Asmus Bilbo reveal!

[Kalkylen]

The Asmus hobbits have heads that are almost the size of their bodies. Notice that the original actors heads are in proportion with their bodies (being human and all). The prototype hobbit figures definitely look to have the correct sized heads on the glamour shots but the production versions do so look larger. The size discrepancy is more noticeable when stood next to the human Asmus figures as their heads are almost matching in size.

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[Cman]

The Asmus hobbits have heads that are almost the size of their bodies. Notice that the original actors heads are in proportion with their bodies (being human and all). The prototype hobbit figures definitely look to have the correct sized heads on the glamour shots but the production versions do so look larger. The size discrepancy is more noticeable when stood next to the human Asmus figures as their heads are almost matching in size.

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Yeah looks like asmus would probably have to make the sculpts in 1/8- 1/10 scale to match. I’m sure it’s much harder to sculpt a good likeness at that scale. I’m sure for those putting real hair the head will visually shrink a bit.


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[Sassafras]

Yeah looks like asmus would probably have to make the sculpts in 1/8- 1/10 scale to match. I’m sure it’s much harder to sculpt a good likeness at that scale. I’m sure for those putting real hair the head will visually shrink a bit.


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I think so will just squaring up the shoulders - on Bilbo anyway - w. a bit of padding. The underlying body is more childlike or "slim" - I dunno if making the head smaller in the first place is a problem; or re costs and layers of costume trade offs have to be made.

Slimmer shoulders and lots of articulation even w. layers of cloth; make the head smaller? Anyway I might body-pad Bilbo a bit w. wrapped nylon cloth or just pad the shoulders of the jacket, but nothing much - I like being able to pose Bilbo freely.

 

[BagginsOfBagEnd]

LOL that's what happened to me reading the Gimli posts, and then reviews...and then...

Don't use the word delightful very often but Bilbo IS. Great to work with, expressive sculpt, paint...hope you are really happy with him

View attachment 435355

Bring on Thorin

Thanks Sassafras! That's great to hear. I am sure I will be...whats even better my parents have offered to buy it me for Christmas (just means I'll have to wait a bit longer but looks to be worth the extra wait!) Hoping I can show some restraint with this line...but that NEVER seems to work out for me!!

That's a cool pic, that Smaug piece looks nice. Hoping one day there will be a 1/6 Ian Holm version made - I would love to be able display them both together.

 

[Sassafras]

Thanks Sassafras! That's great to hear. I am sure I will be...whats even better my parents have offered to buy it me for Christmas (just means I'll have to wait a bit longer but looks to be worth the extra wait!) Hoping I can show some restraint with this line...but that NEVER seems to work out for me!!

That's a cool pic, that Smaug piece looks nice. Hoping one day there will be a 1/6 Ian Holm version made - I would love to be able display them both together.

Definitely worth the wait - and it's nice to have something show up in the mail after the holidays, when it's gray out and kind of anti-climatic - and at least for me usually the coldest time of the year.

And too - I really don't know anything like this will ever be made again. Like the Smaug bust - hadn't really planned on that, but, there was an opportunity and it's a great piece of a fantastic dragon, maybe the best ever put on film. LOL I hear his voice in my head.

Not just an Ian Holm version - but IMO we definitely need the desk! No way we will ever get all of Bag End but a little diorama with the door, and one with the desk for me would be perfect. Tho I did see Etsy sells wooden circles...

I just wish all the shipping problems would get sorted, every board seems to be reporting shipping delays - and of course it's the holidays too.

 

[Asmus]

Well, the proportion problem was a pain too.
What we decided at the end of the long discussion was, hobbits are "children" to people's eyes, not "small human"


for example, hobbits in this photos are "small human"

they are proportionally SHRUNK human adult. and we figured that is why the photo looks a little werid after staring at it for a while

Obviously, in order to make the actors look "small", Weta used a larger feet, in the dwarf case, they enlarge the head by wear fake ears and prosthetic nose, and wear big hand gloves, big foot boots. But for the hobbits, they cannnot enlarge the actors head, and they went along with it, it is also why, they use children as double in long shots for the movie, picture wise, it does look more convincing.

Well, this is what we thought, and decide to do, we noticed Weta's products kept the "small human scale",however, we did what we thought was a better choice.

I guess, we will just have to open to debate this for the best of our future products.

