Fili barrelThe Official Day 1 of FantasyCon was yesterday, July 3 and was filled with cosplay, LARPing, music and heraldry. A few awesome Middle-earth costumers visited our booth, and we even had a Dwarf in a Barrel. The barrel and the 4 Hobbits standee proved to be quite popular with those holding a camera, especially the children.

At 11am TheOneRing.net hosted their first panel at the convention with the Preview of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies to an enthusiastic crowd. We fully expect that the trailer will be out by the time San Diego Comic Con rolls around in a few weeks, at which point our Preview panel will be dramatically updated.

Near the end of the day, the entirety of the Tolkien programming track was introduced on stage at the Middle-earth kickoff party. Artists, musicians, writers and TheOneRing.net staff on hand, plus an Avalanche of Dwarves, as John Rhys-Davies put it, a Wizard and a pair of Hobbits converged on the Main Ballroom stage to thunderous applause. Moments later, the entire room went silent, you could almost hear a pin drop, along with one wee Hobbit singing his heart out.

During the panel, numerous questions were asked of many Dwarves, Hobbits and a Wizard, but none were handled with quite so much originality as the one about the Dwarven prosthetics.

The day ended with the Red Party, a less bloody affair than the Red Wedding. Costumed denizens of Westeros and many other realms all danced the night away.

 

ParadeWith only 10 days left until the largest gathering of Middle-earth actors, artists and other talents converge on Salt Lake City for FantasyCon, TheOneRing.net is joining the ranks for the event’s July 4 parade. TORn submitted an entry in the walking parade that features 40 or more groups of costumers marching the morning of July 4 from the streets of the city into the mammoth convention hall where the celebration of Fantasy awaits. Continue reading “TheOneRing.net joins the FantasyCon parade, seeks costumers”

Our first glimpse of Colorado came with the Rockies where what appeared to be the Lonely Mountain peeked out of the cloud-cover. As the three of us travelling together (my sister, Fili, and our mother “Dis”) are known by Dwarven names, we took this as a good omen. After all, the people of Colorado are mountain folk.

Lonely Mountain (Rockies)

Upon descending on our eagles, we took some time to adjust to the lay of the land before the start of the convention. Having only really experienced the 150k strong crowds at San Diego Comic Con, we didn’t know what to expect from DCC. As it was, the massive line waiting to get in on Friday morning was intimidating. However, upon seeing a Gandalf among the cosplayers, our nerves were set to rest. We were among our people. Our mom even made up her own Dwarven costume for Dis!

dis TORn panel HH panel

 

We joined up with Bofur (Justin!) and hosted our first panel of the day that discussed the history of TheOneRing.net. Given that this year is the site’s 15th anniversary, there was a lot to cover! Many of the folks who attended enjoyed reminiscing about the old days of anonymous set reports that often spurred fan rage online. With time comes perspective, and it was fascinating to look at the response Arwen’s intended presence at Helm’s Deep received vs. the introduction of Tauriel in the new Hobbit films.

Continue reading “Denver Comic Con Recap”

denver_post_pic A few minor snippets about The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies out of Denver Comic Con last weekend.

Sylvester McCoy, who is not travelling to San Diego Comic Con, indicated that he’ll be in London around July 18 for pickup work. It seems as though Philippa Boyens will be there to directing the additional dialogue recording with Peter Jackson overseeing things from New Zealand.

We also hear Jackson may schedule a trip to London around the time of San Diego Comic Con. Continue reading “Denver Comic-Con news: Sylvester McCoy set for July pickups”

FantasyCon logoTheOneRing.net is a major part of FantasyCon coming up on July 3 – 5 in Salt Lake City and there is a pretty incredible lineup of of Middle-earth content at the show. We are counting the top 10 reasons to attend one of the largest Tolkien gatherings in the history of conventions. Continue reading “The top 10 reasons for Tolkienites to attend FantasyCon”

sylvester-mccoyFrom the 31st October till 2nd November, Malta’s major annual fan event on the world of films, comics and video games will take place; and it has been announced that Sylvester McCoy (Radagast the Brown), will be one of the special guests during the three-day event.

The actor, who portrayed the seventh Doctor in the popular TV Show Doctor Who, will take part in a group of activities which bring together all the fandoms into one, highly-entertaining hub. This will involve Q&A sessions with the actor and autograph signings.

Continue reading “Sylvester McCoy to attend MALTA COMICS EXPO 2014”