Collecting Tolkien Action Figures

This is the first of a planned series of articles giving an overview of a specific Tolkien Collecting area. It is not a completest list of everything to do with the area (see the Visual Collecting Guides for that), but an introduction to the area to give people an idea of what the area is about.

I have laid this out in a series of sections in order to cover the same details when looking at different areas.
As indicated within the Beyond Books article, I will primarily be covering non-book collecting areas. That is not to say that books won’t crop up within other areas, and I might cover book areas themselves at some stage.

The first area I have chosen to look at is Action Figures.

Size of the Area
Action Figures is quite a medium sized Tolkien area to collect, there are only 9 series within it, and it is only the Toybiz Normal range which is big.

Overview, History and Scope
One of the first things to establish within any area is the scope of that area. This is not meant to specifically set boundaries to any individual collection, but purely to define the scope of what is covered within this article and, to a lesser extent, what I consider that area includes.

Action figures are toy/collectable figures with articulation so that they can be posed and played with. Some action figures have removable fabric/plastic clothing, although some do not. They often come with other accessories such as weapons.

The first Tolkien Action Figures came with the Bakshi Lord of the Rings Animated Film in 1978 and were produced by Knickerboker. This was a limited of just 6 figures and 2 horses, all carded. These have now become very collectable, particularly in mint packaging. https://vintageactionfigures.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-knickerbocker.html, https://youtu.be/uGQn-F5xnng.

    

Toy Vault Action Figures were produced between 1997 – 2001, just before the Peter Jackson movies, and is based on the books. The are 2 types of packaging these figures come in, both of which have a small number of figures. There are however quite a few ‘variations’ and ‘special editions’ for a lot of the characters. http://www.toymania.com/archives/metoys/metoyshistory.shtml

    

Toybiz Normal Action Figure range are 6in scale figures based on the 3 Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies. This is a very big range with a lot of sub series, split between the 3 movies and with a final set being labelled as ‘Trilogy’. The packaging is split between ‘half moon’, for earlier released figures, followed by carded figures. The packaging is also primarily colour coded for the 3 movies (green – Fellowship, Red – Two Towers, Blue – Return of the King), however the titles on the packaging can sometimes contradict this, the Trilogy packed figures are also not colour coded. There is also quite a lot of re-issue of figures in different packaging. The series also included quite a few multi-figure sets, both ‘half-moon’ and boxed.

        

This video is of a complete collection.

Toybiz Large range is a very small series of 9 figures based on the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings Return of the King movie.

Bootleg Action Figures are a series of unlicensed movie figures roughly based on the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies. They appear to be very poor copies of some of the Toybiz figures. http://bootlegactionfigures.com/blog/?p=2245

NECA Epics is again Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movie based and has only 3 large figures.

Applause also is Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movie based and is also a small series or larger figures. It consists of 4 Fellowship movie, green packaged, figures and 6 Two Towers movie, red packaged, figures.

Bridge Direct Normal Action Figures range are 6in scale figures based on the first 2 Peter Jackson Hobbit movies. They are in the same scale as the normal Toybiz figures. The series is again not very big, 11 figures and a single boxed set.

    

Bridge Direct Small Action Figures are 4in figures again based on the first 2 Peter Jackson Hobbit movies. There is slightly more available in this smaller range including single figures, multi-packs and boxed sets.
There are also a few more odd figures. These include a Toybiz Large Talking Gollum and a NECA 52in Balrog (which is to the same scale as the Toybiz Normal range).

    

Overlaps with other Areas
Magazines – there are a few magazines which have covered Tolkien Action Figures. The main ones of these which are collectable are the ones with covers specifically featuring Tolkien Action Figures. To a lesser extent, magazines with Tolkien Action Figure articles, or adverts, could also be collected.

Out of Scope
‘Action Figures’ is an area within the general ‘Figures’ category, therefore some other types of figures are close to Action Figures. These include ‘Dolls’ or any other larger scale figures, ‘Toy Figures’ which are smaller less detailed/articulated and can be more cartoony, ‘Ornamental Figures’ or statues which are more solid with no articulation.

