{"id":121732,"date":"2026-04-05T14:18:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=121732"},"modified":"2026-04-05T14:18:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:18:31","slug":"time-to-discover-the-march-madness-elite-eight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2026\/04\/05\/121732-time-to-discover-the-march-madness-elite-eight\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to discover the March Madness Elite Eight!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Already we’re down to just EIGHT items remaining in the Clash of Collectibles – this year’s Middle-earth March Madness<\/a>. Here’s how the bracket looks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connecting to Middle-earth through favourite figures<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps surprisingly, BOTH Weta Workshop items were defeated in this region, with the Balrog taking out the entire Fellowship, and the Argonath conquering Bilbo in Bag End. So now we see if Aragorn’s ancestors can beat the ancient, (winged?) demon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prime 1 Gandalf vs Balrog statue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Experiencing Middle-earth in Print and Music<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Another upset of sorts here – both the Maps and Tolkien’s own art have fallen at this fence! So now we face a tough decision: soundtrack vs DVDs. If you had to save only one, which would you choose? <\/p>\n\n\n

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As it’s the DVD box set with statues, we’ve got two sets of Argonath in the Elite Eight!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Inhabiting Middle-earth through Environments and Replicas<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Weta Workshop’s Rivendell survived the Sweet Sixteen round; their Edoras environment, however, was not so lucky! Now Rivendell faces off against the incredible Red Book of Westmarch prop replica. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The Red Book<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Playing in Middle-earth with toys, games and other curiosities<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This writer has been proved SO wrong. I thought LEGO Rivendell was almost unbeatable – but I’m delighted to see that the gorgeous stained glass art from Geek Orthodox<\/a> has done it, and made it through to the Elite Eight! In the other pairing in this region, the Hobbiton mug vanquished the LotR Monopoly. Now I’m rooting for the stained glass to go all the way to be Grand Champion. But you may wish to vote otherwise!<\/p>\n\n\n

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More incredible stained glass art<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

How the bracket looks now:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Elite Eight Clash of Collectibles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Time to vote! But how does it work, I hear you ask. Simple! Click on the button below. This will take you to the voting site, where you can view the entire bracket, region by region. Click on each pairing of items, to view all the details – and there place your vote. Let’s get voting!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Click here to vote!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

You have until the end of the day Tuesday April 7th <\/strong>to vote in Round Four; that evening on TORN Tuesday we’ll reveal the winners, and on Wednesday April 8th we’ll launch the semi-final! Place your votes now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us know YOUR thoughts – join us on TORn Tuesday<\/a> each week during the competition, and tell us how you feel about the choices so far. And if you want to discuss the votes with other fans, head on over to the Collectibles channel on our Discord<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Already we’re down to just EIGHT items remaining in the Clash of Collectibles – this year’s Middle-earth March…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":121729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3357,1152,163,1192,88,84,1360,198,82,14,197,22,151,1624,1639,3619,18,83,4152,90,89,4060,1359,110,156,159,86,1514,104],"tags":[2917,3060,3135,221,2014,516],"class_list":["post-121732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-blu-ray-merchandise","category-merchandise-books","category-calendars","category-merchandise-clothing","category-merchandise-collectibles","category-collectibles-shop","category-fans-creations","category-merchandise-dvds","category-events","category-fans","category-headlines","category-merchandise-jewelry","category-lego-merchandise-toys","category-lego-merchandise-collectibles","category-march-madness","category-merchandise","category-merchandise-music","category-oscha","category-merchandise-other","category-merchandise-posters","category-recordings","category-shop","category-merchandise-sideshow","category-torn-announcements","category-torn-community","category-merchandise-toys","category-weta-collectibles","category-production-weta-workshop","tag-collecting-the-precious","tag-j-r-r-tolkien","tag-middle-earth-march-madness","tag-the-hobbit","tag-the-lord-of-the-rings","tag-weta"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/bracket_updated.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tLoH-vFq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121732"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121739,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121732\/revisions\/121739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}