There is a moment early in Trollhunters Season 1 where Bular grabs a human by the collar, lifts him off the ground with one hand, and snarls something about finding the Trollhunter. The camera angle is low, looking up at the troll's obsidian silhouette against a streetlight, and you can see why Guillermo del Toro insisted on making the villains genuinely frightening. Bular is not a cartoon bad guy who monologues from a throne. He is a 9-foot wall of black stone muscle who tears through concrete, commands an underground army, and genuinely believes his father's freedom is worth any amount of human blood. That combination of raw physical menace and a twisted family loyalty is what separates him from almost every other animated villain of the 2010s.
For fans of DreamWorks Animation's Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia — the Netflix series that ran from December 2016 through May 2018 across three seasons and 52 episodes — Bular occupies a specific niche. He is the villain you remember first. Not the most powerful, not the most cunning, but the one whose footsteps you could feel through the screen. This piece examines everything that made Bular work as a character: his design lineage, his role inside the narrative machinery of Season 1, the voice performance behind him, the battles that defined him, and the collectibles that keep his memory alive on fan shelves years after the show ended.
Born From Gunmar: The Bloodline of a Dark Troll General
Bular is the son of Gunmar, the warlord of the Gumm-Gumm army — the faction of dark trolls that was sealed beneath the Earth in the Darklands centuries before the events of the series. In troll lore as established across the Tales of Arcadia franchise, Gunmar was corrupted through the Heartstone of Gunmar (a twisted counterpart to the Trollhunter's Amulet of Daylight) and became the supreme commander of the Gumm-Gumms. Bular inherited not just his father's physiology but his mission: find the Killahead Bridge, open a portal to the Darklands, and release Gunmar's army onto the surface world.
The father-son dynamic is central to understanding Bular's motivations. Unlike many animated villains who seek power for its own sake, Bular operates within a framework of familial obligation. He is not trying to conquer Arcadia Oaks for personal glory. He is trying to free his father — a goal that gives him a strange nobility even as he smashes through suburban neighborhoods and endangers every human in his path. This emotional grounding is one reason fans on the Trollhunters subreddit frequently rank Bular above later antagonists who had more screen time but less personal stakes.
Within the Gumm-Gumm hierarchy, Bular serves as a field general. He commands lesser trolls, Changelings (trolls who can assume human form), and various creatures loyal to Gunmar's cause. His authority is absolute among the rank-and-file Gumm-Gumms stationed beneath Arcadia, and he answers to no one except his imprisoned father. That chain of command matters because it means every destructive act Bular commits in Season 1 carries strategic purpose — he is not a rogue berserker but a disciplined military commander executing a long-term plan.
Nine Feet of Obsidian: Dissecting Bular's Visual Design
The design team at DreamWorks Animation, under del Toro's creative direction, built Bular to read as immediately dangerous even in silhouette. Standing approximately 9 feet tall, Bular's body is composed of what appears to be dark volcanic stone — charcoal-black with subtle grey undertones that shift depending on the lighting of each scene. His skin texture is rough and craggy, more geological than biological, which reinforces the show's core conceit that trolls are creatures of earth and mineral rather than flesh and bone.
His most striking features are his eyes: twin orbs of sickly green luminescence that glow from deep within his skull. The Art of Trollhunters book (published by Dark Horse Books, 2018) reveals that the design team went through numerous iterations of Bular's head shape and horn configuration before settling on the final look. The horns curve forward and outward, giving his profile an aggressive, battering-ram quality. His jaw is massive, capable of expressions that read as contempt even when the character is not speaking.
Color-wise, Bular sits at the opposite end of the spectrum from the show's hero. Jim Lake Jr.'s Trollhunter armor is blue-silver — cool, bright, almost celestial. Bular is all shadow and heat, with the green glow of his eyes serving as the only color accent on an otherwise monochrome frame. This visual opposition is deliberate: every fight scene between them becomes a clash of light against dark, order against chaos, surface against underground.
