The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 2012/The Desolation of Smaug 2013 The bridge direct

With Peter Jacksons Oscar wining blockbusting trilogy, based on the works of author J.R.R Tolkien, still unchallenged as the most epic and awe inspiring fantasy Movie series of all time it was no surprise that the first book in Tolkien's Lord of the rings series The Hobbit ( There and back again) would eventually find its way to the silver screen. At first the Movie adaptation was to be helmed by director Guillermo del Toro but he soon dropped out to make way for Peter Jacksons triumphant return! Unlike the previous Trilogy which was based on three books the Hobbit only had a single novel from which to make three full 3 or so hour movies the second of which entitled "The desolation of Smaug" follows directly on from the events in "The unexpected Journey" continuing on Bilbo Baggins adventures across middle earth only this time he faces a deadly foe in the form of Smaug a ferocious Dragon who has taken possession of the lonely mountain and all of its gold! It is an event that is very briefly mentioned in the very first movie of the series "The fellowship of the Ring". Here we will look at the Gandalf and Bilbo/Gollum 3.75 inch figures released to tie in with "The Desolation of Smaug" in 2013 (These figures were previously released for "The Unexpected journey" the previous year and had just been repackaged for the second movie):

Legolas: The elven warrior was a trusted ally to the Fellowship on their quest to destroy the one ring and was invaluable in the fight against the armies of Mordor, and as it turns out he was also a big part of the action in the Adventures of Bilbo Baggins post the original trilogy Fans of the original novel will note that Legolas doesn't actually appear at all in the Hobbit book at all (at least he isn't mentioned by name) but it seems there was room for a ass-kicking Elf and their is only one guy for the job! 

Legolas Greenleaf is one of the nicer looking figures in the set with a strong resemblance to Actor Orlando Bloom and some very nice intricate paint details on his attire and weaponry  (see bellow) His costume here differs from what we saw in the original LOTR Trilogy so this Legolas should stand out from the other toy incarnations that came out for those movies

What really sets this figure apart from the others is his awesome range of accessories including his trusty bow and duel knifes plus his quiver with arrows which unfortunately are just sculpted in and are non removable!

Grinnah the Goblin: Making a brief but memorable appearance in the unexpected journey Grinnah is the chief  interrogator of Goblin town leading the captured Band of Dwarves to the Great Goblin King for punishment!



The Goblins are quite grotesque looking characters and this figure does a pretty good job at conveying with Grinnah here, this is a very nicely detailed sculpt with the flesh painted details really making him appear quite life like!

Accompanying the Goblin are three separate pieces all cast in the same brown plastic with some slight paint detailing added for realism two strap type items that are very tricky to keep from falling from the figures shoulders and his whip for beating your dwarf figures with!

Thorin Oakenshield: Dwarf warrior Thorin is slightly bad tempered and hot headed and despite his size when it comes to battle he is as skilled and capable as any man,elf or wizard! Thorin when met with tragedy in his family sets out for vengeance earning his title Oakenshield for his courage in battle against the evil Goblin leader Azog!

It is hard to find fault with this series of figures they all seem to be very nice representations of the characters they are based on and in this small scale is great to see so much detail in the paint applications and sculpting and Thorin here is no exception, he comes in slightly shorter than say Gandalf and Legolas but is slightly taller than Bilbo and Gollum which is perfect as he is a Dwarf after all! Again there is some nice little touches here that really helps to sell the character likeness such as the small grey streaks in the hair!

Completing Thorin is a nice selection of weaponry including two swords including the Orcrist along with a scabbard and a removable Oak shield that attaches to his left arm. All are very nicely sculpted and painted but it is a shame that he doesn't come with an axe as he wields one in the movie!

Gandalf the grey: The first (and last time) we saw Gandalf in his Grey variation was back in 2001's "The fellowship of the ring" from whence on he was known as Gandalf The White! So it is great to see the Wizard back in his scruffy Grey robes complete with Hat and scarf. As mentioned in the introduction this is a repackaged "The Unexpected Journey" Gandalf figure with the only difference being the packaging in which it is encased. Gandalf as seen here with all of his accessories stands slightly higher than the average 3.75 inch figure when the tip of his hat is taken into consideration. He holds his accessories well and can even clutch his sword when it is sheathed in the scabbard which detaches from the hip, the scarf is also detachable and the hat removable all of which fit nicely n his person.

