Collecting Tolkien

As pointed out in a previous blog entry my main collecting obsession is anything J R R Tolkien.

I started collecting Tolkien stuff after reading the best book ever written, Lord Of The Rings, in the late 70s. I used to read LOTR regularly, at least every year (although I stopped doing this after about 15 years as I didn't have time due to other reading, but I do still read it every so often).

Initially my collection was very limited. I would get a Tolkien calendar each year and would pick up any copies of the LOTR or the Hobbit books that I found.

I first came across other Tolkien stuff through my board game playing, I found a Tolkien board game 'The Games of Middle Earth' which is excellent, although I didn't get my own copy of this until some years later.

Throughout my 20s and 30s I would pick up a few bits and pieces, the BBC Radio Drama of LOTR was very good, there were some Citadel gaming figures.

But there were 2 things which greatly increased my Tolkien collecting.

First was eBay. When I found this I not only came across all sorts of things I didn't know existed (well the internet in general helped with this) but also the place to buy them. Funds were, and still are, limited but I did pick up quite a lot of bargains in the early years of eBay. These days bargains are not so easy to find.

Second was the LOTR films. When these came out the amount of stuff available became enormous. Not only from the films themselves, but also from the increase in general interest in Tolkien.

The next thing to mention is how huge the world of Tolkien stuff is, there is actually so much which can be collected.

For example Tolkien books is the obvious collecting area and he did only write 2 main books, so how big an area can that be. Well the LOTR was originally published as 3 different books, the first one in

1954 and each of these 3 has been published at least once every year since. They have also been published together and even as 7 separate books. There are also Hardback and Paperback versions. There are also different impressions of each book, the 1st Edition Fellowship of the Ring has 15 impressions. And also special, anniversary, event etc additions. Tolkien also wrote quite a lot of smaller books and stories which have also been published in many different versions. He also left a lot of unpublished stories and works (the most famous being The Silmarillion) which have also been published in different versions. There are also many, many books published about Tolkien and his works. And not forgetting foreign versions of everything. And also all the film related books! So just Tolkien books is a huge area.

There is far too much to be able to collect everything, it is almost impossible to be a completest in even the smallest of areas, you should really specialise in specific Areas. If you look at the Internet you will find sites dedicated just to Tolkien Books, Tolkien Calendars, Tolkien Computer Games, Tolkien Board Games etc. Saying this, I must admit that I do collect almost anything I can, but I focus more on some specific areas.

I don't specialise in the books, although I do have quite a few, for example about 35 copies of The Fellowship Of the Ring. I also don't collect the film statues, replicas and ornaments as these are just too expensive.

My main areas of interest are Calendars, Board Games, Records, Bakshi Movie and Computer Games.

I also have quite a large collection of Action Figures.

I am not an 'expert' collector in any area and do not go after the rarest things at any cost. I don't pay huge money for things just to have them.

I hope to go into the areas of my collection in more detail in future entries but this is a rough overview:
Tolkien Books (285 items)
Tolkien Related Books (114 items)

Bookmarks (10 items)

Calendars (89 items)
Vinyl - Lp's and Singles (30 items)

Audio (45 items)

Video (58 items)

Computer Games (103 items)
Toys (65)

Jigsaw Puzzles (47 items)
Board Games (105 items)

War and Roleplaying Games (553 items)
Action Figures (349 items)

Dolls and Figures (54)
Statues and Ornaments (291 items)

Art (21)

Cards & Stickers (163 items)

Postcards (26 items)

Stationary (37 items)

Stamps (35 items)

Magazines (480 items)

Posters (47 items)

Clothing (41 items)

Promotional - Food Related (30 items)

Promotional - Merchandise (120)

Promotional - Retail (31 items)

Promotional - Scrapbook (72 items)

Other (50 items)

Total items: 3351

It should be noted that there are overlaps between various areas and some items may be counted more than once.

As well as Areas there are also Themes, which cover items from lots of different areas all with the same thing in common. A specific theme can often be more rewarding to collect than a whole area. There are some very big themes such as each of the books (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings etc), or the Movies or a specific character (Frodo, Gandalf, Gollum etc). There are however a lot of smaller themes. These are the some of the themes I am interested in:

Bakshi Movie (60 items)

Hilderandt Artists (11 items)

BBC Dramatisation

LOTR Musical

Lego (58 items)

I also have a collection of autographs, mainly actors from the movies, whom I have met at various conventions (yes I am that nerdy).

My biggest problem is that I don't have the room to display any of my collection and it is currently all in storage.

For a brief glimpse of my collection, have a look here.

I will also be producing some blog entries on Tolkien Collecting Guides, covering a specific area from an interest perspective rather than about my own collection. Obviously some areas, such as books, are already very well covered by other people/sites, so I will only look at areas not very well covered.

Occasionally I will also be doing Tolkien Collecting Musings, on bits and pieces I have found which are just interesting.

Here is an Index to the Guides and Musings.