Would Beorn be a desired figure? I don't remember him being a very big part of the movies, but I remember him being an interesting part of the books. He's also an a big unique looking character. I'm assuming his bear form wouldn't be possible.
Has any toy line made all 13 dwarves from the Hobbit?
Not even remotely. The Bridge Direct made Thorin, Kili, Fili, Dwalin, and Balin in their fairly terrible 3.75" line. In their 6" line, only Thorin. Kinckerbocker, Toy Vault, and Toy Biz made only LOTR figures (excepting Toy Biz's flasback version of Bilbo from The Hobbit) and so made none of Thorin's company.
I do believe Bridge Direct had plans to make at least some of the remaining company in the 3.75" line. I remember seeing pictures of the missing characters in figure form. I think they were set to come around around the time of Battle of the Five Armies, but it never panned out because the first 2 movies sold so poorly.
That's my fear as well. I'd love all 13 members of the Dwarf Company. I agree that Thorin, Fili, and Kili could probably sell well enough on their own. Maaaaybe even Balin and Bifur, as the former had the biggest role of the rest of the company, and the latter at least provided some comic relief, but of the two, I really only see Balin selling even somewhat decently.
It's a shame too, because it's one of those cases where if we don't get all of them, I don't know if I'd want any of them. An incomplete company is worse to me than a non-existant one. But I also don't know the best way to go about it. A series of con exclusive 2-packs over the course of a year or 2? Those also risk selling out, so some folks may be stuck without ones they want. A year or two long membership where they release a new one every couple months to subscribers? I'd sign up. It's gotta be something that's kinda low-risk for DST, where they wouldn't have to produce more than is needed, I'd think. But then again, we may be surprised. Maybe as the series go on and sales (hopefully) continue to be strong, there may prove to be a demand. I didn't necessarily think that some of the Halloween Town citizens would sell super well in the NBX line, and while I don't have sales figures, they always sold through pretty quickly in my neck of the woods (the original releases, that is- the Best Of figures have certainly hung around in some spots).
Bridge Direct did have plans to complete the dwarves at one point. I am pretty sure they had gotten far enough along to where the releases where leaked or the info was officially released as far as whether it was going to be two packs or larger sets. I know I saw mockups but they might have been renderings and not prototypes. It’s been a long time and I was not overly impressed with their figures so I didn’t follow it like I had ToyBiz’s run. I used to have all the ToyBiz info on the unproduced figures.
Hmmm my guesses for the Hobbit wave:
Bilbo - How can you do Hobbit figures without him plus you get the easy exclusives down the line of indivisible Bilbo and Riddles in the Dark with Gollum
For the other figure I don’t see it being Gandalf, Galadriel, Elrond or Legolas because they could just as easily be LOTR releases and I think for the first Hobbit wave they will stick with the more Hobbit only appearances. I would have guessed Thorin but Zach made it sound like it’s not him so I am saying no dwarf in this wave. That leaves me with Thranduil, Bard, Tauriel, Radagast and Azog. Pretty sure it’s one of them. I am leaning towards Bard or Azog.
Final guess:
Bilbo and Azog (if it’s not Azog my next guess would be Bard followed by Thranduil and then Tauriel although they could go left field and make Steven Colbert’s Laketown spy figure).
My ideal dwarf company if we're not doing them all would be Thorin, Fili, Kili, Balin, and Dwalin. Maybe Gloin too just to have father and son scenes. As others have said, most of them are just too forgettable. I would love, love, love Tauriel to be a figure. But you'd definitely have to make Kili then.
If I'm being honest, the only Hobbit figures I really want are Radagast and Thranduil. Obviously all the others are wanted and welcome, but they were some of my favorite parts of the movies (ironic, since they were a lot of people's least favorites). Especially once Gandalf the White comes out, it'll feel strange not having Radagast to complete the movie wizards. But then I'll want the rest of the White Council- Elrond and Galadriel. Ahhh, what a slippery slope collecting is.
Has any toy line made all 13 dwarves from the Hobbit?
Not even remotely. The Bridge Direct made Thorin, Kili, Fili, Dwalin, and Balin in their fairly terrible 3.75" line. In their 6" line, only Thorin. Kinckerbocker, Toy Vault, and Toy Biz made only LOTR figures (excepting Toy Biz's flasback version of Bilbo from The Hobbit) and so made none of Thorin's company.