A better look at Gandalf's head sculpt reveals a very strong Ian McKellen Likeness with a very nicely sculpted beard and hair which has light grey highlights to add an extra dimension though because of the length of the beard and hair the head movements are a tad restricted!

Gandalf is supplied with some very nice accessories including his staff, Hat, sword, Scabbard and scarf all of which have nice little minute details that are all the more astounding when you consider the size of these things! All the accessories are screen accurate and are what you would expect the character to be equipped with. All in all Gandalf is a very impressive figure who is a perfect example of what can be achieved in the smaller 3.75inch scale; a fantastic sculpt with appropriate accessories and paint applications that haven't been lazily applied!

Radagast The Brown: Only the third wizard to appear in the entire series and he is certainly the scruffiest and most eccentric of the trio who much prefers the company of woodland creatures to that of his Bipedal allies. Though the characters appearance is only fleeting in the original source material his inclusion somewhat makes up for the fact that he was omitted entirely in the first three movies.    

As played by Dr Who legend, Sylvester McCoy, Radadgst is one of the more memorable new additions to the franchise and as such it is nice to see that the action figure captures the character likeness so well, though he looks a little less ragamuffin like than his on screen counterpart! still there are plenty of nice little details (including bird poop highlights in his beard) and some intricate paint applications bringing the figure to life! 

The only two accessories that the figure comes with are his trusty staff and hat both of which are cast in brown plastic and look fantastic when placed on the figure

Bilbo Baggins: The shire Hobbit boasted of his many adventures in the first instalment of the Lord of Rings and now we are able to actually witness them! Though this time it is Martin Freeman starring as the hairy footed half man and in the Desolation of Smaug he will face his greatest foe yet, a huge dragon with a penchant for gold!
Here is Bilbo with all of his accessories clutching his small elven sword. Though his scabbard is non-removable the other accessories can be placed on and taken off him including his rucksack and water container his vest is also removable. Bilbo is much smaller than the Gandalf figure (being that he is a Hobbit and all) standing at  around the 2-3inch mark!

He has very nice detailing on his clothing with very few paint applications to speak of other than the hairs on his feet,his eyes and eyebrows and the silver tip of the scabbard all of which are painted very neatly! one point of contention is the face sculpt which is very soft looking and while some of martin freeman can be detected it isn't as strong as the image on the back of packaging might suggest!

Bilbo only has three accessories if you don't count the vest and necktie and these are A rucksack type item a drinking flask on a rope and his elven sword, these are all nicely sculpted with some paint applications, the sword is particularly nice looking with some markings on the blade! All of the accessories are accurate to the character as portrayed in the films and all fit will onto the figure.  

Gollum: Originally appearing in the first trilogy in the series Fan favourite Gollum is a feat of technical genius thanks to the talented folks at WETA and the awe inspiring performance from Andy Serkis merging to create one of cinemas greatest characters! Gollum is one of the few characters from the original three movies to make it into the Hobbit prequels as in the original novel 

Gollum is one the smaller figures in the line and as such is more delicate looking with his thin spindly arms and legs and as such is very limited in articulation when compared to Bilbo. He has no accessories to speak of but that is made up for in his very nicely sculpted features and realistic paint applications to resemble skin lacerations and other similar detailing  

The Hobbit may not be quite as fresh and awe-inspiring as the original Lord Of Rings trilogy was but there is no doubt that the three newer entries have plenty to offer fans who have been left with a huge hole to fill since the original series ended ten years earlier! This obscure little toy company have provided a toy line worthy of the epic adventure series and have even in some ways bested the offerings from Toy Biz who provided the action figures for the previous three movies! Bridge Direct have gone all out to give fans 3.75inch scale figures of their favourite middle earth characters to add to the ever growing numbers of action figures produced in this scale (including lines from Marvel and DC)
with generally good likenesses, great articulation and a nice selection accessories these figures make a fine addition to any action figure collection!




