InArt: The Lord of the Rings - Aragorn 1:6

[vspectra]

Finally got that head container opened. Twisted off the top piece. Had to heat the neck hole to pop in the neck adapter.

 

[GrimmReapah]

7/10 is my rating on this one.


And In my opinion the only real winners this time are the ones who got the sculpted hair.

First let me say the good things, the tailoring apart from the elven cloak is excellent. The accessories are excellent. As always the whole presentation is excellent . And I do like the sculpt bare bones wise there’s a lot to work with

But the rest is a bit of a fail in my opinion. Sorry to say but this is the first inart I’ve seen where I think they dropped the ball production wise.

Let me most get this rant out of the way. As someone who does rooted hair in figures I was skeptical that they could pull it off in mass scale and my theory’s have been proven right. For half a thousand dollars plus, there should be no doubt what you’re getting but instead this is almost like blind box figures. It’s insane how badly I’ve seen the variation of the hairs on both Gandalf and Aragorn. And it radically radically changes the likeness. Sure you can mess with it and style it, but most collectors don’t have the gumption and even if they did most didn’t have the eye to make it look good, you should be giving the casual collector consistency out of the box. And I’m not saying they are not trying to. I’m just sort of saying I think it’s impossible.

Case in point with Aragorn. All the one I’ve seen apart from having too curly hair overall, have his forehead massively exposed. If you look at the prototype those bangs closed the gap on his forehead, they also were straighter and more natural looking. Maybe one lucky sole got one that looked like that in the prototype but mine and my brothers were so radically different that his whole cranium looked like a different shape.

Apart from being really nicely sculpted the sculpted hair actually holds the shape that makes him look like him. In my opinion if you have the skill to rework the hair you may come out ok. Most don’t hence those who have the rooted hair will actually have something that looks like him. At least that one above from Facebook also seemed to have a better painted beard

That also is an issue. Now we know with every company the hand painted prototype is going to look better but in this case the generic “Homer Simpson” gray wash on all of the beards I’ve seen is a total mess and absolutely loses any likeness it could. Viggo jaw and bottom half of face is incredibly nuanced and the shading of the beard in the wrong spots totally throws off the likeness.

Also the eyebrows are a completely different shape from both Viggo and from the prototype. I’ve said this for years and I’ve seen even the most technically skilled painters overlook this but eyebrows can totally make or break a likeness

so the head being bad out of the box is a big knock…

Then there is the body. Proportions are weird and it’s too bulky in the chest and shoulders

The cloak is a mess way too stiff and doesn’t drape nicely especially around his neck and shoulders. Thank goodness I still had my ACI one. I swapped the buckles but it was a 200% upgrade right there


Why such a high score if I dislike it so much! Because it IS still impressive overall. And it’s a quality piece and the right stuff is there to work with.

But they just can’t quite pull this off on a massive scale.

I’ll continue to get rooted versions because I have the skill to make it look good but if I were the casual collector I’d say from here on out I’d advise all to go with the sculpted hair.

For those who follow me on instagram @RFCustomFigures I’ll be showing the rework soon. I fixed the beard and eyebrows and other small tweaks to bring out his likeness. I also messed with the hair a bit to get his forehead less exposed ill likely still mess with it further

Almost beginning to think you've gotten a completly different figure than me. Agree with the consistency of getting everyone the exact same hair, but i also can imagine that it is an almost impossible task to pull off. Like Gandalf i have seen some photos where he just have way to much hair and a gigantic curl to both sides. Either way i absolutely love mine and didnt even fuzz with it to much. I also think the proportions are on point same goes for the tailoring. As for the sculpted vs rooted. The sculpted might be good to but takes away the realism for me. Its what you prefer at the end. But if you place him next to a rooted Gandalf. I mean its going to look weird, one rooted and one sculpted.

Think this is easily a 9 out of 10. Almost perfect, but there's always room for improvements

But maybe i have lower standarts

 

[Yorved]

Its a "difficult" figure. I saw really bad photos of this rooted Aragorn. + even worse when people couldnt event put the head properly on neck.
For me its 9/10 overall (but for sure u have to work on it after out of the box)

 

[Bucky Underbelly]

Been collecting these things for more than a couple decades now -- hundreds of figures -- and this is definitely the best (non-custom) I've ever owned. 10/10 for me. Everybody's standards are different and your mileage may vary, of course, but for me, this one is the peak so far. And here's hoping they keep pushing and top it.

 

[Sassafras]

Thanks ya'll. The top won't even come off on mine lol. I'll try the screwdriver.

Try holding in both hands like a can and pushing up with both thumbs.

 

[Lord Vicious]

Received my standard edition with sculpted hair. Absolutely love it!

