On September 22nd, the very date of Bilbo’s and Frodo’s birthdays, a large group of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Men, Wizards, and well-behaved Wargs, gathered for a day of merriment, feasting, and activities.
The Party took place under the sheltering trees of Griffith Park, in the Mineral Wells picnic area, close by a meandering river. The day was warm, but not too warm. The sun high and bright. The leaves sparkled green and gold in a fair breeze which ruffled the Baggins’ Birthday banner and the feathers adorning Hobbit hats. Tents dotted the landscape: an Elven enclave here, a Dwarven fortress there, a Hobbit hole beneath a tree.
The banqueting table was laden with dishes–pulled pork, barbecue chicken salad, spicy sausages, cheese samplings, Lembas, watermelon, pasta salad (I could go on and on, but it’s making my mouth water all over again.) There were even two big jugs of delicious homemade apple brew crafted from a long list of enticing ingredients.
Completing his journey through Tolkien’s trilogy, artist Jackson Robinson’s 52-card playing deck designed around The Return of the King allows fans to play Hold ‘Em with their favorite kings of Middle-earth. Robinson chats with us about finding fresh new ways to be creative with the most successful and standardized tabletop game of all time.
These officially licensed playing cards feature original artwork designed by Robinson, based on and inspired by the books of J.R.R. Tolkien. Like adaptations in other media, he has full access to every word in The Lord of the Rings books to draw original inspiration from. The first deck in the LOTR series, based on Fellowship of the Rings, became one of his most successful crowdfunds ever, with over 8,000 fans taking it over 3,000% its funding goal in 2022. A year later, The Two Towers similarly exploded in popularity. For this third set, a beautiful new wood box and display case for the whole trilogy of card packs has been created.
The Road Less Traveled and following a new career path
How does one start making official The Lord of the Rings cards? This all started with an idea and an artist’s hand. “I lived in Los Angeles for a few years and was an art director for a game studio, trying to get into that kind of Hollywood world via toy packaging. King Wild Project, my playing card thing, really kind of happened by accident. I had never thought about doing playing cards before in my life, and I did a playing card Kickstarter that was a deck of cards that looked like money, that was called the Federal 52. This was in 2013, and it kind of just blew up and fell in my lap. My wife and I were like, uh, what’s up with this? And so, it was literally, I’m gonna do this playing card thing until it breaks. I ended up quitting my full-time job to get started, and it hasn’t broke yet. My story kind of went in a different direction from where I thought I wanted to go, but I’m kind of glad that it did because I was able to kind of go on a path that there’s not very many people on right now. Even though the playing card world has kind of exploded over the past 10 years, it’s still a very small world, and a very small niche, and I get the freedom to kind of do what I want with it. The excitement is getting able to do what I want, in terms of being able to make the Lord of the Rings characters!”
Robinson’s company Kings Wild Project has since worked with Brandon Sanderson’s MISTBORN, Frank Frazetta’s estate, and created original playing card decks around other fun themes like the Founding Fathers and Arthurian legends. “Illuminated manuscripts is a big influence for me. A lot of my decks are based on classic literature so anytime I do a classic literature deck, I try to pair up the card style with a kind of art style that could have been around the same time period. So I did a deck of cards called the Arthurian, which is the King Arthur legend, and it’s in the style of the Book of the Kells.”
Even the lettering and fonts are all original, including The Lord of the Rings title on the card box. “All the artwork, from every letter to every line, that’s all artwork that I do myself. I do have an incredible crew of about four people that work for me that have been with me the past few years. They’re a great crew, but the artwork is all stuff that I do.”
More than just 52 card decks
Robinson is partnering with Shire Post Mint for buttons and a black walnut box adornment. “Something that’s brand new that we haven’t done before is for people that play poker, blackjack or whatever, they have this dealer button or card cover. It’s basically something that you put over your cards to signify to the dealer that you don’t want to take a hit or you don’t want any more cards, or it also signifies that this person’s the dealer as that dealer button travels. We call it the dealer medallion and it weighs close to half a pound.”
