Woooooo! That Lord of the Rings box actually had a complete set in it! Literally the
last two cards in the
last pack were the ones I needed. I ripped it open looking for #68 and #44 and there they were. THE LAST TWO CARDS POSSIBLE. It was the trading card equivalent of Chipper Jones hitting a walk-off home run for the Braves in game 7 of the World Series against the 1927 Zombie Yankees and then circling the bases and beating Osama Bin Laden to death in the on-deck circle with the bat he hit the homer with and then immediately hopping into the stands getting down on his knees and proposing to Britney Spears who says yes and they kiss on the kiss cam after the cameraman showed two fat guys in Mets caps who refused to play along and everyone went booo but then Chipper and Britney kissed and everyone went awwww fireworks went off and they get married by Hank Aaron right on home plate and Bud Selig gives Chipper the Championship trophy as a wedding gift and Britney finally straightens her life out and joins the PTA and they have a bunch of kids who fight crime and cure cancer while playing in a rock group. It was
exactly like that.
Here's my favorite card from each subset in celebration of this momentous occasion.
Cards 2-12 Portraits
Artist
John Alvin painted this smokin' hot portrait of Eowyn. Sexay
and she'll kick your ass. Faramir is a lucky dude.
Cards 13-36 Paintings
RAAAAR. DRAGON EAT FRODO. Lord of the Rings production artist
John Howe painted this fierce beastie menacing poor little Frodo.
Cards 37-45 Costume Designs
I don't care a flip about the costume sketches, but Good Lord, LOOK AT THOSE BIG FEETS
Cards 46-64 EA Paintings
I think these are all pics from the videogame. They were ok, but not spectacular. I liked Arwen sneakin' through the woods on theback of this card best.
Cards 65-72 Caricatures
DWARF NINJA!!!!!!!!! HIIIIIIYA!Cards 73-81 New Visions - Chiarello
Mark Chiarello is one of my
favorite artists. It was tough picking a favorite, the card of Gandalf staring down the Balrog up at the top of the post was also by him. There was a cool Gollum card I didn't even scan because I didn't want this to become the all-
Mark Chiarello post. I finally chose this painting of Saruman because Christopher Lee kicks major ass.
Cards 82-89 New Visions - Sturzan
Drew Sturzan did the other half of the New Vision art. It's good, but I like the paintings better. This card caused me to have a horrible realization though. Smeagol is pretty much stark raving nude the whole movie. I'm not sure what it says about me that one of my favorite movie characters is a crazy little naked dude.
Foil Art Cards
In addition to the comploete set I pulled 5 foil cards (1:4) including two Gimlis. Thanks to the ghostly white art on them, they scan amazingly well.
Etched Foil Puzzle Cards
I got three of these suckers too (1:6) that make up half the set. The cards fit together like a puzzle when you put them together. They look a hell of a lot better than the scan and remind me of the old Fleer Metal Universe cards. The artist is
Rafael Kayanan who has got a pretty nifty blog.
I can't believe I got the whole set in one box! That never happens to me! I've still got 42 cards and that Gimli insert left over. If someone else out there needs a couple of cards for this set let me know this weekend. Otherwise, if someone will send me a neat non sports card or two, I'll send you the rest of the doubles. I'll send it off Monday, so make your offers.
