Asmus Toys : Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee

[ApeManRyan]

looking awesome!

 

[xequae]

Look great and they come with some great accessories. Glad they are being released as a two pack again. Ordered as soon as I get home.

 

[hoodonit00]

I think I've said this before. Anyone who expects Asmus to release a head sculpt that is 100% there hasn't been paying attention. Most of their head sculpts have about an 85-90% likeness. But in my opinion they shine on the outfits. They make excellent representations of the characters of LOTRs. I think Frodo falls into that 85-90%. I think he is the better of the 2. To me, Sams head sculpt has less of a likeness. I put him about 75-80%. But from the neck down I think they are outstanding.

 

[denrep-lilium]

View attachment 303362
Good range of accessories. No Lembas bread or Mithril shirt though - but Asmus' Facebook promises pre-order exclusives so I bet at least one of those will be covered by a later announcement, like the staff that just got added to pre-orders of Thranduil.

I admire Asmus' approach to accessories. And would really love the Mithril shirt.

Different angles of the sculpts don't make them look any better though.

With some quality custom sculpts these would be worth it IMO - all the other elements are excellent, just like with Gandalf.

The lower part of Frodo's face still looks bad.
It would be nice to have a sculpt of Frodo from the first page, even if it comes unpainted.

 

[The Ween]

Rather disappointed in these when it comes to the head sculpts. Everything else is great. I'll have to think about whether I'm getting them or not.

 

[MaxGoof]

It's really disappointing that Asmus said they were going to take our criticisms of these likenesses to heart after NYCC 2016 and then did nothing with them. Sam looks awful.

 

[Cammo]

hmm, I bet this will end up being 240 EUR at my local store. Everything is great except the the facial features issues mentioned above. It will look great in a group display though... I'll sleep on it.

What are the exclusives with the pre-order version?
A 2nd breakfast?

BTW Asmus, give me an update on the The Mask figure. I really hope it will arrive before X-mas here in Europe.

 

[Wor-Gar]

I like the set. In fact, I'm more tempted by Samwise now -- he'll look great packed up with all that gear.

Decisions, decisions....

 

[galactiboy]

Sculpt of Frodo looks completely different than the one Caine did... not sure what happened there, but his sculpt was pretty much spot-on. This new one looks nothing like the actor.

 

[jankatana]

I will PO once the exclusive stuff is revealed

 

[superdoug]

These will give us 6 of the fellowship. Sideshow also gave us 6 members of the fellowship. Kind of hoping for some news on the remaining three really soon.

 

[denrep-lilium]

Sculpt of Frodo looks completely different than the one Caine did... not sure what happened there, but his sculpt was pretty much spot-on. This new one looks nothing like the actor.

I want this one available.

 

[pixletwin]

Wow. Gotta say I was hoping I wouldn't be tempted to abandon my SS Hobbits.... I am not.

 

[Star Puffs]

Disappointed by the likenesses as well.

 

[Bucky Underbelly]

Hi Asmus,

Any word yet if Sideshow will be carrying these guys?

 

[koolkollectibleskhai]

Hi Asmus,

Any word yet if Sideshow will be carrying these guys?

Looks like BBTS has already listed for preorder. Whether I order from Sideshow might depend on these preorder exclusives that Asmus mentioned. No details on those yet from what I've seen, or which retailers might have them.

 

[cmiller99]

I think I've said this before. Anyone who expects Asmus to release a head sculpt that is 100% there hasn't been paying attention. Most of their head sculpts have about an 85-90% likeness. But in my opinion they shine on the outfits. They make excellent representations of the characters of LOTRs. I think Frodo falls into that 85-90%. I think he is the better of the 2. To me, Sams head sculpt has less of a likeness. I put him about 75-80%. But from the neck down I think they are outstanding.

There's no reason that they can't reach higher than 90%, they just don't - barely ever. And it's astonishing because they have great raw sculpts - Gandalf, Caine's Frodo and John Connor - that they seem to throw out in exchange for inferior ones, or if, as suggested, Frodo and Connor are the same sculpts, they're modified or mangled in the casting process. I just don't get it and I'm starting to lose hope that they can pull off home runs on Legolas, Boromir and Gimli. They've certainly got a lot of non human likenesses right, they did great work on Saruman's sculpt and Thranduil, and Pippin and Bard were good too, but they just can't get the Fellowship right for whatever reason, and it's bumming me out majorly.

They might make "good representations" but sculpts aren't their forte and they aren't improving particularly consistently on that front despite progression in all other fields and good accessory and tailoring work across the board. And why settle for representations anyway? True, their prices are fair for what they put out, and that's a good point that people consistently bring up, but I know I'd pay more for getting accurate likenesses, not "representations". F___ representations. If you want representations, then one can just keep the Sideshow figures. But at this rate I won't be buying any of Asmus' Fellowship figures, because despite very good WIP sculpts for Legolas and Boromir being shown, who can tell if they're even going to resemble Bloom and Bean by the time they reach the prototype stage? And for me it's an all or nothing type of deal.

Sorry for the rant.

 

[hoodonit00]

There's no reason that they can't reach higher than 90%, they just don't - barely ever. And it's astonishing because they have great raw sculpts - Gandalf, Caine's Frodo and John Connor - that they seem to throw out in exchange for inferior ones, or if, as suggested, Frodo and Connor are the same sculpts, they're modified or mangled in the casting process. I just don't get it and I'm starting to lose hope that they can pull off home runs on Legolas, Boromir and Gimli. They've certainly got a lot of non human likenesses right, they did great work on Saruman's sculpt and Thranduil, and Pippin and Bard were good too, but they just can't get the Fellowship right for whatever reason, and it's bumming me out majorly.

They might make "good representations" but sculpts aren't their forte and they aren't improving particularly consistently on that front despite progression in all other fields and good accessory and tailoring work across the board. And why settle for representations anyway? True, their prices are fair for what they put out, and that's a good point that people consistently bring up, but I know I'd pay more for getting accurate likenesses, not "representations". F___ representations. If you want representations, then one can just keep the Sideshow figures. But at this rate I won't be buying any of Asmus' Fellowship figures, because despite very good WIP sculpts for Legolas and Boromir being shown, who can tell if they're even going to resemble Bloom and Bean by the time they reach the prototype stage? And for me it's an all or nothing type of deal.

Sorry for the rant.

I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying it is what it is. I don't think they want to pay the salary it would take to get a top tier sculptor. Will this eventually bite them in the ass? Maybe so. I don't think any of the likeness have been horrible. They all have a resemblance. Some better than others. I just don't think we will see a spot on likeness.

 

[Ninersphan]

Would be great if the exclusive was the pre Lorien cloaks for all 4 hobbits, I can dream can't I?

 

[Bucky Underbelly]

For some reason I've always been under the impression that most of their portrait sculpts were free-lanced and not done in-house. (Is that how the industry generally works nowadays? Honestly, I'm asking, I don't know much about how this stuff.) That might explain the range in quality and why some of the works in progress they've shown have been physical sculpts and some have been digital.

I'd love a casting of Caine's original Frodo head. The Frodo proto looks okay, but it would be much improved with that un-tweaked portrait.