Legolas Greenleaf & Tauriel 2-Pack

April 5, 2013 | By More


Legolas y Tauriel

Well, for some reason, The Bridge Direct decided to sell this set as part of the first series of action figures from their The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey line, which is unexpected in itself because none of the characters in this 2-pack even appears in the movie.

Legolas Greenleaf (7)Legolas Greenleaf and Tauriel are Mirkwood elves. Legolas should be familiar for anyone who saw the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, played by Orlando Bloom, but Tauriel is an entirely new character developed for the new movie series, and is portrayed on screen by Lost and Real Steel actress Evangeline Lily.

Both action figures are nicely detailed and their costume design seems to be as screen accurate as one would expect. Legolas wears a knee-length plastic frock decorated with elven designs and leaves, while Tauriel wears what appears to be a leather bodice over her forest green tunic and leggings. The design of both costumes is quite different from the clothes Legolas would use later on during the War of the Ring, but the overall appearance is clearly elvish.

Tauriel (11)The heads of both characters are pretty nicely sculpted. Legolas’ face in particular conveys a surprisingly effective resemblance to Orlando Bloom, even though, on close inspection, the face sculpt is somewhat rough and apparently the painted skin hides some of the finer details.

Tauriel, on the other hand, has a much finer face sculpt, and even though I don’t really see much of a resemblance to Evangeline Lily there (probably the lack of freckles), all she really needs is to have elfin features and look pretty under the large, auburn hair piece.

Legolas Greenleaf (6)Both Legolas and Tauriel have the exact same articulation, consisting of:

• Ball jointed neck.
• Pegged hinge shoulders.
• Pegged hinge elbows.
• Swivel wrists.
• Swivel waist.
• Pegged hinge hips.
• Pegged hinge knees.

From the waist up, all joints on both figures work the same, with some differences at the neck because of the different hair lengths of each character, although Tauriel has a slightly better range than Legolas.

Tauriel (5)Legolas’ waist and hip joints are covered by his frock, so are nearly useless for most intents and purposes. Tauriel has a couple of opening on her skirt piece that allow some range to the leg joints, making her the more dynamic of the pair.

The paint applications on both figures are neat and precise. Legolas seems to be decorated in a more traditional manner, with large block colors judiciously shaded and vine-like decorations painted in gold and copper. Tauriel’s clothes seem to have been cast in yellow, with several glazes of green applied on the outside to produce a very organic appearance.

These elves come equipped very similarly with a pair of curved knives and bows with quivers for each. Each character’s weapons have a different design, and while Tauriel’s blades are simply decorated with a bronze gradient, Legolas’ knives have computer printed decoration along the blades and ivory colored handles.

Legolas Greenleaf (3)Their quivers are also different shapes, and while Legolas’ has a sheath to carry his knives, Tauriel’s lacks this feature. None of the arrows sculpted on these pieces are removable, but both the quivers and the bows are extensively decorated with more gold swirls.

Even though I generally prefer to have a more accurate appearance when it comes to movie based action figures, I think that the designers could have taken a bit more liberty with Legolas to ensure a greater functionality to his leg articulation, even if all he does in the next movie is stand looking gravely as the dwarves are taken into prison at Wood Elf Realm. Tauriel, once again, seems to be a much more interesting character, as she’s also the better action figure in this set.

Legolas y Tauriel (4)

Errex Score: Legolas: 80, Tauriel: 86

Overall Score: 83

Legolas y Tauriel (5)

Be Sociable, Share!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Category: Featured, The Hobbit & LOTR, Toy Reviews

About the Author ()

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