Ringgamer's Report From DragonCon
Staff Reporter

DragonCon is an incredible conglomeration of just about every fandom that exists under the umbrella of sci-fi and fantasy. Goths mingle with stormtroopers, fairies flit about Klingons, gamers avoid the vampires (because gamers make good snacks at 3 am)…and amid the 24-hour chaos lies Middle-earth. The Tolkien track isn’t very big – yet. With FOTR coming out in December, everyone has high hopes that next year’s DragonCon Tolkien/Middle-Earth track will be much more fun and interesting. I only went to perhaps two or three events offered by the track, but then again, I had other fandoms to exploit as well.

My friends Taish and lizard and I sported the first-ever movie-replica costumes for Lord of the Rings on Saturday, day 2 of the con. Taish was a hastily-concocted Legolas, while lizard was Frodo and I was good ol’ Sam Gamgee. I spent months researching these costumes, and even though I knew I didn’t get Legolas’ jerkin right, I was pretty close. TheOneRing.Net wanted to see these costumes, and so did the people at the Sideshow/Weta booth. I had been by there earlier in Jedi robes just to look at the incredible figurines and busts they will be offering, and was told by the sculptor present that if we came by in our LOTR costumes, he’d let us take closeup pictures of the Legolas figurine and any others I wanted to get costume reference from. What a deal! However, when we went there to look for him, he was gone and wouldn’t be back in time to see the costumes. Yet, he did live up to his promise the next day and I got to talk shop with him for a while. I regret that I don’t know his name so I can thank him personally, but he was a great guy and very well informed about Weta’s work on this project.

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