The Greatest Adventure is what lies ahead…
I wish I could say I have been waiting for this since the debut of the Rankin/Bass The Hobbit movie in 1977, but since I was not alive then, I cannot make that claim. The R/B movie started my lifelong love of all things Middle-Earth, and I still revisit it at least once a year. It is a wonderful condensed version of the story that does not take many liberties and has fascinating character designs and mesmerizing animation. To this day, whenever I think of Thorin and Company, I pictures their cartoon facsimiles from this movie in my mind’s eye.
I know that I am not alone in my love for the movie, so it makes it even more baffling to me that there has never been a lot of associated merchandise from it, and no toys or figures to speak of at all. But finally, in the year 2026, Dark Horse has brought out these vinyl figures of Bilbo Baggins and Gollum and they are quite lovely. Not proper action figures by any stretch of the imagination, but very nice representations of the characters that are as charming as ever.
While the boxes do not show the actual figure inside, I love the use of the distinctive font and landscapes from the movies being used here. It is a trip back to be sure, but the styles of both of these are so instantly relatable to the movie, it makes them stand out. I got mine via BBTS like I do most things, but I am hoping to spot these in a store just to see how display amounts a sea of other ephemera products.
The sculpting work is great on both of these, and it captures the characters and their essence quite well. I think I like Gollum just a touch better than Bilbo. The latter has a good likeness, but his portrait might be just a touch soft. On the other hand, I can practically hear Brother Theodore’s Gollum growl just looking at this figure, so nice work there. The paint is solid across the board and both stand easily with no assistance needed. That pretty much gets you what you need for vinyl pieces.
As these are vinyl figures, there is no articulation to speak of, so know going in that nothing is meant to move or pose. Both figures are pre-posed in appropriate stances, so they do look natural on the shelf. Both figures also come with a swappable part – Gollum has interchangeable left arms: one with a fish and one without. Bilbo, on the other hand, has swappable right hands – one to hold his dagger Sting, and one for his long and distinct pipe. These parts help with giving some variety to the figures and that goes a long way since they do not move.
I knew going in (since I saw the prototypes at SDCC last year) that these would be larger figures, but I included a couple of scale pictures to help. Bilbo is just about every bit of 6 inches tall, with Gollum being a bit larger (but hunched over). So, I don’t think these will really fit in with much of anything else on my shelves, but I appreciate the size to show off the details of these typically smaller characters.
These come with a price point of right at $50, so they are not cheap, especially for being static, but since these are really the first figures from the movie, I had to bite. Plus, they look great. I would love to see other characters from the movie, but since these are quite large on their own, getting the more human-sized characters like Gandalf would be challenge. They would need to be pretty big. But bring me Thorin & Co.
So yes, I am enjoying these but make no mistake: I still very badly want proper (1:12 scale!) action figures from the movie. I hope this breaks the dam a bit and we will see more things from the R/B Hobbit movie soon. I have wanted proper figures of Bilbo and Thorin & Co. my entire life – let’s get to it!
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