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Vintage Lord Of The Rings Book Box Set Is 55% Off For Prime Big Deal Days
Game Updates

Vintage Lord Of The Rings Book Box Set Is 55% Off For Prime Big Deal Days

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Amazon’s early Prime Big Deal Days sale features a wide assortment of excellent book deals, including steep discounts on a bunch of popular fantasy and sci-fi box sets. As usual, some of the most popular deals take readers back to Middle-earth. One of the standouts is a beloved 3-book box set of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings with artwork by Alan Lee on the front covers and beautiful display box. Prime members can get this vintage hardcover box set for only $40.79 (was $90), which is the lowest price this year.

After you’re done checking out the vintage box set, read on for more superb deals on Tolkien box sets, such as The Complete History of Middle-earth for $80.65 (was $250), and budget-friendly Collector’s Editions like The Hobbit for $11.33 and The Silmarillion for $12.26. With Prime Big Deal Days set for October 7-8, you can expect to see even more great promotions on Tolkien books in the coming days.

$40.79 (was $90) | Artwork by Alan Lee

One of the most popular modern editions of The Lord of the Rings, the 1988 hardcover box set offers the most economical way to get editions with cover and box art illustrated by Alan Lee. Widely considered to be the best artist who has worked on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, Alan Lee’s Middle-earth landscape paintings and Middle-earth maps are gorgeous.

The box set has wrap-around art on the slipcase that matches the covers of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. Each cover resembles a painting, as the full-color illustrations have ornate frames with detailed patterns. These editions also come with fold-out maps of Middle-earth during the Third Age. Each book concludes with a section of appendices filled with fascinating reference material and background information.

The muted color palette combined with the classical typeface and faded yellow dust jackets makes these editions look appropriately vintage. Even over 45 years later, though, these editions are among the most beautiful you can buy today. It’s not surprising these hardcover editions and the box set remain in print. Across all three volumes, the 1988 edition of LOTR is 1,214 pages.

You can check out the cover designs of each of the three volumes below. Each hardcover is also sold separately, but you’d wind up spending roughly $50 and won’t get the lovely display box.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (1988 editions)

As mentioned, the 1988 editions are the most affordable with cover art by Alan Lee, but there are editions filled with incredible illustrations by the artist. Last year, William Morrow published a remastered edition of the phenomenal 1992 Centenary Edition of The Lord of the Rings. The collector’s set carries a $325 retail price, but it’s also on sale in Amazon’s early Prime Big Deal Days sale. You can get The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set for only $135.09 (58% off). This three-volume set is packaged in a custom cloth board display box and features over 50 new illustrations and drawings by Lee. The books themselves have cloth board cases and are quarterbound in leather. Check out our dedicated story on The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set to see why these editions are so special.

In October, William Morrow will publish a four-book box set with Alan Lee’s illustrations for $139.50 (was $150). This edition is notable because it also comes with The Hobbit. All four hardcover volumes have wrap-around dust jacket illustrations. Before you preorder a copy: This edition originally released in 2020 in the UK, and you can buy that version for considerably less at Amazon, too.

All five matching hardcover editions are steeply discounted.

Amazon’s early sale has also brought deals on last year’s budget-friendly Lord of the Rings Collector’s Edition hardcovers. These editions are similar in size to the 1988 editions, but they have a more modernized look, with stained edges, foil-stamped cover art, maps on the interior covers, and ribbon bookmarks. Matching editions of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion were published, too.

All five of these $35 hardcover editions are on sale for $15 or less. The Hobbit is only $11.33, and The Silmarillion is just $12.26. There is a box set with the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings, but it’s cheaper to buy each book separately at the moment.

Amazon’s sale also includes The Complete History of Middle-earth, a massive 5,440-page box set collecting all 12 volumes of The History of Middle-earth across three hardcovers. The $250 hardcover box set has dropped to only $80.65–the lowest price ever. We also have a dedicated story about The History of Middle-earth that’s worth reading, as it also details the 2024 box set series featuring 15 History of Middle-earth books across four decorative box sets.

William Morrow continued its Tolkien box set project over the summer with a pair of beautiful hardcover collections. Tolkien Myths and Legends, a four-book box set containing epic poems and classic myths written or translated by Tolkien. This collection released in June, but it’s up for grabs for only $51 (was $125) for Prime Big Deal Days. The sixth box set in the series, a new edition of The Great Tales of Middle-earth–a hardcover collection of three posthumously published novels–released in August and is on sale for $75 (was $125).

