Asmus Toys Lord of the Ring Gandalf Gray

[jal76]

Love Asmus but it?s unfortunate that I preordered Gandalf from them exactly a year ago and still no invoice.
Last night I get an email from an online store here in the US advertising having the figure in stock.
Since I don?t want to risk being in some weird wait until the end of the year with Asmus I just bought it from the US store.
No preorder, no anything. Just walked right up and paid and now it?s on the way.
I am not sure why Asmus sent figures out to retailers to sell to people who didn?t even have preorders when they still have people waiting for preorders that they made with them directly over a year ago.

 

[ShadowGuardian]

YES! BBTS has shipped my Gandalf and I also managed to cancel my order directly through Asmus. They were kind enough to even give me the deposit back. What a great start to the day.

 

[Bucky Underbelly]

The Grey Pilgrim has arrived.

HOLY HELL, this thing is GORGEOUS.

The hairing and the painting and the sculpting ... just fantastic! I might do a small amount of futzing with a damp toothbrush on the hair and beard, but so far he already looks tremendous with just a finger adjustment.

Your mileage will vary, of course, but in person I don't notice a single issue with the eyes. (Though maybe that says more about MY eyes than HIS. )

The robes may need some light misting to get things to lay a bit more naturally, but that's to be expected after spending a week thumping around inside a box. Otherwise it looks great. No surprises there, Asmus usually brings their A-game to the costumes.

The hat, of course, is useless. But you already knew that. It might look fine as an accessory in a display as long as it's not on his head. I'm sure there are folks with some skills who will be able to mod it. Sadly, I don't have many of those skills. It's well made and has the right shape and iconic profile. Put it on his head, though, and it just sits too weirdly. That said, even if it fit perfectly, I wouldn't use it. I would never want to cover that fantastic hair work.

The base is cool -- all the parts on mine fit more or less snugly -- but I'm far more likely to use it for my Bilbo. It's a smidge too crowded for this wizard.

As for accessories ... my favorite is the book, but I wish it could be opened. Especially since there's printing on every page. I believe the early proto pictures showed it open. Maybe they encountered an issue during production. It's still cool, though.

I actually really appreciate that they've given him so many hands. There's a few extra options beyond the standard relaxed and gripping choices. I always appreciate a pointing finger and a flat palm option. Pipe-holding hand is good, too. Also, it's noteworthy that all the hands are specifically sculpted for Gandalf. They're a bit old and gnarled. Which is impressive considering they probably could have gotten away with more generic stock hands since his sleeves actually cover a fair portion of the hands. I think it was very cool of Asmus to go that extra mile.

Overall, this is instantly my favorite figure in the line! (Joining my other first-round draft picks: Thorin, Gimli and Grishnakh.)

If this is where the hobby is going, then count me in.

 

[RandomHero]

Thanks for the review, Bucky. Appreciate your thoughts on the figure.

It's a shame no one has found a fix for the hat yet. I understand the hair is incredible but it just feels wrong that no one has that iconic hat on. I'm hopeful cutting the fabric inside will make a difference.

 

[Sassafras]

The Grey Pilgrim has arrived.

HOLY HELL, this thing is GORGEOUS.

......

Overall, this is instantly my favorite figure in the line! (Joining my other first-round draft picks: Thorin, Gimli and Grishnakh.)

If this is where the hobby is going, then count me in.

Nice review...why can't the book open if the pages have printing? Not at alll?

I'm waiting on SSC for Gandalf; but that's OK Aragorn will supposedly be in tomorrow.

 

[Bucky Underbelly]

Nice review...why can't the book open if the pages have printing? Not at alll?

I'm waiting on SSC for Gandalf; but that's OK Aragorn will supposedly be in tomorrow.

The spine of the book is somewhat flexible, so you can pry it open a bit and flip the pages and take a peek, but you can't open it all the way without breaking it.

 

[SwedishHeat]

Nice review...why can't the book open if the pages have printing? Not at alll?

This video shows how it works

https://youtu.be/DYXnX910TiE?t=1185

It looks like they cast the cover in a harder material so it can't flex like it did in the prototype photos.

Not cool.

 

[DioramaMaker]

Think you can score the edges so it can fold open?

 

[scumonkey]

After some adjustments (granted you shouldn't have to), I love his hat!

 

[FlyAndFight]

Great to see more pics and read more reviews. So glad that some are not having an issue with the display base or head sculpt hair. The figure truly is a grail, regardless.

