What did you imagine characters looked like before the films were out?

[Loony BoB]

And how closely did the films match that?

Legolas and Gimli for me were quite different. Not alarmingly so, but enough to the point that I couldn't recognise them from my imaginings.

More like this, with a longer, thinner face to that seen in the films, notably the long chin, probably higher ears and so forth.

For hobbits, I imagined them like Martin Freeman's Bilbo much more than that of Frodo, Sam etc. The LotR group seemed a bit... stockier.

Aragorn was quite a lot like what I thought he'd be like, only I imagined him with a dark hood on almost all the time after that initial description from Bree.

Gandalf? Nailed it. Spot on.

[Bubba]

Yeah, Gandalf could not have been closer to how he was in my head. Aragorn was completely different though, I had him as not particularly attractive whereas Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn was a full-blown hottie.