Asmus Toys Lord of the Ring Gandalf Gray

[Travis Baumann]

The reason I brought up real chainmail is because someone just posted a link to this figure in the Theoden thread so if they can manage it for less than $200 then Asmus should be able to bust it out for the Crown Series.
They may have said they can’t do it in the past but this other company is proving it’s possible so I think it’s tike to step up to the plate.

That is pretty cool chainmail. Says over 11,000 hand woven rings.

Thing is that is just the skirt, not actually a shirt with arms or anything that could make it more difficult to tailor. Also hard to say if the little rings will snag things where the little hoops connect.

Also, it is obviously not licensed so none of the money of the $191 goes to licensing and the character is not a real actor so facial sculpt can be more forgiving. Nice rooted hair and tailoring/outfit look great. If I was a fan of the source material I would buy this figure.

I am not familiar with War Story and it says made in collaboration with 76 Jazz who I am not familiar with either. I will have to watch out for them in the future in case they do a knock off of something I want to collect.

Pretty funny parts descriptions:
Hair Carving for Hair Transplant 1pc
Hormone for Height Increase 1pc

 

[Chopper Face]

Ye I noticed that too. I’m sure one day Mankind will be able to take a height increasing hormone- but it is not this day.
Think I’ve actually done a 180 now and realised that the kind of real chainmail we’d need for lotr characters is simply not achievable without spending a fortune and would be kind of a waste of time, resources and effort. Asmus should just focus on finding the closest possible substitute and continue to improve in all the other areas of production.

 

[Lejuan]

Use a fabric that drapes properly. Is it really that difficult and/or expensive issue to address? I dunno maybe it is. But in principle one would think not.

Let me tell you the story about Yunsil and the Princess Leia dress...

 

[Stephen Gentile]

WBshop.com has a 3 day sale. 25% off $200. Asmus LOTR figures and StarAce Potter figures are eligible.

 

[cbulas1]

You had me excited until I saw that they have the Crown Series Gandalf listed for $430! The 25% off takes it down to $322, so still an ok deal, but not what I was hoping for.

Thanks for sharing, anyway!

 

[Stephen Gentile]

Yeah I blame an over-reaction to Trump's trade war that's setting the pricing on some of these sites.

 

[Xman1990]

i think they should include all of his staffs for the price.

 

[Alatar]

Asmus is located in Taiwan, btw! So fortunately the U.S. trade war with China should not be a factor when ordering directly from Asmus.

 

[slamscaper]

Hey all, I haven't been following the thread much but is asmus still going to offer the head to those that have proof of purchase and still own the first?

Thanks

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[hoodonit00]

Hey all, I haven't been following the thread much but is asmus still going to offer the head to those that have proof of purchase and still own the first?

Thanks

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The last they commented on it yes they just haven?t released any details yet.

 

[Asmus]

At the moment the plan is to have the headsculpt up for order, around the same time when the complete crown Gandalf package is in stock.
So it will have to be early next year.

 

[denrep-lilium]

Have you decided on the sculpt price range?

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[borgisbor]

Ok couldn't help it, I've just pre-ordered from SS. Looks stunning...

 

[GhostBeard]

Amazon has GtG for pre-order, showing a July release date

 

[Bilbo Skywalker]

Amazon has GtG for pre-order, showing a July release date

Amazon?s release date for Bilbo was way off


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[Sixth Scale Man]

Maybe Asmus could chime in with an update. Even just a rough time frame based on where they?re at with him. It would help my budgeting too![emoji846]


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[Sassafras]

Maybe Asmus could chime in with an update. Even just a rough time frame based on where they?re at with him. It would help my budgeting too![emoji846]


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*Loosely* if u look at Asian 'bay auctions re estimated ship dates, it's more or less:
ESTIMATE SHIPPING DATE: Q4, 2019 ~ Q1, 2020

Which matches what ASMUS has said. IMO best u can do is just assume by Q2, so put some holiday $$$ aside. If I can I buy myself SSC gift cards and use for PO, like for this Gandalf. U don't really pay less but it eases the pain later.

Amazon has GtG for pre-order, showing a July release date

'Course there can all kinds of delays but IMO after the long-gone Thranduil showed up on Amazon (with the *new* head, apparently) - don't know where, or how, Amazon is getting their stock. Plus it may be either shipping from Amazon warehouse or another party?

 

[Sixth Scale Man]

Thanks Sassafras. Good info there.

 

[Doodlebob7]

Shame it takes weeks of moaning to get them to adhere to their own mission statement regarding the Crown Series though. If you?re going to announce a sub-line with the intention to reach the pinnacle of what is possible with mass produced figures then that should apply to every aspect of those figures.
Share with the fans all the minute improvements if it?s an updated characters and clue us in on use of new materials and techniques which would otherwise be too time consuming or costly to implement so we can truly appreciate what the Crown Series is seeking to accomplish. Then there won?t be any disputing the higher price range- well there always will be complaining about price but it?ll be much easier to silence with clear examples as justification. At the moment Gandalf is just coming across like a rerelease with a new head and different accessories- and still no blue hat.

If Helms Deep Aragorn is going to be next for the Crown Series then there are going to be very high expectations and certain basic musts such as; obviously an improved head sculpt and way better rooted hair than the original, actual chainmail- we?ve seen it can be done so there?s no excuse not to if this truly is the pinnacle of what?s possible at 1:6, fabric boots and a more accurate Elven dagger. A quality, well articulated body with butterfly joints wouldn?t go amiss either. Tick all those boxes and I?ll have no complaints.

Didn't you guys realize that the crown series was just a way to let them charge more money without too much backlash and rehash figures they've already done with minimal effort, just so they only have to throw in a new haired sculpt (now they know they can do it after gimli) and give us a base no one really asked for. I bet they regret not charging more for gimli in hindsight. But we all know the lowest common denominator of people will still buy this figure because "oh em gee the head actually looks like him and it's haired!" In anything, when you have a lot of people willing to accept mediocrity because they can't practice self control, no real major improvements will ever be made when they know these people will just throw money at it anyway.

 

[Kalkylen]

Didn't you guys realize that the crown series was just a way to let them charge more money without too much backlash and rehash figures they've already done with minimal effort, just so they only have to throw in a new haired sculpt (now they know they can do it after gimli) and give us a base no one really asked for. I bet they regret not charging more for gimli in hindsight. But we all know the lowest common denominator of people will still buy this figure because "oh em gee the head actually looks like him and it's haired!" In anything, when you have a lot of people willing to accept mediocrity because they can't practice self control, no real major improvements will ever be made when they know these people will just throw money at it anyway.

To be fair, there was a lot of issues raised on here directly to Asmus in regards to them reusing their previous Hobbit era Gandalf. Mainly centred around the clothing due to the incorrect/poor choice of materials on the belts, buckles and problems with the length of the robes etc on the original version. They said would be taking all those issues to their design team and see if they can tweak them before release.

I wholeheartedly agree that you can't just stick a new headsculpt on a figure then charge a Deluxe price for it without improving everything else, especially when they have proven that they can add a lot of important extras (metal buckles, better belts, boots etc) to their regular figures and still charge the same price point but demand more for a slightly updated older figure.

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