 

[Rzeznikk]

Well, the proportion problem was a pain too.
What we decided at the end of the long discussion was, hobbits are "children" to people's eyes, not "small human"

View attachment 435540
for example, hobbits in this photos are "small human"

they are proportionally SHRUNK human adult. and we figured that is why the photo looks a little werid after staring at it for a while

Obviously, in order to make the actors look "small", Weta used a larger feet, in the dwarf case, they enlarge the head by wear fake ears and prosthetic nose, and wear big hand gloves, big foot boots. But for the hobbits, they cannnot enlarge the actors head, and they went along with it, it is also why, they use children as double in long shots for the movie, picture wise, it does look more convincing.

Well, this is what we thought, and decide to do, we noticed Weta's products kept the "small human scale",however, we did what we thought was a better choice.

I guess, we will just have to open to debate this for the best of our future products.

I just want you to know that I don't think the head size is much of an issue with the Hobbits. IMO. Frodo here even made my top 10 favorite figures of the year! #2 spot actually. Frodo is a pivotal character for this line.

So you have a happy collector here.

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[Bucky Underbelly]

I agree. I think the hobbits look pretty great. Just got Bilbo today and in hand, I'm not bothered at all about proportions. I think he's a fantastic looking figure! I wish he came with a walking stick, but apart from that, it's a terrific likeness and a great effort from Asmus!

 

[Kalkylen]

That's an interesting point Asmus, thanks for clarifying it. I only brought the scale issue up as an observation but I'm very happy with your hobbit figures, especially the updated Slim versions So bring on old Bilbo! Can't wait to see you tackle the smoking jacket he wears at his birthday party!

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[warlock664]

Guess I should've sprung for the extra $25 for FedEx shipping; mine's been stuck in customs since 11-28.

 

[Cman]

Well, the proportion problem was a pain too.
What we decided at the end of the long discussion was, hobbits are "children" to people's eyes, not "small human"

View attachment 435540
for example, hobbits in this photos are "small human"

they are proportionally SHRUNK human adult. and we figured that is why the photo looks a little werid after staring at it for a while

Obviously, in order to make the actors look "small", Weta used a larger feet, in the dwarf case, they enlarge the head by wear fake ears and prosthetic nose, and wear big hand gloves, big foot boots. But for the hobbits, they cannnot enlarge the actors head, and they went along with it, it is also why, they use children as double in long shots for the movie, picture wise, it does look more convincing.

Well, this is what we thought, and decide to do, we noticed Weta's products kept the "small human scale",however, we did what we thought was a better choice.

I guess, we will just have to open to debate this for the best of our future products.

That makes total sense. Well said. Asmus should be proud their sculpts excel a company that literally worked on the movies themselves (Weta). Weta can’t produce a descent human character license if their lives depended on it.


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[Sassafras]

Well, the proportion problem was a pain too.
What we decided at the end of the long discussion was, hobbits are "children" to people's eyes, not "small human"

for example, hobbits in this photos are "small human"

they are proportionally SHRUNK human adult. and we figured that is why the photo looks a little werid after staring at it for a while

Obviously, in order to make the actors look "small", Weta used a larger feet, in the dwarf case, they enlarge the head by wear fake ears and prosthetic nose, and wear big hand gloves, big foot boots. But for the hobbits, they cannnot enlarge the actors head, and they went along with it, it is also why, they use children as double in long shots for the movie, picture wise, it does look more convincing.

Well, this is what we thought, and decide to do, we noticed Weta's products kept the "small human scale",however, we did what we thought was a better choice.

I guess, we will just have to open to debate this for the best of our future products.

You go ASMUS! Only someone with WETA's Chronicles books, customizers, costumers, etc. can appreciate the *hellishness* of dealing with proportions and scale and articulation and THEN throw in non-human factors like Hobbit feet and dwarf bone structure. Peter Jackson - and Richard Taylor have talked a lot about all the tricks they used...

I love my Bilbo just fine and waiting for my second (already have 2 Gimlis). You've done amazing!!!!!!bunnydanc

 

[TripleCP]

Guess I should've sprung for the extra $25 for FedEx shipping; mine's been stuck in customs since 11-28.

I'm still waiting for my final invoice. Paid the $20 deposit on 21 August but still no final invoice after several emails to [email protected] in which they promised to (re)send it. Received and paid the invoice for Thorin in the meantime.

George, can you look into this? Order 7845.

 

[asgardianboy]

I must recognize that yes, those heads are too big and hurt the inner proportions, and hence, the figures as a whole.

To all the laughing fanatics around here: this doesn't mean that the figures are the best available and the best ever in this franchise. This only means that they can be improved, as I said and as Mr Asmus just confirmed.

Regarding sculpting such small heads: oh come on... everything is sculpted today with Zbrush and Wacon interfaces. You sculpt at the scale you want, and you downscale to the size you need. It all depends then on your 3D printer's resolution to create the proto and the molds.

