As mentioned on our last *live* broadcast of TORn TUESDAYS, our friends at Badali Jewelry have an exciting Thanksgiving weekend sale going on where you can get a FREE replica of the One Ring (and other cool items) after buying $125 worth of jewelry. Each promo code is good for a particular free item on each separate day. Here are the codes: 11/26 Saturday “THANKS1” (for a Gold Plated Asha’man Dragon Pin), 11/27 Sunday “THANKS2” (for a Bronze Cthulhu Medallion), and 11/28 Monday “THANKS3” (for a Gollum Gold One Ring of Power with plain script). When ordering, select at least $125 worth of merchandise, then add the Free Jewelry Item of the day into your shopping cart (RJ-36 for Saturday, CTHN-22 for Sunday, and GG-01 for Monday). Then enter the day’s coupon code during the check out process and the cost of that day’s Free Item will be removed from the cart, giving it to you free! Also good on telephone orders! Check out their site Badali Jewelry for more details!

Jonathan Moormann wrotes: I was lucky enough to spend my Saturday at the New York Chocolate Show, running from November 10-13 at the Metropolitan Pavillion. You can check out Ology’s photo diary or the chocolate fashions featured at the event, but I think the highlight of my visit was the work of chocolate sculptor and chef Håkan Mårtensson…Most of Håkan’s work tends to be more like the clown than ABBA, though. Whether it’s a sneering Gollum or the wolf eating Red Riding Hood​, his pieces draw heavily on fantasy and horror themes with a little twinge of morbid humor. Since moving to New York, he’s also started carving a lot of skulls. “Skulls are everywhere in New York,” Håkan said. “You go down the street, and you see one on someone’s shirt, one on a sign, one in some graffiti on a wall. All of that goes into my inspiration.” He also draws heavily on movies and books, especially J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit​. Since Peter Jackson cast Swede Mikael Persbrandt as Beorn, Håkan can’t wait to get some movie stills of the skin-changer and create a chocolate homage. More..

Middle-Earth appears to be returning to the Wakatipu if construction in a remote valley is anything to go by. A three-storey wooden set and smaller structure are being built on private land beyond Glenorchy, 66km from Queenstown.

Security staff guarding the gate are turning away tourists and telling them the road does not give access to the nearby unsignposted Paradise estate. Continue reading “Hobbits Could Be Coming Soon!”

Welcome to ourBilbo and Elrond in Rivendell collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards, here’s a great way to catch the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join in the fun!

Continue reading “TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – October 16 2011”

*Programming Change to 4:30pm PDT* Tomorrow’s installment of “TORn TUESDAYS live with Quickbeam” (our weekly streaming video call-in show) will feature a special guest producer from 4 TANKS AND A HEALER, the lovely Marisa Zakaria! We will discuss the history of fandom related to Fantasy Gaming, and how difficult it is to start up a brand new animated series! You can interact live and pose your questions in our Barliman’s chatroom, built-in to our LIVE event section at 4:30PM Pacific Daylight Time! [LIVE Event Area] (TORn Tuesday will take place from approx 4:30-5:30pm PT – See All Times)

If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.

When you think of The Lord of the Rings films, you can’t help but remember the sweeping landscape shots – filmed using expert coordination of helicopters across the rugged New Zealand landscape. Well, now, thanks to some new technology, Peter Jackson is saving some fuel by dumping the helicopter and using a newly developed ‘drone’ camera setup. Called the OM-Copter, the eight-blade device allows for smooth and stable flight. Thanks to Ringer Kookie for sending us a link to Geek.com where you can learn all about this new tech! [Read More]

UPDATE We’ve received word from Peter and his crew that this story is FALSE. This equipment is not being used on the production of The Hobbit.