RandomHero
Super Freak
My guess is the Crown Aragorn will be a King Elessar. Maybe Black Gate. I do hope they revisit the Ranger setup one day though. I’d like to get that costume for my display.
Asmus Toys: Legolas @ The Battle of Helm's Deep
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Bigbreda
Freaked Out
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I really wanted to keep it, I just start collecting LOTR Asmus and I only have Gimli and the Crown Gandalf. But I cant see much Legolas on this head sculpt, but that's just my own opinion, and who knows after your review and see what others will do with him, I may pick it up again afterwards.
CrankbaitJon
Super Freak
Asmus mentioned they will be doing Black Gate Aragorn but didn't mention it is Crown line.
Best I've seen it look.
RandomHero
Super Freak
It has been looking much better in the secondary pictures.
I guess the alarm was overblown. Those first pictures were BAD. There’s still work to be done for Asmus but this is a good effort. Likely won’t see Legolas again anytime soon so I’m excited to get this.
I guess the alarm was overblown. Those first pictures were BAD. There’s still work to be done for Asmus but this is a good effort. Likely won’t see Legolas again anytime soon so I’m excited to get this.
SwedishHeat
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I'm amused that you have a series of well-lit photographs, showing the figure's flaws, then you have an overexposed photo which hides the flaws, and people are like "Yes, I much prefer the photo which hides the figure's flaws"
You do have to take the full spectrum into consideration.
BagginsOfBagEnd
Super Freak
BagginsOfBagEnd
Super Freak
I think that's likely too for the Crown Aragorn. Regardless I would buy all of those versions of Aragorn if they were made, I missed the first Ranger version as wasn't collecting the line back then, so another one would be most welcome.
As I remember there is no plan for new Aragorn this year, so he will be dropped into our discussion list for next year. So there is not confirmed which series he will be designed for. Thank you.
Wait..so is this shipping now? I haven't got any email from Asmus yet.
In hand pictures just show how the figure looks like in reality.
Not sure which flaws are now hidden in those pictures though. I actually found the best likeness in a promo shot.
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RandomHero
Super Freak
Standard is shipping. The deluxe/luxury is not. You can only get the deluxe version from Asmus, so you wouldn’t have gotten an email from them. Still going to be several weeks.
Deluxe from Asmus *and Sideshow*
RandomHero
Super Freak
Ah, didn’t realize Sideshow was getting the deluxe version too. Trying not to buy from them anymore. Haven’t visited their site much in the past year.
Sassafras
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I'm in the camp where for display, I don't mind having 2, or more of a fig. Depending. But I'm not a completist either.
Legolas for me can be displayed with Thranduil (tho I wish he had the Hobbit Mirkwood armor) or other. I'll pick this up, eventually, as the DX. But Sideshow hasn't even sent me a Crown Gandalf yet. Talk about wizards arriving when they mean to....
I am probably going to sit this one out since I have the first version. IF a youtube review blows me away, I might get the deluxe. But definitely a good option for those who doesn't have one yet. Price isn't bad either.
I just marathoned all three special editions. Everyone is fairly familiar with just how much camera work and stunt doubles went into making the actors appear to be the right size for their species.
Additionally, I am fairly convinced that Peter Jackson and the cinematographer were doing a lot of purposeful blocking and lighting to accentuate certain angles and features of both Orlando and Viggo. I think that is part of the problem Asmus is hitting up against when sculpting these two.
There are a lot of scenes where most of Orlando’s acting wholly consists of sucking in his cheeks to accentuate his cheek bones or jutting out his jaw and chin to accentuate his mouth over his forehead. In other scenes the lighting does that work. If you over analyze his look throughout that film, it is really inconsistent.
More of these toy photographers need to imagine they’re Peter Jackson berating Orlando in every shot. “Angle that F’ing chin out. No one wants to see that much forehead, Bloom!”
So I think Asmus has the unenviable task of figuring out what the most “idealized” version of Legolas is and translating that to plastic. They just haven’t hit it yet. Maybe someone can photoshop the detailing of the new mouth, nose, and eyes onto the head shape of the old sculpt?
Sorry for the low rez YouTube pulls. Photo 1 is Bloom sucking his cheeks in as a background character. Photo 2 is one of the rare front shots of him without lighting or face squeezing tricks. 3 and 4 are the same scene as he is talking to Gimli. His face is lit to highlight his cheekbone on one side. He moves from the standard face straight up and down position to jutting his chin far out and tensing up. Photo 4 looks more like “Legolas” to me. His emphasized features are radically different. But they’re both Orlando in the same continuous shot.
I think this tells me the “ideal” Legolas is pretty different from Orlando Bloom. It is some combination of shot at an angle, tilt in the head, tension in the lower half of the face, and lighting on the cheekbones.
Viggo does this stuff too throughout the series but not as much. Bernard Hill and Hugo Weaving aren’t getting manipulated through light and facial contortions like Orlando and Viggo. Their sculpts are pretty spot on. I don‘t envy Asmus this task of creating the ideal Legolas and Aragorn. I do think Legolas is more successful of sculpt and I want to see a good photographer do more to manipulate the angle of the sculpt on the neck joint and frame it with lighting. Because that is exactly how Orlando Bloom was shot.
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RandomHero
Super Freak
This is a good point - probably why Bloom is so hard to sculpt in sixth scale form.
It's definitely a detailed comments about the difficulty of headsulpting for these two protagonists. Thanks for your sharing, mate!
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