The line of Middle Earth Toys from Toy Vault as it hit retail shelves was far from indicative of what had been planned for the line. Very expansive plans were made for it, and perhaps they were too ambitious and expansive for a new toy company to be able to fully realize. Along with the figures that were produced, there were many that were at various stages of development, and a look at the extensive work done behind the scenes offers a glimpse at the building of a toy line.
The many items that Toy Vault considered for the Middle Earth Toys line can be broken down into three basic stages of development - the concept phase, design phase and sculpture phase. The basic flow of development would start with the concept phase, in which the basic premise would be mapped out and explored, but not much beyond simple brainstorming. The next stage would be the development of control art and other drawings up to (but not including) sculpture, called the design phase. After the control art has been finished, then the idea is sent off for the actual sculpture. Once a sculpture has been approved then a paint master will have to be made, along with mold making and the others items that need to be complete before production can be started. From there, production can begin, and eventually it will end up on retailers' shelves and in consumer's homes.
There were several characters that were planned for figure treatment, but never got beyond that. Arwen (the daughter of Elrond and Aragorn's love), Goldberry (the wife of Tom Bombadil) and Radagast the Brown (a wizard in Gandalf's order who went 'native'), Merry ( one of the hobbits that were in the Fellowship), Shadowfax (a horse used by Gandalf) and a generic Moria Orc were all slated for future inclusion in the initial list of the first 36 characters planned.
Concept Phase
The items in the "concept phase" were simply ideas that were either only slightly explored or never got beyond that stage. There may be many reasons why something didn't pass beyond this stage, such as potential costs, other projects being further along or licensor disinterest.
The items that were in the concept phase follow and are covered in detail on the concept page:
- The Three Rings Project
- A Doll line
- Accessory Packs
- Gorbag
- Grima Wormtongue
- Nazgul 2-5
- Peregrine Took
- Shagrat
Design Phase
The design phase is where the concepts were fleshed out to get a visual idea of what the final product would look like. After various sketches and designs are generated eventually a final look is chosen, and control art is created. This control art is usually detailed enough to give the assigned sculptor (who may have even aided in the design work) an idea of exactly the desired look. The design also had to be approved by the licensor prior to moving to sculpture, so this might be time-consuming depending on how well described the character may have been.
Follow the hyper-links to get more information on each of the following figures that were in the design phase and the development and control art.
Sculpture Phase
This phase is where the design actually received a three-dimensional reality, as the sculptor would bring the character to life. There are a surprising number of characters that were either partially or fully sculpted but never made it into full production for various reasons. Some of the sculptures shown here have never been seen before, and RTM is proud to reveal them to the world.
