rAge 2018 Loot Haul

rAge Expo 2018 was an absolute blast. We saved up for a long time beforehand so that we could buy some really geektastic merchandise, and it was so worth it!

In addition to purchasing items on our respective wishlists, we also won quite a few items at the Table Realms stand, so we ended up leaving with way more figurines than planned (not that we are complaining).

Have a look at all the wonderful figurines, games, shirts, and other items that we got. But be warned: you may suffer from an acute case of loot fever after reading this.

Marius models his new Tracer shirt (Overwatch) from BT Games

Back view of the Overwatch T-shirt

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. pins! We got these at the Fallout 76 stand.

A pink llama fridge magnet that came with purchasing Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse

Epson printed out pictures for free, to show off their printing technology

Personalised disc covers from the Castle Lite tent. We love these!

We also purchased some actual games, not just gaming-related merch.

Another of our favourite purchases were the rAge 2018 T-shirts

Legend of Zelda shirt! We haven't played Legend of Zelda yet, but this shirt was too cool to resist.

Annalene tests out the new Link shirt.

The Witcher hoodie will come in handy next winter

Annalene went a bit wild purchasing Witcher merchandise... T-shirt, hoodie, and a Geralt figurine

A shirt we won at the Table Realms stall. It features two unicorns from the Dash Pop game.

Skyrim keychain

Yes, this is real.

Marius holds our second major board game purchase. It's Viking-themed!

We also got hold of some Ticket to Ride expansions. We've played the base game so many times, that it was time for an upgrade.

This should come in handy with the next cosplay. Check them out at Frogz Eggz.

So this was actually a prize Marius won at Table Realms. They had major giveaways.

The figurine is really expensive if you want to buy it, so thank you Table Realms for the prize!

This is Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda. 

Amazing detail, and a really big figurine!

Ganondorf from the back.

Catwoman was also a reward from Table Realms.

We both love Lord of the Rings, but we do not own a lot of LOTR merchandise, so we added Gandalf to our collection.

This was free loot from Table Realms. We're not big My Little Pony fans, but she looked kind of emo, so we took her home.

Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Back view of the Geralt figure

Atreus from God of War. Another prize we won by playing at Table Realms.

We also kept the beer glasses from the Castle Lite tent. It's not often that you get a beer tent that's gaming-themed!

Here's a pic of us playing Drift Frenzy at Table Realms. Look out for a blog post on the whole rAge experience!

Lord of the Rings collection

Today, we'd like to share our Lord of the Rings gear with you. We've made our love for Star Wars and superheroes pretty clear by now, but both of us are also huge Tolkien fans! And as an added bonus, we happen to live in JRR Tolkien's birth town - Bloemfontein, South Africa.

When we moved in together, we actually had doubles of the Lord of the Rings books and DVDs, so we gave away the extras and combined our collections.

We actually bought Andúril (Aragorn's sword) for our wedding - perhaps one day we'll have a blog post on that - so that was our first combined Lord of the Rings purchase. Unfortunately, Middle Earth craze seems to be subsiding a bit, so epic Lord of the Rings gear is in short supply in most places. We found the sword in a very random Chinese toy shop in Bloemfontein - someone else had ordered it, but never came to pay for it / pick it up, so the owners let us have it. Score!

There are different opinions on the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movie adaptations, but both of us have agreed never to speak of the Hobbit movies.

In addition to the collection pictured below, we also have a bunch of Lord of the Rings games (most of them digitally purchased, borrowed or sold, so not pictured): Shadow of Mordor (PS4), Lord of the Rings War in the North (PS3), Lego Lord of the Rings (PS Vita), Battle for Middle Earth (PC), and Lord of the Rings Conquest (PC).

So without any further ado, here are the pictures:

The full collection

The trilogy

The Hobbit and The Silmarillion (both great reads)

A nice coffee table book

Inside the Tolkien Illustrated Encyclopedia

Really nice art book

Inside the Illustrated Atlas

Gollum with his favourite snack

This came with Marius' copy of the Extended DVD version of The Two Towers

More Gollum

No collection is complete without the One Ring

My Precious... This came with a Lego Lord of the Rings pre-order (BT Games)

Extended DVD collection - a must for any true fan

This shows why the Extended DVDs are worth it

Andúril

Blade, sheath and knife

The knife fits into the sheath

Andúril can also be used for cake cutting :)