More J.R.R. Tolkien Book Deals

Other notable Tolkien book deals include The Nature of Middle-earth, a collection of the author’s final writings on the fantasy world he brought to life. The Nature of Middle-earth’s hardcover edition is on sale for only $12 (was $32). The History of The Hobbit, meanwhile, is a 992-page hardcover containing Tolkien’s complete unpublished draft of The Hobbit as well as his illustrations and notes. It also has commentary by scholar John Rateliff that pulls back the curtain on how The Hobbit came to be. The History of The Hobbit is discounted to $18.81 (was $55) in hardcover. Another insightful behind-the-scenes book is The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition. On sale for $13.85 (was $40), this 720-page hardcover includes hundreds of letters written to his editors and publishers, his family and friends, and even his fans.

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We tested six smart rings, and there’s a clear winner
Product Reviews

We tested six smart rings, and there’s a clear winner

by admin


Smart rings are having a moment. After years as a niche gadget, regular people are starting to see the appeal. They’re thinner, more accurate, and more wearable compared to a decade ago — and for some people, they’re a smarter choice than smartwatches.

Smartwatches may dominate the wearable landscape, but they don’t work for everyone. They can be bulky. Daily charging is a pain. Plus, they don’t always work for people with wrist tattoos or those who participate in more niche sports. (Ever try stuffing a Garmin under a boxing glove? It’s not fun.) Conversely, smart rings are discreet and often have multiday battery life, and your finger can be a more accurate place to gather heart rate data.

From left to right, we have the Circular Slim, RingConn, Ultrahuman Ring Air, Galaxy Ring, Oura Ring, and Evie Ring. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

So which smart ring is the best? To find out, I called in six smart rings currently on the market: the Oura Ring, Ultrahuman Ring Air, Circular Slim, Samsung Galaxy Ring, RingConn, and Evie Ring. But side note: this isn’t a traditional review or buying guide. This is a gauntlet where smart rings get eliminated based on my personal experience and preferences, until there’s just one winner left.

With that in mind, for the past few months, I slept with these rings. Showered with them. Exercised with them. Compared a crapton of health data until my eyes bled. For a while, I wore all six simultaneously like a mafia don wearing two pairs of smart ring brass knuckles. I now have six ring tans. All so I could definitively tell you which is the one smart ring to rule them all.

The Circular Slim was my least favorite of the bunch. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Folks, it ain’t the Circular Slim.

On paper, the $294 Circular Slim has a lot of promise. It executes on almost none of it. The big problem was accuracy. While the metrics were generally fine, my step count was occasionally so wrong I couldn’t help but laugh. I’m talking 5,000 steps off compared to my other wearables. And that’s when I had the patience to review my metrics because syncing is an absolute chore. On average, it took two to three minutes, which meant I frequently rage quit the app. It’d be one thing if this was a one-off. It was not. Most people want smart rings for health tracking. If you’re not accurate and syncing is a chore, what is the point?

It’s a bummer because this is the only smart ring with ambitions of being anything other than a fitness tracker. It has a vibration motor for silent alarms. When Circular was still a Kickstarter, that motor was also supposed to alert you to notifications. That feature has been “coming soon” for years — something users are none too happy about. At the moment, the haptics are limited to silent alarms, but even that doesn’t quite hit the mark. You have to tap the ring twice above the logo to dismiss the alarm. In the dark, that logo is nigh impossible to see. Most mornings, I’m so groggy I end up smacking my hand multiple times just to turn it off. There’s also an ambitious AI chatbot that spits out daily recommendations. The problem is it takes 14 days to calibrate, and like other AI-powered fitness features, it wasn’t very helpful. But the real kicker is the charger is an easily misplaced USB stick. It’d be one thing if it had great battery life, but no. I got two to three days with all the features turned on. I also don’t think a nearly $300 ring should feel like it was made of cheap, 3D-printed plastic. Easily my least favorite ring of the bunch.

