come in a sleek, wraparound style, like they’d belong on the beach, very unlike the Dwarf-inspired shape we’ve seen from mass-release Hobbit 3D glasses we reported last week.
Only 4,000 pairs will be made, and each will come with a gold/silver metal lapel pin of Bilbo’s elvish sword Sting.
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Ringer Quackingtroll alerts us to a Lego Lord of the Rings playable online flash-based game over on the Lego LoTR website.
It’s called The Siege of Helm’s Deep. Personally, I found it a bit confusing, but go try your hand!
If nothing else, the lead-up cut-scenes look really, really cool.
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