"Bular needed to feel like he could pick up a car. Not throw it — just pick it up and hold it while he talked to you. That kind of physical presence changes how every other character in a scene behaves around him."
— Paraphrased from the Art of Trollhunters design commentary, Dark Horse Books (2018)
His physique is worth examining in detail. Bular's upper body is disproportionately massive — barrel chest, shoulders like boulders, arms thick enough to wrap around a tree trunk. His legs, while still powerful, taper slightly, giving him a top-heavy silhouette that suggests a creature built for grabbing and crushing rather than running. This design choice appears intentional: Bular rarely chases anyone. He stands his ground, and others come to him — or he smashes through walls to reach them. The animation team gave him a deliberate, heavy gait. Each footfall carries weight, and the sound designers paired his movements with deep bass impacts that reinforce his mass.
The Voice Behind the Monster: Ron Perlman's Performance
An important correction: Bular is voiced by Ron Perlman, the veteran actor known for his deep, gravelly baritone and his iconic roles as Hellboy (both the 2004 and 2008 Guillermo del Toro films), Clay Morrow on Sons of Anarchy, and the Narrator in Drive (2011). Some fan resources occasionally misattribute the role to Fred Tatasciore, who does play a major part in the series — Tatasciore voices AAARRRGGHH!!!, the gentle pacifist troll who becomes Toby Domzalski's protector. Both performers are prolific voice actors with enormous range, but their characters in Trollhunters could not be more different: Bular is the ruthless Gumm-Gumm enforcer, while AAARRRGGHH!!! is a reformed warrior who despises violence.
| Character | Voice Actor | Role Type | Notable Trait |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bular | Ron Perlman | Primary Villain (S1) | Deep, menacing baritone |
| AAARRRGGHH!!! | Fred Tatasciore | Supporting Ally | Gentle rumble, childlike cadence |
| Gunmar | Clancy Brown | Overarching Villain (S2–S3) | Authoritarian bark |
| Jim Lake Jr. | Anton Yelchin (S1–S2) / Emile Hirsch (S3) | Protagonist | Youthful earnestness |
| Blinky | Kelsey Grammer | Mentor / Supporting | Scholarly warmth |
| Draal | Matthew Wolf | Rival turned Ally | Proud warrior tone |
Perlman's performance as Bular is recognizably his — the same low register that made Hellboy's deadpan one-liners land, the same threatening rumble that made Clay Morrow terrifying even when sitting still. But there is something specific he does with Bular that differs from his live-action work. He slows down. Every word Bular speaks carries the weight of a creature who has never been contradicted and cannot imagine being contradicted. Lines like "I will find the Trollhunter" are delivered not as threats but as statements of geological inevitability, as if Bular is describing tectonic plate movement rather than his own intentions.
The pairing of Perlman with del Toro is itself notable. The two collaborators worked together on Cronos (1993), Hellboy (2004), Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), and Nightmare Alley (2021). Del Toro casting Perlman as the primary enforcer in his animated passion project was not a surprise to anyone familiar with either man's filmography. What was surprising was how much emotional range Perlman packed into a character who, on paper, could have been a one-note brute.
Season 1's Narrative Engine: How Bular Drove the Plot Forward
Season 1 of Trollhunters premiered on Netflix on December 23, 2016, with a double-episode release that established the core conflict: teenager Jim Lake Jr. discovers the Amulet of Daylight beneath a canal in Arcadia Oaks, California, and is chosen as the next Trollhunter — the mortal champion tasked with protecting both the human world and Trollmarket (the underground troll civilization). Bular is the immediate threat. He has been operating beneath Arcadia for an unspecified period, using Changelings infiltrated into the human population to gather intelligence and resources while he works toward his primary objective: recovering the pieces of the Killahead Bridge and reassembling them to open a portal to the Darklands.
