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Note: Tolkien (after getting angry for seeing a pictorial rendering of a 'pretty', feminine-looking Legolas):
"He was tall as a young tree, lithe, immensely strong, able swiftly to draw a great war-bow and shoot down a Nazgul, endowed with the tremendous vitality of Elvish bodies, so hard and resistant to hurt that he went only in light shoes over rock or through snow, the most tireless of all the Fellowship."
Heck, yeah! Legolas isn't a girl! It annoys me to see him "girlyfied" in the media because Orlando Bloom has a young, gentle look. There's amazing strength behind that look, more strength that he ever had the chance to show in the movies. Despite Tolkien's description that he is "fair of face beyond the measure of Men", he's no more handsome than any other Elf. Well, that aside, here is my own Legolas, son of the Elvenking of Mirkwood, and one of the Nine Walkers. My favourite member of the Fellowship! I got this 30 cm/12'' action figure of him over 2 years ago at a Lord of the Rings convention. Generally I'm not into action figures, the only exceptions would be LOTR, Star Wars and Superman Returns related ones. This is an incredible figure with Legolas' outfit VERY much like in the movies, even down to the colors and feel of fabric. One of the differences is the silver shirt which should have been silk but is nice cotton instead. The tiny brooch is lovely and the cloak has a hole in the back for his quiver and its straps that go around his chest. I'm impressed with the correct colors of the fabric (too many Legolas figures have that vibrant green for the suede jerkin). In reality it's a combo of two dark green colors that can look brown depending on light (flash light can KILL all the green of the costume). It's not GRASS green. >_> He's not Tinkerbell, for pete's sake LOL. Made by New Line Productions, 2004, for the Return of the King line. Other characters in this series of model kits are Aragorn, Gimli, Saruman, Gandalf, Sam and Frodo. Because it's an action figure and not a doll, the hair is molded and obviously doesn't move but the arms, legs and especially the fingers (on hands AND legs) have nice articulation. The face isn't too bad, perhaps a tad too old for movie!Legolas. It looks great from the side, hence why I took so many sideways shots. The little details of the costume are much appreciated, like one of the strap clasps has the correct shape of a leaf and the belt is secured correctly, though its buckle isn't as detailed and doesn't have the leaf like in the movies. The leaf shape of the jerkin sleeves was simplified as well. Instead the sleeves are like on any shirt. The elven cloak is soft and almost fluffy to the touch. A lot of Legolas' costume in the movies is based on the form of a leaf, from the way the short sleeves wrap around the arms, their shape, the shape of the buckles, elven designs and little leaves on the belt, to more elven designs (swirls) on the chest and those sleeves again. The boots wrap like leaves around the legs. There are leaves imprinted on his archer vambraces (the leather bits on his arms). Even the silk shirt underneath has elven designs that look leaf/tree-like, like stylized branches. The really cool and beautifully crafted extras that come with the figure are Legolas' weapons. We have the two White Knives of Legolas, just like in the movie version, the light-colored Lothlorien bow and quiver Galadriel gave him (not the dark Mirkwood bow he carries at the beginning), arrows with the correct YELLOW feathers (yes!!! :D), and also a sword and scabbard. The sword isn't that well-known because Legolas uses his bow most of the time but it's great it's included in the figure set. Another pair of hands with closed fists can be switched with the default hands. He can still curl and uncurl the fingers and can mimic holding the arrow and bow, for instance. He can actually HOLD them, thank God! Indeed, why include weapons at all if he can't hold them properly? :D You wrap the fingers around the weapons and they hold the position. Swell! For the shoot I went outside again and let Legolas walk in snow. It wasn't that hard to pose him, it was just the frozen grass that was giving me a headache because Legolas couldn't stand properly then and would fall on his face LOL. Soon his boots would be covered with snow and that actually made the figure walking on snow more realistic, I guess! I'm veeery fond of him. Originally his outfit was supposed to be stripped down and the figure put away because I wanted to make my own custom Legolas doll and didn't need a stock one (the body). I just needed the outfit and bow. Now that I've grown to love the figure I'm keeping it as it is and will sew an original outfit for the Legolas doll. ^^ My wish is to make a grown-up Legolas and a little boy Legolas. I really, REALLY want a Legolas with real hair you can comb. *laugh* This project was supposed to have started long ago but due to my Licca obsession I got sidetracked. And another of my fave quotes from the book:
"Legolas already lay motionless, his fair hands folded upon his breast, his eyes unclosed, blending living night and deep dream, as is the way of elves... Gimli was still deep in slumber, but Legolas was standing, gazing northwards into the darkness, thoughtful and silent as a young tree in a windless night."
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