Last month we had the awesome privilege of sitting down with Daniel Falconer of Weta Workshop. We talked about the last 20 years of collecting Middle-earth, and how things have changed over those years. We also chatted about current stuff like the new Strider Statue; the things to come; and the hopes for items we may see in the next 20 years. You all are going to love this lengthy conversation, as we pick Daniel’s brain and get into all the stuff he’s seen over the last 20 years at Weta Workshop. We at TORn thank Daniel for his time, and Weta Workshop for lending him to us for a couple of hours!
According to Gamespot, the free-to-play MMO game The Lord of the Rings Online SteamDB recorded 3,700 concurrent players on April 21.
This peak represents the highest simultaneous numbers since 2012 when the game first launched on Steam. Gamespot points out that the numbers don’t take into consideration the people who play via the game’s own proprietary launcher and client.
Players from TORn’s Discord also report that, anecdotally, the game’s servers have been noticeably busier recently with many new characters. The surge may coincide with the current 15th anniversary event that offers both current and new players a huge swag of freebies when they login.
There’s some movement on the Tolkien publishing front. People out there who are cover collectors (and the variety and number of covers that The Lord of the Rings has had over the years is pretty wild), will be especially interested.
Rings of Power series tie-in covers
First, Harper Collins (through its subsidiary William Morrow Paperbacks) is set to release a Rings of Power series tie-in edition. The new covers for Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King will each show images out of the promotional poster series that we first saw in February. Props to u/mleaning on r/lotr for finding these covers.
Tie-in covers for The Lord of the Rings are, of course, not new. Houghton Mifflin released movie tie-in versions featuring imagery from Peter Jackson’s films for both hardcover and softcover in September 2001. (If our ancient scrapbook is playing nice, and you want to look at some ancient history, you can check those out here.)
Aside: I don’t love those as covers, honestly. I’m not convinced that they’re good imagery for this purpose. That is, the images don’t really accord with the thematic thrust of each individual title and it’s a bit of a stretch to make an association between image and content.
However, if they are your cup tea, pre-orders are available on Amazon already (though, amusingly, they’ve taken the covers down), with a publshing date of July 5, 2022.
Folio Society 1,000 copy illustrated limited edition
Or you could shell out for this new edition published by The Folio Society. It features exclusive artwork, an introduction by Alan Lee, and is beautifully bound, typeset and illustrated.
At a thousand quid, it’s also extremely expensive.
At the time of writing though, there are only a handful of the 1,000 copies left unsold. So, if this is your thing and you have cash burning a hole in your pocket, don’t delay. It will be published in mid-May.
If you like the look of this, but can’t afford the eye-watering price Folio Society has other editions of Tolkien’s Middle-earth books. Personally, I think this printing of The Silmarillion looks really nice even if the illustrations aren’t Alan Lee classics. At 49 quid, it’s much more reasonably priced, and ultimately probably better value for readers.
If the smallest person can change the course of the history…what can one of the largest officially licensed Lord of the Rings collectible do? Impress some friends – that’s for sure!
We will include the fine details below, but in case you were wonder…YES…it comes with a full realized light up The One Ring, but alas, the finger is NOT removable! (Between us, that does feel like a bit of a lost opportunity)
Worried about the life-span on this investment? The whole piece is made up of a high grade fiberglass material, equivalent to that of a steel alloy – resistant to temperature fluctuations and humidity.
There are only 99 being made for the entire world…so if you have the money to spare, you probably don’t want to wait to get one on the secondary market. It is expected to starting shipping in November of this year. As a small aside, with anything thing big, don’t expect it to ship via a standard delivery service. Guaranteed this is one of those items that is going to arrive in a truck!
One does not simply walk into Mordor, right? Well, now you can with this new fitness challenge app from The Conqueror. You can also run, cycle, or even swim your way to Mt Doom.
The Conqueror specializes in virtual fitness challenges that allow people to gamify exercise and map their progress to different virtual scenarios such as scaling Mt Fuji, or Mt Everest, or walking the Great Wall of China.
For their newest offering, they’ve teamed with Warner Bros. Consumer Products to give people the opportunity to virtually replicate Frodo and Sam’s mammoth trek all the way from Bag End in The Shire to the fires of Mt Doom.
The Conqueror’s THE LORD OF THE RINGS Virtual Challenge Series.
There are five successive challenges in the new Lord of the Rings series, each unlocking the next as it’s logged and completed by participants on the app. The app uses a custom-made map of Middle-earthapp to track and display progress, taking participants on an immersive journey to destroy the One Ring.
Basically, if you’re looking for Lord of the Rings fun while getting healthier and more fit, this could be just the thing for you. It does cost money, but it also comes with some pretty sweet swag as well.
Bootnote: When some fans reached out to us with news of this new LOTR-based fitness app, we decided to take the step of confirming its authenticity and reached out to The Saul Zaentz Company, the current holders of The Lord of the Rings merchandising rights. They have assured us that this is an official product that is properly licensed via Warner Bros. Consumer Products.
Saul Zaentz Co., has filed two trademark applications covering a pair of phrases now associated with Amazon’s forthcoming TV series: “Rings of Power” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”.
The company is the current owner of exclusive worldwide rights to motion picture, merchandising, stage and other rights in certain literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien including The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. It also announced in early February that it was putting all those rights up for sale.
The trademark applications, which were filed with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) on April 5 through German intellectual property specialists Boehmert & Boehmert, cover a wide array merchandising for goods and services under different categories.
Closer examination of the two filings, however, reveal that the key crossover between the two seems to cover electronic downloadable and online games and trading cards under Nice categories #9 and #41.
Whether that indicates that a Rings of Power-associated video game might be in the works as part of some partnership with Amazon remains to be seen. But, since the Saul Zaentz Company holds in perpetuity the trademarks on all the characters and places in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, it might have to be involved in merchandising deals.
The EUIPO filing on “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”.
The news of the filing first emerged on the Reddit forum Leaks and Rumours.
Last month we had the awesome privilege of sitting down with Daniel Falconer of Weta Workshop. We talked about the last 20 years of collecting Middle-earth, and how things have changed over those years. We also chatted about current stuff like the new Strider Statue; the things to come; and the hopes for items we may see in the next 20 years. You all are going to love this lengthy conversation, as we pick Daniel’s brain and get into all the stuff he’s seen over the last 20 years at Weta Workshop. We at TORn thank Daniel for his time, and Weta Workshop for lending him to us for a couple of hours!
