Call me crazy, but I think the ladies of Sideshow are in charge of the sixth scale Lord of the Rings line. Why? Well, if the manly men were in charge the character selection might have started out a little different. Perhaps we would have seen Gimli, Gandalf, or Orc…most definitely an Arwen would have been in the early contention. But with Aragorn, Legolas, Boromir and Faramir starting things out, it’s like Middleearth as interpreted by the Chippendale dancers. Hey, I’m just saying.
But even if they are the hunks of Hobbiton (and were featured in a calendar of the same name that was quite popular in the Shire), they’re still pretty damn key to the story. And they make for some great looking sixth scale figures.
Legolas is the second figure to hit, just shipping over the last couple weeks. As usual, there’s a regular and an exclusive version, with the exclusive having not one but TWO extras this time: the Lothlorien cloak complete with elven broach, and an extra hand sculpted to hold an arrow in a stabbing pose.
Expect to pay around $55 for Legolas, at least for the time being. While the exclusive is long gone from Sideshow’s site, you can get on the wait list, or find the regular version at a number of online stores. Check my Where To Buy section for some suggestions.
If you have any comments or suggestions, just drop me a line at mwc@mwctoys.com. On to the review!
Sideshow LOTR 12″ Legolas
Packaging – ****
Once again, Sideshow pulls out all the stops. While all their packages are great, the work on the Star Wars and LOTR lines is exceptional. Plenty of photos, lots of text on both the general story line and specifics on Legolas’ background, and a beautiful presentation using a die cut flap on the front all add up to a great box.
And yes, it’s collector friendly too. You can take Legolas out, play around with him, display him, and put him back some day for storage or sale if you so desire.
My one complaint is the velcro closures on the flaps. Yep, I’ve been spoiled by the magnetic closures on the Star Wars boxes, and these are simply not as good. The top two velcro ‘dots’ pulled free from the box almost immediately, and that’s a fairly common problem. Still, you got to give them credit for producing some truly beautiful packages.
Sculpting – ***1/2
The sculpt is from Andy Bergholtz, one of Sideshow’s best sculptors. He’s since moved over to work exclusively for DC Direct, and I for one will miss his work on the sixth scale and Premium Format lines.
This is some of his best work, which is saying quite a bit. Orlando Bloom as Legolas has been a consistently difficult likeness for companies to capture. Toybiz tried a number of times, including a sixth scale version, but never quite pulled off the perfect version. Weta tried as well with the Legolas bust, and I thought it was, well, weak. And you thought I was going to say “a bust”, didn’t you? Even NECA tried in the quarter scale figure line, and it was not the success their earlier Aragorn was.
I’m going to lay down the claim that this is the best version we’ve gotten so far in any scale, and any format. That’s not to say he’s not without any issues, and he is a bit harder looking than in the films, especially Fellowship when Bloom was still quite young. If you look at him straight on, his ears do appear pushed out to far from his head, and the chin is slightly large. He also has a thin mold line across the top of his head, something that bugs me particularly at this price point and expectation level. While this might sound like a lot of problems – ears, chin, age – each is very minor, and the overall effect is not as great as I’d imagined. You do have to assume this Legolas is an older version than you’re used to though, which might be tough for some fans.
The regular version also has four hand sculpts, each with a slightly different positioning of the fingers and thumbs. These are all designed to hold the weapons though, and there are no open hand poses.
Paint – ****
When Sideshow has production problems with the paint on their figures, I’m one that always complains. No matter how good the sculpt is, if you don’t back it up with amazing paint ops, you’ll disappoint the buyers. And the poor sculptors.
This time, the paint work is excellent. First, there’s no slop what so ever. The hair line is perfect, the eyes are clean and straight, the lips are just the right shade, and the skin has just enough shading to add to the angular lines of the sculpt without becoming too obvious.
Some folks may think Legolas is a little too tan, but I think that works better in this scale than light skin. Even if he is paler in the movie, pale skin in this smaller scale tends to look cheap and unrealistic.
