Thorin Oakenshield - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Continuing my look at the 3.75 line from the upcoming movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, today we have the would-be King Under the Mountain himself, Thorin Oakenshield. His quest to reclaim his ancestral home in Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, is what prompts Gandalf to recruit Bilbo Baggins. In a roundabout way, Thorin is indirectly responsible for the events of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Hit the jump to see more!

Thorin is dwarf royalty, a prince of his people. He is the son of Thrain II, and the grandson of Thror, the last King Under the Mountain. A young Thorin saw his people attacked and driven from their home by the dragon, Smaug. He relocated with his people and they eked out what living they could, until the day his grandfather left in search of the most ancient dwarf kingdom, Khazad-Dum, better known as Moria. The orcs and goblins of Moria captured Thror, tortured him for days, beheaded him and defiled his corpse. On his forehead was carved the name “AZOG” the king of the orcs of Moria. 

This action awakened the wrath of all dwarves and they started a war against the goblins. It was here that Thorin gained the name “Oakenshield”. After his own shield was shattered, he grabbed a branch of oak and used it to defend himself. After the defeat of the goblins, Thorin’s father Thrain II left to reclaim Erebor but mysteriously vanished. Thorin was now the leader of the dwarves and he served until he also felt the call of the Lonely Mountain. Gathering a few companions as well as the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Thorin set out to get his home back from Smaug, but first Gandalf wanted him to stop in a land called the Shire...

The action figure for Thorin Oakenshield stands just a smidge over 3.5 inches. The scale is in the 3.75 range (or 1/18) but it makes sense he’d be a bit shorter, since he is a dwarf. Since I have a digital scale next to my desk, he also weighs in at 1.0 oz. 

Look at the contrast between the dwarven clothing and weapons vs. the elvish sword Orcrist on his back.

 The Bridge Direct (TBD) did a real bang up job on the sculpt for Thorin. He looks really cool and there are a lot of different things going on here. His boots are made to look like fur wrapped with straps of leather and they fit knee high over his grey pants. Very cool looking, although the colors could have been picked with more contrast in mind to make the legs more noticeable.

 On his chest TBD did a great job with the details. You can see a collar peeping out, but over that is molded a short-sleeved shirt of mail. Over the armor is a sleeveless heavy coat that is belted at the waist. The way TBD was able to convey so many different textures amazed me. There is a heraldic device on Thorin’s belt buckle, he also has another strap molded on diagonally across his chest to replicate the sword belt for Orcrist, his elf sword. He also carries a sword of dwarven design in a short holder on his waist. 

Note the texture on the coat.

 Thorin’s arms appear to have forearm length brown fingerless gloves, and over the back of his hands and arms are leather bracers dyed blue to match the trim of his coat. On his left arm is a thick oak branch that fits flush against his arm. I assume this is his eponymous Oakenshield. I like it, it looks cool, but I do have a nitpick about it. The Oakenshield is supposed to fit into a hole on his arm with a small friction peg. That’s not happening anytime soon, the shield refuses to stay on him more than a few moments. Luckily, they already had a small clear rubber band around his arm, so I wound it around a couple more times to keep the Oakenshield flush against his arm. 

It reminds me of a tootsie roll.

Thorin’s head sculpt is pretty good. At this size I don’t know how much of the likeness of the actors is actually in there. In the upcoming film, Thorin is played by Richard Armitage, and I’m not really seeing that here. Still, the head isn’t bad by any means. I like the hair, plus they went to the trouble of painting a few grays hairs in there to give Thorin a little more of an aged look. The hair does hamper his neck articulation, but I’m not that worried.

Articulation wise he’s got neck, waist, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and knees all with joints. No ankle joints, but that seems to be standard across the line. While Thorin might not be pulling off any S.H. Figuarts style poses, he looks good for what he is, a mass market G.I. Joe-type toy. 

Thorin has four accessories. He has his aforementioned namesake Oakenshield, a short, straight sword, and the sword Orcrist and its sheath. Orcrist fits into the sheath which pegs into a hole on Thorin’s back so the handle juts over his shoulder. The sword is a one sided saber-like blade and it contrasts well with his geometrically shaped dwarf sword. Everything looks good, but a minor nitpick again. Look at the following teaser pic from the film.

Thorin is a dwarf and Orcrist is made for a full grown elf. See how big it is compared to Thorin? He wields it like a two-handed sword in the picture. It is not a complaint on my part, I am blown away that I have an action figure accessory Orcrist to begin with. It would be cool though if it were bigger, not Buster Sword big or anything, but big enough to convey that an elf's weapon would be used differently by a shorter statured dwarf.

Orcrist is Elvish for "Goblin-Cleaver".

My final thoughts on Thorin are totally positive. I love this whole line so far. Wave 1 has been a blast to collect and check out. I think some things could be improved, notably the hip joints and maybe the addition of ankle joints. I look forward to getting and checking out the 6 inch line of these toys as well in anticipation of the movie’s release. Thanks for reading!

Thorin, Son of Thrain, King Under the Mountain.