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Heights of Tintin characters

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jock123
Moderator
#31 · Posted: 22 Feb 2012 20:39
Brianna:
I measured his height to be between 125-135cm, which is obviously inaccurate.

Hmmm… but not wildly different from the previous work done by Balthazar and his team of automobile estimators… Your upper figure was 135cm, or 4'5", and Balthazar arrived at 4'9" (145cm or there abouts), with the provisio that Tintin might indeed have been shorter, thanks to his being on a foot-path.

Tintin is markedly tiny at the start of Soviets - his feet dangle when he sits on the seat in the train – 4'5" is definitely a possibility then. However, he does appear to get larger as the series progresses.

However, I put it to you that in fact appearances can be deceptive – ladies and gentlemen, the fact must be that it was Tintin who stayed the same height, and the world grew smaller round about him (with the exception of the copy of German Research in World War II he finds in Calculus Affair – had that shrunk too, the whole hypothesis falls over… ;-))!

(Oh… And Balthazar’s Zephyr too…)
Brianna
Member
#32 · Posted: 22 Feb 2012 23:30
Quite possibly! He was indeed tiny in Soviets. I guess it's hard to judge the exact heights of characters in a 'drawn' universe - all I can say is that by Picaros, Tintin seems to be of fairly average stature given his apparent young age.

jock123:
it was Tintin who stayed the same height, and the world grew smaller round about him

LOL!
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#33 · Posted: 22 Feb 2012 23:33
According to information included with the Hachette model of "The Unicorn", Hergé "revealed" that Tintin is 1m 60cm (see this thread, post 2). That's about 5 foot, 3 inches.

Perhaps it's possible the reference might have come from one of those detailed sheets made for Belvision animators, to aid in the proportionality of the characters? jock123 also mentioned a child's wall measurement chart, which I've also seen reference to somewhere in a book, but I can't recall where.
ourherotintin
Member
#34 · Posted: 3 Mar 2012 05:56
Tintin: 163cm
Captain Haddock: 178cm
Professor Calculus: 172cm
Thom(p)sons: 172cm, 172cm ;-)
Bianca Castafiore: 168cm

Also, because people were forgetting Chang-
Chang Chong-chen: 158cm
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#35 · Posted: 3 Mar 2012 11:32
ourherotintin:
Captain Haddock: 178cm
Professor Calculus: 172cm
Thom(p)sons: 172cm, 172cm

Hmmmm, not sure the Captain is that much bigger than the Thom(p)sons, nor that Calculus is as tall as them.

My own estimate (based on Tintin's alleged height of 160cm)
Tintin: 160cm
Captain Haddock: 177cm
Professor Calculus: 164cm
Thom(p)sons: 175cm, 175cm
Snowy: 54cm (height to top of head when standing on all fours) ;-)
Ville81
Member
#36 · Posted: 6 Feb 2017 00:04
Hi there!

As I've a huge personal interest in achitecture I have done a lot of research in chateaus.
I have also made blue-prints for the Chateau de Cheverny, which is of course the manor on which Hergé's Moulinsart/ Marlinspike is based.
As huge Tintin fan I have made observations of their differences, and done blue-prints of the facade to fit the differences between the real and the fictional (doors and steps).
The doors are three meter tall. They are not 2,88m or 2,93m Very logical.
Also they are 2x90cm width. Again, not 88cm or 92cm or anything else. Size is perfect and practical and also very typical for the building type and era.
Now, why this is great news? There exist a drawing, where Tintin rings the doorbell. When you look Hergé's drawing, you notice that door fits perfectly on real life scale of 300cm x 180cm (2x90cm). As it fits perfectly to real world scale, we can also easily calculate the height of Tintin.

It is, based on facts about the doors, 167cm or 1,67m.
Hopefully everyone is happy now.

Best regards

Ville
jock123
Moderator
#37 · Posted: 6 Feb 2017 09:30
Very interesting work there, Ville!

Ville81:
It is, based on facts about the doors, 167cm or 1,67m.

That sounds like a good bit taller than Hergé himself estimated, as you'll see from Harrock's post above; did you have a specific drawing in mind that you used for reference?

It would need to show Tintin standing straight and visible from head to toe to be really accurate to te degree you have measured, I think.

But very good detective work there - it's the sort of Tintinology I like!!
Ville81
Member
#38 · Posted: 6 Feb 2017 14:00
Hi there and thank you for your comments. I used the frame from the story "Les Sept Boules de Cristal" / "The Seven Crystal Balls"
[imgs=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8_m5jgQe-mM/TrR3MI0qvJI/AAAAAAAABxk/hE Kh30kgbYg/s1600/Moulinsart_lSBdC.jpg][/imgs]
I actually double checked the picture with help of autocad today as just for interest. Doors indeed stays in 2x(90cm x 300cm). Based on Autocad scaling with reference points, very precise height for tintin on that picture came to 165,5cm. He is not standing totally straight on picture as his head and back has little bit angle, so I estimate as correction for body, that he would be min 166cm, and most likely max 167cm. Error in scale is very very small.

But then again, this is just a one picture. And it could be interested to find similar ones to compare how the height stays.

Also someone can assume, that his shoes makes him about 2cm taller than he would be without them. So I am willing to accept him, without shoes and standing straight in range 165cm +-5mm.

But he is also in age range (15-25), where he is/can be still growing up so height might not be the same in all stories.

I would be surprised if Hergé has been able to maintain correct same height compared to certain known objects always on the series.

To make all that above to short, 165cm, standing straight without shoes. :)
jock123
Moderator
#39 · Posted: 10 Feb 2017 11:30
Harrock n roll:
Hmmmm, not sure the Captain is that much bigger than the Thom(p)sons, nor that Calculus is as tall as them.

I knew I'd seen a model sheet for the Studios Hergé which came up for auction, in which Hergé depicts the characters side-by-side, to show their relative heights, which are ruled off so that comparison can be made.

Having found a picture of it, and with some margin of error due to the resolution of the available picture, the following proportions can be derived, if not the actual heights, as there isn't a scale on the diagram.

If Tintin is taken as 100%, then Calculus is 103% of Tintin's height, the Detectives are 113% of Tintin's height, and the Captain is 119% of Tintin's height. Snowy is 40% of Tintin's height.

If, as Hergé maintained, Tintin is 160cm, the following heights can be calculated, provided that my arithmetic is up to it, and E&OE:

Tintin: 160cm
Calculus: 165cm
The Detectives: 180cm
Captain Haddock: 190cm
Snowy: 64cm

Using Ville81's estimate of 165cm, the following would be the heights.

Tintin: 165cm
Calculus: 169cm
The Detectives: 186cm
Captain Haddock: 196cm
Snowy: 66cm

Hopefully a clearer, better resolution version of the sheet will be found to allow a refinement of these heights, but I think that these proportions are something to build on!
Shivam302001
Member
#40 · Posted: 21 Nov 2018 11:02
I think we should keep in mind that the adventures took place during Tintin's adolescent years so his height must increase in every 2 or 3 books. Moreover, there are often certain inconsistencies with his height with respect to other characters within the same book. So, I do not see how we can conclusively tell their heights from the books (except for taking a range or mean). And different angles in every other frame only adds to the difficulty.

I had thought of measuring Tintin's height and compare them when I saw that certain objects also seemed to change their heights with every frame (while others remain constant), rendering my method useless.

However, I do not suggest that it is impossible to predict Tintin's height, only that it is subject to vary. It is nice to know that he is 5 foot 3 inches, myself being an inch taller.

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