Bular's narrative function in Season 1 is essentially that of a pressure cooker. Every episode he appears in raises the stakes. His attacks on Jim's home, his pursuit of the Amulet, and his willingness to destroy entire city blocks to achieve his objectives force Jim to grow as a Trollhunter faster than he is ready for. The show structures Bular's appearances carefully — he does not appear in every episode, which means his entrances always feel like escalations rather than routine encounters.
One of the smartest decisions the writing team made was giving Bular a genuine intelligence underneath the brutality. He is not a mindless attack dog. He devises plans, recruits allies, and adapts when his strategies fail. When direct assault does not work, he sends Changelings to infiltrate Jim's school. When the Trollhunter gains allies, Bular targets those allies specifically. This tactical flexibility makes him a credible threat across 26 episodes of Season 1 rather than a villain who simply gets punched harder each week.
The Changeling Network
Bular's command structure includes Changelings — trolls capable of shapeshifting into human form by consuming a piece of human DNA (typically hair). The most prominent Changeling under Bular's command is Strickler (Walter Strickland), who poses as Jim's history teacher at Arcadia Oaks High School. Strickler's dual life creates some of the show's most tension-filled scenes, as Jim slowly realizes that the adult authority figure sitting across from him in a classroom is simultaneously reporting his movements to a 9-foot troll general living in the sewers below the town.
This Changeling subplot elevates Bular from a physical threat to a strategic one. He is not just strong; he has built an intelligence apparatus inside human society. The show borrows from paranoid-thriller conventions here, and Bular benefits from the association. He feels less like a monster-of-the-week and more like the head of an occupying force.
Jim Lake Jr. vs. Bular: The Fights That Defined a Trollhunter
The physical confrontations between Jim and Bular form the action spine of Season 1, and they escalate in a way that tracks Jim's growth from terrified teenager to something approaching a real warrior. Their first real encounter is essentially a survival scene — Jim, still unfamiliar with the Daylight armor and the Sword of Daylight, barely escapes with his life. Bular treats the fight the way a cat treats a mouse: with contemptuous amusement. The size disparity is absurd. Jim in armor stands roughly 6 feet tall; Bular towers over him at 9 feet and outweighs him by several hundred pounds of stone-density troll flesh.
By mid-season, the fights shift. Jim begins using strategy — exploiting Bular's top-heavy build, using the environment, coordinating with Blinky and Draal to create openings. The animation team at Arc Productions (later rebranded under different studio names for later seasons) animated these sequences with a weight and impact that is rare in television animation. When Bular's fist connects with Jim's shield, you feel the force transfer. When Jim dodges and Bular's punch craters a concrete wall, the debris lingers in the frame.
The Season 1 Climax
The Season 1 finale — "The Battle of Killahead Bridge" — brings the conflict to its natural endpoint. Bular has assembled enough of the bridge to attempt opening the portal to the Darklands. Jim, now more confident but still outmatched in raw power, confronts him at the bridge site. The fight is multi-layered: Jim is not just trying to defeat Bular but also prevent the portal from opening, protect his friends, and make a split-second tactical decision about whether to destroy the bridge (which would also seal off any future Gumm-Gumm incursion) or try to use it.
The resolution of the Bular arc in the Season 1 finale is one of the show's strongest narrative beats. Jim does not simply overpower Bular in a climactic power-up moment. Instead, the victory is earned through accumulated growth — every lesson Blinky taught, every mistake Jim made, every ally he recruited across the preceding 25 episodes contributes to the outcome. When Bular finally falls, it feels like the conclusion of a real campaign rather than a convenient plot resolution. And critically, Bular's defeat does not end the larger threat. Gunmar is still imprisoned in the Darklands, and the events of Season 1 set the stage for the escalating conflicts of Seasons 2 and 3.