Eliminated: Circular Ring

The open-gap design remains my favorite thing about the Evie Ring. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Design matters, but so does polish

The next ring on the chopping block is the $269 Evie Ring. It hurts me to write this because it’s the prettiest and most comfortable of the six. Most smart rings tend to be indistinguishable from one another, but the Evie Ring has a clever open-gap design, which means it doesn’t matter if your fingers bloat or gain a few pounds. You’ll always be able to take it off with ease.

If design and comfort were the only factors, this ring would win. But it’s not. The Evie Ring’s main issue is it’s the quintessential first-gen product with first-gen issues. Everything works decently, unlike the Circular Ring, but there’s a distinct lack of polish. Syncing and firmware updates can take a while, and Movano hasn’t figured out the best way to present and contextualize your data — though it makes a valiant effort. The ring has just relaunched to address some of this feedback, but it’s still very much playing catch-up. Hopefully, future versions will smooth out the kinks.

The RingConn’s square shape wasn’t my favorite, but I’m a fan of charging cases over docks. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Being ‘fine’ isn’t enough

The $279 (currently $139) RingConn isn’t bad. It simply doesn’t stand out. It has the best battery life of the pack. I reliably got six to nine days on a single charge and it has a neat little charging case. It’s just so… middling. This is the smart ring I’d recommend people get if all they wanted was basic, mostly decent health tracking without any bells and whistles. Syncing can sometimes take a bit, but nowhere near as long as the Circular Slim or Evie Ring. Honestly, the thing that bugged me most about the RingConn was its slightly squarish shape. It can feel a bit odd on the finger, but unless you’re hypersensitive to that kind of thing, you’ll barely notice it after a few days.

The RingConn’s flaws don’t do it a discredit. But this is a battle royale. You can’t win by just being fine if other options are good, nay great.

The hardware is great. It’s just not going to be the best without a Galaxy Watch. Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

It’s got to stand alone

For what it’s worth, the $400 (currently $299) Samsung Galaxy Ring nails the hardware. This is the slimmest ring of the bunch and the most comfortable after the Evie Ring, and the futuristic charging case adds to its chic allure. The reason why it doesn’t take the title is because this ring is essentially for Samsung diehards — to the detriment of everyone else.

Case in point, you get the best battery life if you use it with a Samsung Galaxy Watch. The cool double pinch gesture to control the camera or dismiss notifications? Yeah, you need a phone running One UI 6.1 or newer. It’s essentially a neat accessory for your Galaxy Watch.

The Ultrahuman Ring Air came so close, but it’s best geared to the Whoop crowd. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Training shouldn’t be the only focus

The $349 Ultrahuman Ring Air came so close to taking it all. It’s slim and lightweight, and I got compliments while wearing it. Battery life isn’t the best, but it’s decent for the category at three to four days. Where it shines is fitness tracking and training — meaning it caters to athletes above everyone else.

Compared to the Oura Ring, which has a streamlined focus on general wellness, this ring zeroes in on optimization. Say you’re trying to build healthier sleep habits. The companion app will give you a list of drinks with their average caffeine content and flag when you should drink what if your goal is to sleep by a certain time. I’m trying to wake up earlier so I can sneak in runs before the sun starts baking the planet. When I wake up, the ring shows me a “Phase Advance” timer. If I exercise during that time, it’s more likely to shift my natural Circadian rhythm earlier. There are a bunch of “upgrade” widgets called Power Plugs that let you further customize your experience by focusing on other goals, like sun exposure for vitamin D, cycle tracking, Circadian alignment, etc. Some Power Plugs are free. Others, like the forthcoming AFib detection, will cost an extra $4.90 monthly, which I don’t love.

Accuracy is otherwise on par with my other devices, but the way my data is interpreted gives me a little pause. For example, I’m flattered this ring thinks my VO2 Max — a metric used to gauge your aerobic fitness — is 44 ml/kg/min (apparently, that’s superior) and that my resting heart rate is Elite. Based on my years of testing other devices, this is overly generous. Granted, every company uses a different algorithm, but I generally fall in the slightly above average — emphasis on slightly — range.

While I like the Ultrahuman Ring Air a lot, it’s partly because I’m that dork who likes training. All this is a bit much if you’re a more general user.