Another option in this kickstarter is a tabletop puzzle. “We’ve done a jigsaw puzzle for each deck. We have a Fellowship puzzle, The Two Towers puzzle, and now the Return of the King puzzle. Because this is the third deck in the series, there’s a lot of things that are kind of like the best-of, all-star thing. It doesn’t just have the Return of the King characters on the puzzle, it has all of the cards from all three decks. Plus our jigsaw puzzles are two sided, so there’s usually a photo of the playing cards spread out over a table to assemble.”
Because these cards are made with the book license from Middle-earth Enterprises, there was a bit of a challenge to avoid hewing too close to the popular movies. “If Legolas starts to look like Orlando Bloom a little bit, we need to bring it back. Or looking at that little description of the eye ringed in flame, I was just kind of pulling on what the text said. Apart from the big eye on the top of the tower or that iconic helmet from the movies, it felt like I can’t put spikes on anything that’s gonna go straight up or it’s gonna look like the movies. So, that was fun, but it was also nerve-wracking.”
It’s not just character designs that are considered. There are gorgeous borders, pips, filigree, and ornate details everywhere, on every card. “Going back to the storytelling aspect of it, that’s something that I’ve tried to do. Going beyond not just portraying the character, but also trying to tell a kind of a meaningful story throughout. In the Fellowship of the Ring deck, the borders were all themed based on a season. Spring, Winter, Summer, Fall. The Two Towers borders were based on elements like fire, water, wind, and earth. Now, with Return of the King, they’re all based on metals. Mithril, which is the spade border; Iron, that’s the clubs; Gold, the hearts. It builds on the cohesiveness of it actually being a functional deck of playing cards where the spades are all this kind of red background with this ironwork, and the diamonds are all this to help to tell a story, but it gives more layers of storytelling.”
The Lord of the Rings cards come in standard printing and foil printing, which also includes gilding of the side edges of the card. Check out everything and discover more details here.
Watch the hour long interview with Jackson Robinson on his The Lord of the Rings cards below:
On March 18 this year we began Middle-earth March Madness 2024: Magical Moments. TORn staffers had been working behind the scenes to choose and then vote on a plethora of happenings from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which could be considered magical events. We whittled that number down to 64, and created seeding based on the staffer votes, and back in March we opened the contest to YOUR votes.
Now, after six rounds and thousands of votes cast, we have a winner. Of all the moments when magical powers are used in Middle-earth, one has been chosen as the ‘most magical’. If you watched TORn Tuesday last night, you saw the winner revealed there. But if you’ve stayed ‘spoiler free’, we can now reveal the Middle-earth March Madness Champion for 2024 is…
We come to it at last – the great battle of our time… Well, at least of this year’s Middle-earth March Madness 2024: Magical Moments. TORn staffers picked 64 happenings from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which could be considered magical events. (Though what exactly counts as ‘magic’ in Middle-earth is, of course, up for debate!) These moments were seeded based on staffer’s votes, divided into four bracket (one for each book), and so it began. Now, three weeks later and with thousands of votes cast, we are down to the final two. Let’s see how the Semi-finals played out:
The Hobbit Division vs The Two Towers Division
The first time Bilbo experiences the power of the Ring, becoming invisible when seeking to escape Gollum, deep under the Misty Mountains, was the winning moment of The Hobbit bracket. It faced the victor from The Two Towers region, no less a moment than the return from the dead of Mithrandir, coming back to Middle-earth as Gandalf the White. Two absolutely iconic moments – and you might have expected a tight battle. In fact, the power of the Ring was no match for the wizard; The Two Towers contestant took 70% more votes than its opponent. So Gandalf the White strides into the final. Who or what will be his adversary?
