The awesome folks at Ravensburger Puzzles wanted us to let you know that right now, fans can snag two awesome puzzles, representing the first two films in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. These beautiful, 2000-piece puzzles are great pieces of art representing each film; The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers are available now at a variety of retailers.
The Return of the King puzzle is coming in 2023, so you won’t have long to wait to get that one as well. These puzzles would make great gifts for the Ringer in your life! We will also be giving you all a look at these puzzles in the future when we put together ours – so be on the lookout for that review.
Meanwhile, you can enter for a chance to win! One lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive both of these first two puzzles in the trilogy. Simply complete this form to be in with a chance to win. The giveaway runs until 11.59pm PT on Wednesday 7th December, and winner will be contacted after that. Sorry, only open to fans in the United States.
Our friends at Weta Workshop were not at Comic-Con in San Diego last week, but that didn’t stop them from showing off some really cool stuff down in New Zealand, coinciding with the timing of SDCC. The items from the Collectibles Unleashed event ranged from their amazing Masters Collection series to those very fun Mini Epics. This year’s Masters Collection piece captures Frodo’s journey to destroy the Ring as he, Sam, and Gollum make it through the Dead Marshes. This stunning piece is a 25-inch tall multi-layer collectible that gives you a full view of what each character was going through during this moment. It is currently in low stock and I’m sure with only 550 pieces available it will be gone quite soon. Not due to ship until the first quarter of next year, fans have plenty of time to save up the $2599USD required; or you can use Weta’s awesome payment plans to help break it down.
The awesome folks at Diamond Select Toys have some cool new The Lord of the Rings collectibles for fans to add to their displays: their D-Formz figures (Series 1). These 2-3 inch tall figures of Aragorn, Gandalf the Grey, Frodo, Gimli, Legolas, Smeagol, and Gollum come individually blind-boxed for $8.99. If you would like, you can order a set of 12 blind boxes – thus at least increasing your chance to get all of the figures – for $107.88. These are in pre-order right now, but are due to ship in October; not too much of a wait to add this cool twist on The Lord of the Rings Trilogy to your collection.
One of my favorite lines our friends at Weta Workshop produce is the environments line. Why? Well, I’d love to actually visit Middle-earth, but being a fantasy world, that seems unlikely. I’d love to visit New Zealand – and that may happen someday, but getting there from Missouri isn’t cheap. So collecting these amazingly well done pieces of the places we love is as close as I can get for now; as I’m sure is the case for many of you as well. We now can add three new environment pieces to our collections.
The first is a massive Bag End with that awesome green front door that opens and closes. When you open this door, you’ll be able to peek in and see the main hallway. That’s not all though! It also has a light up feature, giving the feeling that Bilbo or Frodo is at home. You can pre-order this right now through December 22nd for $1,199(USD), with the edition size being determined by the numbers of orders placed. If you want something Bag End but maybe slightly cheaper, there is a hobbit hole sized piece of Bag End for only $99(USD). Both of these pieces ship during the fourth quarter of next year.
Head on over to The Digital Bits where they have a long, deep review of this new set worth reading. Remember, the new 4K looks stunning but requires a new 4K disc player + 4K TV.
Can an equivalent set be assembled piece by piece? Let’s shop:
LOTR 4K (2020) $75 Includes Theatrical & Extended in 4K – 9 Discs
Hobbit 4K (2020) $70 Includes Theatrical & Extended in 4K – 6 Discs
Hobbit Extended Edition Bluray 3D (2016) $60 Includes Extended Edition in 3D – Extended in 1080p 2D – Commentaries – Appendices – 15 discs
For $250 you can get the new 31-disc box set with some pretty postcards + Cannes reel + 30 minute reunions…
Or for the same price you can get all 45-discs INCLUDING all the Appendices + Remastered 4K editions + 3D Hobbits!
Is it worth buying a whole new set just for the Cannes footage? Watch our reunion of that momentous occasion as we assemble Producers, Press, and Fan Blogs to remember what Lord of the Rings at Cannes 2001 was like.
For all the completionists out there, fill out your Middle-earth collection with the other versions of Peter Jackson’s movies.
A final reminder that Peter Jackson has said on occasion that he wants to do a 25th anniversary “Unicorn Edition” with all the extra stuff that we haven’t seen yet – Frodo turning into Gollum, Faramir & Eowyn’s wedding, and a warts-n-all BTS documentary that goes even deeper into the drama of making these films. No announcements have been made that this is even in the works, but PJ is a billionaire now, so anything is possible!
At the start of August, we told you about NZ Post’s beautiful stamps which were being issued to celebrate 20 years since the release of Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring movie. Now NZ Post have shared with us EXCLUSIVE news about their next new release – a set of commemorative coins. Here’s what they tell us:
