The Bridge Direct, the folks behind The Hobbit toy line, blew me away with their movie based line in 2012, and the new releases planned for the second movie in the series look just as amazing.
Bridge Direct landed on my radar as soon as I checked out their fantastic Hobbit toy line hit last October, and 2013 will see more additions to both the 3.75″ and 6″ scales. Based on Desolation of Smaug, the new lineup of 3.75″ figures will complete the company of 13 dwarves– available both in single and double packs, as well as a box set of the entire company plus Bilbo and Gandalf. Azog and his white Warg will also hit this year, as well as Radagast. Each figure featured the same amazing level of detail as the launch wave toys, and the best news is, Bridge is planning variants of the main characters, so two packs will likely offer alternate costumes for duplicate characters!
On the 6″ front, new characters include Radagast and the villainous orcs such as Bolg and Azog, available both individually and in a new 6″ scale twin pack format, which will pack each character with an ally or opponent, while clocking in at a great retail price of only $19.99– considering single figures are going for 14.99, that’s a great deal for two excellent figures!
The 6″ toy line has done amazingly well, and Bridge Direct confirmed that they have sold out– this means if you want any of the fantastic first assortment, such as Legolas or Tauriel, pick them up now before they are gone.
The new Desolation of Smaug theme will see a packaging change, along with a variant color pallet, just like Toy Biz did for the LOTR packaging. While the new look has not been finalized, it should make finding the new toys much easier when they are released starting this June.
Of course, the new theme would be even more exciting with the inclusion of the dragon himself. But while Smaug is a project Bridge Direct would love to tackle, they have not been given access to any of WETA’s designs for the beast– With any luck The Hobbit movie team will share their designs in the next few months, to give Bridge enough time to craft a movie-accurate version of the great dragon in time for the next movie’s release this Christmas season. If you want to see a Smaug figure, do your part and Click Here to contact WETA and tell them about it… or you can leave a comment below and we’ll pass it along.
2012 was a surprising year for The Hobbit, and Bridge has proven at Toy Fair that their amazing first waves of toys were NOT a fluke– Fans of the Tolkien series should really stand up and take notice of these figures. I guarantee if you check them out, you’ll be anxiously awaiting the new series in no time… just like I am!
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