Promotional
This is not an area with many promotional items to collect. For instance, I have not come across any Posters, Flyers or Standees.

There are 2 Toybiz Burger King Mail Away figures, Uruk-Hai and Lurtz characters (see below).

This is an interesting article on the marketing of the Toybiz series.

I have also seen some Marketing material for the Toy Vault range.

Away from the Normal
Within the Toybiz Normal range, a lot of the figures were also produced for non-English speaking countries and these had different packaging.

Also, within the Toybiz Normal range, there were some different variations within the same production of a figure. These occurred due to different production runs, normal in different countries. Some of these can be very minor, so it is debatable as to how collectable some of these are.

Similarly, again within the Toybiz Normal range, anomalies in packaging have occurred i.e. printing errors, wrong figures for packaging etc. These can also be collectable, however be sure that their packaging is actually factory sealed.

See Tolkien Visual Collecting Guide - Action Figure Variants for more details.

Production Prototypes of the Action Figures can be found, these are one off’s and as such are very rare. The provenance of these items should always be established.

It is also possible to find figures which have been autographed, usually by the corresponding actor the Action Figure is based on. Although these are nice to have in a collection, they are often personal. Again, provenance of these items should always be established.

Specialisations
If, however, this area is still too big for you, you could also specialise in one of the specific series. The series have a good range of sizes: Bakshi (very small) expensive, Applause (very small), NECA (very small), Toybiz Large (very small), Toy Vault (small), Bridge Direct (medium), Toybiz Normal (very large).

Another idea is to collect all action figures of a specific character, either from any series or within a specific series. See this article about Toybiz Ringwraiths as an example.

High End
There is not really any ‘high end’ or expensive series within this area, although the Knickerboker series has become expensive.

Rare, Unusual and Interesting Items

The following are some of the rarer, unusual and interesting items to be found within the Action Figure area.

Knickerboker Set – these figures in mint packaged condition are quite rare and highly sort after.

Toybiz Arwen Horse and Rider Red Box – this is the rarest of all the Toybiz range, it is very hard to obtain hardly ever being sold on ebay. The Green and Blue Box versions of this are more commonly available.

Toybiz Helms Deep Gimli Red Half Moon Packaging – only released in Australia, this is the second rarest Tobiz figure and very hard to find.

Toybiz Uruk-Hai Burger King Mail Away – this was an exclusive promotional figure by Burger King US, only available via mail away. There were limited numbers and when the company ran out, they supplied a previously released Lutz figure. There is no branded packaging, it came in a white cardboard box. These can be found occasionally on ebay.

Toybiz Mega Deal Value Packs – these were not widely available, only a few were seen in the US. They are not new figures or packaging but are 3 of the last released figures fixed together on a plain labelled backing. The 3 characters included can vary between each pack.

Toybiz Epic Trilogy Series 3 – these are the last 5 figures released in the series. You can find these, but they are quite expensive. Be careful as some of these are re-packagings.

                

Toybiz Return of the King Canadian Exclusive Series - 6 figures in multi-language packaging only released in Canada. These are very, very hard to find, particularly outside of Canada.

                        

Toybiz Carry Case – this was only available in Canada. This is quite hard to find.

    

Toybiz El Senor de los Anillos Boxed Set – this is the an exclusive Foreign Language Boxed Set and was only available in Spain. It is not especially rare, but harder to obtain from outside of Europe.

Toybiz El Senor de los Anillos Cave Troll – this is the an exclusive Foreign Language Boxed Set and was only available in Spain. It is Very hard to find, particularly from outside of Europe.

Toybiz Korean Deluxe Gift Set – this was only available in Korea and is very very hard to find.

NECA Balrog – this was a one off very large limited-edition figure produced by NECA but to the scale of the Toybiz Normal range. It did not have any official packaging but came in a labelled cardboard box.