Eliminated: Ultrahuman Ring Air

I gave five rings the chance to dethrone the Oura Ring. It hasn’t happened yet. Image: Victoria Song / The Verge

Most of the smart rings I tested did one or two things better than the third-gen Oura Ring that’s currently $199. That changes a bit with the fourth-gen (and latest) Oura Ring that came out in late 2024 and costs $349. If you care about accuracy and health tracking, Oura does a lot of work validating its algorithm, working with researchers, and putting out a metric ton of documentation about its features. It’s been putting in the work for several years, and that helps it stay ahead of the competition. The app is polished, syncing and updates are never an issue, and it’s widely available. The best thing about all this new competition is it’s also lit a fire under Oura’s butt to release more features and updates in the past few months than it has in a while. The main gripes I have are the $6 monthly subscription, and its charging dock isn’t my favorite. (Despite our laser-focused wishes for an updated dock, it’s mostly the same with the fourth-gen model.)

Smart rings as a whole won’t be dethroning smartwatches anytime soon. They’re too expensive when a smartwatch can do much more for the same price. But, if you’re going to buy a smart ring, you should get the best one — and that’s the Oura Ring. I gave five other rings every opportunity to dethrone it. Perhaps it’ll happen one day. But until then, the Oura Ring is king.

Updated September 10th: Updating pricing, and replaced the third-generation Oura Ring with the latest version.

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Lord Of The Rings Magic: The Gathering Commander Decks Restocked At Amazon
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Lord Of The Rings Magic: The Gathering Commander Decks Restocked At Amazon

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Magic: The Gathering’s Lord of the Rings set is back in stock at Amazon. The retailer has Tales of Middle-earth Commander Decks for huge discounts compared to launch prices. The LOTR Commander Decks sold for $70 when the crossover set launched in June 2023, but Amazon is selling them for around $50 each. And if you’re also interested in the recently released Final Fantasy set, Amazon has the Final Fantasy Commander Deck Bundle for $175 (was $280), a new all-time low.

The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Commander Decks:

The first three Commander Decks in the list above are shipped and sold by Amazon. Unfortunately, the fourth is currently sold out, but Amazon briefly had it in stock a couple weeks ago, so it’s worth checking the link just in case. Also, while Amazon normally doesn’t accept returns for trading cards, Riders of Rohan is listed as eligible for free returns.

Each Commander Deck comes with 100 Lord of the Rings-themed cards, including 20 unique cards you won’t find in any other Lord of the Rings MTG product. Commander Decks also include a foil-etched display card of the Commander on the box and a Collector Booster Sample Pack with two cards: one rare or higher Traditional Foil or special treatment card and one Traditional Foil special treatment common or uncommon card. You’ll also get the following accessories: deck box, 10 double-sided tokens, Helper card, Life Wheel, strategy insert, and reference card.

Tales of Middle-earth and other Lord of the Rings MTG cards are often only available via third-party resellers. This means prices tend to jump around quite a bit. While it’s not uncommon to find Scene Boxes for reasonable prices, Commander Decks can be a different story.

More MTG Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Items:

Magic: The Gathering – The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Scene Box

Tales of Middle-earth Scene Boxes are available for $39-$45 at Amazon. They are shipped by Amazon but are sold by resellers. The Scene Boxes launched with $41 price tags, so you won’t be overpaying if you pick one up. Each Scene Box includes: 6 Traditional Foil Borderless Scene Cards, 6 Art Cards, 3 Set Boosters, and a paper easel display.

2025 Magic: The Gathering Crossover Sets

Magic: The Gathering 2025 crossover sets

Check stock at Amazon:

It’s already been a massive year for crossover sets in Magic: The Gathering. The Final Fantasy set became the best-selling set in MTG history before its June release. Many Final Fantasy MTG products remain difficult to find for normal prices, but you can get Commander Decks and the Starter Kit. Marvel superhero Spider-Man slings into the MTG universe on September 26. Like with Final Fantasy, preorders have mostly been sold out for months, but Amazon recently restocked the Spider-Man Play Booster Box. Rounding out the year of crossovers is Avatar: The Last Airbender on November 21. Preorders opened in August, and most products sold out within a few days. As of September 5, the Beginner Box and Jumpstart Booster Box are in stock.

Final Fantasy MTG: In-stock at Amazon

Spider-Man MTG: In-stock at Amazon

Avatar: The Last Airbender MTG: In-stock at Amazon

One of last year’s crossover sets is also in stock for a great price at Amazon. The Fallout Commander Deck Bundle is up for grabs for $155, which is close to an all-time low.

