Maggie's Memos: Thorin Oakenshield Action Figure Review

What's up, everyone?  Apparently no other members of this blog are into posting, so I'm taking over again with my promised Thorin Oakenshield review.  Their loss. ;)

So Mama suggested that I should start with pictures of the original packaging, since that's what she normally does.  I'm not the type to do something just because Mama thinks I should, but I had to admit it was a pretty good suggestion.  I had to borrow these pictures from her because she took him out of the package before she gave him to me.  Here's the front...

...and here's the back.  If you want to see more detail, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger. 

Here he is out of the package...just the perfect size. :)

A closer look at his awesome detail.  I mean, it's not perfect or anything, but pretty good for a $5 action figure.

He comes with his "oaken shield" that earned him his name.  (Is that proper English?  Somehow that sounds weird, but I can't figure out a better way to say it.)  At least, that's the movie's explanation for his name.  I don't remember that from the book.

Unfortunately, his shield isn't very impressive.  It's held in place by a little plastic peg, but it falls off if you look at it sideways.

Here he is standing up.  It's always nice when you have an action figure that stands properly.  

He is articulated at the knees, elbows, head and wrists.  This is as far as his knees will bend...I think he's warming up for the limbo. ;)

Some of his articulation is pretty limited.  Most of this is caused by his outfit or his hard plastic hair getting in the way.  

He comes with a small sword that is worn in a hilt on his belt.  I'm assuming this is his original sword that he starts out with.  I'm annoyed that he can't actually get it out of his hilt.  This picture shows the closest he gets to drawing his sword.

Thorin with sword drawn.   

His bigger sword, Orcrist, is perched on his back and can be angled to look like it's hanging over his shoulder in the hilt.

Like his shield, it's held in place by a little plastic peg.  You can see the hole in the middle of his back where the peg is inserted...

...and in this picture you can see the peg on his sheath.

Orcrist comes out of the sheath very easily.

I was pretty impressed with the detail on the sword.  Of course, it's flimsy and wouldn't hurt a fly, but I suppose it wouldn't do to sell toys with authentically sharp swords.  Too many kids would stick themselves. ;)

A look at the sheath.

And here's Thorin with his sword, which brings me to another disappointment.  Because of the limited articulation of his arms, he can't hold the sword with both hands, which is totally how he used this sword in the movie.   

I thought I'd take the opportunity to share some of my other action figures with you since it kind of fits the theme.

Strider/Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings was my first action figure and is also my biggest.  You'll notice he's still missing his sword.  We never found it after Little Gal lost it on the coast trip. :(  Never let human kids play with your stuff.

Mama just recently found this Jack Sparrow at Goodwill, along with...

...Will Turner.  I'm not so much a Will fan myself, but Rachel really likes him.  She insisted that I include him in this post.  Whatever.  Jack's way cooler.  But Rachel's a softy and she likes the boring, romantic heroes.  She and Tess are alike in that.  I have to admit that I'd still take Will Turner over Mr. Darcy, though!

Mama also found me a bigger Hiccup from "How to Train Your Dragon" and a Peter Pevensie from the Narnia stories at Goodwill.  I'm not a real fan of the Narnia movies, but the action figure is still pretty cool, even if he's missing a lot of his pieces.

Of course, the ultimate action figure is my awesome Iron Man!  He's a way cooler hero than any of the others combined!  Not that I'm biased or anything.  But hey, snarky yet lovable hero with his own flying metal suit...what's not to like? 

So, back to Thorin.  I'm glad I have him, and for the most part he's pretty cool.  I'd give him a 4 out of 5 because of his limited articulation and his shield that has a hard time staying in place.  I think I'd still  recommend him overall as long as the doll or person I recommended him to was aware of his flaws.

I hope you enjoyed my first official review.  If you liked it enough, I might try to do a few more in the future. :)  Let me know what you think.

Laters...Mags