Yeah, looking at the 3.75" and Kili/Fili, Tauriel/Legolas are in the Mirkwood set so I figure if I'm just going for one of each figure, I can skip those two two packs.
Not sure if it matters, but the Mirkwood version of Kili and Fili have different colored outfits than the originals.
Wasn't he single carded in the UK? Maybe I imagined that. I got that set for $15 on sale at TRU. (I think it was $20 and I had a $5 rewards coupon). Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered either. When I found a bunch of the figures at K-Mart for the super cheap clearance price, I think I just bought a bunch of Warg sets and a bunch of that one stupid Goblin who is barely in the movie. Army builders. I'll have to check that plastic tub out. Come to think of it, I think It's full of Tron 3.75 and Prince of Persia figs that I got on Clearance too, hehe.
Thanks for the heads up on the outfits. I'll have to check that out. Was it an intentional change or just a factory paint thing? I don't remember them changing their outfits is all.
It was like they used a different colored plastic to mold the jackets. They were lighter
IIRC there was a carded Thranduil shown at Toy fair or SDCC in 2014(?) but AFAIK it was never released in the UK or anywhere else.
I think that Smaug ended up being only 6 inches.
Yeah, that's kind of what I was afraid of. I think they really made a big (or little) mistake by including that miniature Bard figure thing. The problem with it is it really drives home the point of how underscaled Smaug is. I get that sometimes they have to reduce the size to make it more feasible to produce, package, sell etc., but don't also go oh and here's a little tiny figure so you can see just how out of scale it is with the rest of the line.
Good grief. It's not even big enough for them?!? TBD was just flat out out of their ****ing minds in their handling of this line. When I was looking at pictures I came across the photos of the bombur, bard, and beorn and some others that were actually done! If they'd already invested that money in getting those figures to that stage wouldn't they want to recoup some of their costs and at least made those an online exclusive or a sdcc exclusive? And for them to think anyone would be happy with this smaug? Just baffling.
Ugh. That would have been such an AMAZING set.
I certainly don't know the economics of it all, but I was always under the impression that to get a figure to the stage where they were showing them at Toy Fair, they're already several thousands of dollars into it for development, sculpting, etc. So in order to recoup those costs it would be in their best interest to sell wherever they could. But again, I'm not basing this on any concrete knowledge. And perhaps even though they'd be losing thousands, the costs of making molds, manufacturing, etc. would outweigh any possible recouping of costs? But I still thing TBD wanted too much money from the retailers for the Hobbit line and that's why very few chains actually carried it. Again, pure speculation on my part. I just really hate that company.
the blaming of us was the most infuriating part! WE didn't ask you to pack the same figure in four different packages in the first wave. WE didn't ask to have NO bad guys in the first 6" wave most likely leaving kids to scratch their heads and go "so who am I supposed to fight?" WE didn't get several products to the final stage them show them off and then go "nope, not going to release them." WE weren't responsible for deciding the pricing or whatever reason it was that so few retailers wanted to carry the line. WE didn't decide to not advertise the line. But yeah, it's totally the consumers' fault.
Considering the fact they no longer hold the toy license, I think this is never going to happen, unfortunately. I don't even know if it would be possible from a legal standpoint unless another company picks up the license and is able to obtain the sculpts from The Bridge Direct. It's a shame as the unreleased figures really looked quite nice, but I grew to dislike the subsequent films for many of the same reasons as the Star Wars prequels and would probably have passed on them anyway.
I didn't know they didn't have the license anymore. You're right, these will never happen unfortunately. Boooo. Do you know if the license expired, or was it not renewed because of their poor handling of the line when they had it?
