"Frodooooo of the Niiiiiiiiiine Fingers, and the Ring of Dooooooooooom!"
It's been a while since I've seen them. I think I liked the overall animation style of Bakshi's version better....other than those weird, posterized live-action sequences, and the fact that it looked like Aragorn wasn't wearing any pants (he also totally looked like my old art school teacher). Rankin/Bass used mostly Japanese animators, so it looked a little too "anime" for me, but it did have a much more consistent, whimsical, animated feel. That worked really well with the story of The Hobbit. Even if Elrond did have a beard....
But I liked them for what they were; they had their strong points and weak points. Taken in the context that these were from the late 70s, they were fun. Bakshi has John Hurt and Anthony Daniels; Rankin/Bass has William Conrad, Roddy McDowell, and Casey Kasem. So that's kind of cool.