Figures in the series:


The Unexpected Journey:


3.75inch


-Bilbo Baggins
-Thorin Oakenshield
-Gandalf the Grey
-Legolas Greenleaf
-Grinnah the Goblin


2-Packs


-Bilbo Baggins and Gollum
-Fili and Kili The Dwarves
-Balin and Dwalin The Dwarves
-Legolas and Tauriel
-Fimbul the Hunter and Warg
-Thorin and The Goblin King


6inch


-Gandalf
-Bilbo
-Thorin
-Legolas
-Tauriel


The Desolation Of Smaug:


3.75inch


-Bilbo Baggins
-Thorin Oakenshield
-Gandalf the Grey
-Legolas Greenleaf
-Azog
-Radagast
-Mirkwood Hero Pack  







  
 

Man Of Steel 2013 Mattel

Is there any superhero more iconic and recognisable than Superman? More original and influential? Sure there are many  beloved comic book heroes but Superman truly is the Granddaddy of them all and as such any movie featuring one of the most recognisable characters in pop culture history will be thoroughly scrutinized and if deemed a failure will be cast out (Like General Zod and his cohorts) and banished to the phantom Zone where all atrocious Comic Book "inspired" movies dwell! Luckily Man Of Steel manages to escape such a fate despite some minor misjudgements and tonal issues. The premise of MOS is similar to that of Batman Begins (The latter's Director Christopher Nolan serving as producer) in that MOS is essentially a reboot retelling Supes history from the destruction of his birth planet of Krypton to his bringing up in small Ville by the Kent's right through to his meeting Lois Lane and his final showdown with the vengeful General Zod which features perhaps the movies most controversial moment! Its all thing we have experienced before in arguably better Superman movies but MOS at least ups the ante in terms of spectacle and whets the whistle for up coming instalments!    


Mattel once more provided the action figures and various other toys and games for DC's latest big screen adaptation with somewhat mixed results. Along with the usual Movie Masters line of "highly detailed and super articulated adult collector" figures were the more basic and smaller regular line of figures that whist nicely detailed and well made are seriously lacking in variety and imagination. Here we will explore two of the figures from the series; the main antagonist and the title hero in detail:  

SUPERMAN: The mighty alien from the ill fated planet Krypton arrives on earth as a child and vows to use his abilities to help those in need while moonlighting as Newspaper reporter Clark Kent when not in his red and blue spandex flying around metropolis and wooing Lois Lane! .  

There were many variants of superman available in the line, some just straight forward repaints of the "Hero" figure seen here. Each figure has the same head sculpt and fabric cape with limited articulation and basic paint applications. still this is a very nice looking toy and perfectly captures the character as seen in the movie

Man Of Steel may have portrayed Superman as a touch more serious and brooding very little has changed in the way of his iconic appearance with actor henry Cavill looking as though he stepped out of any one of superman's classic comic book issues onto the big screen and this figure does a relatively decent job of capturing the actors likeness but does an even better one on the texture and design f the costume.

The solitary accessory supplied with superman is this motorcycle which come sin two halves to appear as though it has been ripped in two to be used as a weapon against Zod! It is all cast in one lump of sliver plastic and has no articulation and doesn't even seem to be in scale with the figure itself but is still quite nicely detailed and looks pretty good when placed in Superman's hands

GENERAL ZOD: Militaristic rebel leader Zod is sentenced to "300 cycles of somatic reconditioning" in the Phantom Zone after failing in battle with Kryptonian scientist  Jor-El only to resurface 33 earth years later to exact revenge of Jor-El's son who after escaping the destruction of his home planet as an infant has taken on the role of protector to the people of earth as Superman!