 

[Cazza]

Could be wrong here but hopefully people who have the rooted version agree, from what I have noticed is no matter how good the photos are that people put up here, it's doesn't show how good this figure looks in person. I mean some of the photos do make it look incredible but for me still doesn't show how good it is, for example I didn't feel mine is anything special to everyone else's but when Im holding the sculpt while looking at photos on here it's such a big difference, the likeness from certain angles are astounding. I then put it to test when I tried to take some photos myself to send to a friend, I took like 30 and none did it justice, so said you need to come see it in person lol. I would assume this is probably the same for people with sculpted hair

 

[Earth 616 Collector]

Could be wrong here but hopefully people who have the rooted version agree, from what I have noticed is no matter how good the photos are that people put up here, it's doesn't show how good this figure looks in person. I mean some of the photos do make it look incredible but for me still doesn't show how good it is, for example I didn't feel mine is anything special to everyone else's but when Im holding the sculpt while looking at photos on here it's such a big difference, the likeness from certain angles are astounding. I then put it to test when I tried to take some photos myself to send to a friend, I took like 30 and none did it justice, so said you need to come see it in person lol. I would assume this is probably the same for people with sculpted hair

I think the sculpt and "rooted" hair look absolutely stunning. Could the beard be down better? Yes, but to me, that's the biggest knock on this figure.

 

[Sassafras]

Could be wrong here but hopefully people who have the rooted version agree, from what I have noticed is no matter how good the photos are that people put up here, it's doesn't show how good this figure looks in person. I mean some of the photos do make it look incredible but for me still doesn't show how good it is, for example I didn't feel mine is anything special to everyone else's but when Im holding the sculpt while looking at photos on here it's such a big difference, the likeness from certain angles are astounding. I then put it to test when I tried to take some photos myself to send to a friend, I took like 30 and none did it justice, so said you need to come see it in person lol. I would assume this is probably the same for people with sculpted hair

IMO this is true; am using a cell phone but in hand the hair on mine, while full, appears less wavy (tho thick) and from like 8 inches away it's a dead on likeness. Maybe "cameras don't lie" it's a very good Aragorn on the shelf.

BTW, I found this kind of metal Y crotch stand useful when fussing with the fig. Because, straight up, the feet magnets lock to the stand.

We are not talking elegant but he stands firm - good for futzing and the very space limited. So far I've ignored the magnetic stand as questionable re stability.

 

[aeseven7]

Haven’t had a lot of time to futz him properly but did a little work on the hair by giving him bangs and removing the pre-applied product and adding in some pomade. Such a great figure though.

 

[chrisstbh]

Could be wrong here but hopefully people who have the rooted version agree, from what I have noticed is no matter how good the photos are that people put up here, it's doesn't show how good this figure looks in person. I mean some of the photos do make it look incredible but for me still doesn't show how good it is, for example I didn't feel mine is anything special to everyone else's but when Im holding the sculpt while looking at photos on here it's such a big difference, the likeness from certain angles are astounding. I then put it to test when I tried to take some photos myself to send to a friend, I took like 30 and none did it justice, so said you need to come see it in person lol. I would assume this is probably the same for people with sculpted hair

I do have issues trying to take pics of this guy. He just doesn’t look like he does in front of me through the camera. I don’t know if it’s a phone camera issue with the processing or whatever but it’s frustrating.

Any time I try to take a pic of another figure it looks pretty spot on.

 

[Karst]

I think we're all collectively experiencing why it appears to be so hard to capture his likeness, lol

 

[Mr.E]

Honestly considering picking up the sculpted hair headsculpt loose if the price is right. You can't go wrong with either.

 

[Mr.Tanker]

My experience with this figure is that the sculpt looks amazing under natural light, and borderline terrible under certain artificial lights.
Hard shadows destroy the likeness. Nice defused light make it look incredible.

 

[RandomHero]

Haven’t had a lot of time to futz him properly but did a little work on the hair by giving him bangs and removing the pre-applied product and adding in some pomade. Such a great figure though.
View attachment 728842

This is spot on. Fantastic job with the hair.

 

[skullboy]

Hair nicely sculpted? to be honest I thought it was quite poor and lacks detail, comes across more like spilled paint dripping down his face.



Then there is the body. Proportions are weird and it’s too bulky in the chest and shoulders

The cloak is a mess way too stiff and doesn’t drape nicely especially around his neck and shoulders. Thank goodness I still had my ACI one. I swapped the buckles but it was a 200% upgrade right there


Why such a high score if I dislike it so much! Because it IS still impressive overall. And it’s a quality piece and the right stuff is there to work with.

But they just can’t quite pull this off on a massive scale.

I’ll continue to get rooted versions because I have the skill to make it look good but if I were the casual collector I’d say from here on out I’d advise all to go with the sculpted hair.

