Starting a LotR Collection - Help Please

Not sure how many of you here collected the Toy Biz figures. I know the high end stuff is more popular at SSF but I don't have the space or money for those. I would like to start a collection with LotR figures but I found the line to be somewhat inconsistent in quality from what I remember when looking at the figures at the stores. What are the best versions of the characters available and what are the ones to avoid? I went on eBay and there seems to be so many variants and such a wide price range I couldn't make heads or tails of any of it. Any advice for starting up a small collection of 10-15 figures that would be representative of the whole trilogy?

Here are the characters I feel that are essential:
Frodo
Gandalf
Aragorn
Legolas
Gimli

Sauron
Sauromon
A ringwraith
An orc
Gollum

Am I missing any other essential characters you feel are must haves? Thanks in advance!

I'm fond of the creature sets. I have Legolas w/ Arod and Sharku w/ Warg and they aren't bad considering the low price tag. There is also an Aragorn w/ Brego, Gandalf w/ Shadowfax, and Ringwraith w/ horse.

The Haradrim Archer and Easterling Warrior are pretty cool.

Helm' Deep Legolas (the one without the shield skateboard) is probably my favorite Toy Biz LOTR figure. My second favorite is the electronic talking Sauron. I'd consider both of these "must haves" if you're only going to focus on Toy Biz LOTR figures.

I don't feel there was ever a really good Aragorn, but if I had to go with one it would be the ROTK Aragorn in Gondor armor.

Don't forget the Peter Jackson Hobbit figure! I haven't acquired this one yet.

Here is a page that has almost all of the Toy Biz LOTR line pictured (there are some missing).

Good luck!

Very helpful link. Thank you!

Anothre place is thegd.com if you go into their archieves you can see a lot of them. Geb used to have them all up even the canceled ones but it looks like a few are missing now. Still it probably is the most complete archieve of pictures and info.

The Easterling was a very well made Toybiz figure although not iconic for what you're looking for. I still have one MOC in the half moon package sitting in a closet. The only other one I still have is Sauron which is also really nice (other than his helmet because the spikes are warped and won't stay straight). But it's sitting out on my shelf so when I walk by I can press the button for his eye's to light up and to listen to him recite one of Sauron's catch phrases (since it's got a speaker in it).

I started making a list of what I would recommend to you for about 15 characters and I couldn't do it, I just kept increasing the size of the list. So I can't help you.

Fritz said:

The only other one I still have is Sauron which is also really nice (other than his helmet because the spikes are warped and won't stay straight).

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My Sauron has the same issue with his helmet, and his mace is bent as well. I keep meaning to heat the bent pieces and straighten them but still haven't. And I've owned the figure since it was originally released. Procrastination city I'll tell ya!

Like Thoro says, the creature sets are really cool. Had or may still have the Wraith and its mount somewhere. Highly recommend it for sure..

The Treebeard Half Moon package figure is really cool, as is the big one. I'm into collecting Toy Biz figures too, and from looking online, most of the minor characters are rarer.

I think the Toybiz figures are really cool. Especially some of the creatures.

I have all of them or at least did at one point. I forget how many of the army builders I have but at one point the goal was to creat some awesome dioramas but I never got around to it. Now they are waiting for the kids to get a little bit older. They made a lot of fantastic figures and back at that time and they weren't too expensive. It was cheaper to buy the entire case of figures than buying a set at retail. I remember doing the math and it was cheaper to buy the case of 12 (or however many they used to come in) than the 7-8 different figures at retail. They even made a special army bulding case of only Helms Deep Uruk Hai.

I really liked that they got out figures of multiple sizes like the trolls, horses, Treebeard and Sauron not to mention dwarfs and hobbits. If you throw in NECA's Barlog the great variety and depth that the line had was fantastic. The only other toy line I can think of that really beats it in terms of depth and variety would be Star Wars but I was just a toddler when the original run was winding down so I don’t know how the original line compares to Lord of the Rings.

Went to take a look at my Toy Biz LOTR figures. I couldn't mind my Mouth of Sauron w/ Horse or Sharku w/ Warg sets. I'm hoping I didn't sell those a few years ago with many of my figures. But I did find a couple other figures you might consider- Gothmog and Isengard Orc. They're just both really cool looking.

I also found Treebeard and I second what Chev said, it is cool. I even came across the Eye of Sauron figure. In the scheme of things it's actually a really weird figure. I'm not sure what Toy Biz was going for with this one. It DEFINITELY isn't in scale with the other figures. Maybe a cheap mini bust? LOL