Almost the entire range of figures in the series feature either General Zod or Superman himself, with Zod only getting two variants in this scale. This version is based on Zods early appearance in the film when he squares up to superman's father (Russell Crowe) Zod is attired in futuristic looking armour which is very nicely sculpted though is all cast in black with no additional paint apps to help bring out the details

Again a fairly decent job had been done in capturing the likeness of the performer, in this case actor Michael Shannon, but with only basic paint applications on his hair and eyes/eye brows he face  lacks realism

Again there is only one accessory to speak of though it comes in two parts which when placed together forms a larger weapon that is difficult for the figure to hold so is best utilized as two single weapons. Once more these are cast in a single colour with no detailing at all but are still very nicely sculpted and look great in the figures possession!




As with the Dark Knight trilogy Man Of Steel is a slightly more sober take on a larger than life comic book hero and some may find that refreshing others will the change in tone a disappointment, similarly the Mattel toy line is lacking in fun with only basic articulation and unimaginative accessories (where there are any) still the movie designs translate well into figure form and when placed with the Green Lantern and Dark Knight figures make for a nice little set.


figures available:


Basic Series:
Superman
-Auto Assault
-Concrete Crusher
-Split Cycle
-Krypton Combat
-Tread Attack
-Strike Shield
-Wrecking Ball


General Zod
-Demolition Claw
-Shadow Assault


Figures without Accessories:
General Zod
-Black


Superman
-Red/Blue (Hero)
-Red/Blue
-Silver


Electronic:
-Mega Punch Superman


Flight speeders:
-Superman (various)
-Zod
-multipack
-Strike Ship
-Sky Slam Launcher


Power Action Deluxe:
Superman
-Wheel Wrecker
-Bank Breaker


General Zod
-Duel Destruction


Quick Shots:
Superman
-Attack Armour
-Flight Strike
-Ultrahero
-Krypton Clash
-Fire Fighter


General Zod
-Flyin' Fury


-Cruiser Smash Battle Pack
-Tank Buster Battle Pack
-Battle For Metropolis Play Set

Green Lantern Mattel 2011

Patrolling the universe and protecting  planets from near doom are the intergalactic police code named The Green Lanterns! Aided by a mystical Power Ring they can form any construct that can be imagined to help defeat anything that threatens to disrupt the balance of the universe. There have been many Green Lanterns over the years and so there many different iterations of the iconic DC character for filmmakers to draw inspiration, though in the end it was the most well known Lantern Hal Jordan that was the focus for this interpretation. Staring Ryan Reynolds (who is no stranger to comic book movies having appeared in Marvels X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Blade Trinity previously) this time in the title role  as Hal Jordan AKA The Green Lantern who is tasked with being personal protector to Earth as a member of the Green lantern Corps, which is all fun and games until the evil Fear entity Parallax turns up with death and destruction on its mind! Though A far from perfect Movie Green Lantern still has plenty of charm and special effects fuelled action to keep from being a total fail!


Like the previous DC comics property, The Dark Knight, The Green Lantern had been supplied with a great selection of action figures by Toy Giant Mattel and here we will look at a selection of figures from the basic 3.75/4 inch line:

HAL JORDAN (Masked): Bad boy pilot Hal reluctantly takes on the responsibility as earths representative in the Green Lantern Corps after he is chosen by a mysterious Alien Ring, the owner of which was a former Green Lantern member who is killed after a daring escape from the evil parallax when he makes an emergency crash landing on earth!   


 Green Lantern Hal Jordan is given quite a few variants in this line, being he is the main character and all this version being the "hero" best captures the look of the character as he appears in the promotional material and action sequences in the movie. I will say however I think the mask-less version of this figure has a slightly better likeness of Ryan Reynolds. All of the figures in the series  have the same articulation virtually but all have unique sculpts which are more apparent on closer inspection

KILOWOG: When rookie Hal Jordan shows up wearing the lantern corps ring its up to Kilowog to prepare Jordan for the trials he now faces as a member of these galactic protectors despite initially taking a disliking to Jordan for being a "smelly" human he is eventually won over when Jordan proves himself when facing off against Parallax!   

As the largest figure of the set it is probably no surprise this is the most impressive looking which has lots of interesting detailing and a very good likeness of the creature as he appears in the movie!