Where Bular Sits in the Villain Hierarchy of Tales of Arcadia
Across the full Tales of Arcadia franchise — which includes Trollhunters (3 seasons), 3Below (2 seasons), Wizards (1 season), and the film Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans (2021) — the villain roster expands considerably. Gunmar (voiced by Clancy Brown) takes over as the primary antagonist in Seasons 2 and 3. Queen Usurna introduces political manipulation as a weapon. Morgana le Fay brings sorcery into the equation. The Green Knight in Rise of the Titans represents an existential-level threat.
Yet Bular retains a particular hold on the fanbase. Reddit threads on r/TrollHunters consistently show that when fans discuss their favorite villain, Bular appears in the top tier alongside Gunmar. The reasons vary but cluster around a few themes: his design is the most visually striking of any Gumm-Gumm; his motivations are emotionally legible (freeing his father is a goal audiences can understand even while opposing it); and Ron Perlman's voice performance gives him a gravitas that elevates every scene he occupies. Later villains are more complex narratively, but Bular is the one fans draw, cosplay, and collect.
Collecting Bular: Figures, Merchandise, and Fan Art
For collectors, Bular's merchandise footprint is smaller than you might expect for a character this popular, which makes the existing items somewhat sought-after in secondary markets.
Funko Pop! Vinyl
The Funko Pop! Bular figure (Item #471, part of the DreamWorks Trollhunters Pop! Television line) was released in 2017 as a standard retail figure. Standing approximately 3.75 inches tall, the Pop! version captures Bular's essential silhouette — the horns, the broad shoulders, the green-glowing eyes — in Funko's signature oversized-head style. Original retail price was around $10.99. As of 2025, a mint-in-box Pop! Bular #471 typically sells for $18 to $35 on eBay, depending on condition and whether the sticker is intact. A chase variant or signed edition commands significantly higher prices when they surface.
Funko Action Figures (5-inch and 12-inch)
Funko also released Bular as part of their 5-inch action figure line and a premium 12-inch action figure. The 5-inch figure includes articulation at the shoulders, hips, and head, with a matte black finish and painted green eye details. The 12-inch version is the showpiece — a substantial display figure that approximates Bular's on-screen proportions at roughly 1:9 scale. The 12-inch Bular originally retailed for approximately $39.99 and has become harder to find at retail, with secondary market prices ranging from $50 to $90 depending on availability.
Other Merchandise and Fan Creations
- Fan art prints: Bular is one of the most frequently drawn Trollhunters characters on platforms like DeviantArt, Tumblr, and Instagram. Independent artists sell prints featuring Bular in stylized poses — often paired with Jim in confrontational compositions or with Gunmar in father-son portraits.
- 3D printing: STL files for Bular figurines are available on platforms like Thingiverse and Cults3D, with some fan-made models reaching impressive levels of detail. A well-painted 3D-printed Bular at 1:6 scale can rival commercial collectibles in display quality.
- Apparel: While official Bular-specific apparel is limited, fan-made designs on print-on-demand platforms (Redbubble, TeePublic) feature Bular's silhouette, his glowing eyes, or the text "Bular the Butcher" in gothic typography.
- Custom commissions: Some collectors commission custom paint jobs of the Funko 12-inch figure, adding weathering, battle damage, or LED kits to make the green eyes glow for real.
The Design Legacy: How Bular Influenced Later Trollhunters Villains
Bular established the visual template that the Trollhunters design team would iterate on for subsequent antagonists. The principle was simple: a Gumm-Gumm villain should look like a force of nature, not a person in a costume. Gunmar, when he finally appears in full during Season 2, is larger and more ornate than Bular — armored, horned in a more elaborate configuration, with a color palette that shifts toward dark bronze. But the foundation is Bular's design. The rough stone skin, the luminescent eyes, the disproportionate musculature — these elements carry forward.