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Zhai the half-drow holding a dagger, rendered in red on white
Product Reviews

We may never see PS2 classic The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on PC, but we got the next best thing in Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone

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PlayStation 2 hack-and-slash The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is a mainstay of the ports being begged for on the GOG dreamlist (though it doesn’t rank as high as bona fide classics like Silent Hill and The Simpsons: Hit & Run, of course). According to my memories of 2004 it deserves the nomination, because The Two Towers let you recreate the battle of Helm’s Deep and that’s always amazing whether you’re modding it into Left 4 Dead 2 or playing Lego Lord of the Rings.

It’s not likely we’ll ever see a PC port of The Two Towers, but fortunately its creator, Stormfront Studios, made a similar hack-and-slash shortly after and that is on PC, with a rerelease by SNEG showing up on Steam. It’s Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone, which may lack the cool moments where movie Viggo Mortenson transforms into polygon Viggo Mortenson and then you get to slice up some ringwraiths, but is otherwise very much in the same mold.

(Image credit: SNEG)

Which is to say it’s a fixed-camera button-masher that throws you into epic fantasy battles with a lot of orcs, though since this is based on a Dungeons & Dragons setting there are also some bugbears and githyanki and whatnot. Right from the off you’re in the middle of a battlefield being divebombed by a dragon, with conveniently placed war machines just waiting for you to cut the ropes and hurl medieval implements at people who probably deserve it.


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The combat may be button-mashy, but as someone who resents games that expect me to lock on to one enemy rather than wildly swinging my longsword/paired daggers/magic staff at everyone in the vicinity, sometimes I’m in the mood for that. As you biff bad guys in Demon Stone their armor flies off, which helps to sell the impact, and there are plenty of opportunities to shove them off cliffs, into fires, down holes, or into a magical pool of death water that should probably have a guard rail.

You play as three adventurers, a fighter, sorcerer, and half-drow rogue, caught in a war between two extraplanar armies. There’s the githyanki, ruled by a queen who is everything Lae’zel wants to be when she grows up, and the slaad, chaotic toad people whose boss Ygorl is voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan from The Green Mile. (Patrick Stewart also narrates from the point of view of local wizard Khelben Blackstaff.)

(Image credit: SNEG)

Though co-op was a standard feature for games like this, Demon Stone’s purely singleplayer. That means you can switch between characters as you like rather than being stuck with Gimli (though sometimes the party is split and your choice restricted). Where the fighter’s a basic sword-swinger and the sorcerer better at range, the rogue can duck into convenient patches of sparkling shadow to turn temporarily invisible, then get behind enemies for a one-hit kill. It looks ridiculous, but is actually pretty fun, which is Demon Stone all over.

When it takes away your freedom of choice, it’s less fun. Having to protect the sorcerer against endless waves of enemies while he does a magic thing, for instance, or when a boss conveniently paralyzes party members, forcing you to switch to others. The boss issue isn’t helped by every boss having way too many hit points—you learn the pattern to defeating them, then repeat it over and over. In both situations there’s a proscribed thing to do and you just have to do it, where the best parts of Demon Stone are when you’ve got a choice between attacking the orcs on the wall or knocking down the ladders before the next wave comes and you feel like the flow of battle’s under your control.

The 2025 re-release on Steam does come with some improvements the previous version lacked, like a separate volume slider for the music and both borderless and windowed display modes. It’s also locked to the original framerate of 30 fps, and if that’s a dealbreaker for you then enjoy your life, I guess.



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The Stunning Lord Of The Rings Collector's Box Set Illustrated By Alan Lee Is 60% Off
Game Updates

The Stunning Lord Of The Rings Collector’s Box Set Illustrated By Alan Lee Is 60% Off

by admin



A beautiful box set of the best edition of The Lord of the Rings–the Centenary Edition illustrated by Alan Lee–is on sale for a fantastic price at Amazon and Walmart. Published last October with a lofty $325 price tag, The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set is discounted to only $135.37. The current price is roughly $1 higher than the all-time low ($134.25). In 2025, the price has generally hovered in the $180-$200 range, and the last discount as good as this one didn’t stick around for long.

The Deluxe Illustrated Box Set is is absolutely stunning. As someone who personally owns this edition of The Lord of the Rings–sadly, I paid considerably more for my copy–I think all big Tolkien fans would love to have this in their collection. So if you have a Lord of the Rings fan on your shopping list, the Deluxe Illustrated Box Set would make for a wonderful gift this holiday.

