You are here: Home » Featured » Thorin Oakenshield

Thorin Oakenshield

March 8, 2013 | By Errex More

Today I’m reviewing Thorin Oakenshield from the 4-inch action figure line by The Bridge Direct for the promotion of the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Thorin is the leader of the Dwarves that go seeking advise from Gandalf and end up signing up the services of a professional burglar to help them regain their long lost treasure. Therefore, Thorin’s character design reflects his status as member of dwarf nobility. Now, in the book, Thorin was not an entirely likeable character, but his movie version seems a bit less arrogant than I expected.

Thorin wears scale armor under a blue leather jerkin, heavy boots, a broad belt, and a baldric across his chest to carry a short sword, and leather bracers for the forearms. Each of these costume elements is very minutely detailed with geometric patterns or engraved with dwarven designs.

The head sculpt is also quite impressive. All of the hair is nicely sculpted and flows in a very natural way. The face underneath the beard is decidedly full of character and even resembles somewhat that of actor Richard Armitage.

The articulation design on these figures is actually pretty decent, and Thorin was given the following:

• Ball jointed neck,

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Pegged hinge elbows.

• Swivel wrists.

• Pegged hinge hips.

• Pegged hinge knees.

Even though Thorin has a better range at the hips than Gandalf, the costume design still imposes some limitations that also extend to the range of movement at the shoulders, but as a whole Thorin is still a reasonably dynamic figure, all things considered.

The paint job on Thorin is quite good, which is not much of a difficulty, as the color palette is comprised of dark browns, blues, and greys. The silver bits of armor were painted bright silver with a slight shading wash added to enhance the look of the scales. But the really impressive part is the amount of tiny extra details painted in, from the three-color belt buckle to the coppery beads interwoven in his hair.

Thorin comes with a short dwarven sword, the elven sword Orcrist, an ornate elven scabbard and an iron wrought oaken plate he uses as a shield. The short sword fits into the loop at the front of the baldric, while the elven sheath affixes to the back by a small round peg. Similarly, the oaken shield is plugged into a peg hole on his left forearm, although it is a rather loose fit and falls off quite easily.

Despite that, Thorin Oakenshield turned out to be a very nice action figure. The level of detail is easily on par with whatever Hasbro has produced in the past year and the overall feel I get from this figure is pretty solid, just like good old dwarf craftsmanship.