Kili & Fili 2-Pack

March 29, 2013 | By More


 

Well, with thirteen dwarves in the roster for the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, manufacturer The Bridge Direct had the foresight to offer some of them in two-packs, like Balin & Dwalin or the subjects of today’s review, dwarves Fili & Kili.

 

In the book, Tolkien never really gave any of the dwarves much of a personality, barely providing very broad physical descriptions, and with so many similar sounding names it is often difficult to tell which is which, but WETA did a very good job in developing unique looks for each of them.

 

Even though the characters are brothers, Fili and Kili look quite distinct from each other, as Kili is the dark haired one with the stubble and Fili is the blonde one with a fuller beard.

 

Kili looks very much like a ranger-type, his outfit having more than a passing resemblance to what Aragorn wore in the first Lord of the Rings movie. Kili’s outer coat can be removed to show a knee-long tunic with a geometric pattern sculpted along the collar. There is not a lot of additional detail in Kili’s costume, other than perfunctory wrinkles and folds, but the supplied gear more or less helps to compensate for the simplicity of the design.

 

I did find odd that Kili is the less beardy of the dwarves, to the point that only his size indicates that he is not a member of the hobbit race. The face sculpt is actually rather generic and doesn’t really convey much in terms of expression, let alone any resemblance to actor Aidan Turner, but the overall look is decent.

 

Fili is more of a traditional kind of dwarf. He doesn’t seem to be much of an outdoors dwarf, but his tunic has a rather luxurious fur collar and is obvious that he spends a little more time than his sibling grooming his hair and beard. His face is also on the generic side of things, but at least Fili seems to have a slightly bemused look on his face, in lieu of an actual resemblance to actor Dean O’Gorman.

 

However, the one thing in his outfit that draws attention is not the intricate decoration at the hem, but the number of (non-removable) throwing blades he carries on him, which number six between knives and hatchets. Other than a baldric with scabbard across his torso, no other costume element can be removed from Fili.

 

The articulation in both dwarves is consistent with what most of the other figures in this line have, which is:

 

• Ball jointed neck.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Pegged hinge elbows.

• Swivel wrists.

• Swivel waist.

• Pegged hinge hips.

• Pegged hinge knees.

 

Of course, there are some differences in the range of motion each dwarf has due to the different character designs. Fili turns out to be the most versatile of the pair, as Kili’s long tunic greatly hinders the hips joints, and also the long hair strands on both limits the neck articulation.

 

Both dwarves come well equipped to go adventuring. Fili has a pair of short, broad blades that he can store together in a scabbard at the back of his baldric and a dwarven maul. Fili comes with a quiver full of (also non-removable) arrows, a short bow and a sword that he can also carry in a scabbard at his back. All of these weapons are decorated and sculpted with the geometric patterns we have come to associate with Dwarf Culture in the Peter Jackson’s films.

 

The paintjob on both dwarves is good, but not without issues. Fili does have a rather interesting print pattern on the fur collar of his tunic, but the hair is highlighted oddly, in a way that reminded me of cheese-haired Thor, only less yellow. On Kili the only outstanding issue is that the stubble on his face is way too sparse and lacks definition, but the rest of his paint applications fail to impress as well.

 

The overall look on both of them is still quite decent though, and very consistent with the appearance of the other figures in the line, which is always a big plus for me.

 

Errex Score: Fili: 86, Kili: 84

 

Overall Score: 85/100

 

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Category: Featured, Other Film, The Hobbit & LOTR, Toy Reviews

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I've been collecting action figures since the original Kenner Star Wars days. Nowadays, I still collect pretty much anything that catches my eye.

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