One of the best artists on the planet, who just happens to have a license to do art from the world of Middle-earth, is having a sale right now. Our friend Jerry Vanderstelt’s Black Friday sale is happening right now through to November, 30th. You can get 20% off select items in his store via the code BFSALE2020. So if you’re looking for a great Middle-earth themed item to get the fan in your life this is a great place to go. Jerry’s work is amazing and I can assure you that the fan you know will love it.

As we told you a while back the folks at Diamond Select Toys are making action figures from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. We’ve previously shared details and images of the figures Legolas and Gimli. Now we get to share with you Frodo and the Ringwraith. Just like the previous releases, these two figures each come in their own box with a piece of Sauron himself. That’s right! If you had forgotten you get to build Sauron with each release. These figures come in at 7 inches tall for figures like the Ringwraith and 4 inches tall for figures like Frodo all of them with 16 points of articulation. Fans can get their order in now for $59.98 with these awesome figures shipping in the spring of 2021.

Exciting news this morning, from US Tolkien publishers Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: a previously unseen collection of Tolkien’s writings about Middle-earth will be published June 2021. Here’s the press release from HMH:

JRR Tolkien - The Nature of Middle-earth
The Nature of Middle-earth
Coming June 24th 2021

‘MIFFLIN HARCOURT TO PUBLISH J.R.R. TOLKIEN’S FINAL MIDDLE-EARTH WRITINGS IN 2021

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media will publish The Nature of Middle-earth, a previously unseen collection of writings by J.R.R. Tolkien, in the U.S. on June 24, 2021. Presented for the first time in one volume and edited by Carl F. Hostetter, the writings will transport readers back to the world of The SilmarillionUnfinished Tales, and The Lord of the Rings.

Deb Brody, HMH’s VP and Publisher, says: “It is well known that J.R.R. Tolkien published The Hobbit in 1937 and The Lord of the Rings in 1954–5. What may be less known is that he continued to write about Middle-earth in the decades that followed, right up until the years before his death in 1973.

“For him, Middle-earth was part of an entire world to be explored, and the writings in The Nature of Middle-earth reveal the journeys that he took as he sought to better understand his unique creation. From sweeping themes as profound as Elvish immortality and reincarnation, and the Powers of the Valar, to the more earth-bound subjects of the lands and beasts of Númenor, the geography of the Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor, and even who had beards!

“This new collection is a veritable treasure-trove offering readers a chance to peer over Professor Tolkien’s shoulder at the very moment of discovery: and on every page, Middle-earth is once again brought to extraordinary life.”

The Hobbit was first published in 1937 and The Lord of the Rings in 19545. Each has since gone on to become a beloved classic of literature, and an international bestseller in more than 70 languages, collectively selling more than 150,000,000 copies worldwide.

The Nature of Middle-earth will be published subsequently in several languages by numerous Tolkien publishers worldwide.

CARL F. HOSTETTER has for many years been one of the world’s leading Tolkien experts and respected head of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship. He has worked as a Computer Engineer for NASA since 1985.’

Harper Collins, the UK based publisher for Tolkien, will also release this new work in June next year. You can read The Guardian newspaper’s article about this highly anticipated publication, here.

TheOneRing.net would like to congratulate the team at Minecraft Middle-earth for celebrating 10 years of meticulously recreating an immersive The Lord of the Rings based world for gamers and adventurers alike.

If you have been living under a block (😂), Minecraft is a 3D world where users can explore and create entire worlds one block at a time. To then build the whole of Middle-earth is a historic task, and the team at Minecraft Middle-earth continue to succeed in this momentous undertaking. Check out the video below, a gallery of the the amazing areas created, and an excerpt from the PCMag interview with the creator. And of course, you can get involved their official website MCMiddleearth.com.

Vermeersch was first introduced to Minecraft when the sandbox was still in beta back in 2009, and like many others who played early on in the game’s development, he got completely hooked. As a moderator on a Dutch Minecraft server, the idea of building Middle-earth was something that had begun to float around the server’s community.

“I grew up with Lord of the Rings, like most people around 30 years old I imagine,” Vermeersch says. “We had people who were interested from the Minecraft forums, so we had this solid player base to start with. We began building the basic locations, like Bree and Hobbiton, then after publishing screenshots, people got hooked on what we were doing and started joining the project.”  

PC Magazine – November 2020

During their New York Comic-Con Online, our friends at Sideshow Collectibles debuted a new collectible from Middle-earth.

If you’ve been following the line of collectibles from Iron Studios you would know that they’ve been creating the Balin’s Tomb sequence from The Fellowship of the Ring. We’ve already got Gimli and Legolas and now, taking this set up to the next level, we’ve got a Cave Troll! Fans can pre-order it right now for $725 with payment plans available, to add it to their collections next summer when it ships.

Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Iron Studios Cave Troll Statue”

Over the summer I got a chance to sit down and finally review one of my favorite pieces, and my favorite version, of the character Aragorn. This outstanding piece from our friends at Weta Workshop has long been sold out, with eager collectors snapping it up during the early bird pre-order stage. So while you may have to go to the secondary market if you want to get him yourself, I hope you use this review to see it is absolutely worth tracking down.

Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s Aragorn at Amon Hen Review”