To be honest the Balrog debate should have been settled by now. Tolkien stated that Durin's Bane had wings. While not necessarily stating all balrogs have wings, Durin's bane did, and to prove it I quote: "It stepped forward slowly on to the bridge, and suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and *its wings were spread from wall to wall*..."
Regarding the Balrog-wings dilemma I think people have to remember since the balrogs are Maia, up until the point where they were deceiving Eru, they could change their physical form, therefore it is possible that there balrogs that had wings and others that didn't.
HAHA! Gollum looks like a character from Nightmare Before Christmas! XD This was VERY interesting. I've never seen any LOTR action figures pre jackson (love those ones though) Thank you for giving us a looky at these!
These are awesome! If I didn't despise globurz Akashuga hai so much I'd even love all the Frodo variants. :D That wight is hot! And balrogs DO have wings. Just ask Gary Gygax. Oh, that's right, can't ask him because he's dead. See how dangerous balrogs with their wings are?
Toy magazine did an article years ago about the man who did all the sculpting on these!!! Can’t remember his name ? He is a famous fantasy art painter who has done numerous book covers, this was his first sculpting project, he literally used sculpty puddy , cast the pieces in etc rubber sent them to Tou Vault who sent them to china. I think he did a cool job on these!
I own the Beastiary of LoTR. It has some wonderful and very intense stamping style (don’t know if they were ever real plates) illustrations. I rather like that interpretation. The characters in the story are intense (in their world) and sappy interpretations like the ones shown here always feel a little lacking.
That form of rotoscoping was certainly Bakshi's signature, but the design felt rushed and honestly devoid of inspiration. Not too surprising when you see Bakshi's other works. It is a fascinating piece of LOTR history.
I remember seeing these figures in a store at Chicago Ridge mall and thinking how sappy Frodo looked, I didn't like them at all. They just didn't fit my imagination of how the characters would look. I have always been a big fan of Tolkien and have read the books countless times but these figures just didn't look right to me.
watching this in 2020, i really hope you didn't open any of these.... they don't age well. the joints seize from the paint, the joint pegs and heat welds degrade and sometimes snap just from temperature changes, and the soft goods do not hold up to much handling at all. my balrog that was standing on my shelf lost both his legs over time from just the weight of his own body. even in package you'll see ones broken in the trays. artistically a great line, but on the engineering front toy vault both cut corners and didn't fully know what they were doing. then again, this was one of, if not their first mass market toy line. also, to answer about the variants... toy vault did this thing where they made a TON of deals with different retailers and had bizarrely packed cases. they tried to stretch their molds and line too far, which was what ended up killing the line sales wise. the poor fisherman gollum was a previews exclusive for example, and if i recall correctly, available prior to the normal retail version and a little cheaper. ditto on graceland frodo. in terms of the wonky cases, the figures were released with only one or two characters per case, and an unevenly packed amount of variations of those characters. so a comic store would have to order say, a frodo case when frodo was released. that frodo case would have like 14 of the normal basic one, then like five each of a variant. (i'm presuming the cases were 24 for this example, don't know for sure, that's just a common case number for collector figures). which then leads into the death of the line. the comic stores kept getting clogged with variants that weren't moving, or buried under a deluge of the more basic figures. this was also at a time where case ratios weren't always clearly communicated between retailers and suppliers. the product offered would be under the name of something like "case of toy vault lord of the rings, frodo assortment" the solicitation would list the variants, but not the numbers, and so an unlucky retailer might take too many orders of a particular variant, forcing them to either order another case (bad) or canceling the orders from their customers (usually considered worse) in either situation the retailer, was screwed. especially as they advertised the line, took preorders on the figures, and fully expected the line to move faster than it did. faster in this sense meaning not spending and entire wave on a mostly unremarkable orc before even having half of the fellowship released. in fact i think among the earlier figures in the line was ugluk even. i could be wrong, but i think gandalf and his SIX total variations and ugluk and his FOUR total variations might have been the first two figures released in the line. so yeah, despite rave reviews at the time for the sculpting and accessories, the line tanked hard, quick, and clogged comic shops for some time. not sure what the figures command these days, but are certainly cheaper than the old kickerbocker figures. an interesting footnote in the history of the franchise no less.
You don't. Out of package, unless you keep it locked away and never move it, time will take its toll. Most of the breaks will be at the joints, so a little research and handywork will keep him fixed up and displayable, if not properly posable.
i'm a simple man, i see lord of the rings, i leave a like
To be honest the Balrog debate should have been settled by now. Tolkien stated that Durin's Bane had wings. While not necessarily stating all balrogs have wings, Durin's bane did, and to prove it I quote:
"It stepped forward slowly on to the bridge, and suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and *its wings were spread from wall to wall*..."
Aglara Andune In my book say its shadow spread like wings from wall to wall.
Wings of shadow
Can you do stop motion with gollum figure or breaking?
Elijah Wood got nothing on Elvis Frodo.
I'm absolutely fascinated by these!
This video made me so happy. I love the Gimli figures
Little peace of history . Very fantastic!
Man, this was great! I love seeing stuff like this after my brain's been contaminated by one version.
Great worth share
It would be cool to see The Silmarilion in film but I don't think it would translate all that well
it could be a good show
@@kolby4078 careful what you wish for...
I wish there was less plate armor in the movies. The booksonly describe chain and tunics.
jeah me to but Chainmail is very hard to make
Regarding the Balrog-wings dilemma I think people have to remember since the balrogs are Maia, up until the point where they were deceiving Eru, they could change their physical form, therefore it is possible that there balrogs that had wings and others that didn't.
I find it interesting how differnt the nordic mythology theme is aproached compared to Peter Jackson, even it's a somewhat fixed thing.
