News from the Red Bunker

This section of my website is dedicated to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and my collection of figures from Toy Biz. The picture
below is of my collection and the diorama that I built to display them all.

The figures in my collection are broken down by movie. Click on any movie poster to see the figures in my collection.



                                       Collection Notes
The figures in my collection from Toy Biz for the Lord of the Rings are a nice a visual reminder of the main characters from
the Lord of the Rings movies. I chose particular looks for the figures because I wanted the look that immediately comes to
mind when I hear the name of each character. Of course my OCD kicked in and there had to be an equal number of figures
on each side. The size of my diorama also determined the number of figures in my collection. I must say that overall these
figures are awesome being extremely detailed with a great deal of articulation. The only issue that I have is the inconsistent
sizes. The Easterling Warrior is nearly an inch taller than the Haradrim Archer and both are humans. The Orcs are also
nearly as tall as the humans. In fact Grishnakh is as large as many of the Uruk Hai and they were supposedly larger.

                                       Lord of the Rings Trilogy Thoughts
                                                                                           I was hooked on the Lord of the Rings Trilogy the first
                                                                           time that I saw a trailor for the Fellowship of the Ring. I was so
                                                                           hooked on LOTR because it appeared to be fantasy brought to life.
                                                                           The Lord of the Rings movies brought to live the worlds of the
                                                                           Dragonlance novels or the Forgotten Realms novels as they had
                                                                           existed in my imagination. I was so pleased to finally see a quality
                                                                           production for a fantasy movie, not the normal disasters that have
                                                                           been shoved at us. These poor attempts into the fantasy world are
                                                                           normally filled with with poor acting and even more horrific looking
                                                                           special effects. The time that was spent to make the hobbits look
                                                                           smaller than the humans, for Gimli to look like a dwarf and to
                                                                           develop the make-up and wardrobe for the Uruk-Hai was well spent.
                                                                           I also thought that the trolls and the fell-beasts were magnificent as
                                                                           well. The Lord of the Rings gets an A+ with me.

                                                   Favorite Characters
My favorite characters are Gimli and Lurtz. I really like Gimli as a character because of his sour disposition and toughness.
Dwarves are supposed to be incredibly tough in both body and spirit. The Lord of the Rings brings that portrayal to life
perfectly with the character Gimli. Lurtz was a character that had so much potential, his death at the end of The Fellowship of
the Ring made no sense. To me he was a perfect Ogre in the traditional fantasy universe. Lurtz was extremely powerful and
apparently intelligent. The other Uruk Hai through out the LOTR movies never lived up to Lurtz.

                                       Favorite Lord of the Rings Movie
My favorite movie from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is The Two Towers. The Fellowship of the Ring did not get exciting until
the end, the action was missing until the Uruk Hai attacked. The Two Towers began with energy as it showed Gandalf battling
the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-dum. The scenes depicting the trek across the Dead Marshes with Frodo, Sam and Gollum
are tedious. The scene at the beginning of the film with the Uruk Hai running across Rohan is awesome bringing more life to
the Uruk Hai. The final scenes of the movie, the Battle of Helms Deep. Some are put off by use of CGI in these scenes, it did
not bother me because it was used so expertly. The hordes did not look fake nor did the fortress of Helms Deep. The
destruction that was wrought in the battle scenes was so massive and so powerful. My favorite part of the Battle for Helms
Deep is when the Berserker Uruk Hai explodes the gates that lead into the sewers of Helms Deep. The movie ended after
Gandalf returned with the reinforcements and left us wanting more. The Return of the King was almost as powerful as The
Two Towers. The down side to Return of the King was that it had the classic ending for all trilogies, the good guys won.