Can the mailbox be addressed by applying super glue to keep it firmly in place? Won't be great for storage but if you don't plan on selling it, you could always glue it in place. Or use a small bit of clear tape? There has to be a way to fix those posts from falling over.

I don't expect to sell the figure in the future, but one never knows. In the case of my display base, the only way to have it fit would be to drill the hole bigger so that the mailbox post tab will slide in. Right now it just doesn't fit. I may just do it and perhaps use some Blu-Tac to wedge it, if needed.

 

[Bucky Underbelly]

Think you can score the edges so it can fold open?

Hmm... Doubt it. I think scoring it would only cause the covers to snap off. Maybe you could slice the covers off and add a more flexible hinge material? Not sure that would help a ton, though, since the pages are glued in pretty stiffly. The pages probably won't open naturally like a full sized book would, even if you removed the cover completely.

That said, I'm sure someone braver and more skilled than I could make something work.

 

[SwedishHeat]

That said, I'm sure someone braver and more skilled than I could make something work.

I'm sure it can be done.

I bought one of these ROTLA bibles from a member here ... checks post history ... almost TEN YEARS AGO!!!!!

https://www.sideshowcollectors.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126041

It was a tremendous piece of work. So, I'm sure someone could make an actual book. But it looks like Figure5901 isn't active here anymore, but the proof is in the pudding, as they say.

 

[DioramaMaker]

Dang, I haven't handled it yet so I can speak to it. BUT for the brave, I'd think you could probably cut the covers, separate the pages off the spine, and then connect the front and back across the spine with a durable fabric. Reglue the block of papers in on top of that and it might work? Idk. I'm intrigued to try because I honestly love miniature books like that. The book with Dr. Strange is one of my favorite accessories.

 

[Bilbo Skywalker]

Mine arrived two days ago and I finally got a chance to open him.

First thoughts:

Really well packaged. He came double boxed from Asmus so his brown shipper was perfect.

Upon opening him and reading the inserts, couple of typos/misspellings but whatever I don?t really care about that.

I know he?s only in robes but wow he is light. His neck was slightly stained by his grey robes but you won?t ever see that w the beard and hair. Hopefully the cloak or robe doesn?t do the same to his hair. The clothes, as is typical with Asmus, were done very well.

The sculpt I thought was fantastic. Rooted hair also really great. Frizzy and gets in the way of everything but great. The eyes were also done well I thought. Mine weren?t really glossy and the shadow I?ve seen in pictures doesn?t come off that way to me in person.

Currently my Gandalf doesn?t have his sword/sheath because the directions were pretty bad and I?m not in the mood to tie little pleather pieces in knots or whatever. For 350 bucks, that should just be done on arrival IMO.

The base steps were beautiful done with the moss but as previously mentioned, the holes to plug in the pieces were beyond frustrating. My mailbox doesn?t completely click in, that could?ve been done way better.

Hat = trash. Stayed in the box.

Overall I?m happy to have my fellowship completed but this was by far the most annoying figure to work with. The happiest point was putting all the boxes/trays away and saying forget it. I?ll try the sheath/hair another day.


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[Entropy]

After some adjustments (granted you shouldn't have to), I love his hat!
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Nice job with that "useless" "trash" hat.
Looks great there!

 

[D..C]

After some adjustments (granted you shouldn't have to), I love his hat!
View attachment 509828

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Really like what you have done with his beard and hair as well as the hat. [emoji122]


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[Hologram AI]

Custom hat done by Jungle Chen. Kind of sad to see it next to the one Asmus included. I wish someone would do a run of better hats like this one.

 

[jal76]

Custom hat done by Jungle Chen. Kind of sad to see it next to the one Asmus included. I wish someone would do a run of better hats like this one.

I wouldn?t be able to display that one either. It unfortunately looks like Gandalf is at spring break wearing a giant novelty hat.

 

[davejames]

Yeah I think I prefer Scumonkey's reworked version of the stock hat.

 

[Joe The Collector]

I remember pre-ordering this from Asmus, within 15 minutes of it going live, I think there was only 3 pictures out of it at that time...

Here I still wait for my invoice

Really excited to receive this, but damn, I aint paying that $160 EXTRA to get it shipped to the UK right now. How come I can pay Day1 ?25 extra to ship Mando Deluxe via DHL, must be roughly the same size box and weight.