I’d also like to thank them for not putting any dark paint in the nostrils. That’s been a common thing lately for Gentle Giant with their mini-busts, and I really don’t like it. Here you can see that it’s not necessary to add that dark color to get the right amount of shadow.
Articulation – ***
The bulky tunic helps the underlying body here quite a bit, at least in terms of appearance. But the leggings simply can’t hide those skinny legs. Now, I realize that Orlando Bloom isn’t Ahnold, but he’s not Kermit either.
The body does have all the articulation you’ve come to expect, with the exception of a good ball jointed neck. They really do need to improve this joint, if they expect to give us a body that rivals companies like Hot Toys or Medicom.
The future of sixth scale bodies is NOT in more articulation though. Given all the standard joints (including a good ball jointed neck), and you have the expected body that will keep you even with the competition, but not give you the advantage. The advantage is going to come from developing the best body in terms of how that body ‘hangs’.
You can have the exact same number of joints, but the better designed joints hang and pose more naturally. And it’s this natural appearance that will be the next big advancement in the market. Hot Toys, Medicom and Takara are working hard in this area, and have made some great strides. They have some work still to go, but Sideshow needs to begin pushing the envelope in this area to bring them up to the competition, and then hopefully take them to the next level.
Outfit – ***1/2
The outfit starts out with the nifty well made leggings, which fit tightly. Unfortunately, a tight fit does tend to mean that the appearance of the skinny Sideshow legs is highlighted.
The shirt is made from a silk-like material, and is extremely well tailored. It has to be to fit well under the tunic, and not make the overall figure look too fat. The tunic, made from a very thin suede, is a bit poofy, but it’s not the fault of the shirt.
The tunic has high quality snaps in front, and a great combination of light and dark colors. It’s not quite as tight of a fit as I’d like, but that’s a minor nit. It’s held tight at the waist with a thin leather belt, that has a plastic sculpted buckle and imprinted pattern.
The boot and gauntlet sculpts look terrific, especially the boots. Sideshow has done some amazing boot sculpts in both the LOTR and Sideshow lines, and this pair does not disappointment. The intricate details are highlighted with some nice paint work on the silver designs.
The right gauntlet is sculpted to hang down slightly over the right hand. This looks terrific. The left gauntlet is sculpted tighter at the wrist so that it can’t reach down onto the hand. This is another minor nit, but the difference in appearance bugs me. I’m not sure that it’s inaccurate from the films, but in person it looks odd to me.
The Lothlorien cloak is perhaps my favorite cloak of the LOTR and Star Wars lines so far. It’s made from very thin cloth, and includes the thin wire in the hood for posing. The tailoring is excellent, and the hood poses well both on the shoulders and over the head. The big problem is the cheap looking elven brooch, which stands out against the green cloth. It’s not the quality of sculpt or paint detail that you’d expect, and is perhaps the one real disappointment here.
Accessories – ****
The figure comes with the standard base, emblazoned with the LOTR emblem. But you’ll be happy to know, if you’re like me, that the stand isn’t necessary to keep him standing in poses.
The exclusive version comes with three hands, while the regular comes with two. These are sculpted in various finger/thumb poses, and are designed to hold the various weapons. They come off and go on easily, but the posts are long enough and tight enough to avoid the problems with them falling off with basic posing.
The exclusive hand is designed to hold a single arrow in a stabbing pose, similar to what he did in the films. It’s a good sculpt, and looks quite a bit better in practice than I expected, but it’s probably not going to be the key pose for most folks.
Legolas needs weapons of course, and he has his standard ones here. There’s a nicely scaled bow, with five individual arrows. There’s also his pair of elven knives, which are done in a rather unique way.
There’s a pair that are full size, and there’s a pair of cut off knives, that are really just handles with stubs. These are designed to fit in the scabbards, and look good doing it. By doing this, they could make the scabbards and swords look terrific on his back, and yet give him a pair to hold as well. They aren’t quite perfect though, as they are scaled a little too small, and the handles are the incorrect silver color. Still, the sculpt detail is good, and the pair fitted into the back of his pack look great.
