I really loved the LOTR line from ToyBiz, even more than I enjoy Legends. So it's with a little sadness that I note, no new figures from ToyBiz in a LONG time. Of course, genuinely NEW product in this line has been slim since the last of the trilogy hit home video. But the license, IMO, is an evergreen. With Hasbro getting the Marvel license, and the LOTR license (seemingly) expired for ToyBiz, does anyone else wish there were more to come ?

Everything ToyBiz did for LOTR was (more or less) faithful to appearances in the film. But with the more stylized characters appearing in maquettes, would folks be interested in getting another Frodo, Aragorn, Legolas, etc ? The only comparison I can think to make is the way Star Wars toys are often stylized, from photo-realistic toys to manga-influenced designs.

Would love to see toybiz start these up again, doubt it will ever happen though

The LOTR license isn't "seemingly" expired for Toybiz, it was announced to have expired at the end of last year. All the stuff TRUs have gotten in since then is just leftover stuff produced at the end of the license term.

As a "non-insider" who didn't read that the license had expired, I qualified my statement with, "seemingly."

Does anyone know if another toy company has sought out or purchased the toy rights from Tolkien's estate ? I haven't been able to follow some of the pricier collectibles inspired by LOTR, other than looking at pics of them online. The LOTR maquettes in ToyFare are an example.

I'm not really an insider, that's just a forum title for the number of posts I have. I read the lotr info on the various figure boards when it happened. Didn't mean to come of as rude, sorry.

Only company making LOTR figures right now I think is Sideshow with their 12" line. None have come out yet so far, and they're not as hard to find as the Star Wars figures, you could probably find preorders for all three announced ones.

I think the figures have gone a long long way since they first appeared.

If the figures were as nice as the newer ones, I probably would have still continued with the line.

No prob, bluesparrow, I actually thought you were an insider, and forgot that our member titles change with our post count.

Skips, you're right about figure quality. The earliest ones (like the first Boromir, for example) were borderline stiffs, but they got better. Especially with all the elaborate costumes, that required layers of different plastics and sometimes cloth. The face sculpts got better with time too.

I'm glad I bought 'extras' of figures from the ToyBiz LOTR line....maybe similar collectors helped the line to continue a little longer by buying multiples.

You know, a marketing savvy toy company could steer this license towards Star Wars-like success. The films and books provide a wealth of material to draw from. They could make character variations and obscure characters for quite a while.

I agree, but in a sense, the film trilogy has created a demand for actor-specific collectibles. In other words, nobody wants to buy an Aragorn unless he looks like Vigo, or a Legolas who doesn't look like Orlando. I was hoping that the LOTR video games would spawn a line of toys that weren't based on the films, and wouldn't necessitate a kickback to Peter Jackson. Not that I'm critical of him, but I don't think he necessarily had the 'definitive' vision of Middle Earth and it's inhabitants.

Yeah, but look at the clamor among Star Wars fans for "Expanded Universe" figures. For LOTR, it could be the other way around. Figures of characters that were in the books but not in the movies could be made. A creative designer/sculptor could come up with a movie-like look for them that would blend well with the figures based on real actors. Kind of like DC Direct's Justice figures which are based on the photorealistic art of Alex Ross.

Don't get me wrong, I'd be glad to get a Lord Celeborn, Barliman Butterbur, Tom Bombadil...you name it. And I wouldn't care if it was styled on the films, or done in an animated style, personally. I was just saying that a lot of people have Jackson's casting in mind, when they envision characters in the LOTR. It seems as though mass marketed toys have to be tied to some kind of promotion -- a film, tv show -- that brings in new fans along with the old. I guess if a boutique-type toymaker (NECA, Art Asylum) took on the LOTR license, they could do their own unique stuff and make it worthwhile. My only objection to non mass-market toys is that they can be hard to find, and expensive.

That's the main reason why toy companies shell out money beforehand to license a property: expected awareness. They hope that the money they pay to the owners of a property will offset any marketing costs they'd have to do on ther own if they had to sell their own line.

What's more, with retail costs going up, retailers will be hard pressed to stock unknown toys unless they're low price point items. Heck, even kinda-big licenses like Sesame Street and Movie lines aren't always enough to sell thru to retail stores.

Jerry of Sota mentioned that if the situation allows, he may one day want to do his own license-free fantasy line of toys...

I think that'll be fun to see (like how the 4H did the minotaur fella) but ultimately the big issue is that without a license, all it will be to collectors is a couple of cool looking figures. And those are exactly the kind of collectibles that are the first to be struck off the want list, and the first to go when you start clearing your room for shelf space. There's no emotional atachment to keep stuff like that.

That is an interesting proposition, and I'd be a potential buyer. Granted, the 4H minotaur figure doesn't click with me, but that's not to say a rilly kool satyr (or something) wouldn't catch my eye and make me buy him. And you're right, without some kind of personal connection with a character toy you're not likely to value it as much as a character you DO have some affinity for.