The Fellowship of the Ring Division vs The Return of the King Division
This showdown was a much tighter contest then the other Semi-final. Just SIX votes made the difference between the contenders during much of this round – even as the numbers rose, that margin stayed more or less the same. It’s a duel between the defeat of the Witch-king by ‘No Man’ and Gandalf’s overthrowing of the Balrog. Will we have an all Gandalf championship battle?
The answer is … yes! At the last moment, coming in just under the wire, and having been trailing for most of this round, the wizard won by ONE VOTE. Eowyn overcame the Lord of the Nazgul, but could not defeat the Maiar. And so an event which started off seeded all the way down at #6 in its bracket confronts a #1 seeded event in the Final. It’s The Fellowship of the Ring vs The Two Towers, a kind of ‘before and after’ – the battle against the Balrog, and the return thereafter:
Gandalf Confronts the Balrog with Glamdring and the Flame of Anor (6)
VS
Gandalf the White Returns from the Dead (1)
Staffer Madeye Gamgee was excited by this nail-biting thriller of a Semi-final:
What a magical finish for our penultimate round! I cannot recall ever having such a tight matchup in the history of Middle-earth March Madness. The Witch-king’s Fall to “No Man” had led during the entirety of its Final Four Round, but the lead was always “walking on the edge of a knife”, hardly ever more than 10 votes. And in perhaps the upset of the tournament, the FotR champion, only the number six seed in its own region, pulls off the last second victory, squeaking by the iconic moment on the Pelennor Field by a single vote. Sadly perhaps for Éowyn and Merry fans (and possibly a ‘crushing blow’ for Witch-king fans…), our March Madness tournament officials have yet to figure out instant replay technology. What a Balrog Burner of a match!
The return of Gandalf the White from his journeys beyond thought and time easily handled the contest with Bilbo’s Ring of Invisibility, despite its darker Power lurking in the background. At least for this tournament, the One Ring will not rule them all.
Which leads us to a dream matchup between two versions of possibly the most magical icon of the Third Age: Gandalf. Can Gandalf the Grey keep his momentum going? Slaying a Balrog is no small thing. Or will Gandalf’s resurrection as an Istari more evenly matched against Sauron prove that he has brought more than just a fool’s hope to this magical tournament?
It should be very clear by now that the ultimate tournament outcome lies in the hands of the fans. And even the smallest single vote can change the course of the future.
Place your votes! As with the Semi-final, we just have one bracket to vote. Use the embedded experience below, or click here. Then click the ‘Vote Now’ option that appears at the top left of the page. Let’s get voting!
Which Magical Moment will be the Champion for Middle-earth March Madness 2024? You decide! Would you like to see the wielding of Glamdring and the flame of Anor sweep to victory? Or is Gandalf’s return from the dead unbeatable magic? Rally the troops and place your votes! Voting will be open until the start of TORn Tuesday on Tuesday April 9th; we’ll take a look back over the contest and reveal this year’s Grand Winner during the show. But which moment will it be? That’s up to YOU – vote now!
And then there were four… It is semi-final time in Middle-earth March Madness 2024: Magical Moments – from 64 starters, we’re down to just our bracket winners remaining. Which magical happening has emerged triumphant from each division? Let’s take a look:
The Hobbit Division
Alas! Speaking personally, I (staffer greendragon) was really hoping the Moon Runes would win this bracket. TORn staffers had voted those glowing, secret runes the #1 seed in this group; but the power of the Ring is of course not easily overcome, and the #2 seed took the lead and held on to it. The margin wasn’t huge – this was the closest contest across all the brackets this round, and only a little over 50 votes came between them – but Bilbo’s disappearing act is the winner here.
Bilbo’s Ring Turns Him Invisible (2)
The Fellowship of the Ring Division
We saw the widest margin of the Elite Eight in this bracket; no amount of saying ‘Mellon’ could overcome Gandalf’s epic conquest of the Balrog. The last act of Gandalf the Grey (seeded #6) garnered twice as many votes as Durin’s magical doors (which were actually seeded higher, at #5), so the wizard goes through to the Final Four.
Gandalf Confronts the Balrog with Glamdring and the Flame of Anor (6)
The Two Towers Division
Gandalf on Gandalf action was the order of the day in this regional final! These moments are two kinds of resurrections – Mithrandir’s own, returning as Gandalf the White; and the rediscovery of his strength by Theoden, as Gandalf releases him from Saruman’s spell. The choice was pretty clear right from the start of voting, with the wizard’s return from the dead taking the lead and keeping it. Gandalf the White goes through to face an invisible Bilbo.
Gandalf the White Returns from the Dead (1)
The Return of the King Division
It looked like those Riders of Rohan might sweep all the way to ultimate victory, repeating their 2020 glory, when they were Champions in the battle amongst scenes from Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth movies. But it was not to be. By a larger margin than might have been expected, taking 1.5 times as many votes, the triumph of ‘No man’ over the Witch-king won this regional final.
The Witch-king Is Destroyed by “No Man” (1)
Eowyn slays the Witch-king, by Stephen Walsh
Staffer Madeye Gamgee had these thoughts on what we’ve seen so far – and what is to come!
Other than the FotR region, the OneRing staff ended up forecasting our final seeds fairly well, with two # 1 seeds (the Resurrection of Gandalf the White and the Death of the Witch King), and one #2 (Bilbo’s Discovery of the One Ring). The lowest seed left in the tournament comes from the FotR Region, the epic battle between the Flame of Udûn and the Flame of Anor wielded by Gandalf.
We’re left with some truly epic magic in the Final Four, and it’s really anybody’s tournament to win:
The first appearance of the One Ring, its true power still largely veiled
One of the most epic Maiar battles in the entire legendarium, as Gandalf and the Balrog face off on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm
The return from death by the super-charged Gandalf the White as he replaces Saruman as the true leader of powerful resistance against the reign of Sauron
The fulfillment of long prophecy of the fall of the Witch King of Angmar, a combination of a humble hobbit wielding a spell-lace Númenórean blade, and desperate Dernhelm revealed to deliver her final coup de grâce to destroy Sauron’s chief lieutenant
Will it be a Gandalf vs. Gandalf finale? Only if his White-robed persona can overcome the Power of the Ring, and his Balrog-battered bridge match can move past the crowd favorite, a climactic contest between Éowyn and the Lord of the Nazgûl. Could we see Gandalf the White versus Gandalf the Grey in the championship match?
Will the One Ring prove its Power at last, with the Black Speech echoing across Middle-earth? Ash nazg durbatulûk indeed!
Will we see one of Tolkien’s most beloved scenes and themes, the triumph of the weak over seemingly insurmountable strength, embodied by a Shieldmaiden of Rohan, resound in victory even as her opponent wails and fades, powerless before her?
Only the magical Tolkien fandom can tell.
Place your votes! Now that we are down to the Final Four, we’ll just have one bracket to vote. Use the embedded experience below, or click here. Then click the ‘Vote Now’ option that appears at the top left of the page. Let’s get voting!
You have until the end of the day Saturday April 6th to vote in Round Five; Sunday 7th we’ll open voting for the Championship round. And then join us for TORn Tuesday on April 9th, when we’ll reveal this year’s Grand Winner! But which moment will it be? That’s up to YOU – vote now!
