Doll Collector: LOTR:ROTK's 8" Treebeard

Treebeard with branch lifting action joins his new friends on  the comic book
boarding-and-bagging table. (2/14/14)

Recently, my senior class and I concluded a study of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. My interest in most things Middle Earth reinvigorated by the read, I (as well as some of the students, I suspect) then set out on an independent read through The Lord of the Rings trilogy. During this time I also found myself trolling through the Internet checking out iterations of various characters and locales encountered in the books and eventually captured in plastic or paintings. This in turn led me to the series of toys which were sold in conjunction with each of the five films thus far released.

It was then that I stumbled upon the Treebeard with Branch Lifting Action figure produced as part of a series of figures and collectibles on store shelves during The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King release wa-a-a-y back in 2003.

For the uninitiated, Treebeard the Ent was one of the last of his dwindling kind, the long forgotten tree shepherds of Fangorn Forest who once strode throughout the woods of Middle-earth. A wise and slow to act people, the Ents were persuaded by Treebeard, after his fateful meeting with Merry and Pippin, to awaken and lend their long slumbering might to the fight against the darkness threatening their world. More relevant at this point is that in addition to being beautifully realized in the films, Treebeard makes one bad-ass action figure.

Standing 8" tall and produced by ToyBiz, the "Treebeard with Branch Lifting Action" figure is beautifully sculpted and painted. Part of LoTR: RotK Series III collection, this particular Treebeard figure (given his status as a fan-favorite, there are others!) was first released in July 2003. Fully poseable, Treebeard with branch-lifting action comes in unique collector packaging (which the one I found will very likely never find his way out of).

Next on my toy chest wish list, The Two Towers 14"(!) Treebeard (2002) which features the voice of actor John Rhys-Davies (who played both Gimli and the voice of Treebeard). As the philosophical Treebeard himself might suggest, however, for that purchase I may need to "be patient..."