Budk has some awesome new items coming to fans over the next few months.
The first amazing piece coming from them is The Horn of Gondor, that we saw Boromir carry and use during The Fellowship of the Ring. The size of the horn, overall is 19”, it is made of finely cast polyresin, with precisely-molded details for the look of real polished brass and steer horn. The horn comes with a 62” genuine leather shoulder strap and a polystone wall display, sculpted with the Tree of Gondor Motif. Fans will also get a certificate of authenticity with their replica. Collectors can place their pre-order right now for $169 with it expected to ship in February of next year.
During Sideshow Collectibles Comic-Con at-home event, they showed us a preview of a brand new Defo-Real figure and now we’ve been surprised with another.
Collectors got to see a preview of the Morgul Lord Defo-Real figure, which is limited to only 500 pieces. Fans can grab him right now for $90, with a ship date of quarter one of next year.
The surprise for collectors is we can now also pre-order a Treebeard Defo-real figure. He’s not alone though, as you also get a little Merry and Pippin who are taking a ride on Treebeard. Fans will be able to get these three characters for $105 with a shipping date of quarter one of next year as well.
We saw Thranduil on Throne during our friends at Weta Workshop’s Comic-Con at home. It’s the next superb piece in their Masters Collection series, and it goes live for pre-orders on Tuesday, September 15th.
These Masters Collection pieces do not last long, and with only 400 of these being made, that streak is going to continue. Collectors should log into their accounts before it goes live (times listed below) and be ready to be quick with the order button.
It’s that time of year, when fans from the world over gather in downtown Atlanta, for a weekend for well-mannered frivolity. Or crazed depravity. Or, most likely, some combination of the two. This year, alas, coronavirus means no in-person DragonCon, which is sad for all those who are missing seeing friends there. But it’s great new for anyone who has never been able to get to Atlanta, as this year you can join the fun online! And there is PLENTY going on for fans of Middle-earth. Let’s take a look…
Staffers deej and greendragon will be taking part as ever, and TheOneRing.net’s panel will be online at 11.30am ET on Saturday (5th). There, deej and greendragon will be joined by High Fantasy Track assistant director Madeye Gamgee, who was recently lured into joining the TORn staff. We’ll be looking back on the past 12 months of Tolkien fandom, and looking forward to see what we can be excited about in the year ahead. (Spoiler: there’s actually rather a lot!)
Before that, on Friday evening at 8.30pm ET we’ll be hosting a Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (EE) watch along. Set up your own device, and we’ll all hit play together at 9pm precisely; and text chat along as we watch. AND earlier on Friday, you can catch a panel with none other than Nori, Ori, Bombur and Bifur: Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, Stephen Hunter and William Kircher will be appearing together to chat all things dwarvish!
There are lots of other things happening which will be of interest to Tolkien fans. Here’s a list of highlights of the con weekend, beginning this evening:
Tolkien Come to Virtual Dragon Con High Fantasy Schedule 2020 (all times are Eastern Daylight)
Thursday, Sept. 3
9-10 pm
Sylvester McCoy (from 2011)
D*C Classics
10-11 pm
We Have Always Fought: Warrior Women in High Fantasy
D*C Fan Tracks
Friday, Sept. 4
10–11 am
Greg Hildebrandt Spotlight
D*C Main
5:30–6:30 pm
Dwarves on the Loose!(Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher)
D*C Main
8:30 pm onward
Watch-a-Thon! Fellowship of the Ring (hitting “play” together at 9 pm EDT)
And as if that weren’t enough… We are also excited to let you know that there WILL be TORn t-shirts available! You’ll be able to order them online, and we’ll be revealing the designs for 2020 in our panel on Saturday, 11.30am ET. So please join us then! We’ll also post links here for buying, after Saturday’s reveal.
It’s all happening at DragonCon 2020. We may not be able to gather in person, but we can still have merry meetings online; see you for panels, movie viewing, and more. Let the fun begin!
Big thanks to everyone who entered the contest run by our good friends at Oscha Slings, to come up with a new Middle-earth design! We hear there were many lovely entries, and it was very hard to make a choice; but we can now announce the winner. Here’s what the folks at Oscha tell us:
‘We’d like to thank everyone who entered the competition, it was wonderful to see the range of ideas and talents! The winner is *drumroll*….
‘Cari Johnston with her (yet unnamed) mirrored depiction of the journey to Lake-town and the Lonely Mountain, from The Hobbit. It’s such a clever design, with so many story-telling elements, that has been well executed to work as a baby sling.
‘We could see a lot of enthusiasm for designs that were already on our list, so hopefully you will eventually get something that you’ve been dreaming of, for instance horses, eagles, and Gandalf!
‘We hope you can agree that Cari is a worthy winner, and that you will look forward to seeing the design woven!’
Congratulations to Cari, and thanks to all who entered. Don’t forget to check out the many wonderful Middle-earth goodies (including face masks!) at Oscha Slings.
Daedalic Entertainment’s upcoming stealth-based game “The Lord of the Rings: Gollum” had its first teaser trailer drop a couple of days ago on gaming and entertainment company IGN’s YouTube channel.
It’s been a while since we’ve had a decent LOTR game and while this upcoming release focuses on the non-hero non-Fellowship type character, it’s nice to see Tolkien’s world getting some mainstream gaming action.
Also unlike previous LOTR games, Gollum will take on a different play style, moving away from swords, bows and arrows etc in favour of stealthy traversal. Stealth and vertical parkour-style movement will be familiar to fans of game franchises like Assassins Creed, Prince of Persia etc.
It’s not all stealth-play though as lead game designer Martin Wilkes describes the combat “Gollum doesn’t use weapons, but he can distract enemies with throwables. In parts of the game, he will also profit from the abilities of special allies and can use the environment to his advantage.”.
Outside of gameplay mechanics, the game will focus more on Tolkien’s original story and drawings along with some common themes shared with the movies. “Peter Jackson’s movies are fantastic but our game is based on the original book license,” continues Martin. “Our world follows the same descriptions and is also in parts inspired by the same artworks as were the movies. Their influence on popular culture has been tremendous, so we have to be mindful of players who might only know Middle-earth from the two film trilogies.”
What about the story and Gollum himself? “Gollum’s overall goal in the game?” adds Wilkes. “Well, that’s a bit more complicated. Obviously, Gollum wants to escape his captors and retake the Ring (and hopefully get his hands on some nice fish along the way). After some time, though, the Sméagol-side causes trouble and distractions and opens up new, conflicting goals that we cannot talk about yet.”
“The Lord of the Rings: Gollum” is releasing in 2021 for PS5, Xbox Series X and PC.
Budk has some awesome new items coming to fans over the next few months.
