: Personally if PepsiCo gets hold of the Tolkien merchandising my boycott of their products will probably be one of my legacies to my children! I have no problem with merchandising, if its decent quality. Episode One is a perfect example of the kind of merchandising I DON'T want to see. Rather, a mass publishing of the books, calendars, quality artworks and games are fine with me. But if they come out with a plastic spring-loaded hopping Gullum-in-a-Happy-Meal I'm going to pull my last three hairs out.

Don't pull out your remaining hair, buy that little hopping Gollum-in-a-Happy Meal and auction it off on Ebay at ten times its purchase price. lol
Seriously, if you look at the Star Wars 1 and more recent Pokemon mechandising, how long did the actual glut last. About two months. Yes, there is still mechandise out there, but the big 'push it down our throats' really didn't last that long. I sure seemed a lot longer than it was.
We need to remember that the LOTR mechandising will be hitting around Christmas, that's when we will be inundated. Not just by LOTR stuff, but stuff from other films released at that time aimed at the kiddies and the annual Christmas toy blitz. All of this may combine to lessen our angst.