Britains Lord of the Rings figures (1 Viewer)

Eazy

Eazy

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Jun 6, 2005
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Here's a question for those Britains experts out there.
Down in the plastics thread we've been discussing the Armies of Middle Earth plastic figures and I was saying how I collected the William Britain Fellowship of the Ring series that was released at the same time as the movies.

I seem to recall that a Two Towers series was announced but never released. Was this due to poor sales or did it have something to do with the LOTR magazine and metal figure series that came out here in the UK shortly after?

I've noticed that a few of the molds used for the figures and special editions in the magazine set have been exactly the same as the W. Britain ones.
Eg mounted ringwriths, cave troll. So is there a connection between the two?

Does anyone know what figures were going to be released in the W. Britain Two Towers series? Or if there are any photos anywhere on the web?

Wow if anyone can help I'll be impressed! :)
 
Hi Easy,

You pose an interesting question and I think I can point you in a direction for an answer. I know the series was ended in late 2003. They had good sales from what I can remember and ran through at least two seasons worth of figures. I will say that they didnt put the information in the regular Britain Catalogs but were sold by the good folks over at MKL Models so I would ask them specificly Lynn Kenwood, who was the man who ran the collectors club and had a great deal of information at his fingertips. If you want I have some set numbers and can provide them but its not complete.

I know this doesnt answer the question but I hope its a little bit helpful

All the best

Dave
 
Being a completist, I have acquired some of the Britains LOTR stuff b/c it is unique and well done.

Observation:

1. Most figures are cheaper than cheap to get
2. Cave Troll and Ringwraiths are ultra costly
3. Balrog Dio is even more costly
4. Legolas figure is out of sight $150 and up for one figure
5. Gimli is cheap but hard to find

I intended on doing a dio on this for the home theater, but am running out of patience in finishing the figures(and money!!!)

Tom
 
tdubel said:
Being a completist, I have acquired some of the Britains LOTR stuff b/c it is unique and well done.

Observation:

1. Most figures are cheaper than cheap to get
2. Cave Troll and Ringwraiths are ultra costly
3. Balrog Dio is even more costly
4. Legolas figure is out of sight $150 and up for one figure
5. Gimli is cheap but hard to find

I intended on doing a dio on this for the home theater, but am running out of patience in finishing the figures(and money!!!)

Tom
Click to expand...

I was lucky enough to acquire a complete set in one go from an ebay seller who was looking to offload a few years ago. I paid roughly half original price for each piece.

After that though as you say the prices went very strange.
Most figures are now extremely cheap and almost you can't give them away.
But some sets are extremely expensive
1. The Ringwraiths
2. Gandalf and the balrog
3. The Uruk-Hai
4. Gimli i have seen sell for around £100 ($200) at one point
5. Legolas i have seen go for £200 ($300 - $400!!!) For one figure!

It's an interesting collection. When i get the chance I'll post some pictures.

James
 
DMNamiot said:
Hi Easy,

You pose an interesting question and I think I can point you in a direction for an answer. I know the series was ended in late 2003. They had good sales from what I can remember and ran through at least two seasons worth of figures. I will say that they didnt put the information in the regular Britain Catalogs but were sold by the good folks over at MKL Models so I would ask them specificly Lynn Kenwood, who was the man who ran the collectors club and had a great deal of information at his fingertips. If you want I have some set numbers and can provide them but its not complete.

I know this doesnt answer the question but I hope its a little bit helpful

All the best

Dave
Click to expand...


Thanks for that Dave. I'll see if MKL have any information on this series.
I wonder why they weren't featured in the William Britain catalogues when they are definitely William Britain products?
 
Hi Guys,

Please let me know what you find out. I too found it odd they weren't included in the regular cateloge. I saw that they still have a few at MKL or at least still list a few it maybe their site is out of date hard to say. But at anyrate they had some list on Friday the 17th. So I would check with them.

All the best

Dave
 
I can tell you why they weren't featured in the W. Britain catalog.
I would have sold them in a heartbeat if given the opportunity. W. Britain had the license in the UK but not in the US. So they couldn't sell the line to any of their US dealers no matter how popular the line might have been in the US. They even had the prototypes at the Chicago show one year (taunting!:p) but US dealers could only admire them from afar.
 
Hi Shannon,

Thank you for illuminating this issue for us! That really is interesting.

All the best

Dave
 
Dear All

Here's what I can tell you. At the time this range was being produced by RC2/W. Britain I was still editor at TSMF so had fairly regular meetings with RC2 to discuss coverage of their products within the magazine. Ray Wootton the then Sales Manager for W. Britain was very proud of the license they'd managed to acquire for the LOTR films starting with the Fellowship of the Ring, however as Shannon pointed out this was only for the UK as the cost for the US was much more expensive.

The figures were produced, which we now still see in circulation and sales were apparently very good. RC2 then progressed with making the sculpts for the Two Towers movie, many of which I saw at a preview prior to the launch of the new film. Just priot to the release of the Two Towers RC2 learnt that the licensor to the film company had also sold a license for LOTR figures to a "part-works" magazine stlye company. RC2 objected to this very strongly, the licensor said it was a different type of product when in fact the magazine was going to be produced with 54mm white metal painted figures, in direct competition with the RC2 product but obviously mass produced in much higher numbers with a much lower unit cost. RC2 were forced to "pull the plug" on the series prior to launching the second range of figures as they stood little chance of recouping the high licensing fees when trying to compete with the much lower priced "part-works" figures. Ray Wootton then did a deal with the part-works company from what I remember where they bought up all the sculpts etc. that were already finished from RC2 which is why some of you have commented on the figures looking exactly the same.

I hope this all helps shed some light on things and is certainly what went on as far as I can remember. With regards to them not being in the catalogue Shannon I believe has explained this and from memory similar ranges releases at this time in the non-military genre such as Angelina Ballerina and Flower Fairies were also not in the main catalogue but had their own mini brochures instead.

Thanks
Mark

PS - Not sure why Legolas is such a rarity and achieving crazy prices however most of the other figures you guys mention were part of the second wave of releases from the first movie so I think less were actually put into circulation before the range was stopped.
 
Thanks for the information. That was just what I was looking for. The partwork is still going quite strong and approaching issue 100 now. They have produced some really great figures along the way and I've enjoyed collecting them.
But for collectability and great packaging I still like my Britains sets the best.

Also only Britains produced horse back figures and a great diorama like the Balrog.
 
Glad to be of help Eazy and good luck with the collection. If you have anymore questions on the range just post them up here and I'll see if I can help.

All the best
Mark
:)
 
Eazy said:
Thanks for the information. That was just what I was looking for. The partwork is still going quite strong and approaching issue 100 now. They have produced some really great figures along the way and I've enjoyed collecting them.
But for collectability and great packaging I still like my Britains sets the best.

Also only Britains produced horse back figures and a great diorama like the Balrog.
Click to expand...

I bought these for my son, but we stopped at no.60 (which was the original release number). He has the Cave Troll, Gandalf on Shadowfax, Warg Rider and the Ringwraith on horse back.

The only Britains figure is Boromir as the wife likes Sean Bean.

Jeff
 
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