Asmus Toys : Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee

[Ringwinner]

Any side by side pics?

I’m going to have all my Hobbits repainted...sadly.

Thanks Asmus for engaging the fans. It’s understandable. Tough choices. In the end, you can’t satisfy us all.

Courtesy of Rzeznikk on page 134:

So check this out. I just did a quick comparison photo of my expansion (Right photo) and my Slim Frodo (Left photo) I purchased a while back because I got tired waiting. And boy. Now I'm glad I did. Not only are the eyes a much brighter blue it appears that the Slim version has a much better skin tone paint app as well.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Rzeznikk]

Courtesy of Rzeznikk on page 134:

Thanks. Just saw this and was going to post my photos again.

As far as Expansion vs Slim having and seeing them side by side I choose the Slim V1 all day every day. Much more realistic paint app in my eyes than the pale blank paint apps that we got with the expansion. Intentional or not it's a downgrade. I plan on getting the Expansion eyes repainted for sure. Slim V1 is closer to what I wanted with the Rosier cheeks and bluer eyes.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Wor-Gar]

I suppose I could use this Frodo as Shelob-stung pale Frodo.

The v1 Slims are all going for $165 or more on ebay now. Really sucks....

 

[TräshCät]

I appreciate Asmus coming here and explaning why they did what but some things just don't add up. You say Frodo's blue eyes looked too fake yet Sam still has them despite not looking like that in the movie. No matter how you explain Frodo's and Sam's eyes, I'll never believe it was anything but a mess up that you're trying to explain away or cover up. Sorry but that's just how it is.

Frodo has the most amazing blue eyes and even Hot Toys would try to get them right. It's also not good for you guys to do as Hot Toys does coz yes, they do use browns and greens but their paint app has so much detail that the eyes look like that of a real person. HT uses tiny tiny thin lines of green whereas yours on that new Frodo look like they've been drawn with an edding which ultimately changes the entire colour, not to mention that the iris' base colour isn't blue. Innovation and the will to improve is good but you also gotta accept that there are things you cannot do (yet) and get the best results with the skills you have at the moment. And that doesn't include changing Frodo's eye colour to green/brown.

 

[Rzeznikk]

I appreciate Asmus coming here and explaning why they did what but some things just don't add up. You say Frodo's blue eyes looked too fake yet Sam still has them despite not looking like that in the movie. No matter how you explain Frodo's and Sam's eyes, I'll never believe it was anything but a mess up that you're trying to explain away or cover up. Sorry but that's just how it is.

Frodo has the most amazing blue eyes and even Hot Toys would try to get them right. It's also not good for you guys to do as Hot Toys does coz yes, they do use browns and greens but their paint app has so much detail that the eyes look like that of a real person. HT uses tiny tiny thin lines of green whereas yours on that new Frodo look like they've been drawn with an edding which ultimately changes the entire colour, not to mention that the iris' base colour isn't blue. Innovation and the will to improve is good but you also gotta accept that there are things you cannot do (yet) and get the best results with the skills you have at the moment. And that doesn't include changing Frodo's eye colour to green/brown.

Amen.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Rzeznikk]

Ok,

I am very sorry that people didn't like what we did, but please let me explain...

1. Skin Tone: The original Frodo was too dark. Elijah Wood was very very pale in the Rings, so we changed the skin color to our Dante color. There are 7 steps solely on the skin tones, no short cut, all the applications are there.

We want Frodo to be very clean, very pretty. So at the sculpting stage, his facial texture was originally made very shallow to begin with, all the paint applications were made very subtle, because we want to keep him as pale as possible. Therefore eventhough the paint application is the same, but Frodo's skin texture is not as obvious as Dante.

View attachment 412166

What's funny is the pic you provided of Frodo to back your claim actually looks more like the paint on the Slim V1 than that of the expansions. Rosie checks. Bright blue eyes. Both are completely absent on the expansion paint app.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Entropy]

I suppose I could use this Frodo as Shelob-stung pale Frodo.

The v1 Slims are all going for $165 or more on ebay now. Really sucks....

eBay 20% off coupon today makes it 132.

 

[Wor-Gar]

eBay 20% off coupon today makes it 132.

Thanks for the coupon alert. But I don't need two Frodos... and I think I'm better off just repainting the eyes best I can rather than spending an additional $132.

Perhaps Asmus will release a third Frodo expansion pack - a replacement head for the replacement head.