ABIN SUR: Having lost his life feeing from the dreaded parallax the much revered Green Lantern commands his ring to seek out a suitable successor (Hal Jordan) before his corpse is discovered and experimented on by Scientist Hector Hammond who in the process becomes infected by some of Parallax's DNA which had been hidden in Abin's wounds!

Despite only briefly appearing on screen in order to pass on the power ring to Hal Jordan Abin Sur is still  an important part of Lantern dynasty and is represented here in figure form very well, with the make up design applied on actor Tamuera Morrison being very nice reproduced

SINESTRO: Though he would eventually go on to be a deadly nemesis to Hal Jordan and the Green Lanterns Sinestro is first presented as the Leader of Lantern Corps devising a "yellow ring of fear" in order to defeat parallax before using it himself to gain more power!

Another great looking figure in this collection with some nice webbing type detailing on the costume and another pretty accurate looking face sculpt this time of actor Mark Strong in red makeup complete with scar and sporting a David Nivven style moustache!








Green Lantern may have been unfavourably received by critics and audiences but at least it was supplied a decent toy line by Mattel with many different characters to collect and decent accessories and if the 3.75inch scale figures aren't to your liking then you could always check out the superior 6 inch movie masters line instead!


figures available in the series:


Hal Jordan
-Battle Axe
-Hyper Hammer
-Test Pilot
-Colossal Cannon
-Solar Saw
-Abin Sur
-Kilowog
-G'hu
-Green Man
-Galius Zed
-Ismot Kol
-Hannu
-Krona
-Stel
-Voz
-Tomar-Re
-Sinestro
-Max charge Kilowog


Battle Shifters:
Hal Jordan
-Blade attack
-Battle fist
-Galactic Gator
-Solar Serpent
-Scorpion assault Tomar-Re 


Supercharged:
-Hal Jordan
-Kilowog
-Sinestro
-Abin Sur
-Voz


Galactic scale:
-Hal Jordan


Vehicles/Play sets:
-Battle Breakdowns Construct copter (with Hal Jordan)
-The final showdown Hal Jordan (exclusive) Vs. Parallax
-Kilowog's Moto-Jet

The Dark Knight/The Dark Knight Rises 3.75" basic series Mattel 2008/2012

Christopher Nolan's seminal trilogy based on the DC comics icon rejuvenated the fledgling franchise bringing the Batman movie series back to its former glory! This darker, grittier take on the popular character pleased long time fans of the caped crusader and astonished critics and cinemagoers everywhere setting the bar for every other comic book adaptation that followed. Kenner had famously provided Batman action figures for the previous four movies instalments but due to that toy company going bust the licence has now moved on to Mattel who have taken the task of producing actions figures based on this new interpretation of Batman in its stride, not only producing the standard figures and playsets we have come to expect but also more adult focused collectors figures (to be covered in a future review). Here we will focus on the 4" series of figures that we released in 2008 and 2012 respectively:

BATMAN: Few characters are as iconic and instantly recognisable as Batman yet with each new entry that comes to the fore it seems as distinctly individual as the one before (for better or worse) and each Actor who dons the Bat-Suit helps define the character in one sense or another, this is certainly true of Christian Bale who brought a real depth and believability to the role with his Batman being the one children and young adults of this generation will remember with the most fondness 

The Bat-suit was updated for The Dark Knight in 2008 and was kept for the third sequel TDK Rises in 2012 so Mattel just simply recycled the figure they produced for the second film and to add insult to injury didn't even add any accessories! still it is a stunning sculpt especially in this 4" scale with a decent likeness of Bale's lower face  

BANE: Considering that some of Batman's most iconic adversaries have been around almost as long as Batman himself it came as something of a surprise that one of the more recent additions to the rouges gallery was chosen to be pitted against the Caped Crusader in the final instalment, especially after being featured in the ill fated Batman and Robin here the character was reduced to a little more than a dumb henchman! The casting of Tom Hardy suggested that this was to be a very different take on Bane, who in the comics had super strength as a result of pumping a drug named Venom into his body, with this version of Bane being portrayed as a master strategist hell bent on bringing Gotham city to its knees!    

