Asmus Toys Lord of the Ring Gandalf Gray

[superdoug]

This is some serious BS, I'd buy another head if price was good but regarding hat.

Why can't they charge shipping and let us have the hat given it was their error, I don't see why we should spend mo ey to fix their QC. Shipping I'd be OK with but their saying it's to expensive.

I don’t think it was their error. It just did not turn out well. They do not owe us a new hat but it is a great step in customer service to improve upon an accessory that did not turn out as well as we all hoped and for them to try to find ways to get it to us. At this point I would assume that the hats are coming straight out of any profit they made since they are not charging for them so I get them not wanting to also shell out shipping costs. As far as I know Sideshow and Hot Toys do not send out replacements for accessories if they do not live up to expectations except for one Tony Stark head. This was a great gesture by Asmus and hopefully by the end of it all of us that bought the Crown Gandalf will have a chance to get the hat upgrade and it won’t just be limited to those of us that are buying Bilbo.

With all that set said hopefully when the dust settles they figure out how to let people pay shipping and get the hat. Maybe send in date stamped pictures of the original hat. I want to say we did something like that with the Nazgul body replacement.

 

[davejames]

Our ultimate goal is to give ALL our Gandalf buyers a free hat, but it is not we cannot give it away, it is about shipping and spread it to all the corners. We tried to give away items like this to the distributors or dealers before, unfortunately, it happens from time to time, the item will be "lost" before reaching to the collectors.

We cannot mail to all the buyers, because shipping has been a problem to us since the pandemic, it will cost more than 20 dollars to just ship one hat to USA. We cant really afford the man power and extra spending this may cost.


So what our first plan for the hat is :

ALL the copies of old Bilbo Baggins will include a Gandalf hat for free,

Since Bilbo is a minor character compare to Gandalf, it is safe to say whoever has bought a Bilbo, has a pretty high chance owning a GtG. So, if we can cover the buyers of Bilbo, we can cover a good portion of the buyers of Gandalf.

There will be more plan to give away the hat, and we will see how it goes as we are.

It is also why we hold back the sell of the head for now, but once it starts (selling the head), we will make sure a hat and a pair of eyeball are included in the package.

Why only Bilbo? I don't have him on order but I do have Gollum on order with you guys. Couldn't you just ship my hat with him instead, whenever he gets released?

 

[warlock664]

I want to say we did something like that with the Nazgul body replacement.

Yep.
And I’m still waiting on my 5 replacement Nazgul bodies.
As somebody who purchases every Asmus LOTR/Hobbit release, it’s a good solution for me, because I ordered Bilbo.
But it is strange that people who buy Bilbo, but don’t have Gandalf, are going to receive the improved wizard hat.

 

[Manannin]

Why only Bilbo? I don't have him on order but I do have Gollum on order with you guys. Couldn't you just ship my hat with him instead, whenever he gets released?

I’m in the same position as you, and I asked Asmus CS and was told only new purchases qualify.

 

[Hologram AI]

Why only Bilbo? I don't have him on order but I do have Gollum on order with you guys. Couldn't you just ship my hat with him instead, whenever he gets released?

Feel like the smarter thing to do would be to send out hats with orders of whatever figure they have on preorder but for those who have Gandalf in their order history.

Seems odd to just mass send out the better Gandalf hat with Bilbo when there's a chance that people who bought Bilbo won't even have Gandalf in their collection.

 

[Gipetto0812]

Yea as much as I like to support Asmus, I can't help but feel this is a one step forward two steps back kind of situation. If shipping was the big reason, why not just have it as an orderable exclusively on their website. Sure, there would probably be some ppl who are only ordering one to resell later, but I think it's fairer than only having it shipped with Bilbo orders. I know they said they're still working out ways for other solutions and none of us really know how their operation is ran so what might seem illogical to us, makes some logical sense to them and their business I guess. But purely from and outside view, it look as though it might've been smarter to just have collectors purchase the new hat rather than gambling that those who bought Bilbo must obviously have Crown GtG.