I do believe Bridge Direct had plans to make at least some of the remaining company in the 3.75" line. I remember seeing pictures of the missing characters in figure form. I think they were set to come around around the time of Battle of the Five Armies, but it never panned out because the first 2 movies sold so poorly.
That's my fear as well. I'd love all 13 members of the Dwarf Company. I agree that Thorin, Fili, and Kili could probably sell well enough on their own. Maaaaybe even Balin and Bifur, as the former had the biggest role of the rest of the company, and the latter at least provided some comic relief, but of the two, I really only see Balin selling even somewhat decently.
It's a shame too, because it's one of those cases where if we don't get all of them, I don't know if I'd want any of them. An incomplete company is worse to me than a non-existant one. But I also don't know the best way to go about it. A series of con exclusive 2-packs over the course of a year or 2? Those also risk selling out, so some folks may be stuck without ones they want. A year or two long membership where they release a new one every couple months to subscribers? I'd sign up. It's gotta be something that's kinda low-risk for DST, where they wouldn't have to produce more than is needed, I'd think. But then again, we may be surprised. Maybe as the series go on and sales (hopefully) continue to be strong, there may prove to be a demand. I didn't necessarily think that some of the Halloween Town citizens would sell super well in the NBX line, and while I don't have sales figures, they always sold through pretty quickly in my neck of the woods (the original releases, that is- the Best Of figures have certainly hung around in some spots).
Difficult for me to see there being demand for the whole dwarf company though, like you, I'd buy them and the subscription model would be fine by me. Your NBX counterexample is also interesting and maybe a line of mostly background dwarves could find their niche market.
As for The Bridge Direct, I'm glad they existed because I got a Great Goblin and some pretty great wolves out of them, but, man, do I wish someone else did The Hobbit. Character selection was bizarre, figure quality was lacking, decision to self-compete with 6" and 3.75" lines was bewildering, and their last hurrah was infuriating: selling preorders of a $100 (at the time, $$$) "giant" Smaug that showed up looking like a mouse with wings that didn't at all meet the explicitly fraudulent dimensions written in preorder solicitations. Maybe market wasn't there for Hobbit figures by that point anyway, but I would have loved to see Hasbro or another company try.
I'm a big fan of the Hobbit movies but I have no desire to have all 13 dwarves, ...They're not very unique characters, unlike the fellowship.
When I read my kids The Hobbit, they laughed every time Bombur was mentioned because Tolkien couldn't write the guy's name without reminding you how very fat he was. That was his one characteristic. They don't remember any of the other dwarves.
Then in FOTR Tolkien goes out of his way to tell the reader he had gotten so fat it took a gang of young strong dwarves to move him around. Just in case any Hobbit readers forgot he was the fat one.
I wasn't aware of this line till the recent news about the newest wave was hitting all the news sites. Been doing a little digging into it, and wow the Uruk-hai Orc figure looks amazing. If nothing else i should jump on that soon.
I'd buy anyone from The Hobbit films DST made just to go with my LotR figures. But that being said, I don't feel like too many characters from the Hobbit would sell that well. So, I can't see them going too deep into The Hobbit. Especially not ALL 13 Dwarves.
I hope Azog is in the Wave 9 Hobbit Wave. Such a cool looking character. I could honestly see Bilbo, Thorin, Azog, and Tauriel being made over time. Anything past them I would consider us very lucky to get.
@supercamel-1982 I would also love to see Dain Ironfoot get made (and it would be cool to have his boar as well).
Hey, does anybody know if the earlier sets are going to be re-released? Would love to pick up a Ringwraith!
The way I would do it, is to make 5poa low paint apps versions of them, and sell 3 packs for the same price as a figure. One accessory per figure, have all of them be preposed in action stances, and you could have almost the entire company in 4 releases.
Otherwise, i don't really see a way to actually make them, or for people to want them. If they see 3 figures in a box for the same price as a single, even with the less articulation, they might bite.
Same goes for army builders, if you want to build an army it would be a better idea to just make lesser articulated figures, with smart articulation choices, so that each figure can strike one or two different poses, and release them in multipacks for the same price as a single fully jointed figure.
I still haven’t even seen the Hobbit movies. I wouldn’t buy figures.
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