The Ring-Bearer™ is an officially licensed Lord of the Rings yo-yo, featuring several designs from the story engraved on different colorways.
From Mark at MK1:
“Back in early ’23 I had what I thought was a really straightforward idea to engrave the ring inscription from Lord of the Rings on a bimetal yoyo design that I had been sitting on for a bit. I called up my Dad (a big Tolkien fan and avid reader) to chat about this, and he reminded me of the reality of trademarks – but he also recommended contacting the licensor to ask for permission. Is it really that easy, I thought.
I looked up the best licensing contact for my proposed use and found one for Middle-earth Enterprises. I sent them an email and waited – for many weeks – until I got the response I was hoping for. This was, however, only the beginning of my adventure!
It’s now quite clearly almost 2 years after “early ’23” so I’d like to talk about everything that went into this amazing project, the Ring-Bearer.
If you aren’t familiar with the behind-the-scenes of licensed products, there’s a lot that needs to happen. Contracts, insurance, brand assurance, approvals. On top of that, I wanted to make this a big release, with extra colorways, cool box art, a mini-poster – the works. All of this extra stuff will get revealed soon, as I’m waiting for the shipment to arrive.
This will be as far as I can tell the first officially licensed Lord of the Rings yo-yo.
I’d like to also give a huge shout-out to my team & all the other people who helped make this happen, especially Mag who made the packaging artwork and many of the engravings for other colorways.“
Ring Bearer™ Colorways
The confirmed colorways are:
- The One Ring – Black w/Gold Rims. Numbered. Only 111 were made.
- Vilya – Blue w/Gold Rims – Based off of, the ring that eventually found its way to Elrond.
- Narya – Red w/Gold Rims – First given to Círdan the shipwright, and later, to Gandalf, who carried it during the Third Age.
- Nenya – Silver – Given to Galadriel by Celebrimbor
- UNSeen – Black – Different Elvish inscription on the yo-yo
- Smaug – Red w/Gold Rings – YoYoExpert exclusive with Smaug engraved in the cup
- Elfstone – Green w/Siver Rings
- Arkenstone – Silver w/Rainbow Rings – The Arkenstone is a big plot point (and a big gemstone) in the Hobbit,
The Box
The boxes for the Ring-Bearer are similar to MK1’s hexagonal boxes, but are designed to look like Hobbit Holes:
