The Tolkien Mega-Thread

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Where are these from? Err I mean where can I get them?

Weta Mini Epics...

 
I hear there's a fairly popular game that has hobbits, dwarves and elves as core player options and involves the pcs going on long journeys as fellowship members and delving into dangerous underground places like the Mines of Moria.
 



Yeah, I still have mine.

I kinda wish the LOTR revival in the wake of the films would have brought some more merchandise nods to the Bakshi animated film, as flawed as it was. It was a huge part of my childhood.

The Royal Doulton figures were pretty nice

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They even did a Tom Bombadil one based on concept art that never made it into the final film

royal-doulton-lord-rings-hobbit-tom_1_461f459edd7904e67ad2b4b9cf6ee367.jpg
 
Yeah, I still have mine.

I kinda wish the LOTR revival in the wake of the films would have brought some more merchandise nods to the Bakshi animated film, as flawed as it was. It was a huge part of my childhood.

The Royal Doulton figures were pretty nice

View attachment 33522


They even did a Tom Bombadil one based on concept art that never made it into the final film

View attachment 33523
Why does Gandalf look like he's holding a baby?
 
Hey now, the author said he totally hated Tolkien and he wasn't an influence at all....

Granted, only after the Tolkien Estate threatened to sue him, but I'm sure the timing was a coincidence...
I don't have the quotes right at hand, but my impression has been that while Gary's reaction to LotR was more ambivalence* than hatred. His feelings may have been exacerbated by his players liking it much more and badgering him into including elements in his game - indeed, in those early editions Tolkien's contributions are for the most part either monsters or classes, both kind of superficial additions. The base rules, structure, and play experience of the game really favor the more sword-and-sorcery fantasy that Gary evidently preferred.

As for threatening letters from the lawyers, I'm not sure that was as big a deal as it's sometimes made out to be, since the Estate was apparently satisfied with hobbits being renamed . . . halflings. Did they not read the book they owned?

*Come to think of it, there's sort of a parallel with that time L. Sprague de Camp badgered Tolkien into saying he rather liked Conan. He may very well have enjoyed Howard's work, but that interaction comes off as a bit . . . polite. Maybe it's just my bias against de Camp. :wink:
 
As for threatening letters from the lawyers, I'm not sure that was as big a deal as it's sometimes made out to be, since the Estate was apparently satisfied with hobbits being renamed . . . halflings. Did they not read the book they owned?

Probably. They also probably listened to their lawyers' advice that the term "halfling" has been in folkloric circulation for many centuries, and couldn't be copyrighted any more than orcs, elves, dwarves or trolls could.

But beyond that, there's another factor. As it happens, GURPS Scarlet Pimpernel wasn't the Swashbucklers book I was going to write for Steve Jackson. I was greenlighted to do a Zorro book, whee, plenty of swashing there. At least until Disney sent a cease-and-desist to SJG, claiming that they held the copyright to Zorro.

Which they most certainly fucking did not: Zorro was then and still is public domain. But what Disney does have are more lawyers than GURPS has books in print, a corporate counsel's budget greater than SJG's net revenues to date, and a renowned willingness to use them. A fight not remotely worth waging.

So one kinda figures that a game company in the 1970s decided it made a lot more sense to change the names of hobbits and balrogs instead of getting into a pissing match that'd cost them a hell of a lot of money even if they won. Which likely they wouldn't have.
 
GW has just caused the shutdown of a host of Youtube channels using the same fear tactics.
 
They sold these at B&N a couple years ago. I actually have the Frodo that I acquired somewhere else. They are pretty nice.


It's frustrating because I know I couldn't just buy one. But I keep telling myself I have them all already in miniature form, I don't need more toys...

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It's frustrating because I know I couldn't just buy one. But I keep telling myself I have them all already in miniature form, I don't need more toys...

View attachment 34098
As a wee lad I collected the magazine sets for the LotR miniatures game and I almost had a completed Fellowship collection... Eventually it just got too expensive.
 
As a wee lad I collected the magazine sets for the LotR miniatures game and I almost had a completed Fellowship collection... Eventually it just got too expensive.

were those a UK exclusive thing? I've seen them on ebay since, but never at the time they were around
 
TristramEvans TristramEvans After you posted that one set of figures of the Lord of the Rings etc, I went to the website and after spending 30 minutes on it I decided I had to slowly back away otherwise i'd try to get them all. Which would cause my wife to commit grievous bodily harm upon me. I'm just gonna say I made my wisdom saving throw so I could live another day.
 
Though I will admit I do have the Weta website bookmarked. For future research purposes only of course. (stares off)
 
Though I will admit I do have the Weta website bookmarked. For future research purposes only of course. (stares off)

Yeah, especially with the Labyrinth ones starting to come out, I still occasionally peruse through making a Will Power test roll. We'll see if that holds up if there's a Black Friday sale this year...
 
Amusing this came up as I spent Monday evening putting together LEGO Hobbit and Lord of the Rings figures from the pile of LEGO the neighbor gave me a few weeks ago... It's cool to get some of these that I chose not to buy when they came out (and now I regret). So my armies of orcs, elves, and dwarves is increasing. I just need to decide what to do with the hobbit figures. Probably turn them into kids or regular humans depending (I don't have hobbits in my LEGO Castle World...).
 
Tolkien Letters #211 to Rhona Beare said:
Pterodactyl. Yes and no. I did not intend the steed of the Witch-King to be what is now called a ‘pterodactyl’, and often is drawn (with rather less shadowy evidence than lies behind many monsters of the new and fascinating semi-scientific mythology of the ‘Prehistoric’). But obviously it is pterodactylic and owes much to the new mythology, and its description even provides a sort of way in which it could be a last survivor of older geological eras.

"Fearsome Dragon” Discovered That Soared Over Australian Outback : Australia’s largest flying reptile has been uncovered, a pterosaur with an estimated seven-meter wingspan that soared like a dragon above the ancient, vast inland sea once covering much of outback Queensland. University of Queensland PhD candidate Tim Richards, from the Dinosaur Lab in UQ’s School of Biological Sciences, led a research team that analyzed a fossil of the creature’s jaw, discovered on Wanamara Country, near Richmond in North West Queensland. “The new pterosaur, which we named Thapunngaka shawi, would have been a fearsome beast, with a spear-like mouth and a massive wingspan around seven meters. Mr. Richards said the skull alone would have been just over one meter long, containing around 40 teeth, perfectly suited to grasping the many fishes known to inhabit Queensland’s no-longer-existent Eromanga Sea"

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