 

[denrep-lilium]

Well, underpainted hair on Frodo does not explain HT standards. It just looks inferior in comparison to the original slim version. I can accept the skin tone excuse, but hair...

 

[CanadianBrandon]

Well, underpainted hair on Frodo does not explain HT standards. It just looks inferior in comparison to the original slim version. I can accept the skin tone excuse, but hair...

I was just going to make this point. I appreciate their filling us in on their reasoning but their explanation doesn’t line up. The hair is different as well. The paint is so thin it shows the plastic underneath. The eyes are of a lesser quality than the sam sculpt and less blue as well. I understanding they wanted Frodo to be more pale, I completely get that. But I’m not seeing the detail painted on? It has the shiny plastic of a barbie doll than that of a painted collectible in the comparison pic.

I’m still happy to have the updated version compared to the original version that looked nothing like Elijah Wood. But I don’t feel they need to make a change from their V1 slim.

 

[alex13]

What's funny is the pic you provided of Frodo to back your claim actually looks more like the paint on the Slim V1 than that of the expansions. Rosie checks. Bright blue eyes. Both are completely absent on the expansion paint app.

Those rosy cheeks and blue eyes of Elijah don't look natural enough, don't you see? And Elijah himself doesn't look natural enough. But dead skin and black rays coming from the pupil look absolutely natural.

 

[Rzeznikk]

Those rosy cheeks and blue eyes of Elijah don't look natural enough, don't you see? And Elijah himself doesn't look natural enough. But dead skin and black rays coming from the pupil look absolutely natural.View attachment 413092

Amen!

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Jbeltram4]

Those rosy cheeks and blue eyes of Elijah don't look natural enough, don't you see? And Elijah himself doesn't look natural enough. But dead skin and black rays coming from the pupil look absolutely natural.View attachment 413092

Yea. Something else happened here and we ain’t hearing about it.

 

[Ringwinner]

On the note of the bizarre change in hair paint - forgive me if someone has already posted these - but a comparison between the hair of slim Frodo v1 and v2. v2 is on the left, v1 is on the right.

I think the underside shot shows best the difference in paint quality (even the color of the paint itself seems lighter), but from the backs of their heads, you can still see the 'highlights' (thin paint) on v2 are in the wrong spots. The lightest points are in the dells of his curls, where they should be darkest, versus v1 where the highlights are appropriately on the top strands of his hair.
I can stomach the change in skin color well enough (compared to my v1, and my v2 I rosied up with some chalk pastels, I actually think the v2 skin is a little better, because it is paler, but needs a pink application to liven it up), but the obvious lesser quality of hair paint makes no sense with Asmus's explanation. Not to mention, while the paler skin was perhaps an improvement, the paint application there on is still sorely lacking in color.
And I still find fault in Frodo's bright blue eyes looking 'fake', when Sam's are still so vibrant.

Oh, and a smaller observation, unrelated to the face change: it seems to me that v1 Frodo and Sam's hands appear to be made of a slightly harder material than v2 Frodo's, whose hands seem more rubbery and flexible. If anyone else happens to have both versions, could you confirm or deny if the hands are different between them?

 

[Wor-Gar]

Yep, that was another one of my problems besides the eyes -- the under-sprayed hair.

Admittedly, I thought the v1 was really over painted -- so think it hid the strands of hair in places -- but the v2 is the ridiculous opposite of that, with areas that clearly are not painted at all.

 

[StarWarsFam]

With the Threezero Bioshock figures coming out I have made my mind on what figures to cut. I have Frodo Slim V1, Sam, Boromir, and Legolas if interested.

 

[Asmus]

Ok guys,
My boss has offered a solution to fix this,
we will ship EVERYONE who bought an Expansion Frodo head another new copy.

FREE of charge, (no shipping, nothing, for free)

We will announce it in the next couple days.

Lets put this shxt behind us and move forward.

 

[denrep-lilium]

Ok guys,
My boss has offered a solution to fix this,
we will ship EVERYONE who bought an Expansion Frodo head another new copy.

FREE of charge, (no shipping, nothing, for free)

We will announce it in the next couple days.

Lets put this shxt behind us and move forward.

WOW. I did not expect that, but that is a decent customer service, thank you.

 

[superdoug]

Wow! I didn’t expect this either. Great news for the customers and I hope this doesn’t hurt the profit too much from the line. I want to see this line last a long long time.

I wish Sideshow did this on a few of their figure I bought in the past! Faramir comes to mind!

 

[mikeljanin]

That's great from Asmus! Well done!