The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set (William Morrow, 2024)

You can read all about The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set below. The store pages at Amazon and Walmart only include one image of the books inside the display case, so I also included some of the gorgeous promotional images from Barnes & Noble’s store page.

We also included a look at the upcoming 2025 edition of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Illustrated Box Set, which is also illustrated by Alan Lee, and a list of deals on other collectible editions of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and Tolkien’s other Middle-earth tales. There are some terrific deals, including a limited-time price cut on the brand-new Great Tales of Middle-earth Box Set.

$135.37 (was $325)

The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set is a revamped version of the gorgeous Centenary Edition from 1992. Across the three hardcover volumes–The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King–there are more than 50 new pencil sketches and full-color paintings by beloved Lord of the Rings artist Alan Lee. All told, the box set has 1,332 pages, which makes it longer than most, if not all, editions of LOTR currently in print.

The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set (William Morrow, 2024)

The top and bottom page edges are sprayed dark blue, while the side edges were designed to resemble billowing smoke from Mount Doom’s eruption. Lee created new artwork for the covers, too. Each cover has a framed rectangular drawing in the center. The illustrations are inset on gray cloth board and surrounded by an elegant, silver foil-stamped border. Each book is quarterbound in blue leather, and the pages are sewn into the spine. You can mark your spot using the attached ribbon bookmark.

The silver-foil text along the spine and on the covers was stamped onto each book. The custom display case was constructed from cloth board and features stamped circular emblems designed by Lee. The case has rounded front edges to make it easy to remove each book. With all three books removed, you can peer inside the fully illustrated interior of the case. Lee’s depiction of Mount Doom’s eruption covers every surface inside the lovingly crafted slipcase.

The Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Box Set (William Morrow, 2024)

Inside each book, you’ll find a large art card that can be removed and displayed separately. Along with three art cards, you get a pair of foldout maps of Middle-earth drawn by Christopher Tolkien, the author’s literary executor who edited, expanded, and organized many supplementary writings about Middle-earth, including The Silmarillion and Tolkien’s Legendarium, which became the foundation for the massive 12-part series now known as The History of Middle-earth.

2025 Edition: $139.50 (was $150) | 2020 Edition: $72-$126

William Morrow is publishing another Lord of the Rings box set illustrated by Alan Lee on October 14. It’s not nearly as fancy as the three-volume Deluxe Illustrated Box Set, but it comes with a notable addition: The Hobbit, also illustrated by Lee. This four-volume hardcover set features the Centenary Edition of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit’s 60th Anniversary Edition.

The dust jackets and display box have fully illustrated artwork by Alan Lee. Overall, the exterior design aesthetic is similar to the 2024 History of Middle-earth Box Sets and the recently released pair of box sets: Tolkien Myths and Legends and The Great Tales of Middle-earth.

You’d miss out on the exclusive paintings and sketches from the Deluxe Illustrated Box Set as well as premium features like quarterbound blue leather, cloth board covers, the custom case, etc. In return, you’d get The Hobbit with Lee’s wonderful illustrations.

Due to the deal on the Deluxe Illustrated Box Set, you’d actually pay more for this four-volume, $150 collection–unless you bought the 2020 edition.

It’s all a bit confusing, but this box set was originally published in the UK in 2020. The upcoming US edition appears to be the same as the old one. The 2020 version is available to buy from resellers at Amazon and Walmart for far less than $139.50. Strangely enough, Amazon actually has it in stock, too–sold and shipped by Amazon–for $126.67.

You can buy the 2020 set from a third-party seller for $89 at Amazon. Notably, your order will still be shipped directly from Amazon. You can buy the set from a reseller at Walmart for $72, and your order will be shipped from Walmart’s warehouse.

2025 Edition

2020 Edition

The History of Middle-earth Box Sets (William Morrow, 2024)

William Morrow’s ongoing series of hardcover box sets with decorative slipcases and reversible dust jackets kicked off last year with the publication of four box sets compiling The History of Middle-earth. Although originally a 12-volume series, the new box set series has 15 books and starts with The Silmarillion, which isn’t technically part of The History of Middle-earth–though you should read it before diving into the wide-ranging collection that further demonstrates Tolkien’s mastery of building fantasy worlds. All four History of Middle-earth Box Sets are on sale for huge discounts. Alternatively, the three-volume, 5,440-page Complete History of Middle-earth is on sale for $106 (was $250). All five box sets below include hardcover books and slipcases.