Bridge Direct Hobbit SDCC Exclusives – 2 figures, Invisible Frodo and Azog, with special packaging, were exclusively available at SDCC. These come up occasionally on ebay.

    

What to watch out for

As with a lot of collecting there is always the ‘Packaged’ vs ‘Loose’ consideration.

When considering ‘Packaged’ items, the quality of the packaging is important. Any damaged packaging will impact on the collectability of the item. Although, in my opinion, it is better to have an imperfect item than not have the item at all, so long as you don’t overpay for it.

When considering ‘Loose’ items, it is important that all the parts are there. For Action Figures this is particularly important as they normally come with accessories which are easily lost.

Some Action figures have working parts, either manually controlled or battery controlled. Be sure that the these are working, although battery-controlled elements only have a certain life span.

Storage and Display
Loose Action Figures are very easy to store, they take up little space. It is important to keep hold of all the accessories, which are easy to lose, so it is recommended that these be stored together in a box/container, but with the figures so that they are kept together.

Loose figures are also good to display, they can be posed and arranged in dioramas.

Boxed Action Figures are bulkier and require a fair bit of room to store. Some of the boxed sets are very large and if you have a lot of these, they can take up a lot of room.

You can get display cases to display Action Figures, loose and boxed.

If you have a particularly rare Action Figure, you can get it officially graded (according to condition, including packaging) and sealed into a display case. Although this process is not cheap.

What makes this area Interesting?
Action Figures in general have always been very popular to collect. They are a great visualisation of the characters from the books and the films.

This is quite a good Tolkien Area to collect as there are a reasonable number of items, not too many, with a lot being available and affordable. However, there are also rarer items to also make it a challenge for completists.

Resources
As well as the reference given above, the following resources have a lot more details about Tolkien Action Figures.

Tolkien Visual Collecting Guide – Action Figures

ActionFigureFury Article

FigureRealm - Lord Of The Rings

FigureRealm - Hobbit

Collector-ActionFigures - Lord of the Rings

Collector-ActionFigures - Hobbit

Figure-Archive

LotrCollectors

MiddleEarthNews

The Lord of the Rings Universe YouTube

RebelScum Forum

Tolkien Collecting - Beyond Books

Is Collecting Tolkien all about Books?

 

When you search the Internet about ‘Collecting Tolkien’ the majority of the hits returned are about books.

 

This is understandable as the books are where it all started and the books are what we rarely love, and yes there are many many different versions, re-releases, special editions etc, and yes Tolkien was so meticulous in the depth of his writing, and art, to give us a steady stream of new publications, and yes there are literary 100s of books about Tolkien and his works, so obviously the primary focus in Tolkien Collecting is on books.

 

But, if you move the books aside for a minute and look behind the bookcases, there is actually a whole other world of Tolkien related stuff to collect.

 

I remember the early days, not quite far enough back to the first release of the Hobbit or even the Lord of the Rings, but back to the late 60s and 70s, including the release of the Silmarillion, and in those days there was not very much ‘other stuff’ to collect. A calendar each year, an occasional board game, some posters and a few other oddments, but not much. In fact, the main problem with being a Tolkien collector was in knowing what was available. There was no internet, so it was all about stumbling across items in magazines or in shops, often quite obscure shops, or word of mouth.

 

Then came the Bakshi Lord of the Rings movie, and this introduced the Tolkien community to a whole new world of collectable items, action figures, toys, branded items, videos, promotional items etc, and ever since there has been a steady increase in non-book items, especially when the Peter Jackson movies happened, the Tolkien collecting world went through the roof.

 

We should also not forget the introduction of the Internet, which meant that collectors could really find out what was available, and ebay, which meant that you could now get hold of the items you never even knew existed. Now there was definitely more than just books to collect.

 

So, can you be considered a serious Tolkien Collector if you don’t primarily collect books?

