hobbitdosthranduildlrg2The Holiday shopping season is quickly approaching and its time to start thinking about what to get that special Tolkien lover in your life. We’re pleased to to help ease your journey in by narrowing down what we feel are the top 10 Middle-earth related collectibles that fans can easily swing on a holiday budget. You can get any of these amazing collectibles from our friends at Weta Workshop, Artist Jerry Vanderstelt, Sideshow Collectibles, and The Noble Collection. These collectibles range from mini-sword letter openers to giant premium formats all of which help cover any Tolkien Collector in your family.

Here’s our Top 10 List: (In No Particular Order)

  1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition with Limited Edition Amazon Exclusive Bilbo/Gollum Statue (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + UltraViolet)
  2. One Ring – Tungsten – Gold plated (with or without script) Weta Workshop
  3. Tauriel Necklace (Weta and Noble)
  4. King Thranduil Statue
  5. The Key to Erebor  Weta Workshop
  6. Mini-sword letter openers from Noble – Narsil, LOTR Sting, The Hobbit Sword Set, Thranduil’s Sword, Tauriel’s Dagger, Morgul Dagger
  7. Barrel-riders Weta Workshop – Bilbo Baggins & Bombur the Dwarf
  8. Jerry Vanderstelt’s Middle-earth prints
  9. Sauron Premium Format
  10. Ringwraith on Steed Premium Format

DSC03274As some of you remember a while back I decided to share my collection with you all. Now, I’d like to share a fellow Ringer’s collection who decided that he also wanted you all to see the passion he has for Middle-earth. I hope you all enjoy Eric’s collection and if you would like to share what you’ve gathered after years of collecting don’t be afraid to let us know.

Here’s how Eric describes his collection:

My name is Eric from Maryland, USA.  I’ve always had a love for weapons growing up.  And so when United Cutlery started making the The Lord of the Rings movie swords and props, I thought it would be a cool idea to one day club our basement and make a Middle-earth themed place to hang out.  I started collecting them in 2003.  Most of the purchases were made between 2003 – 2006, but it was only about 6 months ago that we finally finished our basement.  Until then, my collection was mostly in boxes.  When collecting, it was my goal to have a poster of each main character and to have their weapon right beside that poster.   In the TV room, we have the “fellowship” section.  It showcases the characters at the core of the fellowship, with whatever memorabilia I could collect to represent them.  In the gaming section of the basement, I have some of the original theatrical posters as well as an Elven Warrior, Rohan and Sauron sections.  Some sections are still a work in progress and I have some room to hopefully grow the collection a little over the next two years.  After seeing Elessar’s collection, ( which we really enjoyed viewing ), he invited me to share our collection. I thought it would be a good idea to share how we have celebrated Middle-earth.  I hope you enjoy what we’ve done.

 

Spawn by Todd McFarlane.
Spawn by Todd McFarlane.
Recently at the san Diego Comic-Con we had a brief chat with famed cartoonist Todd McFarlane and asked him whether he thought Tolkien’s work would work in comic book form.

Here’s what Todd had to say:

It’s an interesting question now… and here would be my answer: I think that Peter Jackson has now spoiled us. Right? So up until we actually got to see the movies — I thought in brilliant fashion — that we were just sort of imagining …

I mean there’d been hints … but nothing that had stuck globally. So we [only] had our imagination, and now that Peter’s put that imagination into a sort of footprint, that if you put into comic book [then] to some extent a lot of people would be measuring back up [against the films].

Check out the video below for the complete interview!

IMG_5162As many of you may know when we did our magazine for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey we took submissions from collectors around the world. A few of these ended up appearing in the magazine allowing people all over the world to see some of what you’ve taken time show off your love for Middle-earth. Recently, I was able to finally able to set up my collection and be able to really appreciate many of the pieces I’ve managed to add. Thankfully the room my stuff in now is large enough to show off everything I’ve got with room to spare for new items from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Even if I’m still getting items out of storage to show off. This collection through ups and downs (selling items) started back in 2003 and continues on for a while. It’s my way of allowing people see what Middle-earth means to me and explain why they’re missing out on such a great universe. I hope you enjoy taking a peek into my collection and what it looks like after its been reviewed.