Tolkien Myths and Legends & The Great Tales of Middle-earth (William Morrow, 2025)

The most recent Tolkien box set edition is a new hardcover collection of The Great Tales of Middle-earth, which are considered the author’s final three novels and were published posthumously from 2007-2018. Released on August 19, this new box set is already on sale for 33% off, dropping the price to $84. It’s worth noting there’s a 2018 hardcover box set edition of The Great Tales of Middle-earth for $50 (was $100). You can also save $55 on Tolkien Myths and Legends, which includes two myths written by Tolkien as well as his personal translations of four epic poems, including Beowulf. The three box sets below include hardcover books and decorative slipcases.

More Tolkien Collector’s Editions & Hardcover Box Sets

Unfinished Tales Collector’s Edition / The Lord of the Rings Collector’s Edition /

We rounded some of the other notable hardcover box sets and collectible editions of Tolkien’s work below. This includes the beautiful Unfinished Tales: 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition, a slipcased, limited edition of The Silmarillion, and Tolkien’s Collected Poems, which were published in a three-volume set last fall.

For a cheaper Lord of the Rings hardcover box set, we’d recommend the 2024 Collector’s Editions and the vintage set with cover art from the 1988 editions. If you buy the 2024 box set, you can also get matching editions of The Silmarillion and The Hobbit separately.

Tolkien Illustrated Edition Series

Tolkien Illustrated Editions

The Tolkien Illustrated Editions of LOTR, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion are probably the most popular hardcover editions of Tolkien’s three best-known works. These are unique because they are illustrated by the author himself. Each one has premium features like sprayed edges with Elvish, Dwarvish, or Tengwar script, gold- and silver-foil trim, stamped cover art, ribbon bookmarks, and two fold-out maps. The Deluxe Special Editions have quarterbound leather spines and cloth board cases. These editions also come with custom slipcases and additional collectible inserts.

If you’re interested in owning collectible editions of Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, all three movies will soon be available as standalone 4K Blu-rays with steelbook cases. The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers launched earlier this year, and The Return of the King’s Steelbook Edition is up for preorder for $30 (was $35) at Walmart.



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An Ancient Penis Worm With Rings of Sharp Teeth Has Been Discovered in the Grand Canyon
Gaming Gear

An Ancient Penis Worm With Rings of Sharp Teeth Has Been Discovered in the Grand Canyon

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About 500 million years ago, the Grand Canyon was a great sea, and among the creatures it harbored was a newly discovered type of penis worm, armed with many rings of teeth.

Penis worms are marine creatures with a distinctly phallic appearance. There are more than 20 known species living across the world’s oceans today, as well as a number of extinct ones, like this new discovery. The researcher who made the find was searching for fossils in the Grand Canyon and named the species Kraytdraco spectatus in honor of the huge burrowing krayt dragons that appear in the Star Wars universe. Details of the discovery were published in the journal Science Advances.

The authors believe that the worm fed using a retractible throat that could be pushed outward, inside out, before being drawn in on itself—like the finger of a glove being inverted. Lining this throat were rings and rings of teeth.

Courtesy of Rhydian Evans

Trying to imagine how the ancient worm might have fed, the researchers hypothesize that along this proboscis it combined strong, sharp teeth with more delicate feathered ones for a two-stage eating process. The former could have been used to pick up food such as algae and microorganisms dispersed in the sand where the worm would have lived, the latter to filter this food out of the substrate and chew it. But having only a fossil to look at, and not being able to see the worm at work, this remains only a hypothesis.

An adult specimen would have measured about 15 to 20 centimeters long. This is much larger than the species of penis worm that survive today, which have undergone miniaturization over the millennia and now do not exceed 2 to 3 millimeters.

Although the phallic worm monopolized scientists’ attention with its teeth, fossils of other creatures were also found in the same expedition. They’re estimated to date from before the beginning of the Cambrian period, roughly 500 million years ago, considered by experts to be the dawn of complex animal life. These other creatures, early types of shrimp and mollusks, are valuable because they suggest what the world’s first predators looked like.



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