Gollum (AKA Smeagol) Lord of the Rings Action Figure
Name: Gollum (AKA Smeagoi)
Series: Lord of the Rings (Middle Earth)
Subseries: Basic Figures
Manufacturer: Toy Vault
Manufacturer #: ME024
Year Released: 1998
Height: 3.00 inche
An EXTREMELY RARE item!
FIGURE´S NAME: Gollum aka Sméagol
COMPLEMENT: "Sméagol always helps. He has brought rabbits, nice rabbits."
ACCESSORIES: Boat, dead rabbit
HEIGHT: 3'1¨
RACE: Hobbit (deformed) of the Stoor Family
FAVORITE FOOD: Fish, Orc
BACKGROUND: Born a hobbit, Gollum, originally named Sméagol, coveted a ring his cousin Deagol found, and murdered him for it, on Gollum´s birthday. From then on, the Ring slowly twisted and deformed him, and yet, his inner hobbit strength kept the Ring from total control. Eventually the Ring left Gollum to search out Bilbo, and Gollum only got it back on the very rim of Mt. Doom.
PLUS INFORMATION:
- Matches written description in the book
Gollum is another character that appeared in both The Hobbit and LOTR, and played substantial roles in both of the works. Gollum is really a fallen hobbit named Smeagol and is a tragic character throughout both works. He has been corrupted by the ring (though that he murders his cousin to get it shows he did not start out as an angel) and cannot stand to not have it. While the ring has prolonged his life, it has also given him extreme hatred of living things, especially elves, and twisted his soul and appearance.
He has a large degree of articulation for a figure as small as he is. Gollum aka Smêagol - can represent Gollum at many parts of LOTR. He comes with a boat and a rabbit.
The History of Middle Earth Toys
Lord of the Rings has been a literary staple for decades but had been a relatively untouched property as far as toys go. The only real effort at LOTR toys was made by Knickerbocker in 1979 to go with the animated film of the prior year. This dearth of toy coverage was an appealing point to the fledgling Toy Vault in 1998. So the company approached Tolkien Enterprises with the idea of making toys from the three books that comprise the Lord of the Rings trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King). As luck would have it the timing seemed perfect for all concerned and Tolkien Enterprises accepted their offer and Toy Vault was now in business with Middle Earth Toys.
The goal for Toy Vault with the Middle Earth figures, according to Jon Huston, is 'to produce toys that are realistic, conform to the licenses, and are fun'. Toy Vault was keenly aware that these are toys and built as much play value into them as possible
One of the significant differences between Middle Earth Toys and both the prior Knickerbocker line and the following Toy Biz one was that the other two were based on a motion picture while Toy Vault was based on the literary work. The other two lines had the benefit of a large group of people with access to a large budget to be used to design the look of Middle Earth from the ground up. Toy Vault was in the position of creating a vision of Middle Earth by itself.
To aid this ambitious effort noted fantasy artist Daniel Horne was recruited. Horne has a long history of fantasy art, working for TSR (the creator of the Dungeons and Dragons game) in the seventies and producing a plethora of book covers in the genre. While primarily a painter, Horne saw this as an opportunity to branch into sculpting (which he had taken up only eight months earlier) and agreed to help. Horne would work up the line drawings of the figures and build up a sculpture (complete with articulation) from there. He continued his work on the toys by sculpting the lion's share of the Middle Earth figures, including Gollum (who was a personal favorite).
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