Why no Azog?

[Iceclimber]

As the title says, where is the azog figures? Him and his white warg would totally be awesome.

They have Bolg who wasn't even in the theatrical cut of the first film. Go figure.

 

[JonWes]

Who is they? Do you mean The Bridge Direct and their line of figures? I'm thinking part of the reason you haven't seen Azog is that his look wasn't finalized in time. And I mean that for all the various figures, statues, etc. My understanding is changing the number of films and various other things in production meant a lot of stuff changed - actors, prosthetics, CGI, etc for some characters.

 

[Iceclimber]

Yeah, whatever the toy line sold at TRU is.

 

[The Josh]

It's probably due to the film being turned into a trilogy too late in the game. We got figures for Legolas and Tauriel when they won't be seen until movie 2. Azog will probably make an appearance in wave two which comes out next year.

 

[SixthScaleEdward]

It's probably due to the film being turned into a trilogy too late in the game. We got figures for Legolas and Tauriel when they won't be seen until movie 2. Azog will probably make an appearance in wave two which comes out next year.

IMDb actually lists legolas appearing only in the third film

 

[The Josh]

He's in the second. There was a picture in a recent empire or entertainment weekly so imdb isn't updated would be my guess.

 

[JonWes]

IMDB is not the most trustworthy of sources. There are a LOT of people who can edit it, and they don't always have accurate or up to date info.

 

[Bucky Underbelly]

I was wondering why we haven't seen an Azog yet, as well. Though if those are the only two options, I'd expect it would have more to do with them not having the look of the character finalized in time rather than the 2-film/3-film change. (He seems to be pretty intrinsically woven into the early part of the story. I'm sure it's possible, but I'm not sure how that material could have been worked into later films.)

 

[JonWes]

Well... here's a theory. I think that Yazneg was the original design for Azog before the film was split into three and the subplot became a more important element as it had to carry across three films instead of two. I think they just realized the design wasn't distinctive enough. Again, this is just conjecture and we'll probably find out for sure on a DVD release some day. But:

1. Actor John Rawls, who played Yazneg, was originally cast as Azog but this was changed during production.

2. The Lego set has Yazneg riding the white warg, and does not include Azog at all.

3. Originally Azog was listed as coming out with series 1 of the The Bridge Direct figures in early solicits, but he didn't end up coming out with them. Yazneg, who was never mentioned and is a VERY minor character in the final film (which would be a little bit of a strange choice for the 6'' line) did.

Again, just a theory and this could be explained in other ways... but... well, it kind of makes sense.

 

[DarthChrisDK]

He's in the second. There was a picture in a recent empire or entertainment weekly so imdb isn't updated would be my guess.

The image of Legolas with Bard the Bowman is from "There and Back Again" which is the third installment. Are you certain that he'll be in the 2nd installment as well? I don't think so...

 

[cstojano]

Well... here's a theory. I think that Yazneg was the original design for Azog before the film was split into three and the subplot became a more important element as it had to carry across three films instead of two. I think they just realized the design wasn't distinctive enough. Again, this is just conjecture and we'll probably find out for sure on a DVD release some day. But:

1. Actor John Rawls, who played Yazneg, was originally cast as Azog but this was changed during production.

2. The Lego set has Yazneg riding the white warg, and does not include Azog at all.

3. Originally Azog was listed as coming out with series 1 of the The Bridge Direct figures in early solicits, but he didn't end up coming out with them. Yazneg, who was never mentioned and is a VERY minor character in the final film (which would be a little bit of a strange choice for the 6'' line) did.

Again, just a theory and this could be explained in other ways... but... well, it kind of makes sense.

The Azog subplot was unnecessary IMO. Also I felt the character design was 1 part Kratos and 1 part Lion-O. Eh.

 

[Enthus]

The image of Legolas with Bard the Bowman is from "There and Back Again" which is the third installment. Are you certain that he'll be in the 2nd installment as well? I don't think so...

He most certainly will be, considering he is Thranduil's son. And the fact the The Bridge Direct already released his toy, because the Mirkwood bit which was supposed to be in the first was moved to the second after the trilogy announcement.

 

[cstojano]

He most certainly will be, considering he is Thranduil's son. And the fact the The Bridge Direct already released his toy, because the Mirkwood bit which was supposed to be in the first was moved to the second after the trilogy announcement.

Interesting that I got a TRU rewards surprise in my email today and went to TRU to check out the Hobbit figs. No elves left but pegs and pegs of Bilbo and Grinnah and no one else. Anyone else seeing these two warm pegs? Seems the shift to 3 films may have seriously messed up the marketing tie-ins. We have an Azneg Lego MF and a Grinnah action figure, neither of which were clear in the film.

 

[JonWes]

Yeah, those are the two peg warmers in my area.

 

[cstojano]

Must be a case pack issue, but honestly its hard to look at those two figs and see a 110 dollar bill. The figs aren't bad, they are just so small.

 

[JonWes]

Grinnah isn't bad, though. He's the same size as Thorin, really. I think he suffers from being a specific Goblin that you'd blink and miss on screen. Bilbo should probably just have been packed with Gollum and sold for the price of a single, not a double pack.

 

[SixthScaleEdward]

He most certainly will be, considering he is Thranduil's son. And the fact the The Bridge Direct already released his toy, because the Mirkwood bit which was supposed to be in the first was moved to the second after the trilogy announcement.

Weird enough, imdb lists Legolas only in the third film.

 

[The Josh]

Imdb is wrong this time. He's in film 2 as well.

 

[cstojano]

Yeah he would have to be in film 2. Any sense of the cutoff point for film 2?

 

[The Josh]

Right after the death of Smaug is my guess.