Even the non-Gumm-Gumm villains inherit something from Bular's template. Angor Rot, the troll hunter who becomes an antagonist through supernatural compulsion, shares Bular's physical density and sense of menace, though his color palette shifts toward blue-grey ice tones. Queen Usurna, despite her political rather than physical threat profile, carries visual markers — the heavy brow, the stone-like skin texture — that place her in the same design family. Bular was the proof of concept that a troll could be terrifying and compelling simultaneously, and the design team clearly used that proof as a foundation for everything that followed.
Common Questions About the Butcher of Arcadia
Is Bular actually Gunmar's biological son?
Within the show's lore, yes. Bular is presented as the son of Gunmar, the Gumm-Gumm warlord. Troll reproduction is not explored in detail in the series — trolls are shown emerging from stone and being shaped by Heartstones rather than born in a biological sense — but the father-son relationship between Gunmar and Bular is treated as genuine within the narrative. Bular's devotion to freeing Gunmar drives his actions throughout Season 1.
Does Bular appear in Seasons 2 and 3 of Trollhunters?
Bular's story arc is primarily contained within Season 1. The climactic events of the Season 1 finale resolve his confrontation with Jim. Seasons 2 and 3 shift focus to Gunmar's direct involvement as the Gumm-Gumm warlord himself becomes the central antagonist. Bular's absence from the later seasons is part of what makes his Season 1 arc feel complete — he has a beginning, a middle, and a definitive end.
Who really voices Bular — Ron Perlman or Fred Tatasciore?
Ron Perlman voices Bular. Fred Tatasciore voices AAARRRGGHH!!! (the peaceful troll who guards Toby). This is a common point of confusion because both actors have deep, resonant voices and both are prolific in animation. Perlman's filmography includes Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy, and Drive. Tatasciore is known for voicing the Hulk across multiple animated projects, as well as characters in Star Trek, Dragon Ball, and dozens of video games.
How tall is Bular compared to other trolls in the show?
Bular stands approximately 9 feet tall, making him one of the larger trolls in Season 1. For comparison, Blinky (Blinkous Galadrigal) stands around 7 feet, Draal is roughly 7.5 feet, and AAARRRGGHH!!! is approximately 10 feet but with a very different body type — broad and quadrupedal rather than Bular's upright bipedal build. Jim in his Trollhunter armor stands roughly 6 feet. Gunmar, when he appears, exceeds 10 feet.
What makes Bular different from other Gumm-Gumm trolls?
Bular is distinguished by three factors: his status as Gunmar's son (giving him authority over other Gumm-Gumms), his intelligence (he is a strategist, not just a brawler), and his visual design (his skin is notably darker and more stone-like than the average Gumm-Gumm soldier, and his eyes glow with a more intense green luminescence). These traits combine to make him read as a distinct individual rather than a generic member of the Gumm-Gumm army.
Where can I buy a Bular Funko Pop in 2026?
The Bular Pop! #471 is no longer in active production but surfaces regularly on eBay (typically $18–$35 for a standard edition), Mercari, and specialty collectible shops. Amazon third-party sellers occasionally list new-old-stock units at higher prices. For the 12-inch action figure, expect to pay $50 to $90 on the secondary market. Check Funko's official site periodically — they occasionally reissue popular figures in vaulted re-releases.
Does Bular appear in the film Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans?
Without spoiling the film for anyone who has not seen it, Bular does not appear as an active character in Rise of the Titans (2021). The film's antagonist is the Green Knight / the Arcane Order, representing a different tier of threat entirely. However, Bular's legacy as the villain who started it all is acknowledged by the fanbase, and his absence from the film does not diminish his standing in the franchise's villain hierarchy.
About this article: This piece covers Bular from Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia (DreamWorks Animation / Netflix, 2016–2018). The Tales of Arcadia franchise was created by Guillermo del Toro and produced by DreamWorks Animation Television. Character design information references The Art of Trollhunters (Dark Horse Books, 2018). Voice cast credits verified via IMDb and Behind the Voice Actors. Collectible pricing reflects secondary market averages as of mid-2025 and is subject to fluctuation.
