Thargas Anvilmar

This is the second item I purchased at Hastings yesterday. As the label says, he is Thargas Anvilmar, Dwarf Warrior, and he is from the World of Warcraft, a licenced Blizzard Product for DC Unlimited (www.dccomics.com). He is probably the only figure I am going to buy from this release.

That's because he represents another one of my specialized action figure manias, dwarves. Not dwarfs, the accepted English usage plural, but dwarves, the specialized fantasy plural usage, for this short-legged barrel-chested stone-crafty race. There are not many dwarf action figures. I have Elkhorn, from the old Dungeon and Dragons line. I have about six Gimlis from the Lord of the Rings line. And I have one dwarf action figure from the Heroclix line (a real action figure, not one of the tiny figures that stand on the hexagons).

In fact, one of the many reasons I look forward to them making a movie out of The Hobbit is that I hope they make an action figure for each one of the thirteen dwarves who accompany Bilbo, and an extra one of Dain, King of the Iron Hills.

It is, over all, a good figure. Having said this, there are a few things about it that annoy me. The fins decorating the shoulder armor are rather brittle, and will make storing it a rather finicky proposition if I'm to avoid breakage. The axe is definitely a fantasy axe, in that the eight blades would make it an impractical and unwieldy weapon in real life. And the name Thargas Anvilmar continues the time-honored D&D tradition of poorly coined monickers without a trace of real mythopoeic quality.

And yet I payed $16.99 for it. That shows my level of commitment to this fine product.

Or my level of insanity.