Wizkids Games (publisher of the Heroclix Lord of the Rings game) announced the Lord of the Rings: Nazgûl semi-cooperative game about a year ago, but gave no release date. They have now announced the release date as May 16, 2012. The idea of casting the players as Nazgûl is a fairly novel one. We will probably learn more about actual game play during the next few months, since Wizkids is pretty good about posting rules on their site. Continue reading “Wizkids announces date for LoTR: Nazgûl board game”

Why did Bloomsbury U.K. eventually decide to offer “Harry Potter” books in disguised covers? Because people were ashamed to be seen reading about witches and wizards on the train. Fantasy had been made into a guilty pleasure, like pornography. It was immature, juvenile, escapist. As for all those Tolkien fans who liked to dress up as elves and orcs, the only explanation, spluttered Edmund Wilson in 1956, was that “Certain people . . . have a lifelong appetite for juvenile trash.” This, Michael Saler remarks, “from a man who liked to be called ‘Bunny.’ ”

In “As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality,” a historical and cultural study of fiction fandom, Mr. Saler counterpunches vigorously against the whole edifice of literary snobbery. What he has to say is so self-evidently right that the fact he has to say it makes one wonder how the critical profession has managed, for so long, to cultivate such a large blind spot. His book should be essential reading in every graduate school of the humanities. But it’s much more fun than that recommendation suggests. More..

The LEGO teases continue this week with a fan favorite! Today we reveal LEGO’s namesake (okay, maybe not), in the form of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Legolas Poster. Last week we saw the Aragorn teaser poster, so if we continue the theme, we should probably see the final hunter, Gimli, next week! Whether Gimli shows up next week or not, we continue to anxiously await the upcoming The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit LEGO sets! LEGO 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] [Larger Version] [Read the Announcement] [LEGOlas PDF]

Fire and WaterDo you like Lego? Of course you do.

Well, Blake Baer is the brain behind a number of remarkable Lego dioramas that recreate famous scenes from the Hobbit. If you were excited about the announcement of the Lord of the Rings Lego series, you’ll love this. the full-resolution images of the scenes from The Hobbit that Blake has visualised in Lego are amazing.

TheOneRing.net chatted with Blake about the inspiration for his Lego creations, and asked him to pick his three favourites from his Hobbit series. Continue reading “The amazing LOTR Lego designs of Blake Baer”

Image Removed at the request of Gentle Giant Ltd.

Yesterday MTV’s Movie Blog posted a sketch for a mini-bust of Thorin from The Hobbit films, then mysteriously removed it, well we have it here for you. Take a look before it also disappears!

MTV wrote: This past weekend, a file made its way to our inbox that got us excited… but also can’t be authenticated. It appears to be a sketch for a mini-bust of Thorin Oakenshield, leader of the dwarven warriors in the upcoming The Hobbit film, and has Gentle Giant Ltd. literally written all over it! After contacting the folks at G.G., and receiving what amounted to “no comment”, we decided it would be a disservice not to post it for you all regardless. The Hobbit’s action figure license has been granted to a company that isn’t known for such things, so this offers collectors and fans a tinge of hope that some cool merchandise will still be released from the upcoming films. Gentle Giant is no stranger to either the world of J.R.R. Tolkien or movie-based mini-busts thanks to their pioneering of Real Scan technology, so if this isn’t real– it should be!

While we can’t truly say that this is official, our source has yet to bring us any b.s. info. Read on for a look at the full art in question and decide for yourselves. Continue reading “MTV Posts Hobbit Merch Pic, Then Removes It – UPDATE”