Asmus Toys Lord of the Ring Gandalf Gray

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The hat doesn't look bad there either to me. The only thing that gets to me a little bit, but I know is unavoidable, is the mustache hair area. Cutting 1/6 scale mustache hair is pretty much impossible and don't expect it, but it looks very sharply cut/straight there.
 
Yeah I looked back at the proto and the mustache was done a whole lot better there, with a few wisps of hair glued onto the sculpted hair. Not sure why they changed it to what they did.
 
Minor nit picks aside, the figure is pretty cool, especially from a company who doesn?t have the scope that Hot Toys have.

Asmus should be really proud of the work they have been putting out, they go from strength to strength with every release.
 
I haven't gotten an invoice. Grr.... probably means I'm in the Q4 camp. Hopefully BBTS can pull through for me!
 
Got my Gandalf yesterday and finally took a look at him today. First thing that got me a little upset was that the head had slid down in the foam container and deformed the hair. I didn't panic and a little water made things right, but it was irritating. The hair is so super fine and you don't really want to be messing around with it a lot.

One thing I would like to say is that as much as people want to see the details on this, blowing up the head to 10 times its actual size serves no good use. That's not the way you see the figure on display. Because of the way this is done, no two are going to be alike. Someone commented about the mustache on the one just posted. Mine doesn't look like that. It's not cut straight across. Mine seems to be done better. The whole hairline on mine seems to be a little better. I'm sure there are probably some out there even better than mine, and some worse.

I don't see anything wrong with the eyes worth complaining about. They might be a micro millimeter deeper than if they had been sculpted. But truthfully, it just looks like a tired old man with baggy skin around his eyes. Does this look like a $500 custom done by one of the premier artists in the hobby. No. It didn't cost anywhere near that either. I haven't really taken the time to examine everything fully, but I do think that all but the pickiest will be quite happy with this.
 
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One thing that I have noticed. When I first took the head out of the foam, the hair was very straight, aside from being crunched up from sliding down in the foam. I just put a little water on my finger to fix the hair on top of his head a bit. I decided to run the beard under water to get it a lot wetter. As it's sitting drying, I'm noticing that the many strands are grouping into what I assume was their original shape before application to the face. They are forming a really nice wavy look much much closer to the proto look. Didn't have to do any styling at all. Just ran water over it. Don't think I want to do that with the hair on top of his head though.
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One thing that I have noticed. When I first took the head out of the foam, the hair was very straight, aside from being crunched up from sliding down in the foam. I just put a little water on my finger to fix the hair on top of his head a bit. I decided to run the beard under water to get it a lot wetter. As it's sitting drying, I'm noticing that the many strands are grouping into what I assume was their original shape before application to the face. They are forming a really nice wavy look much much closer to the proto look. Didn't have to do any styling at all. Just ran water over it. Don't think I want to do that with the hair on top of his head though.
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See I look at that and ask myself, what are people complaining about?
 
Got my Gandalf yesterday and finally took a look at him today. First thing that got me a little upset was that the head had slid down in the foam container and deformed the hair. I didn't panic and a little water made things right, but it was irritating. The hair is so super fine and you don't really want to be messing around with it a lot.

One thing I would like to say is that as much as people want to see the details on this, blowing up the head to 10 times its actual size serves no good use. That's not the way you see the figure on display. Because of the way this is done, no two are going to be alike. Someone commented about the mustache on the one just posted. Mine doesn't look like that. It's not cut straight across. Mine seems to be done better. The whole hairline on mine seems to be a little better. I'm sure there are probably some out there even better than mine, and some worse.

I don't see anything wrong with the eyes worth complaining about. They might be a micro millimeter deeper than if they had been sculpted. But truthfully, it just looks like a tired old man with baggy skin around his eyes. Does this look like a $500 custom done by one of the premier artists in the hobby. No. It didn't cost anywhere near that either. I haven't really taken the time to examine everything fully, but I do think that all but the pickiest will be quite happy with this.

One thing that I have noticed. When I first took the head out of the foam, the hair was very straight, aside from being crunched up from sliding down in the foam. I just put a little water on my finger to fix the hair on top of his head a bit. I decided to run the beard under water to get it a lot wetter. As it's sitting drying, I'm noticing that the many strands are grouping into what I assume was their original shape before application to the face. They are forming a really nice wavy look much much closer to the proto look. Didn't have to do any styling at all. Just ran water over it. Don't think I want to do that with the hair on top of his head though.