I have a bunch from the movies, interesting to see the contrast. Those are awesome
Games Workshops models of the species of middle earth I always thought were great growing up! Orcs, Elves, Goblins etc.
HAHA! Gollum looks like a character from Nightmare Before Christmas! XD
This was VERY interesting. I've never seen any LOTR action figures pre jackson (love those ones though)
Thank you for giving us a looky at these!
Can you do stop motion with gollum figure or breaking?
Really enjoyed this video.
Great to see you are also into LOTR. I am a huge fan of Tolkien's works.
Those are awesome man.
This was really cool! Really good work, loved this video! 😀👍🏻
I wonder if peanut butter and bananas go good on lambis bread.
I wish the dark Tower had as much following as Tolkien's work, preatty neat stuf they make for it
Can you do stop motion with gollum figure or broke?
These are awesome! If I didn't despise globurz Akashuga hai so much I'd even love all the Frodo variants. :D That wight is hot!
And balrogs DO have wings. Just ask Gary Gygax. Oh, that's right, can't ask him because he's dead. See how dangerous balrogs with their wings are?
So this is the Return of the King every one is talking about.
cheers love your vids
Awesome!
wow! never knew about them
I wish so much that I could have read the books befor the films
Toy magazine did an article years ago about the man who did all the sculpting on these!!! Can’t remember his name ? He is a famous fantasy art painter who has done numerous book covers, this was his first sculpting project, he literally used sculpty puddy , cast the pieces in etc rubber sent them to Tou Vault who sent them to china. I think he did a cool job on these!
I have a gollum out of the box. How to preserve it?
What would that be worth in a few decades?
Can I buy these on Amazon?
I own the Beastiary of LoTR. It has some wonderful and very intense stamping style (don’t know if they were ever real plates) illustrations. I rather like that interpretation. The characters in the story are intense (in their world) and sappy interpretations like the ones shown here always feel a little lacking.
ever watched the animated classic movie of lotr?
+the scarecrow Of course. I'm not a fan of the Bakshi version at all. The Rankin and Bass ones are more well done, but not perfect.
personally I did enjoy the Baskin version for mixing animation with alive actors it was disappointing that it never finished (for me at least)
That form of rotoscoping was certainly Bakshi's signature, but the design felt rushed and honestly devoid of inspiration. Not too surprising when you see Bakshi's other works. It is a fascinating piece of LOTR history.
Grond! Grond! GROND!
i wonder if count stankus knows of these....
I just reviewed this, I have the entire set. Also the 3 Dark Knight's, yes I am also selling them. The entire set.
I remember seeing these figures in a store at Chicago Ridge mall and thinking how sappy Frodo looked, I didn't like them at all. They just didn't fit my imagination of how the characters would look. I have always been a big fan of Tolkien and have read the books countless times but these figures just didn't look right to me.
Can you do stop motion with gollum figure or breaking?
Do you still have these?
I sold most of them to a collector.
Had I seen that horrid iteration of Gollum when I was young, I probably would have never given TLOTR a second thought.
Frodo is 54 when he leavea the shire.
I kinda like frelvis.
watching this in 2020, i really hope you didn't open any of these.... they don't age well. the joints seize from the paint, the joint pegs and heat welds degrade and sometimes snap just from temperature changes, and the soft goods do not hold up to much handling at all. my balrog that was standing on my shelf lost both his legs over time from just the weight of his own body. even in package you'll see ones broken in the trays.
artistically a great line, but on the engineering front toy vault both cut corners and didn't fully know what they were doing. then again, this was one of, if not their first mass market toy line.
also, to answer about the variants... toy vault did this thing where they made a TON of deals with different retailers and had bizarrely packed cases. they tried to stretch their molds and line too far, which was what ended up killing the line sales wise.
the poor fisherman gollum was a previews exclusive for example, and if i recall correctly, available prior to the normal retail version and a little cheaper. ditto on graceland frodo. in terms of the wonky cases, the figures were released with only one or two characters per case, and an unevenly packed amount of variations of those characters. so a comic store would have to order say, a frodo case when frodo was released. that frodo case would have like 14 of the normal basic one, then like five each of a variant. (i'm presuming the cases were 24 for this example, don't know for sure,
that's just a common case number for collector figures).
which then leads into the death of the line. the comic stores kept getting clogged with variants that weren't moving, or buried under a deluge of the more basic figures. this was also at a time where case ratios weren't always clearly communicated between retailers and suppliers. the product offered would be under the name of something like "case of toy vault lord of the rings, frodo assortment" the solicitation would list the variants, but not the numbers, and so an unlucky retailer might take too many orders of a particular variant, forcing them to either order another case (bad) or canceling the orders from their customers (usually considered worse)
in either situation the retailer, was screwed. especially as they advertised the line, took preorders on the figures, and fully expected the line to move faster than it did. faster in this sense meaning not spending and entire wave on a mostly unremarkable orc before even having half of the fellowship released. in fact i think among the earlier figures in the line was ugluk even. i could be wrong, but i think gandalf and his SIX total variations and ugluk and his FOUR total variations might have been the first two figures released in the line.
so yeah, despite rave reviews at the time for the sculpting and accessories, the line tanked hard, quick, and clogged comic shops for some time. not sure what the figures command these days, but are certainly cheaper than the old kickerbocker figures. an interesting footnote in the history of the franchise no less.
I have a gollum(1998) out of the box. How to preserve it?
You don't. Out of package, unless you keep it locked away and never move it, time will take its toll. Most of the breaks will be at the joints, so a little research and handywork will keep him fixed up and displayable, if not properly posable.
Agluck? ;)
great treasure man .. dont open it..keep them in their packaging
I collect the Lego sets