We are very excited to share with you our LIVE coverage from this year’s Comic-Con, now appropriately renamed #HobbitCon! Throughout the next few days, our 100% volunteer staff will descend on San Diego to give all of us who can’t make it to the show, the best LIVE coverage a not for profit website can muster! That includes a live blogging feature which follows select staffers as they work their way around the exhibit hall and panels, a LIVE video feed from the TORn Tuesday team and Stickam.com, and a special Flickr gallery that we hope to update often with great Tolkien related photos. In a year in which The Hobbit will rule Comic-Con, we want to give you the absolute best online experience possible. All of this takes place in our LIVE event center – http://www.theonering.net/sdcc. As we all know, if you step on the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to! [LIVE from Comic-Con 2012] Please do take a moment to share that link with your friends and family.
(And, if you enjoy this type of coverage from us, please consider a small donation to help us handle the expenses. Even just a few dollars can go a long way!)
LEGO Systems Celebrates a New Theme Each Day at San Diego Comic-Con
-Surprises abound for fans as construction toy maker unveils new playsets, life-sized models, mystery builds, contests and one-of-a-kind giveaways in support of popular licensed properties-
SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON (July 11, 2012) – LEGO Systems, Inc., the world’s leading construction toy manufacturer, unveils its largest ever San Diego Comic-Con presence with a “theme of the day” calendar of events that celebrates its top licensed properties including LEGO® THE LORD OF THE RINGS™ and LEGO THE HOBBIT™, LEGO Super Heroes, LEGO Star Wars™ and LEGO NINJAGO. LEGO Systems welcomes show attendees with displays of life-size models, first-ever “reveals” of LEGO building sets and limited edition giveaways. In addition, attendees are invited to help “build” a section of its booth each day that features 7.5 feet tall mosaics of Comic Con favorites at booth #2829 of the San Diego Convention Center, July 12-15.
“Each year we’re overwhelmed by the excitement Comic-Con fans show toward the LEGO brand and the new playsets we introduce based on their favorite characters and storylines,” said Michael McNally, brand relations director, LEGO Systems, Inc. “As we celebrate our 80th anniversary this year, we’re pulling out all the stops in San Diego to show fans how the classic LEGO brick continues to build popularity among children and adults of all ages with a rotation of themes and activities for fans of all interests.”
From our friends at the Tolkien Society: The Tolkien Society is pleased to announce that this year’s Oxonmoot will take place on 21st-23rd September at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. This year will be The Tolkien Society’s 38th Oxonmoot and will include fellowship, talks and panels, friendly discussion, a quiz, an art exhibition and a party with a raft of creative opportunities! This year’s Oxonmoot is particularly special as The Tolkien Society will be holding a celebration in honour of the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit. The Hobbit was first published on the 21st September 1937 and has become one of the world’s most popular books: it has been translated into over 50 languages and estimates put sales of The Hobbit at over 100 million worldwide.
Now Emil Johansson (the creator) has added another neat feature — a complete timeline of the history of Middle-earth as far back as the awakening of the elves in Cuiviénen. When you click a date from the Second Age, the Third Age (including the War of the Ring) or the Fourth Age, it even locates the event for you on a Middle-earth map.
It’d be lovely to see this extended to the First Age with the map of Beleriand from Silmarillion at some point. But in the meantime, do go explore a little bit of ME’s rich history. This is some great work.
The University of Illinois has just announced a topic for its Engaged Citizenship Common Experience Speakers Series. On July 17, 2012, it will present Sanctifying Myths: The currency of class, gender, and courage in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings & Peter Jackson’s films.
Dr Donna Bussell, PhD, will highlight Tolkien’s understanding of the spiritual and cultural work of mythology and manifestations of courage in major characters such as Frodo, Sam, Arwen and Aragorn.
Her talk also explores the importance of minor characters whose roles (and lower status) reveal much about the nature of courage in relation to class and gender in the story. Bussell concludes with a few thoughts on how these ideas are (or are not) treated in Jackson’s films, and the implications of these revisions for the transmission of Tolkien’s ideals.
Now is the time to dig out all your Hobbit, Elf and Rohan gear, clean up your Orc armor and grab your Wizard robes. It has been at least 8 years since we’ve had a chance to wear our Middle-earth finery, and now with just 3 weeks to go, San Diego Comic Con 2012 will kick off. With both TORn and WB doing panels about the Hobbit, and companies like WETA, LEGO and Gentle Giant, among others, selling Hobbit themed merchandise, Middle-earth will be everywhere. Here at TORn, we know that no comic con is complete without costumers, so we would like to officially invite all past, present and future Tolkien costumers to pack up their gear and plan to wear it on Thursday.
The TORn panel will be at 10:15am on Thursday at the con, and while it would be nice if all Tolkien costumers could attend the panel, we know some of you may not get in. What we would really like to do is a mass a big group shot after our panel, out on the Outdoor Amphitheater behind the Sails Pavillion, overlooking Coronado Bridge. Our panel will end around 11:15am, so given the typical chitter chatter that always follows such events, lets plan for about 11:45am out on the Sails Terrace area. If you have older costumes you’ve got in storage, please pull them out and bring them. If your costume is book based rather than film based, no worries. If you have a costume based on Tolkien artwork, or the Silmarillion, bring it to San Diego. And if you are working on a new Hobbit era costume, wear that too (unless you are entering it into the Masquerade, don’t want you getting into trouble). All Tolkien themed costumes are welcome and encouraged, TORn would love to show that our community is large and creative and enthusiastic. If you have any questions, please contact Garfeimao@TheOneRing.net.
LEGO Systems Celebrates a New Theme Each Day at San Diego Comic-Con 
The University of Illinois has just announced a topic for its Engaged Citizenship Common Experience Speakers Series. On July 17, 2012, it will present Sanctifying Myths: The currency of class, gender, and courage in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings & Peter Jackson’s films.