 

[Hologram AI]

Yea as much as I like to support Asmus, I can't help but feel this is a one step forward two steps back kind of situation. If shipping was the big reason, why not just have it as an orderable exclusively on their website. Sure, there would probably be some ppl who are only ordering one to resell later, but I think it's fairer than only having it shipped with Bilbo orders. I know they said they're still working out ways for other solutions and none of us really know how their operation is ran so what might seem illogical to us, makes some logical sense to them and their business I guess. But purely from and outside view, it look as though it might've been smarter to just have collectors purchase the new hat rather than gambling that those who bought Bilbo must obviously have Crown GtG.

Or just email those who actually ordered a Gandalf from them and offer to send the better hat if we pay for the shipping cost.

A lot of us would have done so if it meant we get the better hat. Now it'll be going off to a bunch of random people who probably doesn't even have Gandalf and those of us who do are still stuck without it.

 

[ghilbertit]

More plan will come later,

we will be giving out 1500 pc for just Bilbo's order/

So forgive us if we cannot offer more at this time.

thank you... you will send new eyeballs too?

 

[ghilbertit]

Dear all.

We are ready to offer the first upgrade for your Gandalf the Grey Crown figure.

A new sculpted wizard hat will be available to enhance the authenticity of the GtG is on the way.

The hat will NOT be for sale, it will come FREE.

Currently there will be two ways to get a free wizard hat:

1. ALL our old Bilbo Baggins (LOTR31) buyers will be receiving a wirzard hat free with in the box.

2. From 19th of June to 2nd of July, all purchase related to The Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit items @ Asmus Toys online store will be getting a wizard hat for free. One hat per checkout, regardless the check out total.

Thank you for the support of Asmus Toys. Let's get ready for some upgrades !

thank you... we will receive new eyeballs too?

 

[Gipetto0812]

Or just email those who actually ordered a Gandalf from them and offer to send the better hat if we pay for the shipping cost.

(...)

Yea, but I see a few problems with that method, and I mean no offense to Asmus, but they have a track record of being very slow to answer emails, at least from what I've seen by other board members. And this would mean they would need to be proactive in emailing the customer.

And then what do you do about the ppl who ordered from other retailers? Are they now SOL since they didn't order directly from Asmus? I guess you could have them send a copy of their order confirmation but then how would they verify your order without contacting each and every retailer that solicited this figure and verifying what you submitted is actually true? Give me a few minutes and photoshop and I could mock up a fake order confirmation email if I wanted to and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who knows how to do it.

That's why I think the best and/or easiest way is to have it as an orderable fixed ES item with a limit of 1 per customer. No one has to manually manage incoming/outgoing emails, coordinating customers and their addresses, external payments etc. It'll all come through the website like a typical order which theoretically should be easier to manage.

Seems a little lose lose situation for them and I feel for them as they're trying to do a good thing here. It's just the way they're currently going about it doesn't make the most sense, at least to us here.

 

[Godfather1408]

thank you... we will receive new eyeballs too?

I don't know I just quoted what they said I don't work for asmus.

 

[yy0925]

Why only Bilbo? I don't have him on order but I do have Gollum on order with you guys. Couldn't you just ship my hat with him instead, whenever he gets released?

Same here.

@Asmus if you would include the hat with Gollum, I will order one

 

[Someperson]

I feel like allowing people who actually own crown GTG to have the new hat would be the better thing to do. I understand it’s easier to include it with purchases but if there are others like me, who either have something on pre-order (Nazgûl) or aren’t getting bilbo, it’s a total miss. It stings a bit seeing as I have both versions of GTG.

I guess some of us are left to see if anyone who gets one with their order regardless of owning any Gandalf, sells it.

