The Good: Recognizable sculpt, General sense of balance, Cool function!
The Bad: Playability, General sense of inaction
The Basics: A frightening moment in The Fellowship Of The Ring is made into an intriguing action figure that works beautifully as a toy!
It always fascinates me what characters in a major franchise are transformed into collectibles and why. With the massive cinematic effort The Lord Of The Rings (reviewed here!), merchandising ran rampant and the action figure line produced by Toy Biz was a strange mix of phenomenal sculpts and pegwarmers. So, when Galadriel appears in two major The Lord Of The Rings figure releases, this is surprising to many. Her initial release was a simple Galadriel figure, reviewed here! The second release, Galadriel Entranced By The One Ring, takes an obscure moment from the film and explodes it into a fully realized action figure!
Galadriel, one might recall, is the elf queen of the wood elves and the bearer of one of the rings of power. Galadriel appears in each film in the trilogy, but is also one of the ancillary characters most disconnected from the main action of the film. Her role in the films makes her both an essential action figure, and a likely inaction figure; Galadriel is a more cerebral character than a character of action. In The Fellowship Of The Ring (reviewed here!) Galadriel becomes tempted by the power of the One Ring for but a moment and reveals the dark queen she would become if ensnared by the Ring's power.
Basics
Galadriel Entranced is essentially the same basic sculpt as the white dress Galadriel, Lady of Light figure initially released on a The Fellowship Of The Ring blister card. The rework entirely recolors the dress, skin, hair and facial expression of Galadriel. Instead of the docile elf matron, Galadriel Entranced has a zombie look to her with her tattered gray dress and her green-tinged skin tones.
This sculpt features Galadriel in her black-gray dress, fingers outstretched and hair unbound as she appeared in the moments when the One Ring tore into her soul. Her eyes are bugged out and her fingers while structurally identical to the original have a sensibility to them like she is desperately reaching for the ring. It's pretty awesome. Despite being on screen for only a few frames, Galadriel Entranced perfectly captures those moments!
This figure stands at 6 1/2 inches tall and features an outer dress made of a more rubbery plastic, which allows it to have some flexibility and in effect makes the articulation of the legs worthwhile. As well, because of the dress she is wearing, her balance is surprisingly easy to maintain, making her a figure with excellent poseability.
The realism of this sculpt is surprisingly good. This looks just like Galadriel from that brief, nightmarish sequence, which is a refreshing change from many of the The Lord Of The Rings figures I have seen, especially the hobbits. Galadriel's hair is realistically detailed and cast the same softer, more rubbery plastic as the dress, so it moves and does not inhibit the movement of the head.
Accessories
Galadriel Entranced does not have any accessories.
The closest to gimmick that this figure has is a button on the back of the toy which lights up evil Galadriel's eyes! Galadriel Entranced has a small battery which allows the eyes to be lit up and that is an interesting and fun twist on the usual figure. Moreover, it works perfectly for this figure and because of the limited nature of the illumination, it possesses a realism that figures like the flaming ringwraith lack.
Playability
Galadriel Entranced is quite poseable with ten points of articulation. She has joints at the shoulders, wrists, knees, groin socket and waist. As well, her head has a ball joint which usually allows for greater and more realistic articulation there, but in this case - because of the hair - does not. Instead, Galadriel is more or less limited to about ninety degrees range of motion with the head to turn left to right.
Moreover, the leg articulation is somewhat pointless; the groin socket might allow Galadriel to move her legs some, but the figure is almost always supported by the dress as opposed to the actual legs. And the looks pretty ridiculous with the knees bent in a semi-running pose with her dress flayed out and holding her off the ground. In other words, the poseability aspect of the playability is pretty much a wash save when Galadriel is inactive and standing with her arms outstretched in a desperate attempt to grab the One Ring..
Galadriel is intended as a support figure who supports play and doesn't truly interfere or, you know, play with the other figures. There is no hole in the bottom of the foot for support, though she does not really need it, either.
But on the playability front, she offers the potential for an interesting counter villain to the usual orcs and uruk-hai figures in the toy line. Galadriel Entranced allows young people to use their imagination on her villainy and support that imagination with a clever little gimmick (the glowing eyes).
Collectibility
Galadriel Entranced is inherently collectible based on the fact that she's one of the women in the The Lord Of The Rings figure line and there are only two others! This version is much harder to find than the "Galadriel Lady Of Light" figure, which keeps the figure's value high even years after the film phenomenon has faded.
Those looking at action figures as an investment will find the Galadriel Entranced figure to be a generally good investment as she was fairly rare. She tends to be available in the $15 - $25 range even now, with those prices increasing as time goes on. By the time this figure was released, many of the retailers did not carry the The Lord Of The Rings figures any longer.
Overview
While I might have preferred some form of action base to accompany the Galadriel Entranced figure, this is a cool sculpt and a decent concept, despite the lack of accessories. Its esoteric nature might encourage only devout fans to look for it, but it seems worthwhile to me, especially in a toy line where there are only three female characters represented.
For other The Lord Of The Rings action figures, please check out the reviews of:
Flaming Ringwraith
Witchking Ringwraith
Eowyn
7/10
For other toy reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here for an organized listing of the various toy reviews I have done!
© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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