For those who follow me on instagram @RFCustomFigures I’ll be showing the rework soon. I fixed the beard and eyebrows and other small tweaks to bring out his likeness. I also messed with the hair a bit to get his forehead less exposed ill likely still mess with it further

Nicely sculpted? I thought it lacked detail.
I mean looking at the comparisons here, the rooted looks on a different level imo.

 

[chrisstbh]

Nicely sculpted? I thought it lacked detail.
I mean looking at the comparisons here, the rooted looks on a different level imo.

View attachment 728892
View attachment 728894

Yeah the overall shape of the sculpted is decent but it just looks really flat and lacking in detail. Massive thick strands with no detail on them it just looks cheap to me.

I’m glad I went rooted. But happy for anyone thats satisfied with the sculpted, it just misses the mark for me.

 

[Sassafras]

7/10 is my rating on this one.


And In my opinion the only real winners this time are the ones who got the sculpted hair.

First let me say the good things, the tailoring apart from the elven cloak is excellent. The accessories are excellent. As always the whole presentation is excellent . And I do like the sculpt bare bones wise there’s a lot to work with

But the rest is a bit of a fail in my opinion. Sorry to say but this is the first inart I’ve seen where I think they dropped the ball production wise.

Let me most get this rant out of the way. As someone who does rooted hair in figures I was skeptical that they could pull it off in mass scale and my theory’s have been proven right. For half a thousand dollars plus, there should be no doubt what you’re getting but instead this is almost like blind box figures. It’s insane how badly I’ve seen the variation of the hairs on both Gandalf and Aragorn. And it radically radically changes the likeness. Sure you can mess with it and style it, but most collectors don’t have the gumption and even if they did most didn’t have the eye to make it look good, you should be giving the casual collector consistency out of the box. And I’m not saying they are not trying to. I’m just sort of saying I think it’s impossible.

Case in point with Aragorn. All the one I’ve seen apart from having too curly hair overall, have his forehead massively exposed. If you look at the prototype those bangs closed the gap on his forehead, they also were straighter and more natural looking. Maybe one lucky sole got one that looked like that in the prototype but mine and my brothers were so radically different that his whole cranium looked like a different shape.

Apart from being really nicely sculpted the sculpted hair actually holds the shape that makes him look like him. In my opinion if you have the skill to rework the hair you may come out ok. Most don’t hence those who have the rooted hair will actually have something that looks like him. At least that one above from Facebook also seemed to have a better painted beard

That also is an issue. Now we know with every company the hand painted prototype is going to look better but in this case the generic “Homer Simpson” gray wash on all of the beards I’ve seen is a total mess and absolutely loses any likeness it could. Viggo jaw and bottom half of face is incredibly nuanced and the shading of the beard in the wrong spots totally throws off the likeness.

Well, I was more or less sanguine about the whole hair thing. Until I wandered over to the Gandalf thread, curious to see if anyone else/other figure got "too much hair". Yep.

But what frosted me, finally, was a post where InArt responded to an inquiry about the person just being deliberately negative.
Really? OK InArt.

The hair on my sculpt looked terrible. There's a picture of it a few pages back. I've spend hours wrestling with the hair on my fig. There's too much hair, the cut - such as it is - is bad - and you know what mohair is famous for? As fiber goes, it's strong and durable. Which means no amount of gel is gonna flatten that volume out or remove those curls.

I've done what I could with my current skill set, and it's a "handsome" Aragorn on the shelf, but like some of the Gandalfs I've seen it's too much hair. Thick, wavy hair. Am irritated - the concept of "hoping you get a good one" is something I'm familiar with in statues. Not that that is a good thing. So yeah, maybe customers are naive but I did expect consistency if you are touting yourself as "premium 1/6 scale".

It's not that I wouldn't pick up Thorin or Legolas but I'll agree with another poster that InArt is another player on the board, not the ultimate premium company, at this point. And Legolas isn't a character you can mess the hair up. It'll either be right, or it won't.

 

[DioramaMaker]

Sculpted definitely has its convenience, but I don't think IA's sculpting/painting for hair is quite on the level of HT, if I'm honest. All the sculpted IA figures I've seen look really plastic-y and fake -- at least for figures with longer hair. Sculpted Battinson doesn't look too bad.

I will preach that the sculpted Bruce Wayne runs laps around the rooted one. Even the "styled" ones end up looking like a Hot Topic Halloween wig crossed with a ****** bowl cut. It does seem like they improved that on Harry Potter though.

I am a pretty ardent believer that if it's a shorter style than shoulder-ish length, just sculpt it and stick with it. Obviously there are exceptions like Beetlejuice, but on the whole there is a point of diminishing return.