 

[BagginsOfBagEnd]

Thanks Asmus for doing this. As I have ordered Bilbo I am very happy and I think this is a good solution. However I do understand the concerns of some other collectors voiced here.

Agreed…I’m happy I’ll be getting one then, as I didn’t order direct from Asmus. Hopefully they’ll find a way to get the hat out to everyone who owns a GTG but isn’t ordering Bilbo.

 

[warlock664]

I’m calling it: non-pissed off Bilbo head will be included with Crown Gandalf the White!
You heard it here first.

 

[BagginsOfBagEnd]

^ Would be awesome if it did!

 

[Rzeznikk]

Our ultimate goal is to give ALL our Gandalf buyers a free hat, but it is not we cannot give it away, it is about shipping and spread it to all the corners. We tried to give away items like this to the distributors or dealers before, unfortunately, it happens from time to time, the item will be "lost" before reaching to the collectors.

We cannot mail to all the buyers, because shipping has been a problem to us since the pandemic, it will cost more than 20 dollars to just ship one hat to USA. We cant really afford the man power and extra spending this may cost.


So what our first plan for the hat is :

ALL the copies of old Bilbo Baggins will include a Gandalf hat for free,

Since Bilbo is a minor character compare to Gandalf, it is safe to say whoever has bought a Bilbo, has a pretty high chance owning a GtG. So, if we can cover the buyers of Bilbo, we can cover a good portion of the buyers of Gandalf.

There will be more plan to give away the hat, and we will see how it goes as we are.

It is also why we hold back the sell of the head for now, but once it starts (selling the head), we will make sure a hat and a pair of eyeball are included in the package.

How about you offer the hat and eyeballs to people who have also ordered Gollum as well? Since I didn't order Bilbo but have the Crown Gandalf. I did order the Gollum however.

 

[Godfather1408]

Why not just give the option for buyers to pay for shipping to get the hat?

So people who order Bilbo but don’t even own Gandalf himself will have the better hat still? Weird..

Exactly would rather just pay the shipping, I have no issue doing that. I'm grateful they are doing a new hat but I'm baffled by logic.

 

[Someperson]

I’m calling it: non-pissed off Bilbo head will be included with Crown Gandalf the White!
You heard it here first.

Everyone who owns a crown GTG and can’t get the hat will only have to look in the mirror. No bilbo order needed
But I do appreciate that Asmus went through the trouble to correct the issue. It’s a very kind on their part.

 

[Bucky Underbelly]

I fully appreciate what Asmus is trying to do here and will not criticize them for it. They don't have to do it at all, so I count this as a win that they're willing to address the hat/eyes issue. Few other companies would. So I'm choosing to be thankful and patient. I also recognize that I don't know how their logistics operation works behind the scenes, so I believe them when they tell us this is the best solution they've got from a staffing/shipping standpoint.

I also think it's important for us to recognize that they're saying this is Phase 1 of getting these hats out the door. Pack out the first 1,500 with Bilbo orders. Then Phase 2 will be including them with the extra Gandalf heads. It sounds like they're saying they'll reassess at that point and figure out Phase 3. So maybe we'll see them pack out a batch with Gollum/Smeagol next. Or maybe the list of folks who want the hats will be short enough at that point to send individual packages. This all sounds very reasonable to me.

For those who may not fall into Phase 1 or Phase 2 but who say they'd happily pay for the hat, I'm betting plenty will pop up on the secondary market pretty quickly. And since there will likely be a bunch, they probably won't be very pricey. You may even find them for less than it would cost to have Asmus ship them directly to you.

And lastly, I personally only need one hat and set of eyes. But I've got Bilbo and Gollum/Smeagol on pre-order and will be buying the extra head when that goes up for sale. So if I end up with a couple extra hats, I will gladly share them with fellow board members (for the price of shipping) when the time comes. (I stress "when the time comes." Don't @ me now.)

Perhaps other collectors who are expecting to receive multiple hats could do the same? Let's share some love, people. And hats.