{"id":121763,"date":"2026-04-12T10:22:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T15:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=121763"},"modified":"2026-04-12T10:22:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T15:22:27","slug":"its-march-madness-grand-final-time-vote-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2026\/04\/12\/121763-its-march-madness-grand-final-time-vote-now\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s March Madness Grand Final time! Vote now!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Middle-earth March Madness<\/a> for 2026 is drawing to a close. We started with 64 items in our ‘Clash of the Collectibles’ themed contest; now just two remain. And it’s time for you to vote for the one you would like to see crowned Grand Champion 2026!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argonath vs Argonath<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The first semi final was between the only statuary piece to make it this far (the Argonath bookends) and the DVD box sets of Peter Jackson’s movies – which could have meant any of the extended edition box sets which came with statues, but we used The Fellowship of the Ring set to illustrate the bracket. So it ended up being Pillars of the Kings vs the colossi of the River Anduin (with some DVDs thrown in for good measure…)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you think it seems unlikely that people would vote for Argonath alone over bookends PLUS movies, you’d be right! This rather unfair match up saw the box sets take almost four fifths of the votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A much tougher battle in the other Semi Final<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

There were two artisanal pieces in this dual – the Red Book<\/a> of Westmarch prop replica from Magnoli Props vs the stained glass art of Geek Orthodox<\/a>. Both stunning, both highly desirable pieces to add to any collection. It was certainly a tough battle. In the end, perhaps folks voted for original art over replica; whatever the reason behind the choices, Geek Orthodox won by 55% to 45%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How the bracket looks for our final show down:<\/h4>\n\n\n
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Championship Round<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

How to decide?! <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Those DVD box sets include all the wonders of Peter Jackson’s movies (in extended format). Surely a must-have for collectors? But what if you’re a book purist rather than a movie fan? Geek Orthodox’s gorgeous, original art presents a different view of Middle-earth, unconfined by PJ’s vision and instead going back to the Professor’s words for inspiration. If you had to pick just one – do you go with movies and statues in a box set, so you can revisit the New Zealand version of Tolkien’s realm any time you want? Or do you adorn your home with beautiful representations of the places you visit between the pages; perhaps making a cosy room feel like your own slice of the Shire, ready for you to curl up with a book and head back to Arda? From a collecting <\/em>point of view, which is more – shall we say – precioussss….?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a tough choice – and it’s YOUR choice! 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 FINAL 4 (at the right hand side) to open the final match up – and there place your vote in the Championship round. 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 5.45pm PT on Tuesday April 14th <\/strong>t o vote in this final Round. We’ll close voting during TORn Tuesday and then reveal the WINNER. What will be crowned Grand Champion? Place your votes now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us know YOUR thoughts – join the discussion with fellow fans, at the Collectibles channel on our Discord<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Middle-earth March Madness for 2026 is drawing to a close. We started with 64 items in our ‘Clash…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":121764,"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":[3357,1152,163,1192,88,84,1360,198,82,14,197,22,151,1639,1624,3619,18,83,4152,90,89,4060,1359,110,156,159,86,1514,104],"tags":[2917,3060,3135,221,2014,516],"class_list":["post-121763","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-collectibles","category-lego-merchandise-toys","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\/ME-GP-LOGO_1.webp","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tLoH-vFV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121763","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=121763"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121770,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121763\/revisions\/121770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}