Ehm... "poly Obi"?
I must have a look at that FB post, which has been referenced to me a couple of times already. But....... in spite of all the care I KNOW Asmus is pouring onto their stuff, and not having the figure in my hand to test, I just can refer to others' opinions. Granted, if metal chainmail was "that easy", they would have gone that way and avoided all the pain they took, but man....... I just can't swallow that easy that Asmus couldn't source a nice amount of that chainmail that you find in (cheap?) fashion items, for cheap... Then would come actually assembling the chainmail jacket out of scraps of that big chainmail amount they bought wholesale for cheap. Could they do that with some machine, or should it be done manually, or both...? Then, would there be QC problems? (e.g. metal chainmail destroying the rest of the outfit somehow?). Then, there would be the end result: not accurate enough in spite of the cool "it's metal" factor?
Using metal chainmail would be a difficult, involved process, that is for sure. But seeing fans doing it alone at home (even if at a great cost of sourcing and on the implementation effort), and the awesome results they get..... really leaves me scratching my head and wondering why didn't they just do it?? They are experts. They are a successful company. They could beat the crap of any fan-made custom in terms of costs and quality. Even get those metal rings look exactly as how they did on screen...
Over to you, Mr Asmus!!!
Oh well...
Regarding your other comment on hair covering all of the face: that's the way the original is. You always want to look as close as possible to the original.
Seeing people around here spending so long and working so hard to improve their figs, leaves me without any shadow of doubt: we all will pay more if the product is better. Gimli was not thaaaaaaaaaaaaaat expensive to begin with. Only question: how much more for how much better? That is where Asmus should have just asked around, performed some polls... They mingle with us a bit, they should do it more, for their own sake. Maybe they should have showed us 2 or 3 protos, different qualities, then do what Haslabs did: create a kickstarter. But a kickstarter on their webshop where, say, 3 protos would be offered and people would commit to the proto they would prefer. Some pre-determined selection process would ensue, and after all was said and done, Asmus would go ahead with the winner proto, which would have enough commitments (i.e. preorders) for a release to be financially successful even before hitting the ON button at the factory!! Win-win situation!!
Come on Asmus! Haslab did it! You guys can do it too!!! It is the way things will be done in the future!!! And this is not about a huge $500 Jabba Sail Barge, even!! And you would do the whole world, as you always do, instead of only USA!
...and btw this would sure be a kick in the mouth to all naysayers around here that laugh at me for even proposing running polls or creating petitions....
Power to the people!!
RfC
m.
PS: yeap, real leather would do a lot in terms of fig durability, not only aesthetics...
U mean the poly Obi?
U might want to look at FB re dwarf chain mail and the thought ASMUS put into Gimli. It's not "ordinary" chain mail.
Anyway I'm more than happy with what ASMUS did. I couldn't see, myself, paying more to have more hair higher on the cheeks re the pic u posted (I haven't looked at a bunch of frames of LOTR). Also for me there's a real question of - at that scale - you put more hair on, it "closes" the face up. An effect u might want, or not.
For myself it would be more about using real leather, here and there. But that kind of thing - also the mail - I can do myself - so, nope, at this price point I don't need ASMUS to do anything. He's a terrific fig.
A rooted hair, Hobbit Mirkwood Legolas for me, w. that "leaf" shoulder armor.