We’re already half way through Middle-earth March Madness 2024: Magical Moments – and now just eight contenders remain, as we reach the final round in each division. So how did the third round play out? Let’s take a look:
The Hobbit Division
We could have seen the final in this bracket being between the Moon Runes and the setting sun, both indicating the way into the Lonely Mountain. It was not to be; though the Moon Runes did beat the conversation with Smaug, the power of the One Ring could not be undone – by a very narrow margin of just over 40 votes, Bilbo’s disappearing act defeated the revealing of the secret door on Durin’s Day. So we have the first and second seeds in this division up against each other for the ‘regional final’:
Moon Runes Appear on Thrain’s Map (1)
Bilbo’s Ring Turns Him Invisible (2)
The Fellowship of the Ring Division
Last round we saw the closest battle in this bracket; but here in the Sweet Sixteen, both contests had pretty wide margins, with around 300 votes difference between the winners and the losers. This time, the Ring turning Bilbo invisible did NOT beat an entryway associated with Durin; the door to Moria is through to the regional final. Meanwhile water and fire had a show down – Gandalf’s river horses vs his confrontation with the Balrog. It’s the battle with the ancient demon which is still in the contest:
Durin’s Doors Open at the Right Password (5)
Gandalf Confronts the Balrog with Glamdring and the Flame of Anor (6)
Password into Moria, by Ted Nasmith
The Two Towers Division
The march of the Ents has come to an end! As we expected might happen, Gandalf’s return to life defeated them, with two thirds of the vote. More wizardly skill won the other Sweet Sixteen duel in this region, with Gandalf’s healing of Theoden taking three quarters of the vote against the Ent-draught.
Gandalf the White Returns from the Dead (1)
Gandalf Heals Theoden from Saruman’s Curse (3)
The Return of the King Division
Two massive battles in this bracket: two acts of destruction (the Fall of the Witch-king vs the final destruction of the One Ring) in one duel, with far lower seeded events (Rohan arriving to battle vs the regeneration of the Shire) making up the other.
Both contests were fairly close. For a while it looked as though Sam and his work in the Shire might be victorious, but those Riders from Rohan once again swept to victory, with about 100 votes between them in the end. The Witch-king and the Ring had half that number of votes between them – and this time the power of the Ring WAS undone! Ultimately voters felt that the wraith’s defeat by ‘No Man’ was a more powerfully magical moment than Mount Doom’s melting powers. So our final match-up in this division is:
The Witch-king Is Destroyed by “No Man” (1)
Rohan Arrives on the Pelennor Fields as the Rooster Crows (14)
Eowyn slays the Witch-king, by Stephen Walsh
Staffer Madeye Gamgee shared some of his thoughts on what lies ahead:
Moving on to the Elite (or Einior — Sindarin for Elder) Eight:
Gandalf continues to be the big dog of this Magical Moments tournament, with a direct contribution to three of our final eight magical moments, plus a strong assist at the Doors of Durin
The power of the One Ring proved more feeble than some could have guessed, with only Bilbo’s original discovery of the Ring of Power in the Hobbit making it to the final eight.
Three of the four #1 seeds as ranked by the OneRing staff have made it to the final eight: Moon Runes, Gandalf the White, and the Witch King Goes Down. The staff also successfully called a number 2 and 3 seed which are still alive in the tournament (Bilbo’s Invisibility Ring and Theoden’s Healing).
The FotR region seemed to befuddle our staff, though, with all four top seeds already out of the tournament. That leaves a #5 seed (Durin’s Doors) and #6 (a Balrog Battle) to fight it out for the Final Four spot.
The “Cinderella” of the tournament, the #15 seed Rohan arriving on the Pelennor Fields, may be simply a sleeper. A perpetual fan favorite (and one of JRR Tolkien’s as well), those stirring horns of the Rohirrim as the rooster crows still resonate. But can they overcome Eowyn’s “I am no man” moment?
There’s still some mighty magic yet to come!
Place your votes! In case you need a reminder, here’s how it works: click on one of the orange division buttons below. Then click the ‘Vote Now’ option that appears above the divisional bracket. This year, as with last year, you get to vote in each divisional match-up in one convenient and visual interface. Note – you need to click each division to vote in their respective brackets. So let’s get voting!
You have until the end of the day Tuesday April 2nd to vote in Round Four; on TORn Tuesday that evening we’ll discuss the likely results and the story so far! Wednesday 3rd we’ll open voting for the Final Four. Will Rohan ride their way to victory? YOU decide – vote now!