To Mr. Asmus: thanks for chiming in. Yes, there is room for improvement here. With smaller heads, you figures will look even better. Besides, do you think something could be done to fix your hobbits' skinnyness? I am a fanatic of articulation, but I am even more fanatic of realism, and I think that a good fit for the outfit is paramount for realism (good articulation is very important too).

Let us know!
Thanks,
m.

The Asmus hobbits have heads that are almost the size of their bodies. Notice that the original actors heads are in proportion with their bodies (being human and all). The prototype hobbit figures definitely look to have the correct sized heads on the glamour shots but the production versions do so look larger. The size discrepancy is more noticeable when stood next to the human Asmus figures as their heads are almost matching in size.

Sent from my SM-J500FN using Tapatalk

Well, the proportion problem was a pain too.
What we decided at the end of the long discussion was, hobbits are "children" to people's eyes, not "small human"

View attachment 435540
for example, hobbits in this photos are "small human"

they are proportionally SHRUNK human adult. and we figured that is why the photo looks a little werid after staring at it for a while

Obviously, in order to make the actors look "small", Weta used a larger feet, in the dwarf case, they enlarge the head by wear fake ears and prosthetic nose, and wear big hand gloves, big foot boots. But for the hobbits, they cannnot enlarge the actors head, and they went along with it, it is also why, they use children as double in long shots for the movie, picture wise, it does look more convincing.

Well, this is what we thought, and decide to do, we noticed Weta's products kept the "small human scale",however, we did what we thought was a better choice.

I guess, we will just have to open to debate this for the best of our future products.

 

[BagginsOfBagEnd]

...

Not just an Ian Holm version - but IMO we definitely need the desk! No way we will ever get all of Bag End but a little diorama with the door, and one with the desk for me would be perfect. Tho I did see Etsy sells wooden circles...

I just wish all the shipping problems would get sorted, every board seems to be reporting shipping delays - and of course it's the holidays too.

That would be great!

 

[Rzeznikk]

That would be great!

I'd be down for that as well!

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[TripleCP]

I think the scale of the hobbit heads is fine as is and actually wouldn't want them to be scaled down to the size of that pic. The filmmakers used a combination of green screen/scaling down, camera tricks, and the use of short stature film doubles whenever hobbits and "Big People" shared the screen, so the scaling varied from moment to moment and, if anything, the size and scale of the hobbits look a little off/shrunken (like half size adults) to me in that photo (I have the same reaction seeing that moment on film).

The hobbits' heads/faces don't seem nearly as scaled down in this shot, for example.

 

[Bucky Underbelly]

The thing I love is how many of the shots in the movies don't have any CG or forced perspective trickery in them at all. They did a few of those effects heavy "hero" shots (like the Rivendell "assembling the team" shots and the famous "cresting the hill" shot) that really sell the scale, but a lot of the time they used the scale doubles (mostly for wide shots) or just had the "big" actors standing on boxes or the "small" ones kneeling (when their feet were out of frame) or shooting them from steeper angles. Once you see the big establishing shots of them together, our brains just accept the size differences, so you kind of stop paying attention to the more subtle scale differences that change wildly from shot to shot throughout the rest of the story.

One of the most important stylistic "tricks" they employed ended up having a hugely beneficial effect on the movies, in my opinion. In order to avoid having to show the size difference between the characters, they used a lot more close-ups than you usually get in that kind of movie. They're full of shots that are tight on individual faces and eyes. I actually would make the argument that using close-ups as a way to avoid size difference shots, ends up making the movies SO much more emotionally impactful. The whole thing feels so much more intimate and powerful. We're so much more zeroed in on the performances and character emotions and journeys.

 

[Sassafras]

I'm still waiting for my final invoice. Paid the $20 deposit on 21 August but still no final invoice after several emails to [email protected] in which they promised to (re)send it. Received and paid the invoice for Thorin in the meantime.

George, can you look into this? Order 7845.

I'm still waiting on my Thorin invoice and guess I will have to e-mail again; or literally start spamming ASMUS until I get a response. Too bad they were pretty responsive in August. I've already e-mailed once; ASMUS if you are checking these threads will you please check ur e-mails!!!

 

[Bucky Underbelly]

Just grabbed a Rogue One Chirrut staff from Toy Anxiety. Hopefully that will chop down to the right size ...

This turned out to be a PERFECT solution. I chopped out the "metal" portions of the staff and glued together the two "wood" sections and its the absolute perfect length for Bilbo. Five minute mod!