The Bridge Direct fresh off the success of their line of figures for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey are releasing some information regarding when we might see wave two. This wave will commence under The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug which hit store shelves October 15th. This wave will have the same style of figures that we saw in wave one but we will see characters we did not see as well as new characters. The Bridge Direct also announced they will once again have an exclusive figure at Comic-Con in July of this year.
Update: We just received some awesome pictures of a few of the upcoming items. So a gallery has been added to this post.
Per the info we know so far for Wave Two:
3.75” SCALE ACTION FIGURES
o New assortment includes Radagast, Thranduil, Azog, Beorn and Gandalf
o Each figure features 12 points of articulation and replicates the authentic facial features, clothing, weapons and accessories of the character in painstaking detail.
o SRP $7.99 each
3.75” SCALE ACTION FIGURE BOX SETS – Three New Packs!
Mirkwood Pack: Legolas, Tauriel, Thranduil, Fili and Kili
Thorin Oakenshield Adventure Pack: Nori, Ori, Dori, Gloin and Thorin
Bilbo Baggins Burglar Pack: Bifur, Bombur, Bofur, Oin and Exclusive 3.75″ Invisible Bilbo
SRP $29.99 each
6” SCALE COLLECTOR FIGURES
New assortment includes Radagast, Azog and Legolas
Each collector figure features intricate details replicating the character’s facial features, clothing, weapons and accessories.
2-disc DVD edition of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.”After dominating home video sales (which isn’t video at all anymore but remains the common term) the week of its release, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” is back on top of the sales leader board in its fourth week in release. Its opening release pitted it against strong Oscar-winning competition, “Les Miserables” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” but its sales outpaced those title by more than a 3-1 ratio each. (TORn doesn’t have an official opinion of either film but this writer recommends both) And a month later after losing the top spot to “The Bible,” around the Easter holiday, Peter Jackson’s film is back on top.
Despite mostly positive but mixed reviews and media reports of mediocre box office (which proved to be incorrect after its $302 million run in the U.S. and its more than $1 billion world-wide) the film is also impressive with its home-use sales figures. Warner Bros. promoted the initial sales with an exclusive look at this December’s “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug,” but that has come and gone while sales remain strong. We don’t mean to cheerlead for the film’s financial outcome and nobody from the studio is sending TheOneRing.net money, but some bad buzz lingers despite the film being embraced culturally and financially by viewers and it seems perception might not quite match reality. It will be fascinating to see if 48 fps, 3D and the decision to tell the book’s story over three films will remain a topic of media focus or if the film’s success and its impressive cast will shift into the spotlight.
The MTV Movie Awards just announced that Bilbo beat out all the other contenders, including Iron Man, The Hulk, Catwoman, Batman, and Snow White, for the coveted “Best Hero” award. A massive fan effort that spanned continents lead to Bilbo’s victory by a margin of more than 100,000 votes. Using the hashtag #votebilbo, fans cast their votes on Twitter and Instagram and forged a dedicated fellowship committed to showing the world that even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
With more than 1.63 million votes, Bilbo was the clear winner, much to the chagrin of legions of Kristen Stewart and Twilight fans who gave our little hobbit a run for the money. In addition to tweeting, fans created thousands of images that they uploaded to Instagram to share their love for our favorite hero. We’ll have a gallery of some of our favorites online soon.
It’s been a true adventure riding the wild voting rollercoaster, and it’s brought many Ringers together and strengthened our community. From #votebilbo, we’re now united under #BilboTheHero. Click to read about how TORn’s MrCere went from thinking this campaign was “harmless but pretty useless,” to wholeheartedly jumping on board the #votebilbo train as, “A funny thing happened during the process: It became really fun on Twitter to #VoteBilbo!”
Gentle Giant tonight put up for pre-order the next Mini-bust in their line of collectibles based on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. As fans know Gentle Giant has already released or placed for pre-order Thorin (Comic-Con 2012 Exclusive), Dwalin (PGM 2012 Exclusive), Gandalf the Grey, and Gollum. Well, now the first bad guy is joining those ranks with The Goblin King! He is a massive bust coming in at 9″ high and a price of $99 for non-PGM members or $89 for PGM members. If you order directly from Gentle Giant you will also get the awesome looking Goblin Scribe Mini-Bust. Both of these items are not due to ship until the fourth quarter of this year.
Just this week with the arrival of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles, Creatures & Characters , fans got a sneak peek at an upcoming statue for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The character that was shown was Gollum, fully enraged at something down in his cave. Tonight, fans get to order this statue – and it’s a great companion, as you can see in the pictures, to the Bilbo statue previously released. Gollum comes in at $249 and will be shipping sometime in May/June. There is no announced edition size with this statue.
In the new publication The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles, Creatures & Characters, near the back of the book, it appears that Weta has pictures of products that you can order, and even some upcoming items. The one product catching the eyes of those who have received the book is what appears to be a statue of Gollum, from the ‘Riddles in the Dark’ sequence. This is the first 1:6th statue of Gollum, and it already looks to be a great representation of him ready to attack Bilbo as he leaves the cave. No word on price or availability, but as soon as we know, you will as well!