Thank you for your review. Great info in regards to wetting the beard. I may actually look into doing the opposite - wetting the hair and fritzing the beard, as that is how he looked, for the most part, in LotR.

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Thank you for your review. Great info in regards to wetting the beard. I may actually look into doing the opposite - wetting the hair and fritzing the beard, as that is how he looked, for the most part, in LotR.

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You're probably right. I don't see why it wouldn't work for the hair unless it wasn't applied in little clumps. It just did what it did on the beard. I'm sure I could brush it out if I wanted. Kind of like it that way though.
 
The Grey Pilgrim has arrived from Asmus and....it's a very mixed bag.

Cons:
So...let me first say of the bat...I know I need MORE combing/futzing...so I'll keep at it. BUT the head was loose in the little coffin and that made it pretty messy out of the box.
The hand pegs....ALL OF THEM separate at the hinge. See the photos. Not just one of them defective.. they all are cheap. The hands themselves are fine but a PAIN IN THE *** to swap because of the thumb hole in the under shirt.
It's been widely discussed the hat doesn't sit well because there is no room for his head. To add insult to injury on mine...the magnet is sewn in backwards so the polarity makes it sit lopsided. I will contact Asmus Toys for that.
The base assembly is okayish. The fence posts peg in okay, but the mail box just will not stay in firmly. it LOOKS good.
The pipe is a very soft, bendy material. It will warp easily if not stored in the staff properly. At least it's included.
Pros:
1. The sculpt in person is VERY GOOD. The PERS like eyes are fine in person and don't look so freakily blue as other pictures show.

2. After I get this beard and hear fully combed, it actually looks pretty decent and has subtle different hues of grey. The outfit is quite nice and the staffs and the metal sword are top notch.

3.The boots and the outfit in general are well done.

4. The underlying body feels firm and has ratchets. I don't' have any concerns about a floppy body. Just those cheap *** hand pegs.

5 The Dwarven book has a lot of individual pages with writing on every page. Well done Asmus Toys.

Overall...I THINK I really like this figure. Just a lot of frustrations putting it together I need to sleep on it. If they ever do a hat replacement, it will be very nice I think. The box was quite nice, I have to give Asmus marks for this attempt. They are really trying and their passion shows. It's a good figure. Is it $350 good....not by a long shot. I know a lot of the cost was the specialized hair glueing...but all the other mis-steps pulls this figure out of greatness and I hope Asmus keeps learning from their mistakes and keeps making improvements.
If you have this figure, I would be interested in other opinions.

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The Grey Pilgrim has arrived from Asmus and....it's a very mixed bag.

Cons:
So...let me first say of the bat...I know I need MORE combing/futzing...so I'll keep at it. BUT the head was loose in the little coffin and that made it pretty messy out of the box.
The hand pegs....ALL OF THEM separate at the hinge. See the photos. Not just one of them defective.. they all are cheap. The hands themselves are fine but a PAIN IN THE *** to swap because of the thumb hole in the under shirt.
It's been widely discussed the hat doesn't sit well because there is no room for his head. To add insult to injury on mine...the magnet is sewn in backwards so the polarity makes it sit lopsided. I will contact Asmus Toys for that.
The base assembly is okayish. The fence posts peg in okay, but the mail box just will not stay in firmly. it LOOKS good.
The pipe is a very soft, bendy material. It will warp easily if not stored in the staff properly. At least it's included.
Pros:
1. The sculpt in person is VERY GOOD. The PERS like eyes are fine in person and don't look so freakily blue as other pictures show.

2. After I get this beard and hear fully combed, it actually looks pretty decent and has subtle different hues of grey. The outfit is quite nice and the staffs and the metal sword are top notch.

3.The boots and the outfit in general are well done.

4. The underlying body feels firm and has ratchets. I don't' have any concerns about a floppy body. Just those cheap *** hand pegs.

5 The Dwarven book has a lot of individual pages with writing on every page. Well done Asmus Toys.

Overall...I THINK I really like this figure. Just a lot of frustrations putting it together I need to sleep on it. If they ever do a hat replacement, it will be very nice I think. The box was quite nice, I have to give Asmus marks for this attempt. They are really trying and their passion shows. It's a good figure. Is it $350 good....not by a long shot. I know a lot of the cost was the specialized hair glueing...but all the other mis-steps pulls this figure out of greatness and I hope Asmus keeps learning from their mistakes and keeps making improvements.
If you have this figure, I would be interested in other opinions.

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But but but the sculpt, the sculpt alone from a custom maker would be hundreds of thousands of dollars! This is the greatest deal evarrrr, how could you say any different!?!
 
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