It’s that time of year again, time for all good Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Wizards and assorted denizens of Middle-earth to gather and make merry to help celebrate the birthdays of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.
Southern California Tolkien fans are invited to join in the merriment of TORN’s Annual Baggins Birthday Bash, which will take place on Sunday, Sept 22, 2019 starting at noon in Griffith Park in the Mineral Wells area. If you need help finding this location, look at the Directions below and at the Map, which clearly shows Mineral Wells near the Harding Golf Course. We will be celebrating the Birthday of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, and rejoice in each other’s fellowship.
COSTUMES are encouraged, and we may have a prize or two for the most beautifully or most creatively attired lads and ladies. There will also be fun and games and plenty of food.
BIRTHDAY CAKE(S) – We invite you all to get your creative baking going on and bring Middle-earth themed Cakes and/or cupcakes . This will actually be a Juried event with a prize for the Cake or Cupcakes deemed the most Beautiful or Whimsical, or maybe just most delicious looking.
The picnic is potluck so bring something to share. RSVP by leaving a note on our FB event page here or send an email to Garfeimao@theonering.net. Please let us know what you plan to bring so we can make sure we’ve got all bases covered for a good, Hobbity meal. The food list will be updated with what people are bringing so everyone can see what’s coming and what is still needed. Please read the full Info text for the Party for the food list, schedule of events and suggested driving instructions.
One of the new figures Asmus Toys had at Comic-Con this year was the solo version of the Mouth of Sauron. This piece allows fans who just want the Mouth of Sauron minus his horse a chance to get him into their collections. As you can see, this one turned out pretty solid with some incredible details on the different versions of his mouth piece. While this one is labeled as a ‘slim’ version, with all the stuff you get and how nice it looks there is nothing slim about him! You can get him right now for $145 and he is due to ship first part of next year.
One of the many great things about The Lord of the Rings is the extreme depth of characters you will find. For some collectors their favorite character may just fall into a secondary character status. Our friends at Weta Workshop know this and aren’t afraid to tackle someone who didn’t get a lot of screen time. Today’s review is a perfect example of this with Haldir. While Haldir didn’t get a lot of screen time his impact on the story shouldn’t be thought of as minor. This statue was done right and fans of Haldir should be proud to own him. You can still get him for $399 from the US and EU warehouses and with an edition of 750 there aren’t going to be too many of him left.
This just in from Newstalkzb.co.nz: according to an unidentified senior member of the Auckland film industry, a ‘huge’ part of Amazon’s new series will be filmed in NZ. According to the article, Kumeu Film Studios and Auckland Film Studios are mentioned specifically to be involved. The insider told the Herald that an announcement could be expected soon, as the leases are due to take effect in July. Apparently, the two studios mentioned have been working on pre-production for more than a year. However, everyone was required to sign confidentiality agreements. The insider source did mention that an official announcement should be coming soon, as the leases related to starting production are due to take effect in July.
According to their websites, both Kumeu Film Studios and Auckland film studios offer sound stages, workshops production offices and, at Kumeu studios, 12 hectares (30 acres) of forest and large water tanks (which could come in handy should the series include the destruction of Numenor at the end of the 2nds age). Of course, location shooting will also be an option in order to take advantage of the same natural beauty and diversity of the various landscapes that made The Lord of the Rings films so memorable.
How does this new rumor fit in with previous rumors that filming was going to be done in Scotland? Given the ease of communicating globally these days, there’s no reason both countries (or more) can’t be involved. The film industry insider’s comment that a ‘huge’ part of the series will be filmed in New Zealand also implies that at least part of it will not. In any case, it sounds like we’ll be getting more updates in the near future! Stay tuned to TheOneRing.net as we keep you posted!
If you were lucky enough to attend opening day at the Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle, Washington today, you may have had the opportunity to get an up-close look at the next awesome statue from our friends at Weta Workshop in their The Lord of The Rings statue line. Adding to the amazing scene set-up with the Boromir and Lurtz statues, we now have Aragorn at Amon Hen. In this piece, we get to see Aragorn as he races back to help save Boromir who has blown The Horn of Gondor in desperation as he defends Merry and Pippin from attack by Saruman’s Uruk-hai Orcs. Fans can sign up to be notified when this beautiful statue goes up for order, and as soon as it does you can count on us to let you know.
As we mentioned a while back, we have a new player in the Middle-earth Collectibles game. Iron Studios is going to be producing collectibles based on the best trilogy of all-time: “The Lord of the Rings,” of course! These pieces will be produced in 1:10 scale, which is smaller than other collectibles based on the trilogy. Despite being smaller from what we can see in the production photos the to be very well made. I have had the chance to see their Marvel pieces up close, so I have very high hopes we’re in for a real treat! All four pieces Gandalf the Grey, Frodo Baggins, standing Ringwraith, and attacking Ringwraith can be pre-ordered right now. They range from $95 for Frodo to $115 for Gandalf the Grey. Collectors can expect all of these figures to start landing during quarter four of 2019.