 

The world of Tolkien fans is quite an enigma. From the start there has always been 2 aspects to Tolkien fans, the boundary of which is quite blurry. On the one hand there is the serious, the academic, the Tolkien specialists. On the other hand, there is the light hearted fan, the hippies, the students, and those who only know the movies. I’m not getting into the Ringer vs Tolkienist debate, but are there Book Collector vs Non-Book Collector sides? I think this is an area to explore in a separate article, what I wanted to start to explore here is what the Tolkien non-book related collecting world is all about.

 

There are definitely a lot of people with an interest in Tolkien who have smaller Tolkien collections out there, you see them all the while on twitter, Pinterest, Instagram etc. Check out the wonderful @CollectTolkien and #TolkienCollection on twitter for a daily view of these. This is great, it keeps the interest in Tolkien collecting ticking along and generates a community.

 

But what about really serious Tolkien non-book collectors? Can you even be a series non-book collector?

 

As previously discussed, there is now a lot, and I mean a lot, of Tolkien non-book related stuff to collect, far too much to collect it all, especially if you are a completist, I know I have fallen into that ever expanding world. So, I believe that the really serious collectors are the specialists in one particular non-book area.

 

Some of these specialists have shared their knowledge and collections to the world via specialist websites examples include Tolkien Calendars http://www.tolkiencalendars.com/ and Tolkien Board Games https://www.freewebs.com/tolkienboardgamecollecting/. There are also quite a few collectors of the high-end ranges, such as the WETA statues and the United Cutlery weapons. I would be interested to know of any other serious non-book collectors, particularly those of non-high end ranges, whether they specialise and what they have got in their collection.

 

So what non-book areas are there to collect and specialise in?

 

There really are quite a few different areas, some very large, such as Cards, others smaller, such as Vinyl LP’s. You can make an area as big or as small as you want i.e. collecting any type of Cards or specific types of Card e.g. Trading Cards, or even focusing on a single supplier such as Decipher Trading Cards (some of which are quite big in their own right). It all depends on your area of interest, budget and storage space.

 

Another idea is to collect based on something more general which would include items of various areas, such as a specific Tolkien character, take a look at madeyegamgee’s collection https://gemr.com/user/madeyegamgee/collection/WvjzECnalwAUSHCx/The-Sam-Rosie-Collection of items featuring the Hobbit Sam.

 

Similarly, you could focus on a specific ‘theme’ which would also include items of various areas, such as the Bakshi Movie.

 

Cost is always a factor and, although each area normally has ‘high end’, or expensive, items as well as ‘low end’, or cheaper, items, some areas are more ‘high end’ than others. For instance, Replica Weapons is very high end intensive and you will need a big budget to specialise in that area, however others can be primarily ‘low end’ and therefore a bit cheaper e.g. Computer and Video Games items.

 

As initially stated, it can be quite hard to find information about non-book Tolkien areas and items. Apart from the very specialist websites mentioned above, there are a few websites which have some good details about non-book items, https://www.tolkienguide.com/ is very good, but does focus a lot on books, as does the more generic Tolkien site http://tolkiengateway.net/. Others do cover some areas well, such as https://lotrcollectornotes.wordpress.com/, but are no longer updated, and others are about collections or general items. I have a larger list of some of these http://allaboutmeab.blogspot.com/2016/10/collecting-tolkien-internet-resources.html. I have also tried to document quite a few non-book areas within other articles within this blog, these are Visual Guides of items within specific areas and themes, they don’t include much description, but do include references to other internet resources about items and the area. Please see this Index https://tolkienvisualcollectingguide.blogspot.com/p/index.html.

 

I will also be following up this article with some summary articles giving overviews of some of the non-book Tolkien collecting areas.

 

One final observation for now about collecting non-book items, is that you get a greater interaction with other non-Tolkien collectors. When I post my Tolkien Items (Action Figures, Lego or Video Games etc) to my collection on Gemr https://gemr.com/user/andybirduk, I get interest from more specific Action Figure, Lego, Video Games collectors. Interacting with these other collectors is great, I also get to promote the Tolkien world a little bit. I’m sure that collecting is part of your DNA and if you are a collector it is great to interact with other collectors, whatever they collect.