Of all of the 4" Batman  figures produced by Mattel Bane is the most basic looking, there is barley any paint applications at all despite having lots of sculpted details that would have benefited from a little paint detailing!

SCARECROW: One of Batman's greatest adversaries has featured in many iterations and has remained pretty much unchanged until Batman Begins gave him a much more sinister edge, a former doctor at Arkham Jonathan Crane used his fear toxin to keep control of his patients and aided in almost destroying Gotham City by poisoning the water supply with his concoction!


This scarecrow figure was originally released in 5"1/2 scale for the Batman Begins line before being shrunk down to 3.75" for the sequel to be released in a two-pack with a Batman variant. like its larger counterpart this figure has two faces on either side to symbolize the effect of the fear toxin one side appears to be screaming with light up eyes via a clear piece of plastic on the top of the head that lets light through (something of a trademark for scarecrow figures as both the animated series and legends of the Dark Knight series have the same feature) Unlike Bane this figure has plenty of paint applications and even a dark wash to give his straightjacket a dirtied appearance!

TWO-FACE: Arguably Two-Face is the Batman's most tragic foe, a former friend who becomes insane as the result of having acid hurled in his face (or in the case of the Dark Knight doused gasoline and set alight after the Joker tries to blow him up!) a former district attorney Harvey Dent  at first champions the efforts of Gotham's nightly guardian until he is almost burnt alive and loses the woman he loves blaming Batman for not saving her. Dent uses a doubled sided coin to decide his victims fate with the scarred side of his coin denoting certain death! 
Tw0-Face is probably the best figure of the bunch with a strong likeness of actor Aaron Eckhart and lots of great detailing especially on the "burnt" side of his suit!





Mattel's range of figures for the respective Batman movies of late have been something of a mixed bag with the more recent The Dark Knight Rises range really lacking in almost all respects. Thankfully Mattel were able to make amends with the far superior "Movie Masters" range of figures but these basic series (in both the 5" and 3.75" scales) are made up of mainly repaints and re-issues making collecting these a rather dull experience!


Other figures available in the series:


Batman Begins 2005:
(Batman)
-Battle Gear
-attack net
-Bomb Blast
-Power Punch
-Exo-Suit
-Rapid Fire
-Roto-Blade
-Zip-Line Attack
-Bruce Wayne to Batman
-Ra's Al Ghul
-Scarecrow
-Skull Strike Scarecrow
-Ducard


Deluxe:
(Batman)
-Laser Blaster
-Electro Strike
-Light Suit
-Battle Cape
-Zip-Line Blaster


The Dark Knight 2008:
(Batman)
-Elasto-Cuffs
-Grip Gear
-Stealth Wing
-Staff Strike
-Body cannon
-Sky Glider
-Grapnel Launcher
-Sonar Blast
-Sky Glider
-Sonic Spy
-Saw -shot
-Body cannon
-Grapnel Gear
-Battle Case
-Mobile Attack
-Shoulder Cannon
-Spin Blade
-Punch Packing Joker
-Ninja Bruce to Batman
-Descructo case  Joker
-Fear Shot Scarecrow
-Deathstroke
-Firefly
-Two-Face

Ultra Armour:
-Drill Strike
-Areo Blast
-Electro Crush
-Triple Shot
-Swing Shot



3.75" line:
-Batman & Joker
-Stealth Suit Batman & Scarecrow
-Battle Armor Batman & Bruce Wayne
-Thermo Suit Batman & Gotham City Thug


The Dark Knight Rises 2012:
(Batman)
-Black costume
-Gold costume
-Caped Crusader
-Ultra Blast
-Stealth Vision
-Teal/Silver Costume
-Grey/Black Costume
-Batarang Bash
-Zip-Line Blaster
-Bane
-Final Assault Bane


Quick Tec:
(Batman)
-Air attack
-Combat Claw
-Flight Strike
-Missile Amour
-Tank Blaster
-Saw Strike
-Gold Drill Canon
-Cyber Glider
-Brow Drill canon
-Bane Venom Menace
-Bane