Speaking of the quiver, it fits nicely on his back either with or without the cloak. The pleater straps fit over his left shoulder, with the single strap running around his body under his right arm and attaching to the quiver again on his back. There’s a small hook at the base of the quiver on the right side, and there’s a small hole punched in the single strap. Attach the quiver there, and it will look just like it does on the box.
The bow and arrows are better scaled, with the exception of the string. It’s quite thin, and much smaller than it would be in reality in proportion to his hands and body. Still, it has enough bend to it to work with some interesting ‘aiming’ poses, and is affixed tightly to both end of the bow.
The arrows fit easily in the quiver, and the actually look great threaded on the bow. Each has the small notch With the various hand sculpts, you can get some terrific poses with the bow and arrows.
Fun Factor – **1/2
These figures aren’t really designed to be toys, so a lower fun factor should be no surprise. Small parts like the belts and straps aren’t going to hold up to normal play, and these are designed to look great on the shelf, not the sandbox.
Value – ***
Most of the other LOTR figures coming out from Sideshow are $65. I’m not sure why Legolas managed to come in ten bucks cheaper, but he’s an excellent value. On top of just running $55 at the official site, the regular version can be hand for as little as $47 at many online stores. Considering the number of accessories and the quality of the outfit, that’s an excellent value, and could very well be worth another half star in this category.
Things to Watch Out For –
I’ve already gone over how to attach the sling on his back, but be mighty careful doing it. That itty bitty hole and small hook can easily get damaged. Other than that, this is a very sturdy figure for the level of detail and quality.
Overall – ***1/2
I had some issues with Aragorn’s sculpt and paint, issues that were largely due to manufacturing problems. It didn’t help that his leather jacket didn’t come out as well as the prototype, or his hair looked a bit like tootsie rolls. Still, he was a better figure in person than most photos made him appear.
Legolas is a big step up from Aragorn. The excellent head sculpt is improved, not hurt, by the paint work, and there doesn’t appear to be any of the manufacturing quality issues. The costume and accessories have a few minor nits that hold him back from a perfect score – and I’ll keep harping on joint improvements – but if Faramir and Boromir are this good, fans are going to be mighty pleased.
This line doesn’t seem to be selling as well as the Star Wars line, nor as well as you might expect a license like this to do. The exclusive Legolas was a run of just 1750, and the regular edition is just 3500. I’m betting that this is a line that collectors will be kicking themselves over in a few years, especially if the quality stays like this.
Where to Buy –
You’re going to most likely look to the online stores to pick this guy up, unless you want to pay inflated toy show prices:
– Sideshow still has regular Boromir ( ) and the regular Legolas ( ) available, or you can get on the wait list for the exclusives.
– CornerStoreComics has Legolas at $46.74, which is a steal for this figure.
– Amazing Toyz matches that terrific price of $46.74!
– and not to be outdone, Alter Ego Comics also has him at $46.74.
– at only a penny more, you can pick him up for $46.75 at Fireside Collectibles.
– Dark Shadow Collectibles also has him at $46.75, in stock.
– Dark Figures has him for just $49.99.
– and for those of you in the U.K., Forbidden Planet has him on sale at 35 pounds.
Related Links:
I’ve had a share of Legolas reviews, as well as other Sideshow LOTR reviews:
– first, check out the sixth scale Aragorn and Premium Format Lurtz from Sideshow.
– Dragons in Dreams did a version of Legolas in this scale as well. Some of the costume or accessories from that figure would do well with this Sideshow version.
– Toybiz also did a nice rotocast 10″ version, that was very well done for the price point. They also did several 6″ scale versions, including this very early one, and a Two Towers style. I also reviewed their 12″ version over at the old Movie Poop Shoot.
– And if you like you’re Legolas cute and tiny, check out the Mini-mates version.
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